Japanese Proverbs
- A fog cannot be dispelled by a fan.
- A good Jack makes a good Jill.
- A good husband is healthy and absent.
- A good sword is the one left in its scabbard.
- A man in love mistakes a pimple for a dimple.
- A mended lid to a cracked pan.
- A merchants happiness hangs upon chance, winds, and waves.
- A merry companion on the road is as good as a nag.
- A pig used to dirt turns its nose up at rice.
- A round egg can be made square according to how you cut it; words would be harsh according to how you speak them.
- A single arrow is easily broken, but not ten in a bundle.
- Adversity is the foundation of virtue.
- Affinity is a mysterious thing, but it is spicy!
- Afraid of his own shadow.
- After victory, tighten your helmet chord.
- All married women are not wives.
- An accomplishment sticks to a person.
- An excess of courtesy is discourtesy.
- An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth.
- Bad and good are intertwined like rope.
- Beat your wife on the wedding day, and your married life will be happy.
- Beaten with his own rod.
- Better go without medicine than call in an unskilled physician.
- Darkness reigns at the foot of the lighthouse.
- Deceive the rich and powerful if you will, but don't insult them.
- Deceiving a deceiver is no knavery.
- Don't stay long when the husband is not at home.
- Even a sheet of paper has two sides.
- Even a thief takes ten years to learn his trade.
- Fall seven times, stand up eight.
- Fast Ripe, Fast Rotten.
- First the man takes a drink, then the drink takes a drink, then the drink takes the man.
- First things first.
- Forgiving the unrepentant is like drawing pictures on water.
- Getting money is like digging with a needle. Spending it is like water soaking into the sand.
- Had the pheasant not screamed, it wouldn't have been shot.
- If a man be great, even his dog will wear a proud look.
- If a man deceive me once, shame on him; if he deceive me twice, shame on me.
- If man has no tea in him, he is incapable of understanding truth and beauty.
- If money be not thy servant, it will be thy master.
- If my shirt knew my design, I'd burn it.
- If neither animal nor vegetable you be, then mineral you are.
- If one man praises you, a thousand will repeat the praise.
- If the father is a frog, the son will be a frog.
- If you believe everything you read, better not read.
- If you understand everything, you must be misinformed.
- If you want a thing done well, do it yourself.
- It is a beggar's pride that he is not a thief.
- It is a blessing in disguise.
- Knowledge without wisdom is a load of books on the back of an ass.
- Laughter cannot bring back what anger has driven away.
- Laughter is the hiccup of a fool.
- Life without endeavor is like entering a jewel-mine and coming out with empty hands.
- Life's not all beer and skittles.
- Luck is like having a rice dumpling fly into your mouth.
- Money grows on the tree of persistence.
- Money has no smell.
- My skirt with tears is always wet: I have forgotten to forget.
- My son is my son till he gets him a wife, but my daughter's my daughter all the days of her life.
- Never rely on the glory of the morning or the smiles of your mother-in-law.
- Never trust the advice of a man in difficulty.
- One dog yelping at nothing will set ten thousand straining at their collars.
- One kind word can warm three winter months.
- One kindness is the price of another.
- One who smiles rather than rages is always the stronger.
- One written word is worth a thousand pieces of gold.
- Only lawyers and painters can turn white to black.
- Silence surpasses speech.
- Silent worms dig holes in the walls.
- Sleeping people can't fall down.
- The absent get further off every day.
- The crow that mimics a cormorant is drowned.
- The day you decide to do it is your lucky day.
- The go-between wears out a thousand sandals.
- The inarticulate speak longest.
- The mouth is the door of evil.
- The nail that sticks its head up is the one that gets hit.
- The nail that sticks out is hammered down.
- The nail that sticks up will be hammered down.
- The pebble in the brook secretly thinks itself a precious stone.
- The reverse side also has a reverse side.
- The smaller the margin, the greater the turnover.
- The smallest good deed is better than the grandest good intention.
- The tongue is but three inches long, yet it can kill a man six feet high.
- The tongue is more to be feared than the sword.
- Tigers die and leave their skins; people die and leave their names.
- Time spent laughing is time spent with the gods.
- Time tries a'.
- To teach is also to learn.
- To tell tales out of school.
- To wait for luck is the same as waiting for death.
- Transactions in Hell also depend upon money.
- Unless you enter the tiger's den you cannot take the cubs.
- Virtue is not knowing but doing.
- Vision with action is a daydream; action without vision is a nightmare.
- Vision without action is a daydream. Action with without vision is a nightmare.
- Walls have ears, bottles have mouths.
- Walls have ears, paper sliding doors have eyes.
- We are no more than candles burning in the wind.
- We learn little from victory, much from defeat.
- We're fools whether we dance or not, so we might as well dance.
- We've arrived, and to prove it we're here.
- When the time comes, even a rat becomes a tiger.
- When you're thirsty it's too late to think about digging a well.
- When your companions get drunk and fight, Take up your hat, and wish them good night.
- While we consider when to begin, it becomes too late.
- Wisdom and virtue are like the two wheels of a cart.
