Indian Proverbs Love Life Sayings
Don't eat your bread on someone Else's table.
When the bed breaks, there is the ground to lie on. |
You can never enter the same river twice. |
Every man is the guardian of his own honor. |
Whoever eats a pancake never counts the holes in it. |
To the mediocre, mediocrity appears great. |
The customers are known to the shopkeepers. |
A man without money is like a bow without arrows. |
Every dog is a tiger in his own street. |
The heart at rest sees a feast in everything. |
Deceive me about the price but not about the goods. |
True happiness lies in giving it to others. |
Hypocrisy is a homage that vice pays to virtue. |
Separation secures manifest friendship. |
A good well-lived today makes every yesterday a dream of a good future, and every morning is a vision of hope. |
You cannot cook one half of the chicken and leave the other lay eggs. |
As people go their own way, destiny goes with them. |
A man without money is like a bow without arrows. |
When you drink milk under the palm tree, people will say that it is palm wine. |
To the world wisdom is folly; to the wise the world is foolish. |
Fate and self-help share equally in shaping our destiny. |
One can sense the fragrance of the tulsi even when the first two tender leaves appear. |
He who has a true friend, has no need of a mirror. |
The danger past, and God forgotten. |
Not all the buds on a bush will blossom. |
War is to men, childbirth is to women. |
The most beautiful things in the universe are the starry heavens above us and the feeling of duty within us. |
When you are in difficulty, go to the house of your friend -- not your sister's. |
It is better to be blind than to see things from only one point of view. |
Indian Sayings in English |
After eating nine hundred rats, the cat is now going on a pilgrimage. |
Be first at the feast, and last at the fight. |
Blaming your faults on your nature does not change the nature of your faults. |
Better to have a diamond with a few small flaws than a rock that is perfect. |
Something done at the wrong time should be regarded as not done. |
One of the two partners always bites the best part of the apple. |
A harvest of peace grows from seeds of contentment. |
They who give have all things; they who withhold have nothing. |
Faith keeps the world going. |
A problem is solved when it gets tougher. |
The tongue is safe; even among thirty teeth. |
Fate and self-help share equally in shaping our destiny. |
All the water in the sea doesn't even reach the knees of the man who fears not death. |
Those who hunt deer sometimes raise tigers. |
When an elephant is in trouble, even a frog will kick him. |
A doctor is only a doctor when he has killed one or two patients. |
I gave him a staff for his support and he uses it to break my head. |
Like the body that is made up of different limbs and organs, all moral creatures must depend on each other to exist. |
Only the hunchback himself knows how he can lie comfortably. |
The voice of the poor has no echo. |
No one was ever lost on a straight road. |
Hunger drives good taste away. |
A book is like a garden in the pocket. |
Your own wealth is flowers and wine; the other man's is but weeds. |
He is a real friend who assists in time of danger. |
Call on God, but row away from the rocks. |
A tree starts with a seed. |
Patience is the most beautiful prayer. |
The word of a woman is a bundle of water. |
A dog always bites under the knee. |
A hundred divine epochs would not suffice to describe all the marvels of the Himalaya. |
I met a hundred men going to Delhi and everyone is my brother. |
Poverty destroys all virtues. |
Theologians, dogs, and singers always disagree. |
A guilty conscience is a lively enemy. |
It's a brave bird that makes its nest in the cat's ear. |
War is to men, childbirth is to women. |
You must answer the devil in his own language. |
A bandicoot is lovely to his parents; a mule is pretty to its mate. |
You can buy everything, except a father and a mother. |
Follow the river and you will get to the sea. |
A lot of people become saints because of their stomach. |
There are only two things from which to choose: profit or loss. |
A thief thinks everybody steals. |
Rather be a slave to a rich man than the spouse of a poor man. |
Anger is as a stone cast into a wasp's nest. |
I have lanced many boils, but none pained like my own. |
If they don't exchange a few words, father and son will never know one another. |
There is enmity between to dig and to let dig. |
A buffalo does not feel the weight of his own horns. |
You may lock up the cock, but the sun will still rise. |
The baby is not yet born, and yet you say that his nose is like his grandfather's. |
Do not ask advice of the ignorant. |
September blow soft till the fruit's in the loft. |
If they don't exchange a few words, father and son will never know one another. |
Justice is better than admiration If you are going to kill, then kill an elephant; if you are going to steal make sure it's a treasure. |
A beautiful woman belongs to everyone; an ugly one is yours alone. |
These can never be true friends: Hope, dice, a prostitute, a robber, a cheat, a goldsmith, a monkey, a doctor, a distiller. |
If you call a lady a slave, she laughs, but if you call a slave a slave, he cries. |
You cannot separate water by beating it with a fork. |
A pearl is worthless as long as it is still in its shell. |
The eyes do not see what the mind does not want. |
Smiles that you broadcast, will always come back to you. |
Learning is a treasure no thief can touch. |
To give jewels to a donkey is as stupid as giving a eunuch to a woman. |
The money you dream about will not pay your bills. |
You can never enter the same river twice. |
A fight in your neighbor's house is refreshing. |
Friendly words are convincing. |
Stolen sugar is the sweetest. |
A beggar himself, can he afford to have one asking for alms at his door? |
Separation secures manifest friendship. |
A cat in a cage becomes a lion. |
A person who misses a chance and the monkey who misses its branch can't be saved. |
To long for everything: sorrow; to accept everything: joy. |
Sit on the bank of a river and wait: Your enemy's corpse will soon float by. |
The sandal tree perfumes the axe that fells it. |
A viper without fangs is like a piece of rope. |
The answerer is inferior to the asker. |
Good people, like clouds, receive only to give away. |
A blind man sat behind a pile of stones and thought that nobody could see him. |
It is better to sit down than to stand, it is better to lie down than to sit, but death is the best of all. |
To the world wisdom is folly; to the wise the world is foolish. |
Better a hundred enemies outside the house than one inside. |
The tree casts its shadow on everything, even upon the woodcutter. |
Austerity is an ornament, humility is honorable. |
Pearls are worthless in the desert. |
Believe what you see and not all you hear. |
Garlic is as good as ten mothers. |
When you are in the water you swim. |
Consult the wise and do not disobey him. |
The cobra will bite you whether you call it cobra or Mr. Cobra. |
Be careful for deep water and dogs that do not bark. |
Where there is a glut of words, there is a dearth of intelligence. |
Even a cat is a lion in her own lair. |
Ask thy purse what thou should buy. |
There is a great uproar made about the debt of a poor man. |
Better to have a diamond with a few small flaws than a rock that is perfect. |
In a deserted village the jackass is king. |
Don't eat your bread on someone Else's table. * |
Turkeys, parrots, and hares don't know what gratitude is. |
Brains are not to be found in the beard. |
Drops join to make a stream; ears combine to make a crop. |
Though the snake be small, it is still wise to hit it with a big stick. |
A thief is a thief, whether he steals a diamond or a cucumber. |
Don't judge any man until you have walked two moons in his moccasins. |
The cock goes to town for only four days and returns home a peacock. |
Only mad dogs and Englishmen go out in the noonday sun. |
Happy is the woman whose husband does not speak to her. |
Dependence on another is perpetual disappointment. |
You do not stumble over a mountain, but you do over a stone. |
Use medicine as well as prayers. |
Undeserved punishment is better than that which is deserved. |
Speak like a parrot; meditate like a swan; chew like a goat; and bathe like an elephant. |
A book is a good friend when it lays bare the errors of the past. |
A dog will not make himself look like a horse just by cutting off his tail. |
Money is the best servant. |
Danger should be feared when distant, and braved when present. |
Don't bargain for fish which are still in the water. |
Weeping washes the face. |
He that is baldheaded has no need of combs. |
We admire what we do not understand. |
Better lie than gossip. |
The deceitful have no friends. |
Complaining is the weak man's weapon. |
Even if fed milk, a snake will still emit poison. |
What is sport to the boy is the death of the bird. |
In my homeland I possess one hundred horses, yet if I go, I go on foot. |
What does the blind man know of the beauty of the tulip? |
Justice is better than admiration. |
When money is not a servant it is a master. |
Fate and free-will both play an equal role in destinies. |
If you live on the river, befriend the crocodile. |
A coconut shell full of water is a sea to an ant. |
Never strike your wife, not even with a flower. |
When you have an ass for a friend, expect nothing but kicks. |
The dog's tail, even if buried for twelve years, will remain as crooked as ever. |
Nothing is comprehensible except by virtue of its edges. |
Evil will befall him who regards not the advice of a benevolent friend. |
A friend advises in his interest, not yours. |
Clouds that thunder seldom rain. |
When the sculptor is dead his statues ask him for a soul. |
Poverty makes thieves, like love makes poets. |
He who loves drives a nail into his heart. |
It is love that makes the impossible possible. |
Without love everything is in vain. |
Man loves his own mistakes. |
Love is a crocodile in the river of desire. |
In love beggar and king are equal. |
Love from someone who is bad is worse than his hatred. |
He who loves the truth has many enemies. |
Since love departs at dawn, create, O God, a night that has no morn. |
Indian Proverbs about Life |
Life is a bridge. Cross over it, but build no house on it. |
Life is like the flame of a lamp; it needs a little oil now and then. |
Life is not a continuum of pleasant choices, but of inevitable problems that call for strength, determination, and hard work. |
Fear is the fever of life. |
Nonviolence is the supreme law of life. |
Ignorance is the peace of life. |
When you were born, you cried and the world rejoiced. Live your life in such a manner that when you die, the world cries and you rejoice. |
As the spokes of a wheel are attached to the hub, so all things are attached to life. |
For the first five years of your son's life treat him as a prince, for the next ten years as a slave, then as a friend for the rest of his life. |
Riches are treasured up against the day of danger ; but to save life every thing is to be sacrificed. If life be preserved, all is safe; if life be lost, all is lost. |
He who allows his day to pass by without practicing generosity and enjoying life's pleasures is like a blacksmith's bellows: he breathes but does not live. |
The potter sleeps soundly, for no one would steal clay. |
There are as many characters as there are individuals. |
You can often find in rivers what you cannot find in oceans. |
God laughs when you steal from a thief. |
You have to believe in gods to see them. |
For a satiated duck fish becomes tasteless. |
You can only lean against that which resists. |
The poor looks for food and the rich man for appetite. |
Any water in the desert will do. |
One finger can't lift a pebble. |
Blaw the wind ne'er so fast, it will lower at last. |
An arch never sleeps. |
We can't change the direction of the wind, but we can adjust the sails. |
The soldier's wife is always a widow. |
It's better to pick a fight with your in-laws than with your neighbors. |
Drums sound loud because they are hollow. |
An old patient is better than a new doctor. |
The first day a guest, the second day a guest, the third day a calamity. |
Why save when your son is a good son? Why save when your son is a bad son? |
A foolish bride gets no presents. |
What was hard to bear is sweet to remember. |
He who answers is inferior to the one who asks the question. |
Don't delay today's work until tomorrow. |
The hare that escaped had eight legs. |
It is better to be blind than to see things from only one point of view. |
When a woman laughs an experienced man will know how much it will cost him. |
September blow soft till the fruit’s in the loft. |
No sin is hidden to the soul. |
All that is not given is lost. |
It is a greater gift to give than to receive. |
The lawyer's pouch is a mouth of Hell. |
Anger has no eyes. |
You may look up for inspiration or look down in desperation but do not look sideways for information. |
The lawyer's pouch is a mouth of Hell. |
One man's beard is on fire, and another man warms his hands on it. |
A book is like a garden carried in the pocket. |
Never stand in front of a judge or behind a donkey. |
It is easy to forget a kindness, but one remembers unkindness. |
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