Nigerian Proverbs in English

The lion basks in the rays of the giraffes sun.

Not to know is bad; not to wish to know is worse.

You cannot compare the living with the dead.

Not to oversee workmen, is to leave your purse open.

Being happy in one's home is better than being a chief.

If a soup is sweet, it is money that cooks it.

The only insurance against fire is to have two houses.

If you don't wish to have rags for clothes, don't play with a dog.

Those who are carrying elephants home on their heads, need not use their toes to dig up crickets on the way.

The elders of a community are the voice of God.

The ox will die but its harness remains.

We live by hope, but a reed never becomes an Iroko tree by dreaming.

As long as you stay in a group, the lion will stay hungry.

When you are sick you promise a goat, but when you are well again make do with a chicken.

Once a cock begins to crow, it never again becomes dumb.

It is what the eyes of one man sees that is described as a boa constrictor.

The fish that can see that its water is getting shallower, cannot be stranded.

The whip hits at the legs, not the guilt.

It is the habit that a child forms at home, that follows them to their marriage.

If you neglect the pot, it boils over and extinguishes the fire.

Seeing is better than hearing.

The blind say that eyes have no sense of smell.

Stupidity is the lover of ignorance.

Don't look for speed in a cheap horse; be content if it neighs.

Every kind of love is love, but self-love is supreme among them.

The stone in the water does not know how hot the hill is, parched by the sun.

He who is afraid of doing too much always does too little.

Money does not announce how it is earned but whereas properly earned money appreciates, improperly earned money depreciates.

Until lions have their own historians, accounts of the hunt will always celebrate the hunter.

A child who is carried on the back will not know how far the journey is.

Hold on to a true friend with both hands.

Nigerian Sayings in English

Time destroys all things.

The man that won't marry a woman with other admirers won't marry a woman at all.

A mother is gold, a father is a mirror.

Patient people are patient to gain longevity.

You cannot run with the hare and hunt with the hounds.

Greatness and beauty do not belong to the gods alone. *

It is the brutally outspoken man that earns enmity.

One must row in whichever boat one finds one's self.

Without retaliation, evils would one day become extinct from the world.

One finger cannot remove lice from the head.

It is usual of a person found guilty in a trial to boast that he would press his case further.

Birth is the only remedy against death.

Languages differ but coughs are the same.

He who digs a pit for others must invariably fall into it.

Mother's soup is always the best in the world.

Dead though the oil-palm may be, the maggot in it lives on.

Old age does not come in just one day.

Marriage is like a groundnut, you have to crack it to see what is inside.

Better a single decision maker than a thousand advisors.

When it is the turn of a man to become the head of a village, he does not need to diviner to tell him that he is destined to rule.

Every fault is laid at the door of the hyena, but it does not steal a bale of cloth.

He who is courteous is not a fool.

Evil knows where evil sleeps.

He who marries a beauty marries trouble.

When you are eating with the devil, you must use a long spoon.

Midday sun is the remedy for a cold.

God keeps away flies from the tailless cow.

Money kills more than do weapons.

Mud houses don't burn.

Leopards lurk in dark corners.

Rather than tell a lie to help a friend, it is better to assist him in paying the fine for his offense.

When a person regrets endlessly, he gets to pay more for what he regrets.

A child who fears beating, would never admit that he played with a missing knife.

He whose throat is longer than his arm must pray constantly for gods' protection.

When a face is sullen it remains there to be seen on its owner.

He who runs from the white ant may stumble upon the stinging ant.

Look for a black goat while it is still daytime.

However long the moon disappears, someday it must shine again.

Only a mother would carry the child that bites.

He who does not mend his clothes will soon have none.

Sometimes the rain might force a man more than once to seek shelter under the same tree.

A child is what you put into him.

If a greedy eater is near a patient, such a patient can never survive.

If a blind man says lets throw stones, be assured that he has stepped on one.

No matter how dark it is, the hand always knows the way to the mouth.

What affects the nose must also affect the eyes that must weep for it.

One goat cannot carry another goat's tail.

It takes a whole village to educate a child.

Rat no dey born rabbit.

If gold rusts, what will iron do?

A man that begets a barren cannot have a grand child.

A bird that flies from the ground onto an anthill, does not know that it is still on the ground.

It is the woman whose child has been eaten by a witch who best knows the evils of witchcraft.

The bottom of wealth is sometimes a dirty thing to behold.

Sleep and indolence are not cousins of a good harvest.

A child does not die because the mother's breasts are dry.

If a person who curses another is not better than the person he curses, a request is never made of him to rescind the curse.

The man who is honored, has first honored himself.

A clay pot of water is never hot-tempered.

Sinews and big muscles do not make a farmer.

We are what our thinking makes us.

One can only try to get what one can from the head of an elephant, no one ever carries it home.

The crocodile drinks from the same river as the centipede.

We do not use our bare feet to search for hidden thorns which we have seen in day time.

If neither animal nor vegetable you be, then mineral you are. If one finger brought oil it soiled others.

When a ripe fruit sees an honest man, it drops.

Until lions have their historians, tales of the hunt shall always glorify the hunters.

The crocodile does not die under the water so that we can call the monkey to celebrate its funeral.

A bottle of oil warmed over the fire has no means of producing oil by itself.

The advice of a woman ends with "Oh, if I had only known!"

It is the fear of offence that makes men swallow poison.

If you have run out of gunpowder, use your gun as a club.

The eye of a crow boiled at the new moon brings good luck for the New Year.

No sane person sharpens his machete to cut a banana tree.

Preparing cocoyams for planting does not mean that they are already planted.

A bird does not change its feathers because the weather is bad.

To eat from the same pot with another man, is to take an oath of perpetual friendship with him.

It is the toothless animal that arrives first at the base of the fruit tree, to eat his fill before others arrive.

If the load is too heavy for someone to carry, one would be better off to give the load to the ground to carry.

When an elephant falls, meat is sure to be surplus for those who follow the hunter.

The woman is cold water that kills you; deep water that you drown in.

Our examples are like seeds on a windy day, they spread far and wide.

An old woman is not old in a song she dances well.

A bush fowls' playground is never appreciably spacious.

Someone else's legs are no good to you when you're travelling.

When the hyena drinks, the dog can only look on.

The hunter does not rub himself in oil and lie by the fire to sleep.

It is one person in a street that kills a dog and the street is named a street of dog killers.

One pebble doesn't make a floor.

How can man be remembered when the giant trees in the forest are soon forgotten.

The gods may still send a gentle breeze when they want to bless us.

A child who has no mother will not have scars to show on his back.

It is the same moon that wanes today that will be the full moon tomorrow.

The river may dry up but she keeps her name.

Wherever something stands, another thing stands beside it.

Lending is the firstborn of poverty.

When you cook a guinea fowl, the partridge gets a headache.

The quarrel that doesn't concern you is pleasant to hear about.

It is an irresponsible adult that creates enmity because of a disagreement that arises between two children.

Earth is the queen of beds.

The man being carried does not realize how far away the town really is.

We can not choose who our relatives should be, even though we may come to like some better than others.

Courage is the father of success.

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Before you ask a man for clothes, look at the clothes that he is wearing.

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A child's face is his mirror.

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Even when fire has done its very worst, one still has to resort to it.

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A bag that says it will not take more, and a traditional doctor who says he would not leave anything behind are both sure to suffer.

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Fine words do not produce food.

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