Arabic proverbs



Proverbs from all Arabic speaking parts of the world.

Quotes

 * If a falcon hunts mice he is worthless.
 * Islam, A Way of Life by Philip K. Hitti


 * Any wise enemy is better than an ignorant friend.
 * Quoted in Carol Bardenstein, Translation and Transformation in Modern Arabic Literature:The Indigenous Assertions of Muḥammad 'Uthmān Jalāl, Otto Harrassowitz Verlag, 2005, p. 66.


 * The food of the lion (causes) indigestion to the wolf.
 * As quoted in Arabic Proverbs: Or, The Manners and Customs of the Modern Egyptians by and  (1830).


 * The remedy may be worse than the disease.
 * English equivalent: The remedy is often worse than the disease; Burn not your house to rid it of the mouse.
 * "Action taken to put something right is often more unpleasant or damaging than the original problem."
 * He with no ears gets the earrings !
 * Quoted in Bardenstein (2005), p. 66
 * When suitors came asking for her hand, she played hard-to-get, when they all left her, she regretted it.
 * Quoted in Bardenstein (2005), p. 66
 * When suitors came asking for her hand, she played hard-to-get, when they all left her, she regretted it.
 * Quoted in Bardenstein (2005), p. 66


 * حبل الكذب قصير
 * Translation: The rope of lying is short.
 * English equivalent: A lie has short legs.
 * "And, after all, what is a lie? 'Tis but The truth in masquerade."
 * Lord Byron, Don Juan (1818-24), Canto XI, Stanza 37


 * كل ساقط له لاقط
 * Translation: Every faller has a catcher.


 * لا يفل الحديد إلا الحديد
 * Translation: Only iron strikes iron.
 * English equivalent: Fight fire with fire.


 * الوقت كالسيف إن لم تقطعه قطعك
 * Translation: Time is like a sword; if you don't cut it it'll cut you.
 * "The problem with the future is that it keeps turning into the present"
 * Bill Watterson, Calvin and Hobbes (1985)


 * رجع بخفي حنين
 * Translation: He came back empty-handed.

Bedouin Proverbs

 * الطول طول نخلة والعقل عقل سخلة
 * Translation: [He has] The length of a palm tree but the brain of a goat.


 * إلى كثروا الرعيان ضاعت الغنم
 * If the herders are a lot the sheep will get lost.
 * English equivalent: Too many cooks spoiled the broth.
 * "There may not be that natural connection and unity so essential to any production of merit."


 * انا اخبر بشمس بلديي
 * I best know the sun of my own country.
 * Arabic Proverbs: Or, The Manners and Customs of the Modern Egyptians


 * اللي مايعرف الصقر يشويه
 * Translation: He who doesn't know the falcon roasts it


 * لا تقول بـُر ليـن توكيــه
 * Translation: Don't say its wheat until you harvest it
 * English equivalent: Sell not the bear's skin before you have caught him.
 * Meaning: "Do not plan too far ahead and do not be too optimistic. One cannot be sure of the success of a job until it is completed. Unforeseen unfavourable developments can never be excluded."
 * Source for meaning of English equivalent:


 * Riches have disclosed in thy character the bad qualities formerly hidden by thy poverty.


 * I love you so I overlook your defects. I hate you so I magnify your shortcomings.
 * English equivalentː Faults are thick where love is thin.