Wise African Proverbs and Sayings

You always learn a lot more when you
Lose than when you win

A beautiful things is never perfect

Wisdom is wealth

To get lost is to learn the way

A diamond does not lose its value due to lack of admiration

Between true friends even water drunk
Together is sweet enough

Where you sit when you are old shows
Where you stood when you were a youth

Wealth if you use it comes to an end
Learning if you use it increases

If there is character ugliness becomes
Beauty if there is none beauty becomes ugliness

There are many colorful flowers on the
Path of life but the prettiest have the sharpest thorns

Instruction in youth is like engraving in stone

If you marry a monkey for his money the
Money will go away and the monkey will
Stay the same

Slander by the stream will be heard by the frogs

If you think you are too small to make a
Difference you haven’t spent the night with a mosquito

The one who loves an unsightly person is
The one who makes him beautiful

Telling a secret to an unworthy person
is like carrying grain in a bag with a hole in it

Love is like a baby it needs to be treated tenderly

Wisdom is like a bear babe tree no one
individual can embrace it

Ears that do not listen to advice accompany the head when it is chopped off

A woman’s polite devotion is her greatest beauty

A friend is someone who knows the song
In your heart and can sing it back to
You when you have forgotten the words

If you are filled with pride then you
Will have no room for wisdom

Anyone who sees beauty and does not look
At it will soon be poor

Once you have been tossed by a buffalo a black ops looks like a buffalo

A cutting word is worse than a bowstring
A cup may heal but the cut of the tongue does not

If you want to go fast go alone
If you want to go far go together

If men swear that they want to harm you
When you are asleep you can go to sleep
If women say so stay awake

When an old man dies a library burns to the ground

In the moment of crisis the wise build bridges and
The foolish build dams

The heart of the wise man lies quiet like limpid water

We desire to bequeat two things to our children the first one is roots the other one is wings

Not everyone who chased the zebra caught it
But he who caught it chased it

The fool speaks the wise man listens

There is no beauty but the beauty of action

By crawling a child learns to stand

To be without a friend is to be poor indeed

Unity is strength division is weakness

Never trust a woman who has had sex with your enemy

One should punish a child the first time
He comes home with a stolen egg
Otherwise the day he returns home with a
Stolen ox it will be too late

Ugliness with a good character is better than beauty

He who beats the drum for the mad man to dance is no better than the madman himself

If you educate a man you educate one person
If you educate a woman you educate a whole family

A man who uses force is afraid of reasoning

The laughter of a child lights up the house

No matter how tall your grandfather was
You have to do your own growing

When the shepherd comes home in peace the milk is sweet

Only a fool tests the depth of a river with both feet

The young bird does not crow until it hears the old ones

One who causes others misfortune also teaches them wisdom

You learn how to cut down trees by cutting them down

The old woman looks after the child to
Grow its teeth and the young one in turn
Looks after the old woman when she loses her teeth

If relatives help each other what evil can hurt them

A home without a woman is like a barn without cattle

Counsel and advise him if he refuses to
Listen then let adversity teach him

Wisdom is like fire people take it from others

Knowledge without wisdom is like water in the sand

Children are the reward of life

What you help a child to love can be
More important than what you help him to learn

When sleeping women wake they move mountains

An army of sheep led by a lion
Can defeat
An army of lions led by a sheep

A women’s beauty is not hidden in her face

It takes a village to raise a child

You do not teach the paths of the forest to an old gorilla

If you see that a town respects a calf then cut the grass and feed it