Proverbs From Liberia, Page 2

  147)It is not wise to eat your chicken and throw its feathers in the front yard. 

  148)John's palm oil is wasted on John's rice.

  149)Just because the sky is full of rainy clouds doesn’t mean it will rain.

  150)No matter how long the night lasts, there will be morning

  151)No one can eat beauty.

  152)No one can eat beauty.

  153)Not even the baboon never tells its child it is ugly.

  154)Not every grey headed person is a considered wise.

  155)Old age is a visitor that creeps upon you.

  156)One can only tie a cow to a tree when the tree is big and strong.

  157)One finger cannot pick lice.

  158)Our eyes cross the creek before our bodies.

  159)Sometimes the children we born, are the ones to redeem us.

  160)Teeth and tongue live in the same house, yet they fight each other.

  161)The bird without wings, appreciates its legs the most.

  162)The daylight and night are twins, they always go together.

  163)The elephant can’t complain that it is tired from carrying its tusks.

  164)The lazy lion makes the loudest noise, but the lion that kills, doesn’t show off.

  165)The leopard can’t swing from its tail, but that does not mean the monkey is safe.

  166)The lion does not have to fight to show its power.

  167)The man that gets up each time he falls, is sure to succeed.

  168)The patient dog will eat the fattest bone. 

  169)The person that is down, has nowhere to fall.

  170)We each have our own path.

  171)What the family talks about in the evening, the child will repeat in the morning.

  172)When a long teeth man is suffering, no one knows because it looks like he is laughing.

  173)When building a house, don't count the number of big trees in the forest.  

  174)When one is in the bat kingdom, one has to swing like a bat.

  175)When you see a crocodile happily laughing, it is best to be very careful.

  176)Whenever you are short of funds, even a fool will advise you.

  177)When you see a mouse laughing at a cat, then there is a hole very close by.

  178)When the poor man dreams, he dreams of money and wealth.

  5

  Knowledge & Wisdom

  179)A person with wisdom, has wealth.

  180)Wisdom is like an old cotton tree; one individual’s hand can’t cover it.

  181)A fool learns the rules of the game, long after the players stopped playing.

  182)Misfortune is a good chance to learn.

  183)A wise person will always find a way around a problem.

  184)A person with wealth may lose it, but one with knowledge and wisdom keeps it.

  185)The monkey doesn’t learn to jump from the tree to tree without first trying.

  186)A person of reason, has little needs for force.

  187)Wisdom is not like money to be tied up and hidden.

  188)The heart of the wise person lies quiet like clear water.

  189)Wisdom is like fire. People take it from others.

  190)A learned person expands his/her influence.

  191)One who gets lost, easily masters the route.

  192)Only a wise person can solve a difficult problem.

  193)One with knowledge but no wisdom, is like water in the sand.

  194)The wise person builds bridges in the moment of crisis, but the fool builds dams.

  195)A person full of pride, leaves no room for wisdom.

  196)A person who ignores the facts, learns the hard way.

  197)A wise person has patience to listen even to a fool speak, but the fool has not.

  198)One does not get wise overnight.

  199)He who learns, teaches.

  200)No one is born wise.

  201)The remedy against bad times is to have patience with them.

  202)You always learn a lot more when you lose than when you win.

  203)One who learns from losing, is likely to be a winner.

  204)Proverbs are the humble to learn, not for the fools to just repeat.

  205)Life is a learning process, everything has meaning and use.

  206)Good instructions in youth, is like engraving in stone.

  207)An old gorilla knows the forest better than a young hunter.

  208)To be like your elders, follow their paths keenly.

  209)The ears that refuse to heed good advice, always go along with the head when it is chopped off.

  210)Advice is like a stranger; if we welcome it, it stays; if not, it leaves immediately.

  211)One who travels a lots, learns many things.

  212)What we learn is what we die with.

  213)A child must craw before walking.

  214)A Cola Nut is enjoyed in the mouths of those who value it.

  215)A curled snake never gets fat.

  216)A jealous woman teaches her husband how to avoid detection.

  217)A man cannot be taller than his head.

  218)A man who is patient, will certainly eat ripe fruits.

  219)A one-eye man can’t throw signs and be taken seriously. 

  220)A patient person is not foolish, they live to get the last laugh.

  221)A patient person never misses a thing.

  222)A wise person knows when to speak, when to listen and when to teach.

  223)Amongst my mother’s children, I love myself the best.

  224)Every cat fish owns a hole. 

  225)He who knows the way must lead others.

  226)He who steps in a creek first, shows others the depth or the current.

  227)No matter how long the night is, the day will always break

  228)One can find peace at the bottom of the pot of patience.

  229)Only the Roster knows its private.

  230)Patience attracts happiness; it brings those things which are far, very near.

  231)Patience can cook a stone.

  232)Patience is the key to many problems.

  233)Patience puts a crown on the head.

  234)Pretend you are dead and you will see who really loves you.

  235)The stones thrown into the well to kill frogs, are the same ones that causes you to suffer when you drink the dirty water.

  236)The wife of a jealous man, knows many tricks.

  237)To run is not necessarily to arrive.

  238)Washing with dirty water does not clean a dirty object.

  239)Wishing is not the same as doing.

  240)When love fails, ugliness appears.

  241)Where there are wise people, there will be no shortage of learners.

  242)Wisdom can’t hide in the dark, it always comes to see the light

  6

  Peace & War

 

  243)Peace is a priceless commodity.

  244)Peace is expensive, but worth every second of it.

  245)Even the animals don’t always fight.

  246)When there is peace in the country, the chief does not carry a shield.

  247)A chief (with good advisors) who listens, has a peaceful reign.

  248)War is like a blind person, it cannot see.

  249)Peace does not necessarily make a good ruler.

  250)The crows are always happy when there is a fight between grasshoppers.

  251)There can be peace only if there is understanding.

  252)Although milk and honey have different colors, they can share the same house peacefully.

  253)If you can’t resolve your problems in peace, you can’t solve war.

  254)The best way to avoid war is to keep the peace.

  255)The person who thinks he is leading and yet no one is following him/her is only taking a walk.

  256)A small group of sheep led by a lion, can defeat an army of lions led by a sheep.

  257)Power is not the property of the lazy.

  258)A leader who liste
ns to his/her people, often leads for long.

  259)A pride without a leader, can easily be defeated by a herd of sheep.

  260)The black ants colony without a leader, are confused.

  261)A good leader was most likely once a good follower.

  262)A leader is like a dumpsite, everybody throws things on him/her.

  263)The thing the old man can see whilst sitting, the young boy can’t see even when standing up.

  264)A wise maiden doesn’t suffer to keep her man.

  265)A wise woman knows that slowly, slowly, the porridge goes into the gourd.

  266)It is better to share food than angry words.

  267)When the child starts to look for flies in his/her food, then s/he is no longer hungry.

  268)Good food means good health.

  269)We have two cheeks instead of one to make it easier to eat hot food.

  270)A sick child that eats all his/her food all the time, makes the mother suspicious.

  271)If you give bad food to your stomach, it beat drums for you to dance.

  272)A bad cook doesn’t look for praises..

  273)The forest provides food to the needy.

  274)Good words are like good food, bad words are like poison.

  275)You cannot tell a hungry child that you gave him food yesterday.

  276)Good food is better with good music.

  277)Rich people with many servants, easily forget how to cook.

  278)A child with a full belly can easily consider mischief.

  279)The hungry child does not waste time on causing trouble, s/he spends time on finding food.

  280)The food that is eaten first, lasts the longest in the stomach.

  281)A man who is full is not always happy.

  282)When bad luck catches you, even cold food can burn your mouth.

  283)Only an old lady knows how to use stones to produce good food.

  284)Happiness is as good as food.

  285)The mosquito says knows that where there is blood, there is plenty of food.

  286)A happy family shares what little food they have, even if it’s only one locust.

  287)If you are looking for the water’s color before you drink, you will die of thirst.

  288)If you see a well-dressed person eating with a person in rags, the food belongs to the latter.

  289)People who eat your food and forget your name are not to be trusted.

  290)One’s hunger is not satisfied just because one’s neighbor has plenty food.

  291)A fat chicken does not live long in the poultry.

  292)A great cook does not have to be a beautiful woman.

  293)The food you will not eat, you do not waste your time cooking

  294)He who fears the responsibility cannot become chief.

  295)Not because a man sits in a large chair so he is a king.

  296)Where a woman rules, the streams run uphill.

  297)A leader who does not take advice is not a leader.

  298)The sheep never leads the lions.

  299)A good leader is like a diamond, s/he has to be refined

  300)If the cockroach wants to rule over the chicken, then it must hire the fox as a body-guard.

  7

  Beauty

 

 

  301)A basket of pretty fruits does not mean there are no worms or maggots.

  302)A Beautiful discourse is rarer to find than emerald.

  303)A beautiful woman has been known to make the greatest warrior humble.

  304)A beautiful woman is the cause of many heart aches.

  305)A family of love, can live even in the darkness.

  306)A happy man marries the girl he loves, but a happier man, loves the girl he marries.

  307)A person with a pretty face and fine clothes does not necessarily make good character.

  308)A pretty maiden who can’t cook and clean, soon loses her man.

  309)A roosters’ tail feathers may be pretty but it is always behind.

  310)A woman’s devotion to family is one of her greatest beauties.

  311)An ugly child of your own is worth more to you than a beautiful one belonging to your neighbor.

  312)At night, when the moon shines on the surface of the water, it may be beautiful, but don’t be fooled, it is not a bed.

  313)Beautiful words don’t put food in the belly.

  314)Because a woman is pretty does not mean she preserve her marriage.

  315)Coffee is like new love, it tastes best when hot.

  316)Even the prettiest looking fruit may contain worms.

  317)Every woman is beautiful until she speaks shows her true character.

  318)Everyone is beautiful in a way to someone.

  319)Greatness and beauty do not belong to the spirits alone.

  320)He who marries the most beautiful woman in a town, marries trouble.

  321)If you are ugly you must either learn how to make love, dance or cook well.

  322)If you marry a baboon for its wealth, the money may but the baboon remains there all the same.

  323)In matters of character, an ugly maiden who possesses it, becomes beautiful as compared to a pretty one who lacks it; beauty becomes ugliness.

  324)It is harder to stay in love than to fall in love.

  325)It is only a foolish cow that rejoices at the prospect of being taken to a beautiful butcher shop.

  326)It’s hard for a beautiful thing to be perfect.

  327)Judge not your beauty by the number of people who look at you, but rather by the number of people whom you make happy and smile at you.

  328)Just like there is one thread for the needle, there is one love for the heart.

  329)Life is interesting, in a season, the caterpillars are ugly, in another, they turn into beautiful butterflies.

  330)Love has to be shown by deeds, not just words.

  331)Love is like a seed, it must be watered daily or it will die.

  332)Love is like a stern creditor, if you owe it, you pay up or it eats your despot.

  333)Love, they say, is blind.

  334)Marriage is like a coconut; you have to crack it open to see what is inside.

  335)No matter how beautiful a woman is, a man can’t eat beauty; she needs to add substance to it.

  336)No matter how pretty one thinks she is, there is always another prettier woman out there.

  337)Some people are pretty on the outside and ugly on the inside.

  338)Some women are like a bush road, they are pretty, but crooked.

  339)The beauty of a woman becomes useless if it remains hidden.

  340)The colors of a chameleon are not for beautiful display, it is for survival.

  341)The farmer who plants cassava by the road side, and the poor man who marries a beautiful woman, have the same problem.

  342)There are many colorful flowers in life, but the prettiest have the sharpest thorns.

  343)There is always a winner even in a baboon’s beauty contest.

  344)To an outsider, all the baboons are the same, but to them, they know otherwise.

  345)To the blind, everyone is beautiful.

  346)To the deer, the leopard’s skin is beautiful, but not its heart.

  347)To the fool, beauty is only outward.

  348)Ugliness with a good character is better than beauty.

  349)When a man is drunk, even an ugly woman may seem pretty.

  350)When the young sees an old rag, they don’t know that it was once a beautiful piece of cloth..

  351)You are beautiful because of your outward possessions alone.

  352)You can’t sell or eat beauty.

  353)Youth is like beauty, it does not last forever.

  8

  Family & Friendship

  354)A family is like a forest, from outside it is dense, but from inside, one sees that each tree has its place.

  355)A man in harmony with my family, can easily succeed.

  356)Brothers love is strong, b
ut breakable.