International Proverbs

From time to time I receive proverbs that are claimed to be from a specific country.
Many of these proverbs show an interesting outlook on the countries history.
Therefore I have included a page to record some of these sayings.

China

• In good times we forget to burn incense; in hard times we embrace the Buddha's feet.
• When the market is brisk, the seller does not stop to wash the mud from his turnips.
• Patience and a mulberry leaf will make a silk gown.
• He who is bitten by a snake avoids long grass.
• To succeed, consult three old people.
• Bend, but don't break.

Czechoslovakia

• It is easy to criticize somebody, who is doing a complicated work, when you didn't do anything similarly complicated.

France

• Lending money to a man causes him to lose his memory.
• Men make laws, but women make morals.
• Marriage teaches you to live alone.
• Who loves well, forgets slowly.

Germany

• It is too late to cover the well when the child is drowned.
• The guest is dearest when he is leaving.
• As fast as laws are devised, their evasion is contrived.
• Love can turn the cottage into a golden palace.
• Patience is often better than medicine.

Greece

• Little bean by little bean the sack will surely fill.
• To the bad driver, the mules are always to blame.
• The drunkard and the fool never keep secrets.
• The other man's bread tastes sweetest.
• The heart that loves is always young.
• Swift gratitude is the sweetest.

India

• The crane, hoping to eat dried fish when the sea dries up, wasted away in expectancy.
• An eye for an eye only ends up making the whole world blind. - from Mahatma Gandhi.
• Those who live in houses are proud, but there is a God even for those who live in huts.
• Where there is love there is life. - from Mahatma Gandhi.

Italy

• He who knows but little presently outs with it.
• A little truth helps the lie go down.
• He who never boasts is esteemed at a third more than his value.

Japan

• The second word makes the fray.
• From poverty to profusion is a hard journey, but the way back is easy.
• Fall seven times, stand up the eighth time.
• Happiness rarely keeps company with an empty stomach.
• Learning without wisdom is a load of books on an ass's back.
• The biggest of serpents has no terrors for the eagle.
• Cold rice and cold tea are bearable, but cold looks and cold words are not.
• When one has no needle, thread is of little use.

New Zealand

• Traditional Maori Proverbs from New Zealand.

Russia

• What fell off the cart is [as good as] gone.

Spain

• Talking is easy, action is difficult.
• Wine has two defects: if you add water to it , you ruin it; if you don't add water, it ruins you.
• It is not the same to talk of bulls as to be in the bull ring.

Sweden

• Don't cross the stream to find water.
• The fields are ever frozen for lazy pigs.

Turkey

• The dogs bark but the caravan moves on.

Uganda

• An ear that doesn't heed to advice is chopped off together with the head.
• The death of a cow marks celebration to even a dying dog.

Vietnam

• You learn by looking and listening as opposed to talking.
  That's why you have two ears, two eyes, and only one mouth.

Zambia

• A tree is strong because of its roots.