Ancient African Proverbs

[homeylu]

African Proverbs
# A chick that will grow into a cock can be spotted the very day it hatches.

# A child's fingers are not scalded by a piece of hot yam which his mother puts into his palm.

# An old woman is always uneasy when dry bones are mentioned in a proverb.

# A man who pays respect to the great paves the way for his own greatness.

# A proud heart can survive a general failure because such a failure does not prick its pride.

# As the dog said, 'If I fall down for you and you fall down for me, it is playing.'

# A wise man who knows proverbs, reconciles difficulties. (Yoruba)

# Do not look where you fell, but where you slipped.

# If a child washes his hands he could eat with kings.

# If you don't stand for something, you will fall for something.

# It takes a whole village to raise a child

# Looking at a king's mouth one would never think he sucked his mother's breast.

# People should not talk while they are eating or pepper may go down the wrong way.

# The lizard that jumped from the high iroko tree to the ground said he would praise himself if no one else did.

# The mouth which eats does not talk.

# The sun will shine on those who stand before it shines on those who kneel under them.

# Those whose palm-kernels were cracked for them by a benevolent spirit should not forget to be humble.

# When a man says yes, his chi (personal god) says yes also.

# When the moon is shining the cripple becomes hungry for a walk.

# You can tell a ripe corn by its look.

# You must judge a man by the work of his hands.

[homeylu]

Ashanti Proverbs from Ghana

By the time the fool has learned the game, the players have dispersed.
Do not call the forest that shelters you a jungle.
Even though the old man is strong and hearty, he will not live forever.
Fire and gunpowder do not sleep together.
Hunger is felt by a slave and hunger is felt by a king.
If you are in hiding, don't light a fire.
It is Mr. Old-Man-Monkey who marries Mrs. Old-Woman-Monkey.
It is no shame at all to work for money.
It is the calm and silent water that drowns a man.
It is the fool's sheep that break loose twice.
It's a bad child who does not take advice.
Money is sharper than a sword.
No one tests the depth of a river with both feet.
One cannot both feast and become rich.
One falsehood spoils a thousand truths.
Only when you have crossed the river, can you say the crocodile has a lump on his snout.
Rain beats a leopard's skin, but it does not wash out the spots. (Ashanti)
The moon moves slowly, but it crosses the town.
The poor man and the rich man do not play together.
The ruin of a nation begins in the homes of its people.
There is no medicine to cure hatred.
Two small antelopes can beat a big one.
What is bad luck for one man is good luck for another.
When a king has good counselors, his reign is peaceful.
When a man is coming toward you, you need not say: "Come here."
When a man is wealthy, he may wear an old cloth.
When a woman is hungry, she says, "Roast something for the children that they might eat."
When the cock is drunk, he forgets about the hawk.
When the fool is told a proverb, its meaning has to be explained to him.
When you are rich, you are hated; when you are poor, you are despised.
When you follow in the path of your father, you learn to walk like him.
Wood already touched by fire is not hard to set alight.

[homeylu]

South Sotho Proverbs

# A bird will always use another birds' feathers to feather its own nest.

# A person is a person because of other persons.

#

A man's grave is by the roadside.
#

He that digs up a grave for his enemy, may be digging it for himself.
#

A bad name is like a stigma.

[homeylu]

Ancient Egyptian Proverbs

From the Outer Temple(3)

* The best and shortest road towards knowledge of truth [is] Nature.
* For every joy there is a price to be paid.
* If his heart rules him, his conscience will soon take the place of the rod.
* What you are doing does not matter so much as what you are learning from doing it. · It is better not to know and to know that one does not know,than presumptuously to attribute some random meaning to symbols.
* If you search for the laws of harmony, you will find knowledge.
* If you are searching for a Neter, observe Nature!
* Exuberance is a good stimulus towards action, but the inner light grows in silence and concentration.
* Not the greatest Master can go even one step for his disciple; in himself he must experience each stage of developing consciousness. Therefore he will know nothing for which he is not ripe.
* The body is the house of God. That is why it is said, "Man know thyself."
* True teaching is not an accumulation of knowledge; it is an awaking of consciousness which goes through successive stages.
* The man who knows how to lead one of his brothers towards what he has known may one day be saved by that very brother.
* People bring about their own undoing through their tongues.
* If one tries to navigate unknown waters one runs the risk of shipwreck.
* Leave him in error who loves his error.
* Every man is rich in excuses to safeguard his prejudices, his instincts, and his opinions.
* To know means to record in one's memory; but to understand means to blend with the thing and to assimilate it oneself.
* There are two kinds of error: blind credulity and piecemeal criticism. Never believe a word without putting its truth to the test; discernment does not grow in laziness; and this faculty of discernment is indispensable to the Seeker. Sound skepticism is the necessary condition for good discernment; but piecemeal criticism is an error.
* Love is one thing, knowledge is another.
* True sages are those who give what they have, without meanness and without secret!
* An answer brings no illumination unless the question has matured to a point where it gives rise to this answer which thus becomes its fruit. Therefore learn how to put a question.
* What reveals itself to me ceases to be mysterious—for me alone: if I unveil it to anyone else, he hears mere words which betray the living sense: Profanation, but never revelation.
* The first concerning the 'secrets': all cognition comes from inside; we are therefore initiated only by ourselves, but the Master gives the keys.
* The second concerning the 'way': the seeker has need of a Master to guide him and lift him up when he falls, to lead him back to the right way when he strays.
* Understanding develops by degrees.
* As to deserving, know that the gift of Heaven is free; this gift of Knowledge is so great that no effort whatever could hope to 'deserve' it.
* If the Master teaches what is error, the disciple's submission is slavery; if he teaches truth, this submission is ennoblement.
* There grows no wheat where there is no grain.
* The only thing that is humiliating is helplessness.


From the Inner Temple(4)

* An answer if profitable in proportion to the intensity of the quest.
* Listen to your conviction, even if they seem absurd to your reason.
* Know the world in yourself. Never look for yourself in the world, for this would be to project your illusion
* To teach one must know the nature of those whom one is teaching.
* In every vital activity it is the path that matters.
* The way of knowledge is narrow.
* Each truth you learn will be, for you, as new as if it had never been written.
* The only active force that arises out of possession is fear of losing the object of possession.
* If you defy an enemy by doubting his courage you double it.
* The nut doesn't reveal the tree it contains.
* For knowledge ... you should know that peace is an indispensable condition of getting it.
* The first thing necessary in teaching is a master; the second is a pupil capable of carrying on the tradition.
* Peace is the fruit of activity, not of sleep.
* Envious greed must govern to possess and ambition must possess to govern.
* When the governing class isn't chosen for quality it is chosen for material wealth: this always means decadence, the lowest stage a society can reach.
* Two tendencies govern human choice and effort, the search after quantity and the search after quality. They classify mankind. Some follow Maat, others seek the way of animal instinct.
* Qualities of a moral order are measured by deeds.
* One foot isn't enough to walk with.
* Our senses serve to affirm, not to know.
* We mustn't confuse mastery with mimicry, knowledge with superstitious ignorance.
* Physical consciousness is indispensable for the achievement of knowledge.
* A man can't be judge of his neighbor' intelligence. His own vital experience is never his neighbor's.
* No discussion can throw light if it wanders from the real point.
* Your body is the temple of knowledge.
* Experience will show you, a Master can only point the way.
* A house has the character of the man who lives in it.
* All organs work together in the functioning of the whole.
* A man's heart is his own Neter.
* A pupil may show you by his own efforts how much he deserves to learn from you.
* Routine and prejudice distort vision. Each man thinks his own horizon is the limit of the world.
* You will free yourself when you learn to be neutral and follow the instructions of your heart without letting things perturb you. This is the way of Maat.
* Judge by cause, not by effect.
* Growth in consciousness doesn't depend on the will of the intellect or its possibilities but on the intensity of the inner urge.
* Every man must act in the rhythm of his time ... such is wisdom.
* Men need images. Lacking them they invent idols. Better then to found the images on realities that lead the true seeker to the source.
* Maat, who links universal to terrestrial, the divine with the human is incomprehensible to the cerebral intelligence.
* Have the wisdom to abandon the values of a time that has passed and pick out the constituents of the future. An environment must be suited to the age and men to their environment.
* Everyone finds himself in the world where he belongs. The essential thing is to have a fixed point from which to check its reality now and then.
* Always watch and follow nature.
* A phenomenon always arises from the interaction of complementaries. If you want something look for the complement that will elicit it. Set causes Horus. Horus redeems Set.
* All seed answer light, but the color is different.
* The plant reveals what is in the seed.
* Popular beliefs on essential matters must be examined in order to discover the original thought.
* It is the passive resistance from the helm that steers the boat.
* The key to all problems is the problem of consciousness.
* Man must learn to increase his sense of responsibility and of the fact that everything he does will have its consequences.
* If you would build something solid, don't work with wind: always look for a fixed point, something you know that is stable ... yourself.
* If you would know yourself, take yourself as starting point and go back to its source; your beginning will disclose your end.
* Images are nearer reality than cold definitions.
* Seek peacefully, you will find.
* Organization is impossible unless those who know the laws of harmony lay the foundation.
* It is no use whatever preaching Wisdom to men: you must inject it into their blood.
* Knowledge is consciousness of reality. Reality is the sum of the laws that govern nature and of the causes from which they flow.
* Social good is what brings peace to family and society.
* Knowledge is not necessarily wisdom.
* By knowing one reaches belief. By doing one gains conviction. When you know, dare.
* Altruism is the mark of a superior being.
* All is within yourself. Know your most inward self and look for what corresponds with it in nature.
* The seed cannot sprout upwards without simultaneously sending roots into the ground.
* The seed includes all the possibilities of the tree. ... The seed will develop these possibilities, however, only if it receives corresponding energies from the sky.
* Grain must return to the earth, die, and decompose for new growth to begin.
* Man, know thyself ... and thou shalt know the gods.

[anansi]

Eat drink and be merry..kemetian(also bibical)

A shine eyed gal is a trouble to a man..Jamaican

wanty wanty can't get it gety gety don't want it...Jamaican

If you are a big tree then I am a small ax..Bob Marley


Duppie (ghost) know a who him fi frighten

I know this is supposed to be ancient African but some of the above have links to Africa..ie (Duppie)

[khunanup]

Thanks for posting these proverbs,homey lu. It would be nice if you could also post from where each proverb originates.

The ancient Egyptian proverbs are somewhat sketchy because they originate from a book entitled Her Bak by Isha Schwaller Delubicz. I have tried to find authenic ancient Egyptian proverbs with little success.

[homeylu]

Apr 27, 2010 8:26:38 GMT -5 khunanup said:

Thanks for posting these proverbs,homey lu. It would be nice if you could also post from where each proverb originates.

The ancient Egyptian proverbs are somewhat sketchy because they originate from a book entitled Her Bak by Isha Schwaller Delubicz. I have tried to find authenic ancient Egyptian proverbs with little success.

I cut and pasted them from a site online which I don't remember now.

Do you think they are "fake"? I honestly don't know where they originated from, it claims outer temple and inner temple, so I'll search for the site again and post the link to it.

[khunanup]

I believe the following website is the origin of the proverbs. Unfortunately, I cannot determine if they are authenic but maybe some of the ones found by Gearld Massey might be. Either way, it appears they often some good spirtual advice and insight.


www.duboislc.org/html/Proverbs.html