Great Throughts Treasury

"If you fail to do what you want, do what you have to do."

"If you have managed to avoid a premature death, you will not manage to avoid old age."

"If you live long you will see how the camels are born."

"If you leave the place in which you are loved, you will come to the place in which you are hated."

"Ignorance is blindness."

"If you want to get more, you will lose everything."

"If you want to dismantle a hedge, remove one thorn bush at a time."

"In good times be ready for bad times (because times always change)."

"In a war sons (a son) are killed, but none are born."

"In the rainless season dry grass is (rich) fodder."

"In the ocean, one does not need to sow water."

"It is all the same to a stone whether you touch it or squeeze it (i.e. it does not matter)."

"In striving for gains you will sit even on a dogskin."

"In What one hides (from people) there is always something bad (a piece of shit)."

"It is level at the rod standing upright and it is level at the rod lying flat. (Said when someone appears to be using double standards.)"

"Is it possible to gnaw a hego and not break any teeth. Hego is the very hard fruit of one of the palm trees."

"It is not bad to ask each other for something, but it is bad to dodge each other."

"It is better to have an aching leg than an aching spirit (stomach, i.e. it is better to do something despite tiredneess, than later to regret that it had not been done)."

"It is not the madness that gets in trouble but its owner (i.e. the madman himself)."

"It is written on the face (neck) of everyone that he thinks himself good."

"It is you who need advice, it does not need you (therefore advice should be appreciated)."

"It was heat that made the cooking pot boil (it was a certain reason that made that person angry."

"Justice knows its God only (justice is justice and it must be served justly and equally to all men)"

"It makes no difference if you carry or drag a branch (to make a fence) it will get to the same yard (house)."

"It?s the women who make some men succeed where others fail."

"Lend a false ear to false words."

"Justice knows only Allah."

"Look before you leap (Consider all aspects of a situation before you take any action)."

"Let what is on this side of the bank be washed out by the flood, and what is on that side of the bank be carried away by the wind."

"Make a dam before the flows."

"Lost cattle (i.e. which are looked for by their owner) find themselves at the disposal of the man who does not need it (i.e. sometimes a thing belongs not to the man who cannot do without it, but to a man who does not need them)."

"Man makes mistakes (as easily) as he jumps over a log."

"Love emerges when hands give something to each other."

"Many words cannot fill a pitcher."

"Marry a woman you are sure of and you will have no doubt of your children (i.e. you will be sure that you are their father)."

"Men?s wealth is countable by hand and remembered by heart."

"Men like tea, women like conversation."

"Men for tea, women for talk."

"Milk which is gulped and words which are said rashly will hurt your ribs (in the first case they will ache from coughing, in the second from a beating)."

"Misfortune can be caught only from the front, it cannot be caught from behind (i.e. one can avert misfortune, but cannot control it if it has already happened)."

"News hurries to a meeting place (i.e. secrets become known)."

"My father has killed a mouse, will he fail to kill a man (people)? (Said about a coward who pretends to be brave.)"

"Oh Father, save me from the small one, the big one i shall manage myself. (Said when somebody is unable to solve a small problem, but thinks he can deal with a big one)"

"Oh Allah, do not punish a man who sins through ignorance."

"Not to fulfil a promise is just the same as not believing in God."

"Nothing is so close to teeth as a tongue and event then that sometimes bite it."

"Nothing can help a caught thief."

"Oh fool, your fire is too hit. Said when a silly person offers his help: one cannot even ask him to kindle a fire, he will burn everything around him"

"Oh hyena, you cannot drag away hides without making a sound."

"Of all men, three types are the worst: he who does not know how to sew (clothes for himself), he who does not know how to get (clothes) and he who does not know how to take care (of them)."