# Arabic proverbs

Proverbs from all Arabic speaking parts of the world.

## Quotes

* If a falcon hunts mice he is worthless.
** Islam, A Way of Life by Philip K. Hitti
* Any wise enemy is better than an ignorant friend.
** Quoted in Carol Bardenstein, Translation and Transformation in Modern Arabic Literature:The Indigenous Assertions of Muḥammad 'Uthmān Jalāl, Otto Harrassowitz Verlag, 2005, p. 66.
* The food of the lion (causes) indigestion to the wolf.
** As quoted in Arabic Proverbs: Or, The Manners and Customs of the Modern Egyptians by John Lewis Burckhardt and William Ouseley (1830).
* The remedy may be worse than the disease.
** English equivalent: The remedy is often worse than the disease; Burn not your house to rid it of the mouse.
** "Action taken to put something right is often more unpleasant or damaging than the original problem."
** Martin H. Manser (2007). The Facts on File Dictionary of Proverbs. Infobase Publishing. p. 232. ISBN 978-0-8160-6673-5.
** Atmaram Sadashiv, G. Jayakar (1900). Omani proverbs (Reimpresa ed.). Oleander Press. p. 69. ISBN 0906672120.
* He with no ears gets the earrings !
** Quoted in Bardenstein (2005), p. 66
* When suitors came asking for her hand, she played hard-to-get, when they all left her, she regretted it.
** Quoted in Bardenstein (2005), p. 66
* حبل الكذب قصير
** Translation: The rope of lying is short.
** English equivalent: A lie has short legs.
** "And, after all, what is a lie? 'Tis but The truth in masquerade."
** Lord Byron, Don Juan (1818-24), Canto XI, Stanza 37
** Katibah, Habib Ibrahim (1940). The new spirit in Arab lands. Published privately by the author. p. 121.
* كل ساقط له لاقط
** Translation: Every faller has a catcher.
** حسن, دين، محمد علي (2011). الامثال الشعبية. دار المحجة البيضاء للطباعة والنشر والتوزيع،.
* لا يفل الحديد إلا الحديد
** Translation: Only iron strikes iron.
** English equivalent: Fight fire with fire.
** al-Kitäb. 1946.
* الوقت كالسيف إن لم تقطعه قطعك
** Translation: Time is like a sword; if you don't cut it it'll cut you.
** "The problem with the future is that it keeps turning into the present"
** Bill Watterson, Calvin and Hobbes (1985)
** Manṣūr, ʻAbd al-Fattāḥ (1987). Mudhakkirāt kāìn maḥmūm.
* رجع بخفي حنين
** Translation: He came back empty-handed.
** رجع بخفي حنين - الحكمة (in Arabic).

### Bedouin Proverbs

* الطول طول نخلة والعقل عقل سخلة
** Translation: [He has] The length of a palm tree but the brain of a goat.
** فوزية, دريع، (2008). الرجل الحيوان. منشورات الجمل،.
* إلى كثروا الرعيان ضاعت الغنم
** If the herders are a lot the sheep will get lost.
** English equivalent: Too many cooks spoiled the broth.
** "There may not be that natural connection and unity so essential to any production of merit."
** Porter, William Henry (1845). Proverbs: Arranged in Alphabetical Order .... Munroe and Company. p. 173.
* انا اخبر بشمس بلديي
** I best know the sun of my own country.
** Arabic Proverbs: Or, The Manners and Customs of the Modern Egyptians
* اللي مايعرف الصقر يشويه
** Translation: He who doesn't know the falcon roasts it
** Nawfal, Yūsuf Ḥasan (1981). محمد عبد الحليم عبد الله: حياته وأدبه. عمادة شؤون المكتبات، جامعة الرياض،.
* لا تقول بـُر ليـن توكيــه
** Translation: Don't say its wheat until you harvest it
** English equivalent: Sell not the bear's skin before you have caught him.
** Meaning: "Do not plan too far ahead and do not be too optimistic. One cannot be sure of the success of a job until it is completed. Unforeseen unfavourable developments can never be excluded."
** Source for meaning of English equivalent: Paczolay, Gyula (1997). "X". European proverbs: in 55 languages, with equivalents in Arabic, Persian, Sanskrit, Chinese and Japanese. Veszprémi Nyomda. p. 217. ISBN 1-875943-44-7.
* Riches have disclosed in thy character the bad qualities formerly hidden by thy poverty.
** Ouseley (1830). Arabic Proverbs: Or, The Manners and Customs of the Modern Egyptians. J. Murray. p. 163.
* I love you so I overlook your defects. I hate you so I magnify your shortcomings.
** English equivalentː Faults are thick where love is thin.
** Furayḥah, Anīs (1953). Modern Lebanese Proverbs: Collected at Râs Al-Matn, Lebanon; Collated, Annotated and Translated to English. p. 163.