Worldly Wise

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Proverbs from around the world:

  • See that you are wise, but also learn to appear ignorant. (Armenian)
  • If men could foresee the future, they would still behave as they do now. (Russian)
  • Many have suffered for talking; none ever suffered for keeping silent. (Italian)
  • To listen to a lie is harder than to tell it. (Turkish)
  • Not your friend but your enemy will tell you who you are. (Greek)
  • It is not the fault of the post that a blind man cannot see it. (Sanskrit)
  • A good laugh and a long sleep are the best cures in the doctor’s book. (Irish)
  • Patience is the door of joy. (German)
  • If you are standing upright, do not fear a crooked shadow. (Chinese)
  • The thief is sorry that he is to be hanged, not that he is a thief. (English)
  • It is the poor who gives alms to the poor. (Japanese)
  • Before you marry, think what you are doing. (Spanish)
  • Better wisdom than riches. (Swedish)
  • Bairns are certain care but no sure joy. (Scottish)
  • There are forty kinds of lunacy, but only one kind of common sense. (West African)

And “It is easy to throw a stone into the Danube, but rather difficult to get it out.” (Yugoslavia)

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Misc

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  • Liza Minnelli, daughter of Judy Garland, married Jack Haley Jr., son of the Tin Man.
  • The Netherlands still sends 20,000 tulip bulbs to Canada each year.
  • Every positive integer is a sum of distinct terms in the Fibonacci sequence.
  • HIDEOUS and HIDEOUT have no vowel sounds in common.
  • “Death is only a larger kind of going abroad.” — Samuel Butler

(Thanks, Colin and Joseph.)

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“Today’s Work, Today’s Finish”

Chinese proverbs:

  • Enough feathers can sink a boat.
  • Laziness in youth spells regret in old age.
  • The dog that bites won’t bare his teeth.
  • Full of courtesy, full of craft.
  • Suspicions create imaginary fears.
  • No clouds, no rain; no rules, no gain.
  • One fight sullies two persons; one compromise benefits two persons.
  • Walk a road and it becomes familiar; do a job and it becomes easy.
  • Worry doesn’t seek out people — people find worry on their own.
  • Three people of a common mind can conquer the world.
  • The going is toughest toward the end of a journey.
  • The guilty party is the first to sue.
  • If you fall down by yourself, get up by yourself.
  • Thieves in the dark hate the moonlight.
  • Every drama requires a fool.
  • Perseverance is worth more than a vast estate.
  • Prolonged illness makes a doctor of a patient.
  • Smart people also do stupid things.
  • The masses decide what is right and wrong.
  • Gossip won’t harm a good person as stirring won’t spoil good wine.

And “Learning is like paddling a canoe against the current — you will regress if you don’t advance.”

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Unquote

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“How happy many people would be if they cared about other people’s affairs as little as about their own.” — G.C. Lichtenberg

“Most people enjoy the inferiority of their best friends.” — Lord Chesterfield

“We all have strength enough to endure the misfortunes of others.” — La Rochefoucauld

“I set it down as a fact that if all men knew what each said of the other, there would not be four friends in the world.” — Pascal

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Insight

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“Ideas often flash across our minds more complete than we could make them after much labor.” — La Rochefoucauld

“After investigating a problem in all directions, happy ideas come unexpectedly, without effort, like an inspiration. So far as I am concerned, they have never come to me when my mind was fatigued, or when I was at my working table. … They came particularly readily during the slow ascent of wooded hills on a sunny day.” — Hermann von Helmholtz

“You cannot, with your best deliberation and heed, come so close to any question as your spontaneous glance shall bring you while you rise from your bed or walk abroad in the morning after meditating the matter before sleep on the previous night.” — Emerson

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