Japanese And Zen Proverbs

Khalil Gibran Painting

If you wish to learn the highest truths, begin with the alphabet.

No branch is better than its trunk.

Darkness reigns at the foot of the lighthouse.

A fog cannot be dispelled by a fan.

Adversity is the foundation of virtue.

Affinity is a mysterious thing, but it is spicy.

Don't stay long when the husband is not at home.

Even a sheet of paper has two sides.

Even a thief takes ten years to learn his trade.

An excess of courtesy is discourtesy.

Bad and good are interwined like rope.

If a man be great, even his dog will wear a proud look.

If man has no tea in him, he is incapable of understanding truth and beauty.

If one man praises you, a thousand will repeat the praise.

If the father is a frog, the son will be a frog.

It is a beggar's pride that he is not a thief.

Laughter cannot bring back what anger has driven away.

Laughter is the hiccup of a fool.

Money grows on the tree of persistence.

My son is my son till he gets him a wife, but my daughter's my daughter all the days of her life.

Never trust the advice of a man in difficulty.

One kindness is the price of another.

One who smiles rather than rages is always the stronger.

One written word is worth a thousand pieces of gold.

Only lawyers and painters can turn white to black.

Silence surpasses speech.

The inarticulate speak longest.

The mouth is the door of evil.

The nail that sticks its head up is the one that gets hit.

The tongue is but three inches long, yet it can kill a man six feet high.

The tongue is more to be feared than the sword.

Tigers die and leave their skins; people die and leave their names.

Time spent laughing is time spent with the gods.

To teach is to learn.

Virtue is not knowing but doing.


Vision without action is a daydream; action without vision is a nightmare.

Walls have ears, bottles have mouths.

We learn little from victory, much from defeat.

While we consider when to begin, it becomes too late.

If you look up, there are no limits.

The beginning of sin is sweet; its end is bitter.

Zen Proverbs