Danish Proverbs

• Danish Proverbs

DENMARK is an old nation, and had a colonial empire till into the 1900s; slavery was not abolished in it till 1848. The cultural heritage of the Danish isles and Jutland is rich. The climate is humid and overcast with mild, windy winters and cool summers. The terrain is low and flat for most part; its highest point is just above 170 m.
      Pollution is a big problem: pollution from the North Sea, air pollution, and drinking and surface water pollution from pesticices and further. In average, a recently born Dane may expect to become 77 years old.
      Danes are said to be the happiest people in the world. They are quite fun loving and averagely reserved, and esteemed as altogether 'civilized', articulate, and clean. Danish design has got world-wide approval.
      Among well-known Danes are Niels Bohr, physicist and Nobel Prize laureate; Tycho Brahe, the astrologer and astronomer who foretold the great London fire; Canute the Great, king of England, Denmark and Norway; Søren Kierkegaard, existentialist philosopher; and many more.

Danish Proverbs

". . . and their proverbs reveal them."

All wish to live long, but none to be called old. [Danish]

Always to be sparing is always to be in want. [Danish]

Art and knowledge bring bread and honour. [Danish]

As the master is, so are his men. [Danish]

Ask advice of your equals. [Cf. Danish]

Beauty draws with a single hair. [Danish]

Better a poor horse than an empty stall. [Danish]

Better the child cry than the old man. [Danish]

Beware of the dog himself, his shadow does not bite. [Danish]

Care, and not fine stables, make a good horse. [Danish]

Children are the riches of the poor. [Danish]

Cunning has little honour. [Danish]

Do as you would be done by. [Danish]

Drive the nail that will go. [Danish]

Eggs and [Danish] oaths are easily broken. [Danish]

Envy does not enter an empty house. [Danish]

Even doubtful accusations leave a stain behind them. [Danish]

Every fool can find faults that a great many wise men can't remedy. [Danish]

Every one sees his smart coat, no one sees his shrunken belly. [Danish]

Favour and gifts disturb justice. [Danish]

From praise, as from a shadow, a man is neither bigger nor smaller. [Danish]

Give your wife the short knife, and keep the long one for yourself. [Danish]

Good counsel will not rot, if it be got in dry. [Danish]

He is a poor smith who is afraid of sparks. [Danish]

He is easy to lure, who is ready to follow. [Danish]

He is not yet born who can please everybody. [Danish]

He must keep a sharp look-out who would speak the truth. [Danish]

He that lies down with the dogs, will get up with fleas. [Danish]

He who feeds the hen is out to have the egg. [Danish]

He who is afraid to ask is ashamed of learning. [Danish]

He who rises early will gather wisdom. [Danish]

He who spends more than he should shall not have to spend when he would. [Danish]

He who would eat the kernel, must crack the nut. [Danish]

Hold your dog in readiness before you start the hare. [Danish]

Hope springs eternally. [Danish]

If the beard were all, the goat might preach. [Danish]

If you play with the fool at home, he will play with you abroad. [Danish]

It is an ill wind that blows nobody good. [Danish]

It is bad to lean against a falling wall. [Danish]

It is dear-bought butter that is licked off a woolcomb. [Danish]

It is hard to make a fire on a cold hearth. [Danish]

It is of no use making shoes for geese. [Danish]

It is time enough to take off your hat when you see the man. [Danish]

Italian devotion and German fasting have no meaning. [Danish]

Kind words heal friendship's wounds. [Danish]

Let him stay at the oar who has learnt to row. [Danish]

Love and poverty are hard to conceal. [Danish]

Many a cow stands in the meadow and looks wistfully at the common. [Danish]

Many a man labours for the day he will never live to see. [Danish]

Meddle with dirt and some of it will stick to you. [Danish]

Much water runs by while the miller sleeps. [Danish]

No man is so tall that he need never stretch, and none so small that he need never stoop. [Danish]

No one falls low unless he attempt to climb high. [Danish]

One bite brings another. [Danish]

Onions, smoke, and a shrew, make a good man's eyes water. [Danish]

Relatives are the worst friends, said the fox as the dogs took after him. [Danish]

Sight goes before hearsay. [Danish]

Ten no's are better then one lie. [Danish]

The bow may be bent until it breaks. [Danish]

The fire heeds little whose cloak it burns. [Danish]

The goose that has lost its head no longer cackles. [Danish]

The more cooks, the worse broth. [Danish]

The owl does not praise the light, nor the wolf the dog. [Danish]

The priest to his book, the peasant to his plough. [Danish]

The sword keeps the peace of the land. [Danish]

There is no cure against a slanderer's bite. [Danish]

They brag most of their ancestors who are unworthy of them. [Danish]

Treachery and slander are long lived. [Danish]

Unworthy offspring brag the most of their worthy descent. [Danish]

Vice is most dangerous when it puts on the garb of virtue. [Danish]

Want of variety leads to satiety. [Danish]

Weighty work must be done with few words. [Danish]

What the sober man has in his heart, the drunkard has on his lips. [Latin, Danish]

When dirt comes to honour it know not what to be. [Danish]

When mistrust enters, love departs. [Danish]

When the helm is gone the ship will soon be wrecked. [Danish]

When you go to dance, take heed whom you take by the hand. [Danish]

While the great bells are ringing no one hears the little ones. [Danish]

You can have too much of a good thing. [Danish]

You cannot take a cow from a man who has none. [Danish]

You must have good luck to catch hares with a drum. [Danish]

Young people must be taught, old ones be honoured. [Danish]




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