Persian Proverbs

Rigidity of ensnaring outlooks is not what is called for. Add mental well-well's to sayings as you please.

A drop of rain makes no impression on a hard stone. /

A pleasant voice brings a snake out of his hole.

Aspiration is not a defect for youngsters.

Bake the bread while the oven is hot.

Be not all sugar, or the world will swallow you up; be not all wormwood, or the world will spit you out. /

Bravery without foresight is like a blind horse.

Do not cut down the tree that gives you shade.

Don't despise pepper because it is so small; eat, and see how pungent it is. /

Friendship with a fool may turn into the hug of a bear [Mod]. /

Go and wake up your luck. /

He who wants the rose must respect the thorn. /

If you be a cock, crow; if a hen, lay eggs. /

It seems like folly to give comfits to a cow [Mod] / - It can be fun anyway.

Little by little the cotton thread becomes a turban.

Matury comes from impressions for a long time. [TK]

One pound of learning might have required many thousand persons of common sense to acquire it [Mod]. /

One pound of learning could require an army of common sense to apply it [Remade]. /

One scabby goat infects the flock. /

Seek truth in meditation, not in mouldy books. Look in the sky to find the moon, not in the pond.

Take care lest your tongue should cut off your head. /

The best mode of instruction is to practise what we preach. /

The diamond fallen into the dunghill is not the less precious for it [Abr] /

The earth is a host who kills his guests.

The world is like an old building on the banks of a stream – it carries away piece by piece; in vain you stop it with a handful of earth. /

Thinking well is wise; planning well, wiser; but doing well is the wisest and best of all.

Travel the highway, though it be roundabout /– where shortcuts are dangerous.

Water long stagnant becomes putrid. /

When one is really thirsty, one thousand pearls are not what is craved for at all. [TK]

Where is the person who has not soiled his garments? /

Yoke not a camel and a cat together. / Be free to ask 'Why?'

You cannot hang everything on one nail.