Small children won’t let you sleep, bigger children won’t let you live.

More Yiddish Proverbs

• Mothers-in-law are fine so long as they are deaf and blind.
• Too humble is half proud.
• You can wash your body but not your soul.
• Before you start up a ladder, count the rungs.
• From success to failure is one step; from failure to success is a long road.
• When one comes to comfort a young widow, he does not mean to perform a good deed.
• Experience is what we call the accumulation of our mistakes.
• What soap is to the body, laughter is to the soul.
• If you want to know what God thinks of money, look at the people he gives it to.
• You can’t measure the whole world with your own yardstick.
• When God wants to punish an idiot, He teaches them a few words of Hebrew.
• One old friend is better than two new ones.
• The cold strengthens you more than hunger.
• The doctor has a remedy for everything but poverty.
• Some people are electrifying; they light up a room when they leave.
• Better a steady dime than a rare dollar.
• Better an honest slap in the face than an insincere kiss.
• You are ushered in according to your dress; shown out according to your brains.
• Men would not be richer for being miserly; generosity does not make a man poorer.
• If it must always be better, it can never be good enough.
• You never lose a false coin.
• Confidence is half of victory.
• Better to die upright than to live on your knees.
• Prayers go up and blessings come down.
• You cannot hold your head high with your hand out.
• The rabbi drinks the wine and asks the others to be happy.
• If things are not as you wish, wish them as they are.