It’s better to be without a book than to believe a book entirely.

More Chinese Proverbs

• He who cheats the earth will be cheated by the earth.
• Listening well is as powerful as talking well, and is also as essential to true conversation.
• A clear conscience never fears midnight knocking.
• Teachers open the door. You enter by yourself.
• An inch of time is an inch of gold but you can’t buy that inch of time with an inch of gold.
• Learning is a treasure that will follow its owner everywhere.
• Solve one problem, and you keep a hundred others away.
• Talk does not cook rice.
• All things change, and we change with them.
• Patience is a bitter plant, but its fruit is sweet.
• A book holds a house of gold.
• Govern a family as you would cook a small fish – very gently.
• One beam, no matter how big, cannot support an entire house on its own.
• A man without a smiling face must not open shop.
• If you bow at all, bow low.
• Do everything at the right time, and one day will seem like three.
• A hundred no’s are less agonizing than one insincere yes.
• Want a thing long enough and you don’t.
• A man who cannot tolerate small misfortunes can never accomplish great things.
• Experience is a comb which nature gives us when we are bald.
• He who asks is a fool for five minutes, but he who does not ask remains a fool forever.
• Behave toward everyone as if receiving a guest.
• A needle is not sharp at both ends.
• Married couples tell each other a thousand things without speech.
• Habits are cobwebs at first; cables at last.
• A bird can roost but on one branch, a mouse can drink not more than its fill from a river.
• Be not afraid of growing slowly, be afraid only of standing still.