One who plants grapes by the roadside, and one who marries a pretty woman, share the same problem.

More African Proverbs

• The eye never forgets what the heart has seen.
• Sticks in a bundle are unbreakable.
• It’s better to fall from a tree and break your back than to fall in love and break your heart.
• Do not call a dog with a whip in your hand.
• When brothers fight to the death, a stranger inherits their father’s estate.
• Just because the lizard nods his head, doesn’t mean he’s in agreement.
• Wisdom does not come overnight.
• A mother cannot give birth to something bigger than herself.
• However far a stream flows, it doesn’t forget its origin.
• The quarrel of lovers is the renewal of love.
• If you heal the leg of a person, do not be surprised if they use it to run away.
• Tomorrow belongs to people who prepare for it today.
• Let your love be like the misty rain, coming softly but flooding the river.
• If a woman doesn’t love you, she calls you brother.
• A home without a woman is like a barn without cattle.
• Wood already touched by fire is not hard to set alight.
• True love means what’s mine is yours.
• To get lost is to learn the way.
• Do not treat your loved one like a swinging door: you are fond of it but you push it back and forth.
• A happy man marries the girl he loves; a happier man loves the girl he married.
• Knowledge without wisdom is like water in the sand.
• Where there are many, nothing goes wrong.
• The old woman looks after the child to grow its teeth and the young one in turn looks after the old woman when she loses her teeth.
• One falsehood spoils a thousand truths.
• When an old man dies, a library is burned with him.
• When you marry a monkey for his wealth, the money goes but the monkey remains.
• It is better to be loved than to be feared.