When one comes to comfort a young widow, he does not mean to perform a good deed.

More Yiddish Proverbs

• The best horse needs a whip, intelligent men need advice, and devout women need a man.
• You can make the dream bigger than the night.
• Once it was the parents who taught their children to talk; now the children teach their parents to keep quiet.
• Nothing tastes bitterer than the truth.
• You can throw a cat whoever you want; it always falls on its feet.
• You can’t put thank you in your pocket.
• Better a thief for a neighbor than an overzealous rabbi.
• Better an ounce of luck than a pound of gold.
• Words should be weighed, not counted.
• If you’re healthy, you’re wealthy.
• When both parties are right, it’s a bad day for “right.”
• The truly rich are those who enjoy what they have.
• When luck joins in the game, cleverness scores double.
• In life, each of us must sometimes play the fool.
• If we cannot do what we will, we must will what we can.
• Who talks a lot, talks about himself.
• Small children won’t let you sleep, bigger children won’t let you live.
• You reproach your daughter, but you mean your daughter-in-law.
• It’s good to hope, it’s the waiting that spoils it.
• She who wants to marry her stepfather regrets it in bed.
• You find everything when you are spring cleaning.
• You can’t make cheesecakes out of snow.
• What you don’t see with your eyes, don’t invent with your mouth.
• Don’t be scared when you have no other choice.
• You do not fall because you are weak; you fall because you think you are strong.
• He who is aware of his folly is wise.
• God created a world full of little worlds.