“A single arrow is easily broken, but not ten in a bundle.”
“Fortune will call at the smiling gate.”
“A statement once let loose cannot be caught by four horses.”
“Wisdom and virtue are like the two wheels of a cart.”
“Better to be a crystal and to be broken, than to be a tile upon the housetop.”
“Darkness reigns at the foot of the lighthouse.”
“Don’t rejoice over him that goes, before you see him that comes.”
“The poor sleep soundly.”
“The reputation of a thousand years may be determined by the conduct of one hour.”
“The tongue is more to be feared than the sword.”
“To endure what is unendurable is true endurance.”
“To kick with sore toe only hurts foot.”
“We are no more than candles burning in the wind.”
“He is not poor that hath not feel content.”
“If you wait, there will come nectar – like fair weather.”
“If you wish to learn the highest truths, begin with the alphabet.”
“Luck is like having a rice dumpling fly into your mouth.”
“Poverty is no sin, but terribly inconvenient.”
“Proof rather than argument.”
“Some people like to make of life a garden, and to walk only within its paths.”
“Ten men, ten minds.”
Eric Holcomb said,
January 17, 2008 at 9:04 am
Every so often, even monkeys fall from trees …
Debbie said,
May 15, 2009 at 3:27 pm
Does anyone know the meaning of the following proverbs?
“A wise man hears one and understands ten”
“The pheasant would have lived except for its cry”
bscottdawdy said,
July 28, 2009 at 11:09 pm
According to Guffy’s textbook on Business Communication, 5th Edition, Chapter 4, the proverb,“The pheasant would have lived except for its cry” expresses the Japanese values of reticence, aversion to individualism and modesty. The other proverb is listed, but not explained. I cannot find the other one online either. Have you had any luck? I have a hunch, but am not certain as to the meaning.
Jacques Sprenger said,
August 23, 2009 at 5:08 pm
“A wise man hears one and understands ten”
I would interpret that as: Human beings share a lot of traits and experiences. I hear one and that allows me to understand what many more are going through. Here the words ‘one’ and ‘ten’ are simple representations of the human race as a whole. Buddha might have said that.