Persian Proverbs
Sayings of Persian origin
The needle makes clothes but stays naked. ~ Persian SayingA reference to something that will never happen.
One needs more than one indication to draw conclusions.
Whoever can walk on water is probably made of straw.
Work is twice done by the man in a hurry.
The bigger a man’s head, the worse his headache.
Thick body, weak soul.
Friendship with a fool may turn into the hug of a bear .
The neighbor’s hen is a goose to a neighbor.
Coming back with arms longer than legs.
Whoever has no children has no light in his eyes.
Trust in God, but tie your camel tight.
The public improves the speaker’s speech.
Said about a person who acts like a snob.
There are two sides to every story.
Two midwives, and the baby’s head will be crooked.
The fool’s excuse is bigger than the mistake he made.
Our real grave is not in the ground but in men’s hearts.
When in Rome, do as the Romans do.
The night hides a world, but reveals a universe.
The drowning man is not troubled by rain.
When the tide of misfortune moves over you, even jelly will break your teeth
What you give away you keep.
Little by little the cotton thread becomes a turban.
She’s so beautiful!
Instead of fixing the problem, they made it worse.
She tells the sun, “Don’t rise. I’ve come out!”
Seek truth in meditation, not in mouldy books. Look in the sky to find the moon, not in the pond.
The earth is a host who kills his guests.
When fate strikes physicians are useless.
You may get out of one problem but then find yourself facing a bigger problem.
About doing something that is a waste of time.
Came out of the pothole, fell into the well.
When there are two cooks, the soup will be either too salty or tasteless.
Refers to people who take on more responsibilities than they can handle.
The big drum only sounds well from a distance.
The tears of the roasting meat kindle the fire even more.
The lack of gold only a headache.
With a sweet tongue of kindness, you can drag an elephant by a hair.
One who’s been bitten by a snake is afraid of a black-and-white rope.
Fallen from the elephant’s nose.
About planning ahead.
One sip of wine is an antidote against death, cupfuls poison life.
You can’t pick up two melons with one hand.
If people don’t see you, they’ll forget you.
There are three things that have to be done quickly: burying the dead, opening the door for a stranger, and fixing your daughter’s wedding.
What the thief stole has always been called expensive.
The dog is a lion in his own house.
Who sows barley cannot reap wheat.
They tried to fix the eyebrow and ended up blinding the eye, too.
Someone cut before they measured!
Whatever you eat will rot, whatever you give will blossom into a rose.
Once the fire starts burning, the damp and the dry will burn together.
A reference to being too late to do something.
There are four things every person has more of than they know; sins, debt, years, and foes.
Reference to the effectiveness of cooperation among people, to do good or evil.
One pound of learning could require an army of common sense to apply it .
Walls have mice and mice have ears.
Aspiration is not a defect in youngsters.
The loveliest faces are to be seen by moonlight, when one sees half with the eye and half with the fancy.
One scabby goat infects the flock.
While yearning for excess we lose the necessities.
Silence is the sign of agreement.
Take care lest your tongue should cut off your head.
Guilty people are always on guard, looking over their shoulder.
Matury comes from impressions for a long time.
He pulls a snake out of the nest with his tongue.
Only a heart can find the way to another heart.
Travel the highway, though it be roundabout – where shortcuts are dangerous.
Do a good thing and throw it in the river. God will reward you in the desert.
People with similar characteristics find each other.
Don’t act as if you have something until you really do.
Don't despise pepper because it is so small; eat, and see how pungent it is.
When the snake is old, the frog will tease him.
Woe is he who claims to have found happiness.
It seems like folly to give comfits to a cow [Mod] - It can be fun anyway.
When a lion is old, he becomes the plaything of jackals.
The mud that you throw will fall on your own head.
Do little things now; so shall big things come to thee by and by asking to be done.
When a stone hits glass, the glass breaks. When glass hits a stone, the glass breaks.
The virtuous will be praised but not envied.
Be not all sugar, or the world will swallow you up; be not all wormwood, or the world will spit you out.
The mediator in a fight gets all the blows.
Think thoroughly before you act.
Be careful who you choose to be your friends.
The world is a rose; smell it and pass it on to your friends.
Do not cut down the tree that gives you shade.
Tell me who your friends are, and I will tell you who you are!
Bake the bread while the oven is hot.
The halfwit spoke, and the brainless believed.
Use your enemy’s hand to catch a snake.
Don’t stretch your legs beyond your quilt.
Who has ever seen tomorrow?
Thinking well is wise; planning well, wiser; but doing well is the wisest and best of all.
The mouse couldn’t fit through the hole, and then it tied a broom to its tail.
The hand that gives is also the one that receives.
What is brought by the wind will be carried away by the wind.
I haven’t come from behind the mountains.
Where is the person who has not soiled his garments?
A fight in the beginning is better than peace in the end.
They count the chickens at the end of autumn.
Clothes after the New Year are good for the top of the minaret.
When you pick up the stick, the stealing cat gets alert.
When a cat wants to eat her kittens, she says they look like mice.
Go over the details before you agree to something.
About being diplomatic. A smooth talker.
About warning someone indirectly.
One will take someone to the spring and bring them back thirsty.
The cripple will always find a stone to kick.
The doctor must heal his own bald head.
Water finds the pothole.
The world is like an old building on the banks of a stream – it carries away piece by piece; in vain you stop it with a handful of earth.
The best memory is that which forgets nothing, but injuries.
Know your limits and adapt to the situation.
The shoemaker’s shoes have no heels.
Taking the first step with the good thought, the second with the good word, and the third with the good deed, I enter paradise.
The leek resembles its seed and little Hassan takes after his father.
When one is really thirsty, one thousand pearls are not what is craved for at all.
You cannot hang everything on one nail.
Don’t pick up two watermelons with one hand.
One pound of learning requires ten pounds of common sense to apply it.
If you respect your mother, you’ll go to heaven, that’s how high a mother’s place is.
You can’t escape death and guests.
If you be a cock, crow; if a hen, lay eggs.
Water long stagnant becomes putrid.
If you don’t want to be found out, take the appearance of the people around you.
When its time has come, the prey goes to the hunter.
A drop of rain makes no impression on a hard stone.
Taking rye to (the city of) Kerman.
The branch that bears the most fruit bends itself thankfully towards the ground.
There are three kinds of enemy: the enemy himself, the friends of your enemy, and the enemies of your friends.
Who does not beat his own child will later beat his own breast.
He who leaves the eye will leave the heart.
To the ant, a few drops of dew are a flood.
The arrow that has left the bow never returns.
Be careful. Someone might be listening!
You only appreciate your father the day you become a father yourself.
With one ear he hears, and with the other he dismisses.
When the cat and the mouse agree, the grocer is ruined.
The larger a man’s roof, the more snow it collects.
Stretch your foot to the length of your blanket.
It’s not a shame to ask. It’s a shame not to know.
Door, I’m speaking to you. Wall, you listen.
The best mode of instruction is to practise what we preach.
First dig a well, then steal the minaret.
The bride who wears four petticoats has a lot to hide.
When fortune turns against you, even jelly breaks your teeth.
The way a house is decorated will tell much about its owner.
The guard’s sleep is the lamplight of the thief.
Gone to the judge alone, and is back happy.
When I am dead the world can be an ocean or a dried up ditch.
Who has not had a taste longs to do so, but for whom has tasted then the longing is a hundred times more.
You cannot applaud with one hand.
A very cunning person.
Do it while the opportunity is still there.
The tongue of men is the whip of God.
You can close the city gates, but you can’t close the people’s mouths.
If you see behind your ear.
Sometimes the body becomes healthy by being very sick.
Where the camel is sold for a cent, the ass is worthless.
The lover who gives you her body but not her heart is generous with thorn less roses.
Don’t do too many things at the same time.
Five fingers are brothers, not equals.
You don’t put a wooden pot on the fire twice.
Solved riddles look easy.
The wise man that does not put his knowledge into practice is like a bee that gives no honey.
With a single flower, there won’t be spring.
The sky is the same color wherever you go.
The eyes can do a thousand things that the fingers can’t.
The pleasure of finding something is worth more than what you find.
Treat your superior as a father, your equal as a brother, and your inferior as a son.
Women are just like cats, they always land on their feet.
A pleasant voice brings a snake out of his hole.
The strictness of the teacher is better to bear than the prejudice of the father.
One hand has no sound.
A good year is apparent from the spring.
To sin in secret is more pleasant than having pleasure in the open.
Tell a lazy man to do something. Listen to philosophy!
Be nice to people on your way up because you might meet them on your way down.
If they had planted “if,” a tree would have grown in its place.
Yoke not a camel and a cat together. Be free to ask 'Why?'
Coming back without success.
One idiot throws a stone in the well, and it takes a hundred wise men to (try to) get it out.
There is no need for fish in an empty pond.
One sin is too much, a hundred prayers are not enough.
Heaven is under the mother’s foot.
The diamond fallen into the dunghill is not the less precious for it.
One spark is enough to burn a hundred worlds.
Write kindness in marble and write injuries in the dust.
A mountain won’t catch up to a mountain, but a person will catch up to a person.
A slap in the face now is better than promised candy later.
Trust in God -- but tie your camel tight. ~ Persian Proverb
Persian Language
Persian, also known by its endonym Farsi, is one of the Western Iranian languages within the Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European language family. It is primarily spoken in Iran, Afghanistan and Tajikistan and some other regions which historically were Persianate societies and considered part of the Greater Iran. It is written in the Persian alphabet, a modified variant of the Arabic script.There are approximately 110 million Persian speakers worldwide. ~ SourceThe Persian alphabet is a writing system based on the Arabic script and used for the Persian language.
Persian Empire is any of a series of imperial dynasties centered in Persia (modern–day Iran). The first of these was the Achaemenid Empire established by Cyrus the Great in 550 BC with the conquest of Median, Lydian and Babylonian empires. It covered much of the Ancient world when it was conquered by Alexander the Great. Several later dynasties "claimed to be heirs of the Achaemenids". Persia was then ruled by the Parthian Empire which supplanted the Hellenistic Seleucid Empire, and then by the Sassanian Empire which ruled up until the mid-7th century.
A Persian carpet is a heavy textile, made for a wide variety of utilitarian and symbolic purpose, produced in Iran and surrounding areas which once belonged to the Persian Empire, for home use, local sale, and export. Carpet weaving is an essential part of Persian culture and art. Within the group of Oriental rugs or Islamic carpets produced by the countries of the so-called "rug belt", the Persian carpet stands out by the variety and elaborateness of its manifold designs.
If books were Persian carpets, one would not look only at the outer side. because it is the stitch that makes a carpet wear, gives it its life and bloom. ~ Quotation by Rumer Godden