Òwe Yorùbá: Yoruba proverbs and what they mean

Literally: Someone who can be carried does not go limp.

Meaning: When you are being helped, cooperate instead of making it harder.

Literally: One person cannot announce 'Here we come.'

Meaning: However great you are, alone you are still only one; strength is in numbers.

Literally: One's own palm does not deceive one.

Meaning: The surest thing to rely on is your own effort.

Literally: Sweetness is the aftertaste of bitter leaf.

Meaning: Hardship endured leads to good things.

Literally: Feet take over the whole path.

Meaning: Do things fully, not by halves.

Literally: It is a nimble dog that catches the squirrel.

Meaning: Success goes to the quick and alert.

Literally: The cock crows and the lazy one sighs.

Meaning: Morning, the start of work, annoys the lazy.

Literally: The beginnings of wealth are full of dirt.

Meaning: Success starts with hard, unglamorous work.

Literally: Work is the cure for poverty.

Meaning: Only work lifts one out of want.

Literally: On the day of rest the lazy one feels regret.

Meaning: Those who did not prepare suffer when the time to enjoy comes.

Literally: Laziness is the father of illness.

Meaning: Laziness is worse than sickness.

Literally: The lazy person looks for easy work.

Meaning: The idle always choose the easiest task.

Literally: All the days the crab has made oil, it has not filled a pot.

Meaning: Said of long effort that has nothing to show for it.

Literally: Endurance is everything; we grow tired every day.

Meaning: Keep going: everyone gets tired, but those who persist get there.

Literally: Rather than bleat, the ram would die.

Meaning: A mature person bears pain with dignity instead of complaining loudly.

Literally: The one who waits long to eat does not eat spoiled food.

Meaning: Patience is rewarded with the best.

Literally: A farmer does not buy new clothes monthly, only yearly.

Meaning: The rewards of hard work take time to come.

Literally: Next year's pounded yam will still find stew.

Meaning: Good fortune that comes later is still good; no need to grab it now.

Literally: Patience has its reward.

Meaning: Patience pays.

Literally: Patience is the medicine of life.

Meaning: Patience helps one through every trouble.

Literally: Nothing patience cooks fails to be done.

Meaning: With patience everything comes to completion.

Literally: Only a dog that overdoes things chases leopards.

Meaning: Taking on a fight far beyond your strength is foolish excess.

Literally: Someone with only one outfit does not play in the rain.

Meaning: If you have little, protect it and do not risk it for fun.

Literally: A small ant cannot carry a rock.

Meaning: Do not take on a task far beyond your capacity.

Literally: Soup does not slosh about inside an elder.

Meaning: A mature person keeps secrets and does not spill what is entrusted to them.

Literally: When the eyes see, the mouth stays silent.

Meaning: Not everything you witness needs to be spoken about.

Literally: One does not kill a snail with a sword.

Meaning: Match your response to the size of the problem.

Literally: One does not handle a gun carelessly.

Meaning: Treat dangerous matters with great care.

Literally: A needle is no use for pounding yam.

Meaning: Every task needs the right tool or the right person.

Literally: The fire that threatens water will be put out.

Meaning: Challenging a far greater power only destroys you.

Literally: A child of fire is sent on an errand to fire.

Meaning: Send the right person, one suited to the task.

Literally: A goat is no guard for yams.

Meaning: Do not trust your goods to someone who wants them.

Literally: The ear that insists on hearing everything goes deaf.

Meaning: Some things are better left unheard.

Literally: We treat illness; we do not treat death.

Meaning: Deal with problems early, before they are beyond repair.

Literally: A ram stepping back is not afraid.

Meaning: Someone who pauses before acting is preparing, not giving up.

Literally: Today's conduct is tomorrow's court case.

Meaning: What you do now will have consequences later.

Literally: However small the snake, do not be kind to it.

Meaning: Never take a danger lightly because it looks small.

Literally: Keeping away is the cure for leprosy.

Meaning: The best way out of trouble is never to get into it.

Literally: The broom's sticks fall out one by one.

Meaning: Big losses build up from small, unnoticed ones.

Literally: Quietly, quietly, termites eat a house.

Meaning: Small unnoticed problems can grow into disasters.

Literally: A goat does not enter the hyena's den.

Meaning: Do not walk knowingly into danger.

Literally: A dog does not go to the wilderness to hunt a leopard.

Meaning: Do not seek out a fight you cannot win.

Literally: It is the elder who does not know his limits that the river carries away.

Meaning: Know your own limits and act within them.

Literally: The one who asks does not lose the way.

Meaning: Asking for help or directions is wiser than wandering lost out of pride.

Literally: The old masquerader dances gently.

Meaning: With age should come calm, dignified behaviour.

Literally: 'I know how to ride' is the one the horse throws.

Meaning: Overconfidence leads to falls; stay humble even in what you know well.

Literally: The child of the landowner treads the land gently.

Meaning: Those who truly own something handle it with care, not arrogance.

Literally: Elder, do a kindness and look away from it.

Meaning: Do good without watching for thanks or praise.

Literally: The kindness was long ago, so the fool forgets.

Meaning: Only a fool forgets a favour just because time has passed.

Literally: Jealousy kills more surely than a club.

Meaning: Envy is more destructive than open violence.

Literally: Fire cannot be hidden under clothing.

Meaning: Serious problems must be shared and faced, not hidden.

Literally: Nothing is ever enough for a thief.

Meaning: Greed is never satisfied.

Literally: Money does not stay with a thief.

Meaning: Ill-gotten wealth does not last, and a thief cannot be trusted with money.

Literally: This year's wisdom, next year's madness.

Meaning: What looks clever now may look foolish later.

Literally: Greed is the father of all illness.

Meaning: Covetousness does more harm than any disease.

Literally: Sugarcane brought its sweetness from heaven.

Meaning: True quality is inborn, not given by others' praise.

Literally: A visitor does not tell the host the town's history.

Meaning: Do not lecture people on what they know better than you.

Literally: The tongue marks the boundary of the mouth.

Meaning: Everything has its limit, and speech should stay within it.

Literally: Too much teasing turns into a fight.

Meaning: Jokes need limits; mockery that goes too far causes conflict.

Literally: Not speaking is what makes the mouth smell.

Meaning: Keeping quiet when you should speak does you harm; say your piece.

Literally: The one who knows proverbs has the final say.

Meaning: Wise sayings carry great weight in any argument.

Literally: Whoever talks a lot will misspeak.

Meaning: The more you say, the more likely you are to say something wrong.

Literally: Many words do not fill a basket; they bring lies.

Meaning: Talking too much produces nothing useful and leads to falsehood.

Literally: Words are eggs; once dropped, they break.

Meaning: Spoken words cannot be taken back, so speak carefully.

Literally: With the leopard away from home, the dog barks.

Meaning: When the person in charge is absent, lesser people grow bold.

Literally: A dog does not bark at the leopard's resting place.

Meaning: Know whose ground you are on and show respect to the stronger.

Literally: One does not load the head with the belly's burden.

Meaning: Put each responsibility where it belongs.

Literally: We enter the porch before entering the house.

Meaning: Do things in their proper order.

Literally: Toddling comes before running.

Meaning: Master the basics before attempting more.

Literally: Pepper is small, but its sting is great.

Meaning: Do not judge a person's strength by their size.

Literally: An elder does not stand in the market while a baby's head hangs crooked.

Meaning: Elders must not let wrong things happen in their presence.

Literally: Where salt is placed, there it makes damp.

Meaning: Act within your own proper sphere.

Literally: Lightning cannot roast a yam.

Meaning: Flashy talk and show do not get real work done.

Literally: Now that I am old, I long for youth.

Meaning: We often value what we had only after it is gone.

Literally: One does not catch a disease out of shyness.

Meaning: Do not let embarrassment stop you from speaking up for yourself.

Literally: One does not eat salt according to one's rank.

Meaning: Even good things become harmful in excess, whatever your status.

Literally: One does not wait for the battlefield to look for charms.

Meaning: Prepare well before the crisis arrives.

Literally: Pumpkin leaves are never bitter in a large household.

Meaning: When many mouths need feeding, nobody is choosy.

Literally: A dog born last year does not know how to hunt.

Meaning: Skill comes with experience and time.

Literally: The bachelor grows old and builds his own fire.

Meaning: Plan for the future while you are young, or you will fend for yourself later.

Literally: The wind cannot be carried.

Meaning: Some things are simply impossible; do not waste effort on them.

Literally: The world moves on and we follow it.

Meaning: We adapt to life as it comes to us.

Literally: Learning is knowing: the tortoise's proverb.

Meaning: Knowledge comes only through learning.

Literally: A cutlass has only one edge.

Meaning: Focus on one thing at a time.

Literally: The song changes and the drumbeat changes with it.

Meaning: Adjust your behaviour as circumstances change.

Literally: Wisdom is greater than strength.

Meaning: Thinking well achieves more than force.

Literally: Wisdom never runs out.

Meaning: There is always room and use for more wisdom.

Literally: Only the very wise know when a snail is pregnant.

Meaning: Deep insight belongs to the few who look closely.

Literally: A snake bites a person only once.

Meaning: After one painful lesson, a wise person stays alert.

Literally: Whoever chases two rats catches none.

Meaning: Chasing two goals at once may leave you with nothing.

Literally: Whoever will jump must first crouch.

Meaning: Every big step needs preparation.

Literally: Anger is the father of misery.

Meaning: Acting in anger leads to ruin.

Literally: A stone thrown in anger misses the bird.

Meaning: Things done in anger go wrong.

Literally: It is the peacemaker who gets hit on the head.

Meaning: Stepping into others' fights can cost the one who meant well.

Literally: Whoever forgives ends the quarrel.

Meaning: Forgiveness is what settles a dispute.

Literally: Money made the stew tasty.

Meaning: Good things need resources behind them.

Literally: The path never closes on a person carrying a machete.

Meaning: A resourceful person always finds a way through.

Literally: When a child falls it looks forward; when an elder falls they look back.

Meaning: The young worry about what lies ahead, the old about who saw; each age carries different concerns.

Literally: What strength does a calabash have to scoop up the ocean?

Meaning: Do not overreach beyond your means.

Literally: The vulture is not bald for fear of the razor.

Meaning: My choices are my own, not forced by fear of anyone.