German Proverb Quotations

One does evil enough when one does nothing good

One enemy can harm you more than a hundred friends can do you good

Luck sometimes visits a fool, but it never sits down with him.

God gives, but man must open his hand

Give up the smallest part of a secret, and the rest is no longer in your power

He who blackens others does not whiten himself

He who teaches a boy teaches three: a youth, a young man, and an old man

Little folks are fond of talking about what great folks do

Those who get lost on the way to school will never find their way through life

Whoever cares to learn will always find a teacher

Whoever invented work must not have had anything to do

The eyes believe themselves; the ears believe other people

When you sweep the stairs, you start at the top

Drinking a little too much is drinking a great deal too much

Were there no fools, there would be no wise men

The wise man has long ears and a short tongue

You have to take life as it happens, but you should try to make it happen the way you want to take it

Everything in life has an end. Only sausages have two.

Experience is a long road and an expensive school

No woman marries an old man for God's sake.

Empty heads are very fond of long titles

Except for the night, we could never know the stars

To change and to change for the better are two different things.

A flatterer has water in one hand and fire in the other

In bad luck hold out; in good luck, hold in

If you put out another's candle, you also will be in the dark

If you don't light fires, smoke won't get in your eyes

No man can do nothing and no man can do everything.

Charity gives itself rich; covetousness hoards itself poor

They love the old who do not know the new

The cats that drive the mice away are as good as they that catch them

When a man is happy, he does not hear the clock strike

Go to law for a sheep and lose your cow