CHINESE PROVERBS. Flashes of Celestial Wit and Wisdom

Te Aroha News, Volume II, Issue 80, 13 December 1884, Page 5

CHINESE PROVERBS. Flashes of Celestial Wit and Wisdom

A few of the Chinese proverbs may serve to show the character of the people and their way of thinking better than any mere description. " A wise man adapts himself to circumstances as water shapes itself to the vessel that contains it." "Misfortunes issue out where disease enters in— at the mouth;" "Theorror of one moment becomes the sorrow of a whole lifetime ;" " Disease may be cured but not destiny;" " A vacant mind is open to all suggestions, as the hollow mountain returns all sounds ;" "He who pursues the stag regards not hares ;" " J f the roots be left the grass will grow again" (this is the reason for exterminate a trator's family); "The gem cannot be polished without fricton, nor the man perfected without trials;' 1 "A wiseman forgets old grudges;" "Riches come better after poverty than poverty after riches ;" A bird can roost on but one branch ;" "A horse can drink no more than its full from the river " (Enough is as good as a feast) ; " Who swallows quick can chew but little" (applied to learning ; "You cannot comprehend the evil of hunger ;" "Eggs are close things, but the chicks come out at last" (murder will out); "To win a cat and loose a cow " (consequences of litagation) ; "He who toils^with pain will eat with pleasure;" "Borrowed money makes time short, working for others makes it long ;" " Those who cannot sometimes be deaf are unfit to rule ;" "Early perferment makes a lazy genius ;" "Large fowls will not eat small grain " (great manderins are not content with little bribes); "The best thing is to be respected; and the next to be loved ; it is bad to be hated, but still worse to be dispised ;" "The poor cannot contend with the rich, nor the rich with the powerful ;" " A man's words are like an arrow straight to the mark — a woman's are like a broken fan ;" "One lash to a good horse — one word to a wise man ;" " Though the lifeofaman be short of a hundred years, he gives himself as much trouble and anxiety as if he were to live a thousand i" "By nature all men are alike, but by education widely different."