Indian Proverbs

Enjoy dozens of witty and insightful Indian proverbs and idioms that have been passed down from one generation to the next for hundreds of years!

• It is useless to knock at the door of a deaf man.
• If you steal something small, you are a petty thief, but if you steal millions, you are a gentleman of society.
• Not speech, but facts, convince.
• The people make the town.
• Never give a sword to a fool or power to an unjust man.
• A young man should not marry yet; an old man, not at all.
• In baiting a mousetrap with cheese, always leave room for the mouse.
• Don’t forget to distrust.
• Pity the man who has no nails to scratch himself.
• A fox is not caught twice in the same snare.
• Think with the wise, but talk with the vulgar.
• He who wants to be happy must stay at home.
• A good bird begins chirping while in the egg.
• No need to teach an eagle to fly.
• You easily forget the eyes that don’t see you anymore.
• Give me today and you may keep tomorrow.
• Envy accomplishes nothing.
• Men’s wishes are different from what God orders.
• Even from a foe a man may learn wisdom.
• If you do not have brains, you follow the same route twice.
• Better the first of its kind than the last.
• If you are truthful, you will have as much gold as you want.
• A lazy tailor finds his thread too long.
• No one loathes the smell of himself.
• The tongue has no bones, yet it breaks bones.
• Know all and you will pardon all.
• Friendships and loves are forgotten, and when they meet, they talk like strangers, like passersby.
• The dream is realized where you do not expect it.
• If you wish to be good, first believe that you are bad.
• Old men are twice children.
• Great abilities produce great vices as well as virtues.
• Who hunts two hares will catch neither.
• When you go to bed with a clear head, you will not get up with a headache.
• The fox that waits until the chicken falls from the perch dies from hunger.
• Live today; forget the past.
• Remorse is worse than a beating.
• Listen carefully, speak seasonably.
• Whoever feeds the wolf in the winter will be eaten by him in the spring.
• Ignorance of one’s misfortunes is clear gain.
• A thousand people cannot undress a naked person.
• Time is the soul of the world.
• It is sweet for the saved man to recall labor.
• To have five drachmas in the hand is better than ten drachmas on paper.
• God loves the burglar, but he loves the householder too.
• Old age and poverty are wounds that cannot be healed.
• Keep no secrets of thyself from thyself.
• One witness, one liar; more witnesses, all liars.
• Pleasures are transient; honors are immortal.
• Men never moan over the opportunities lost to do good, only the opportunities to be bad.
• Women are as changeable as the sea.

For thousands more proverbs and words of wisdom, collected from over 40 countries, check out Proverbs from Around the World!