A theme across cultures
Time is the theme proverbs treat with the most variation. Some languages make it an enemy to outwit. Some treat it as an ally if respected. A few treat it as a friend who is never in a hurry.
The proverbs of the moment are the most familiar. Horace’s carpe diem is usually rendered “seize the day,” but the verb is pluck, and the line goes on: quam minimum credula postero, trusting tomorrow as little as possible. English and Mandarin both strike while the iron is hot, but the Mandarin verb in chèn rè dǎ tiě is chèn, to take advantage of, which turns the blacksmith into a strategist of timing. The Japanese tea-room phrase ichigo ichie — one lifetime, one meeting — treats every encounter as unrepeatable. Tagalog asks from the far side of the moment: aanhin pa ang damo kung patay na ang kabayo? — what use is the grass once the horse is dead?
Another group is about what cannot be undone. Heraclitus never quite said that you cannot step into the same river twice; what he did say — on those who step into the same rivers, other and other waters flow — is stranger. Mandarin makes the point domestic: fù shuǐ nán shōu, overturned water is hard to gather. The Basque aldi luzeak guztia ahaztu makes time itself the one who forgets: the long while forgets everything.
Several of the archive’s time proverbs are really about what time cannot change. Korean: se sal beoreut yeodeun-kkaji ganda, a habit at three lasts until eighty. Mongolian: bagyn zan yasand shingene, childhood character soaks into the bone — and the word for bone is also the word for lineage. Russian is the grimmest: gorbátogo mogíla isprávit, only the grave will straighten the hunchback. The Māori ka mua, ka muri turns the whole frame around. In te ao Māori the past lies in front, where it can be seen, and a person walks backwards into the future with their eyes on it.
세 살 버릇 여든까지 간다
se sal beoreut yeodeun-kkaji ganda
A Korean proverb says a habit at three lasts until eighty — but its word for habit also means the manners owed to elders, and its three was counted in a system that made newborns one.
Genio y figura, hasta la sepultura
genio y figura, hasta la sepultura
A Spanish proverb rhymes temperament and bearing all the way to the grave — and its own paper trail runs through Catalan dictionaries that spent decades unsure whether the word was genio or natural.
姜还是老的辣
jiāng háishì lǎo de là
Everyone else's proverb about age says the old are wiser. The Chinese one says they are hotter — and the man who first said it was refusing a bribe.
Fortune rota volvitur: descendo minoratus; alter in altum tollitur
fortunae rota volvitur: descendo minoratus; alter in altum tollitur
Four men ride a wheel: one climbing, one crowned, one falling, one in the dirt. The medieval Latin proverb about Fortune is the only version of this idea with somebody's hand on the crank.
الضِّيَافَةُ ثَلَاثَةُ أَيَّامٍ
al-ḍiyāfa thalāthatu ayyām
A guest is owed three days — and the Arabic saying that fixes the number is one of the few hospitality rules anywhere that tells you when welcome ends.
ποταμοῖσι τοῖσιν αὐτοῖσιν ἐμβαίνουσιν ἕτερα καὶ ἕτερα ὕδατα ἐπιρρεῖ
potamoisi toisin autoisin embainousin hetera kai hetera hydata epirrhei
Heraclitus never quite said the sentence the world quotes him for. What he did say is stranger — and Confucius, standing at his own river in the same century, Japanese tea masters, and a Persian ring all answer it differently.
一期一会
ichigo ichie
Why Japan tells you that every meeting happens only once — and how Horace, Heraclitus, and a Persian king circle the same vanishing moment and each reach for it differently.
Sakla samanı, gelir zamanı
sakla samanı, gelir zamanı
Why Turkish speakers tell each other to save the straw because its time will come — and how a Hebrew, an English, and a Spanish saying agree, and one of them disagrees, about provisioning against the future.
Ataovy dian-tana
ataovy dian-tana
Why Malagasy speakers tell each other to move like the chameleon — one eye forward, one eye behind — and how Maori, Russian, and Norse sayings divide the same labour of looking two ways at once.
落叶归根
luò yè guī gēn
Mandarin says falling leaves return to the roots — origin is not a place you leave, it is a place that waits. Russian utility, a Welsh mother, and the dust of Genesis each make the same observation about where things end up.
Aanhin pa ang damo kung patay na ang kabayo?
aanhin pa ang damo kung patay na ang kabayo?
Why Filipinos ask what use the grass is once the horse is dead — and how Chinese, English, and Spanish proverbs treat lateness, prevention, and the help that arrives a moment after it could have mattered.
Aldi luzeak guztia ahaztu
aldi luzeak guztia ahaztu
Why the Basque say that, given long enough, time forgets everything — and how the same slow force carves stone in Latin, refuses to un-spill water in Korean, and devours all things in Ovid.
Mol an lá um thráthnóna
mul an law um hraw-nuh-na
An Irish proverb forbids praising a day before it's over — a rule a Norse god, a Greek sage, and a Lydian king all learned, each at a different cost.
Хуучин цагаан эсгий шинэ хар эсгийгээс дээр.
khuuchin tsagaan esgii shine khar esgiigees deer
A Mongolian proverb says old white felt is better than new black felt. In a world made of felt — walls, bedding, the ger itself — this is not abstract. Japanese turtle-shell wisdom, Chinese aged ginger, and the Spanish devil make the same claim from three different worlds.
趁热打铁
chèn rè dǎ tiě
Chinese says strike the iron while it is hot — but the verb is 趁, to take advantage of, which turns the blacksmith into a strategist of timing rather than a craftsman of force.
Горбатого могила исправит
gorbátogo mogíla isprávit
Russian doesn't say people rarely change. It says only the grave will straighten the hunchback — a crooked back that no living correction can touch, fixed until the body is in the ground.
Chi va piano, va sano e va lontano
chi va piano, va sano e va lontano
Why Italian says the one who goes slowly goes healthily and goes far — and how a Roman emperor, a Russian winter road, and a Greek tortoise make the same claim from three opposite directions.
Gutta cavat lapidem, non vi sed saepe cadendo
gutta cavat lapidem, non vi sed saepe cadendo
Why Ovid, exiled by the Black Sea, said a drop hollows the stone — and how Persian, Mandarin, and Hebrew tell the same story about small repeated actions in three other temperaments.
老馬識途
lǎo mǎ shí tú
Why Mandarin says the old horse knows the road — a proverb from Han Feizi where a returning army follows its horses out of the mountains — and how Mongolian, Spanish, and Japanese say the same thing through three other figures of seasoned wisdom.
Carpe diem, quam minimum credula postero
carpe diem, quam minimum credula postero
Horace told a woman to put down her star charts and pluck the day instead. 'Carpe diem' has been a tattoo and a wine label ever since — but the verb was never 'seize,' and Latin, Japanese, and Hebrew each answer the same short day with a different hand.
Strike while the iron is hot
strike while the iron is hot
English keeps 'strike while the iron is hot' in the drawer by the front door. The first time anyone wrote it down in English, though, it was the wrong people saying it — and a wiser voice in the same tale had to talk them down.
Ахмадын сургаал алт.
akhmadyn surgaal alt
A Mongolian proverb weighs an elder's counsel as gold — in a culture where the old were the library. Spanish, Japanese, and Chinese agree that age is the deep source of knowing, each with its own face.
Багын зан ясанд шингэнэ.
bagyn zan yasand shingene
A Mongolian proverb says childhood soaks into the bone — and the word for bone is also the word for lineage. Korean, Russian, and Spanish agree that early character is permanent, each in its own register.
Ka mua, ka muri.
kah moo-ah, kah moo-ree
A Māori proverb faces the past to move forward — because in te ao Māori the past is in front of you. Akan, Confucius, and Cicero also turn to look behind, but each sees something different there.
ទឹកឡើងត្រីស៊ីស្រមោច ទឹកស្រកស្រមោចស៊ីត្រី។
tɨk laəng trəy sii srɑmaoch, tɨk srɑk srɑmaoch sii trəy
A Khmer proverb watches the flood reverse the food chain — fish over ants, then ants over fish. Chinese, Latin, and English also know that power is borrowed, but only Cambodia times it to the monsoon.
الجبل لا يلتقي بالجبل، ولكن الإنسان يلتقي بالإنسان
al-jabal lā yaltaqī bi-l-jabal, wa-lākin al-insān yaltaqī bi-l-insān
Why Arabic speakers say mountains don't meet but humans do — and how the same six-word observation, shared with Greek and Russian, carries the religious obligation of kinship rather than the consolation of return.
亀の甲より年の功
kame no kō yori toshi no kō
Why Japanese says years' merit beats turtle's shell — and how the same age-as-wisdom claim, carried by a homophone pun on kō (shell) and kō (merit), differs from the Mongolian horse, the Spanish devil, and the Mandarin ginger.
Más sabe el diablo por viejo que por diablo
más sabe el diablo por viejo que por diablo
Why Spanish says the devil knows more from being old than from being the devil — and how the same claim about age-as-wisdom carries a theological joke that Mongolian, Japanese, Mandarin and German all decline to make.
What goes around comes around
what goes around comes around
Why Americans say what goes around comes around — and how the AAVE-rooted karma-cycle figure carries the same inevitability claim as the Russian geography, the Pauline harvest, and the Mandarin moral arithmetic, but routes the claim through a wheel instead of a road.
Гора с горой не сходится, а человек с человеком сойдётся
gora s goroy ne skhoditsya, a chelovek s chelovekom soydyotsya
Why Russians say mountains don't meet but people do — and how the same proverb in Greek, Arabic, Spanish and English carries entirely different freight inside one shared observation.
Хөгшин морь зам мэднэ
khögshin mor' zam medne
Why Mongolian and Han Chinese both kept the same proverb about old horses — and how Spanish and Japanese reach the same conclusion without any horse at all.
Βουνό με βουνό δε σμίγει, μα άνθρωπος μ' άνθρωπο σμίγει
vounó me vounó de smígei, ma ánthropos m' ánthropo smígei
Why Greeks say mountains never meet but people do — and how Russian, Arabic, Mandarin, and Spanish circle the same observation about the inevitability of encounter from four very different cosmologies.
Kuj železo, dokud je žhavé
kuj železo, dokud je žhavé
Czech says strike the iron while it is hot. So do English, German, Mandarin, Latin — half the world's literate cultures agree. The smith was a choice, though. Horace chose a flower.
الكأس الأولى مرّة كالحياة، والثانية حلوة كالحبّ، والثالثة لطيفة كالموت
al-kaʾs al-ʾūlā murra ka-l-ḥayāh, wa-l-thāniya ḥulwa ka-l-ḥubb, wa-l-thālitha laṭīfa ka-l-mawt
Why Moroccan tea is served in three cups — bitter, sweet, gentle — and how Ethiopian coffee, Bedouin three-day hospitality, and the Japanese chadō answer back.
מענטש טראַכט, גאָט לאַכט
mensch tracht, gott lacht
Why Yiddish wisdom says God laughs at human planning — and how Latin, English, and Arabic each find a different tone for the same admission of limit.
Rome ne fu pas faite toute en un jour.
rome ne fu pas faite toute en un jour
Why a 12th-century French proverb about Rome traveled into nearly every European language — and how each successor culture changed the great work being measured.
覆水难收
fù shuǐ nán shōu
Why Mandarin says spilled water cannot be gathered — and how the same image, traveling east into Japanese and west into English, comes to mean very different things.
千里之行，始於足下。
qiān lǐ zhī xíng, shǐ yú zú xià
Why Laozi said the thousand-li journey begins beneath the foot — and how Japanese, English, and Persian preserved the lesson while changing the picture beneath it.
לֵךְ־אֶל־נְמָלָה עָצֵל; רְאֵה דְרָכֶיהָ וַחֲכָם.
lekh el-n'malah atzel; re'eh drakheha va-hakham
Why Hebrew wisdom literature sent the lazy man to the ant — and how Aesop, La Fontaine, and Mandarin make the same recommendation with very different feelings about the ant herself.
Haraka haraka haina baraka
haraka haraka haina baraka
Why a Swahili proverb against haste is built from a Bantu doubling and an Arabic loanword — and how the same caution surfaces in Hadith, in Confucius, and on the Russian road, each tradition naming a different reason not to hurry.
Тише едешь — дальше будешь
tishe yedesh' — dal'she budesh'
Why Russian's proverb against haste names only the road, not the reason — and how Swahili, Italian, and Japanese reach for theology, the body, and a counter-intuitive piece of navigation to argue the same case.
Act while the moment is right; opportunity will not keep.
Strike while the iron is hot
Literally: Strike the iron while it is still hot
English · England
Character and bearing last until the grave.
Genio y figura, hasta la sepultura
Literally: Temperament and figure, until the grave
Spanish · Spain (pan-Hispanic usage)
The counsel of the old is precious — weigh it like gold.
Ахмадын сургаал алт.
Akhmadyn surgaal alt
Literally: The elder's teaching is gold.
Mongolian · Mongolia
The devil knows more from age than from being the devil.
Más sabe el diablo por viejo que por diablo
Literally: The devil knows more for being old than for being a devil
Spanish · Spain (pan-Hispanic usage)
Don't praise a day until it's over.
Mol an lá um thráthnóna
Mul an law um HRAW-nuh-na
Literally: Praise the day at evening
Irish · Ireland
Every encounter happens only once — treat it as unrepeatable.
一期一会
Ichigo ichie
Literally: One lifetime, one meeting
Japanese · Japan
Given long enough, time forgets everything
Aldi luzeak guztia ahaztu
Literally: The long while forgets everything
Basque · Basque Country (Spain/France)
A great undertaking starts wherever you happen to be standing.
千里之行，始於足下。
Qiān lǐ zhī xíng, shǐ yú zú xià
Literally: A thousand-li journey begins beneath the foot.
Mandarin Chinese · China
Great works take time; do not measure the labour against an hour.
Rome ne fu pas faite toute en un jour.
Literally: Rome was not made entirely in a day.
French · France
الضِّيَافَةُ ثَلَاثَةُ أَيَّامٍ
al-ḍiyāfa thalāthatu ayyām
Literally: The hospitality [is] three days
Arabic · Arabian Peninsula
A habit formed at three lasts until eighty.
세 살 버릇 여든까지 간다
Se sal beoreut yeodeun-kkaji ganda
Literally: Three-year-old habit goes until eighty
Korean · Korea
Help that comes too late is no help at all
Aanhin pa ang damo kung patay na ang kabayo?
Literally: What will you do with the grass if the horse is already dead?
Tagalog · Philippines
Hospitality unfolds across the three cups; rushing it forfeits it.
الكأس الأولى مرّة كالحياة، والثانية حلوة كالحبّ، والثالثة لطيفة كالموت
Al-kaʾs al-ʾūlā murra ka-l-ḥayāh, wa-l-thāniya ḥulwa ka-l-ḥubb, wa-l-thālitha laṭīfa ka-l-mawt
Literally: The first cup is bitter as life, the second sweet as love, the third gentle as death.
Moroccan Arabic · Morocco
Haraka haraka haina baraka
Literally: Hurry hurry not-has blessing
Swahili · Tanzania
It's the old ginger that burns
姜还是老的辣
Jiāng háishì lǎo de là
Literally: Ginger, still it is the old one that is hot
Mandarin Chinese · China
Look at the small steady worker, and learn what wisdom looks like.
לֵךְ־אֶל־נְמָלָה עָצֵל; רְאֵה דְרָכֶיהָ וַחֲכָם.
Lekh el-n'malah atzel; re'eh drakheha va-hakham
Literally: Go to the ant, sluggard; observe her ways and be wise.
Hebrew · Israel
Mountains don't meet — but people do.
الجبل لا يلتقي بالجبل، ولكن الإنسان يلتقي بالإنسان
Al-jabal lā yaltaqī bi-l-jabal, wa-lākin al-insān yaltaqī bi-l-insān
Literally: The mountain does not meet the mountain, but the human meets the human
Arabic · Levant / Maghreb (pan-Arab usage)
Mountains don't meet — but people do.
Гора с горой не сходится, а человек с человеком сойдётся
Gora s goroy ne skhoditsya, a chelovek s chelovekom soydyotsya
Literally: Mountain with mountain does not converge, but person with person will converge
Russian · Russia
Mountains don't meet — but people do.
Βουνό με βουνό δε σμίγει, μα άνθρωπος μ' άνθρωπο σμίγει
Vounó me vounó de smígei, ma ánthropos m' ánthropo smígei
Literally: Mountain with mountain doesn't meet, but person with person meets
Greek · Greece
Move like the chameleon — one eye forward, one eye behind.
Ataovy dian-tana
Literally: Do as the chameleon's gait
Malagasy · Madagascar
No matter how far you travel, you are pulled back to where you began.
落叶归根
luò yè guī gēn
Literally: Falling leaves return to the roots.
Mandarin Chinese · China
Хөгшин морь зам мэднэ
Khögshin mor' zam medne
Literally: Old horse road knows
Mongolian · Mongolia
Only the grave will straighten the hunchback.
Горбатого могила исправит
Gorbátogo mogíla isprávit
Literally: The hunchbacked one, the grave will correct
Russian · Russia
Power is on loan from circumstance — when the tide turns, the eaten become the eaters.
ទឹកឡើងត្រីស៊ីស្រមោច ទឹកស្រកស្រមោចស៊ីត្រី។
Tɨk laəng trəy sii srɑmaoch, tɨk srɑk srɑmaoch sii trəy
Literally: Water rises, fish eat ants; water recedes, ants eat fish.
Khmer · Cambodia
Save the straw — its time will come.
Sakla samanı, gelir zamanı
Literally: Keep the straw, its time comes
Turkish · Türkiye
The seasoned one finds the way back when the young have lost it.
老馬識途
Lǎo mǎ shí tú
Literally: Old horse knows the road.
Mandarin Chinese · China
The slower you go, the farther you'll get
Тише едешь — дальше будешь
Tishe yedesh' — dal'she budesh'
Literally: Slower you-go — farther you-will-be
Russian · Russia
Spilled water is hard to take back.
覆水难收
Fù shuǐ nán shōu
Literally: Overturned water — hard to gather
Mandarin Chinese · China
趁热打铁
chèn rè dǎ tiě
Literally: Take advantage of the heat; strike the iron
Mandarin Chinese · China
Kuj železo, dokud je žhavé
Literally: Strike (the) iron, while it is hot
Czech · Czech Republic
Take the present; don't bank on a future you can't count on.
Carpe diem, quam minimum credula postero
Literally: Pluck the day, trusting the next one as little as possible
Latin · Ancient Rome
The unhurried pace is what preserves both the body and the journey.
Chi va piano, va sano e va lontano
Literally: He who goes slowly, goes healthily and goes far.
Italian · Italy
We plan; the universe finds us amusing.
מענטש טראַכט, גאָט לאַכט
Mensch tracht, Gott lacht
Literally: Man thinks, God laughs.
Yiddish · Poland
We walk backwards into the future, our eyes fixed on the past.
Ka mua, ka muri.
kah moo-ah, kah moo-ree
Literally: The front, the back.
Māori (Te Reo Māori) · Aotearoa New Zealand
What goes around comes around.
What goes around comes around
Literally: Whatever circulates outward eventually returns
English · United States (African American Vernacular English origin)
What has proven itself through time is worth more than the untested new.
Хуучин цагаан эсгий шинэ хар эсгийгээс дээр.
Khuuchin tsagaan esgii shine khar esgiigees deer
Literally: Old white felt is better than new black felt.
Mongolian · Mongolia
What is formed in the child is fixed in the adult.
Багын зан ясанд шингэнэ.
Bagyn zan yasand shingene
Literally: Childhood character soaks into the bone.
Mongolian · Mongolia
What strength cannot do, repetition can.
Gutta cavat lapidem, non vi sed saepe cadendo
Literally: A drop hollows the stone, not by force but by often falling.
Latin · Italy
The wheel of Fortune turns — I go down as another goes up
Fortune rota volvitur: descendo minoratus; alter in altum tollitur
Fortunae rota volvitur: descendo minoratus; alter in altum tollitur
Literally: Fortune's wheel is turned: I descend, diminished; another is lifted on high
Latin · Medieval Europe
The years' merit beats the turtle's shell.
亀の甲より年の功
Kame no kō yori toshi no kō
Literally: Than turtle's shell, years' merit
Japanese · Japan
You cannot step into the same river twice.
ποταμοῖσι τοῖσιν αὐτοῖσιν ἐμβαίνουσιν ἕτερα καὶ ἕτερα ὕδατα ἐπιρρεῖ
potamoisi toisin autoisin embainousin hetera kai hetera hydata epirrhei
Literally: On those who step into the same rivers, other and other waters flow.
Ancient Greek · Greece
May we use Google Analytics cookies to understand which pages people read? Optional: the site works equally well without them. Privacy details.