Peculiar Proverbs: Weird Words of Wisdom from Around the World

by Stephen Arnott

Overview

Peculiar Proverbs is a hilarious and enlightening collection of genuine proverbs from around the world that ignores the sayings we are all familiar with and focuses on the more obscure. Some are deft, witty, and colorful, others are just plain weird, but they are all fascinating.

The proverbs are grouped in topics ranging from work (or reasons not to), family life, love, food, age, religion, money, and many more. Humor and wisdom characterize these bizarre and quirky sayings, and they reveal much about their countries of origin, and plenty about human nature.

Peculiar Proverbs includes sayings you won't find in any other collection, sometimes so surreal they defy you to decipher them, providing hours of entertainment. Remember: The man who tickles himself can laugh when he chooses.

*Dogs and rude people have no hands (Italy)

*God preserve us from pitchforks, for they make three holes (Switzerland)

*It is not necessary for priests to marry as long as peasants have wives (Germany)

*A mother-in-law, like the yucca tree, is useful underground (Cuba)

*Better the gurgling of a camel than the prayers of a fish (Egypt)

*Give a dog an appetizing name, and eat him (China)

*There are two good people: one of them is dead, and the other one was not born (Estonia)

*Mediocrity is climbing a molehill without sweating (Iceland)

*You cannot drink water, it is not vodka (Russia)

*A cow pat is wider when trodden on (Ireland)

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781429953290
Publisher:	St. Martin's Publishing Group
Publication date:	12/09/2008
Sold by:	Macmillan
Format:	eBook
Pages:	272
File size:	878 KB

About the Author

Stephen Arnott is the author of Now Wash Your Hands!, a cultural history of the toilet, Eating Your Auntie Is Wrong, a collection of the world's strangest customs, as well as Sex: A User's Guide and Man Walks into a Bar. Born in Jamaica, he lives in South London with his partner and daughter.

Stephen Arnott is the author of Now Wash Your Hands!, a cultural history of the toilet, Eating Your Auntie Is Wrong, a collection of the world’s strangest customs, as well as Sex: A User’s Guide and Man Walks into a Bar. Born in Jamaica, he lives in South London with his partner and daughter.

Read an Excerpt

  A NICE TURN OF PHRASEA mixed bag of deft, colourful and evocative sayings on a variety of subjects.Never bolt your door with a boiled carrot.IRISH


The quiet duck puts his foot on the unobservant worm.CHINESE


Only a pumpkin is a head without cares.ITALIAN


Better be the beak of a chicken than the rump of an ox.CHINESE


Poets and pigs are only appreciated after their death.ITALIAN


Worlds are mere bubbles of water, but deeds are drops of gold.TIBETAN


It is better to suffer the satiated mosquito to stay than to admit the hungry one.SERBIAN


One sprinkles the most sugar where the tart is burnt.DUTCH


You cannot prevent the birds of sadness from flying over your head, but you can prevent them from nesting in your hair.CHINESE


He sits full still that has riven trousers.SCOTTISH


Other people’s goats always have the biggest udders.LATIN


It’s a hard job to make old monkeys pull new faces.FLEMISH


Hope is the dream of waking.DANISH


Do not stab yourself because you have a golden knife.MARATHI (INDIA)


The man who spends the night in a marsh wakes a cousin to the frogs.TUNISIAN


To carry a light when the moon shines makes tigers laugh.MALAYAN


After being struck on the head by an axe, it is a positive pleasure to be beaten about the body with a wooden club.CHINESE


The shrimp that sleeps is carried away by the current.CHILEAN


It is easy to cut whangs off other folks’ leather.SCOTTISH


Don’t be after breaking your shin on a stool that isn’t there.IRISH


The beetle in its hole is a sultan.EGYPTIAN


A centipede doesn’t stop for a game leg.BURMESE


Mistakes ain’t haystacks or there’d be more fat ponies than there is.NORTH AMERICAN


With patience and saliva the ant swallows an elephant.COLOMBIAN


It is nobler to be taken by a big crocodile than to be nibbled to pieces by little fishes.MALAYAN


Fowl scratch up too much dirt, him run risk of finding him grandma’s skeleton.JAMAICAN


Many shrimps, many flavours; many men, many whims.MALAYAN


Alms once given are as phlegm which has been expectorated – not worth taking back.KUMAONI (INDIA)


A spur in the head is worth two in the heel.SCOTTISH


Nothing to bother you, eh? Then go and buy a goat.INDIAN


Sycophants scratch pimples for a livelihood.TELEGU (INDIA)


A lame cat is better than a swift horse when rats infest the palace.CHINESE


Dogs and rude people have no hands.ITALIAN


A naked man can be seen from afar, a rude one, close at hand.LATVIAN


He who does evil to a benefactor is like a dog which eats up the piece of leather on which he sleeps.INDIAN


Farming, letter writing, worship and the tightening of your horse’s girth; these things should be done by yourself, though you have a hundred thousand attendants.PUNJABI


It is a sick duck that is worried by the weasel.CHINESE


A man that pets a live catfish ain’t crowded with brains.NORTH AMERICAN


Death is a black camel that kneels at every man’s gate.TURKISH


The tongue is soft and constantly remains in; the teeth are hard and fall out.CHINESE


If you do what people tell you, you will be fishing hares in the sea and hunting fish in the woods.BULGARIAN


The dragon in shallow water becomes the butt of shrimps.CHINESE


Mind your pullets, my cocks are abroad!JERSEY


Our Lady of Pity and Mister Saint Peter gave bad cows short horns.BRETON


Although there exist many thousands of subjects for elegant conversation, there are persons who cannot meet a cripple without talking about feet.CHINESE


He that denies the cat skimmed milk must give the mouse cream.RUSSIAN


Who does not feed the dog, feeds the thief.ESTONIAN


One should not peer into the mouth of a presentation cow and look at its teeth.BURMESE


Do not examine the reindeer given by the rich man lest you find it to be without horns.FINNISH


Better a sausage in the hand, than a ham in the butchers.POLISH


A slice of ham is better than a fat pig in a dream.GERMAN


A bird in the soup is better than an eagle’s nest in the desert.CHINESEPECULIAR PROVERBS. Copyright © 2007 by Stephen Arnott. All rights reserved. For information, address St. Martin’s Press, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010.

Editorial Reviews

[T]he proverbs are . . . definitely intriguing. Some are unashamedly baffling, while others are side-splittingly hilarious. Many . . . contain a nugget of wisdom . . . depending how hard you look.” —Middleton and North Manchester Guardian

“[This] beautifully produced little book is the perfect gift for that someone that everyone knows who literally has everything.” —East Antrim Advertiser

From the Publisher