Chinese Proverbs and Inspirational Quotes

Chinese Proverbs and Inspirational Quotes

Who thinks an inch, but talks a yard, needs a kick in the foot.
—Chinese Proverb

Practice no vice because it’s trivial… Neglect no virtue because it’s so.
—Chinese Proverb

When you go to dig a grave for your enemy, dig two.
—Chinese Proverb
Topics: Enemies

Great doubts deep wisdom… small doubts little wisdom.
—Chinese Proverb

The tongue is like a sharp knife; it kills without drawing blood.
—Chinese Proverb
Topics: Speech

To attract good fortune, spend a new coin on an old friend, share an old pleasure with a new friend, and lift up the heart of a true friend by writing his name on the wings of a dragon.
—Chinese Proverb

Gold cannot be pure, and people cannot be perfect.
—Chinese Proverb
Topics: Perfection

Think of your own faults the first part of the night when you are awake, and of the faults of others the latter part of the night when you are asleep.
—Chinese Proverb
Topics: Thoughts, Thinking, Thought

The conquerors are kings; the defeated are bandits.
—Chinese Proverb

He who asks is a fool for five minutes, but he who does not ask remains a fool forever.
—Chinese Proverb
Topics: Fools, Questions, Proverbs

One cannot manage too many affairs: like pumpkins in the water, one pops up while you try to hold down the other.
—Chinese Proverb
Topics: Aspirations, Management, Time Management, Goals

Enjoy yourself. It’s later than you think.
—Chinese Proverb
Topics: Carpe-diem

If you always give, you will always have.
—Chinese Proverb

Flowers leave their fragrance on the hand that bestows them.
—Chinese Proverb
Topics: Proverbs, Gardening, Flowers

Don’t climb a tree to look for fish.
—Chinese Proverb

The door to virtue is heavy and hard to push.
—Chinese Proverb
Topics: Virtue

A single conversation across the table with a wise man is worth a month’s study of books.
—Chinese Proverb
Topics: Conversation, Learning, Wisdom, Sin, Book

A bit of fragrance always clings to the hand that gives you roses.
—Chinese Proverb
Topics: Kindness, Giving, Happiness, Charity, Helpfulness, Goodwill

Men in the game are blind to what men looking on see clearly.
—Chinese Proverb

There is many a good man to be found under a shabby hat.
—Chinese Proverb

It is the beautiful bird that gets caged.
—Chinese Proverb
Topics: Beauty

Talk doesn’t cook rice.
—Chinese Proverb
Topics: Action

Deal with the faults of others as gently as with your own.
—Chinese Proverb
Topics: Tolerance

Spring is sooner recognized by plants than by men.
—Chinese Proverb
Topics: Proverbs, Spring

A little impatience…
Big plans ruined.
—Chinese Proverb

Not the cry, but the flight of the wild duck, leads the flock to fly and follow.
—Chinese Proverb
Topics: Action, Leadership, Example

Climb mountains to see lowlands.
—Chinese Proverb
Topics: Growth

He who hurries can not walk with dignity.
—Chinese Proverb

Not the fastest horse can catch a word spoken in anger.
—Chinese Proverb
Topics: Anger

If you always give, you will always have.
—Chinese Proverb

If you want 1 year of prosperity, grow grain. If you want 10 years of prosperity, grow trees. If you want 100 years of prosperity, grow people.
—Chinese Proverb

The roast duck can fly no more.
—Chinese Proverb

It is easier to visit your friends than to live with them.
—Chinese Proverb
Topics: Friendship

Do not remove a fly from your friend’s forehead with a hatchet.
—Chinese Proverb
Topics: Critics, Criticism, Friendship

Man fools himself. He prays for a long life, and he fears an old age.
—Chinese Proverb

I dreamed a thousand new paths… I woke and walked my old one.
—Chinese Proverb
Topics: Dreams

Better a live beggar than a dead king.
—Chinese Proverb

You scale the mountain if you would view the plain.
—Chinese Proverb

Learning is a treasure which accompanies its owner everywhere.
—Chinese Proverb
Topics: Learning

A man without a smiling face must not open a shop.
—Chinese Proverb
Topics: Smiling, Attitude

You can’t clap with one hand.
—Chinese Proverb

Elephant tusks cannot grow out of a dog’s mouth.
—Chinese Proverb

A single kind word keeps one warm for three winters.
—Chinese Proverb

One joy shatters a hundred griefs.
—Chinese Proverb
Topics: Proverbs, Happiness

He who has seen little marvels much.
—Chinese Proverb

Words are just words and without heart they have no meaning.
—Chinese Proverb

It is always easier for one man to solve another man’s problem.
—Chinese Proverb

A bamboo tree grows six inches in the first nineteen years and twenty feet in its twentieth year. The best time to plant a bamboo tree is twenty years ago. The second best time is now.
—Chinese Proverb
Topics: Time Management

The dog in the kennel barks at his fleas; the dog that hunts does not feel them.
—Chinese Proverb

A wise man makes his own decisions, an ignorant man follows the public opinion.
—Chinese Proverb
Topics: Decisions, Thought, Wisdom, Proverbs

Get the coffin ready and the man won’t die.
—Chinese Proverb

There is but one way to be born but a hundred ways to die.
—Chinese Proverb
Topics: Death

If you always give, you will always have.
—Chinese Proverb

Win your lawsuit and lose your money.
—Chinese Proverb

Those who cause divisions, in order to injure other people; are in fact preparing pitfalls for their own ruin.
—Chinese Proverb

A truly great man never puts away the simplicity of a child.
—Chinese Proverb
Topics: Simplicity, Proverbs

If you want happiness for an hour — take a nap. If you want happiness for a day — go fishing. If you want happiness for a month — get married. If you want happiness for a year — inherit a fortune. If you want happiness for a lifetime — help someone else.
—Chinese Proverb
Topics: Feelings, Happiness, Kindness, Helpfulness

When you want to test the depths of a stream, don’t use both feet.
—Chinese Proverb

When the tiger comes down from the mountain
to the plains, it is bullied by the dogs.
—Chinese Proverb

Slander cannot destroy the man … when the flood recedes, the rock is there.
—Chinese Proverb
Topics: Insults

Teachers open the door, but you must enter by yourself.
—Chinese Proverb
Topics: Teaching

There are many paths to the top of the mountain, but the view is always the same.
—Chinese Proverb
Topics: Vision

When a finger points to the moon, the imbecile looks at the finger.
—Chinese Proverb

Water and words, easy to pour, impossible to recover.
—Chinese Proverb

If I keep a green bough in my heart, the singing bird will come.
—Chinese Proverb

If there is light in the soul, there will be beauty in the person.
If there is beauty in the person, there will be harmony in the house.
If there is harmony in the house, there will be order in the nation.
If there is order in the nation, there will be peace in the world.
—Chinese Proverb

I hear and I forget, I see and I remember, I do and I understand.
—Chinese Proverb

The best time to plant a tree was twenty years ago. But the second best time is today.
—Chinese Proverb

Keep a green tree in your heart and perhaps a singing bird will come.
—Chinese Proverb
Topics: Singing, Proverbs, Attitude

When one dog barks at a shadow, a hundred bark at the sound.
—Chinese Proverb

What you cannot avoid, welcome.
—Chinese Proverb

If you want your dinner, don’t offend the cook.
—Chinese Proverb

True love never grows old.
—Chinese Proverb

Don’t curse the darkness — light a candle.
—Chinese Proverb

Take a second look … it costs you nothing.
—Chinese Proverb
Topics: Caution

With money you can buy a house, but not a home.
—Chinese Proverb

Do not anxiously hope for what is not yet to come; do not vainly regret what is already past.
—Chinese Proverb

A gem cannot be polished without friction, nor a man perfected without trials.
—Chinese Proverb
Topics: Perfection, Difficulties, Adversity

A book is like a garden carried in a pocket.
—Chinese Proverb

The journey is the reward.
—Chinese Proverb
Topics: Success & Failure, Achievement

One does not insult the river god while crossing the river.
—Chinese Proverb

Enjoy yourself–it’s later than you think.
—Chinese Proverb
Topics: Carpe-diem

Be not afraid of growing slowly, be afraid only of standing still.
—Chinese Proverb
Topics: Progress, Proverbs, Resilience, Patience, Growth

Towers are measured by their shadows, and men of merit by those who are envious of them.
—Chinese Proverb

Only the rich have distant relatives.
—Chinese Proverb

If you must play, decide upon three things at the start: the rules of the game, the stakes, and the quitting time.
—Chinese Proverb

When you put on your clothes, remember the weaver’s labor; when you take your daily food, remember the husbandman’s work.
—Chinese Proverb

If you are patient in one moment of anger, you will escape a hundred days of sorrow.
—Chinese Proverb

When eating bamboo sprouts, remember the man who planted them.
—Chinese Proverb
Topics: Proverbs, Gratitude, Memory

A closed mind is like a closed book, just a block of wood.
—Chinese Proverb

If you know what you know and know what you don’t know-that is true wisdom.
—Chinese Proverb

Man who waits for roast duck to fly into mouth must wait very, very long time.
—Chinese Proverb
Topics: Questions

Never try to catch two frogs with one hand.
—Chinese Proverb
Topics: Goals, Aspirations

Patience is power; with time and patience the mulberry leaf becomes a silk gown.
—Chinese Proverb

The rich add riches to riches; the poor add years to years.
—Chinese Proverb

Every book must be chewed to get out its juice.
—Chinese Proverb
Topics: Book

A single conversation with a wise man is better than ten years of study.
—Chinese Proverb
Topics: Learning

The person who says it cannot be done should not interrupt the person doing it.
—Chinese Proverb
Topics: Mindsets, Positive Attitudes, Attitude, Optimism