ITALIAN PROVERBS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIII, Issue 263, 5 November 1932, Page 6 (Supplement)

ITALIAN PROVERBS.

"He who serves God hath the best master in the world," is a proverb which will recall the sad saying of Cardinal Wolsey. "Speak well of your friend; of your enemy neither well nor ill," is a cautious saying, like that of the Germans—"Speech is silver;, silence is golden." "There are more asses in the world than those who have leng ears" is true enough. A quaint saying will remind one of the everyday employment of the Neapolitan lazaroni: "Three things only are done well in haste— flying from the plague, escaping quarrels, and catching fleas." A parallel to the often-quoted line: "He who fights and runs away," is found in: " J Tis better to say, here he ran away than there he was slain." A good distinction between nations is drawn in the saying, "The Italian is wise before he undertakes a thing,..the German while it is doing, and the Frenchman when it is done." The Italians have' many proverbs against women: "A woman and a cherry, they say, are painted (i.e., beautiful or pretty) to their own danger." "A woman and a glass are never out of "He who would have trouble in this life, let him either take a ship- or a wife." "Tell a woman she is wondrous fair, and she will soon turn out a fool." "Play, the company of women, and wine, make a man laugh till he dies of it." Speaking of advice, Italians say, "When the ship is sunk every man knows how she might have been saved." A wise proverb is: "Nature, time, and patience, are the three grand physicians."