CHINESE PROVERBS.

Grey River Argus, Volume XXXI, Issue 5049, 1 December 1884, Page 2

CHINESE PROVERBS.

Fthe peoples op thk world.] A few of the Chinese proverbs may show the character of the people, and their way of thinking, better than any mere descrip tion: — ' A wise man adapts himself to circumstances, as water shapes itself to the vessel that contains it ;' ' Misfortunes issue out where disease enters in — at the mouth ;' ' The error of one moment becomes the sorrow of a whole lifetime;' ' Disease may be cured but not destiny ,-' ' A vacant mind is open to all suggestions, as the hollow mountain returns all sounds ;' 'He who persues the stag'regards not hares ;' 'If the roots be left the grass will grow again' (this is the reason given for exterminating a traitor's family); ' The gem cannot be polished without friction, nor the man perfected without trials ; 'A wise man forgets old grudges ;' ' Riches come better after poverty than poverty after riches;' 'A. bird can roost but on one branch ;' ' A horse can^drink no more than its fill from the river' (Enough is as good as a feast) ; ' When the port is dry the fishes will be seen' .'When the accounts are settled the profits will appear),; ' Who swallows quick can chew but little' (applied to learning) ; ' you cannot strip two skins off one cow;' 'He who wishes to rise in the world should veil his ambition with the forms of humility ;' ' The gods cannot help a man who loses opportunities ;' ' Dig a well before you are th'rsty' (J3e prepared against contingencies) ; ' The full stomach cannot comprehend the evil of hunger ;' ' Eggs are close things but the chicks come out at last' (Murder will out) ; 'To add 'eet to a snake' (Superfluity in discourse when the subject is altered); ' Who aims at excellence will be above mediocrity; who aims at mediocrity will fall short of it;' ' To winmeatandlooseacow' (consequences of litigation) ; ' I will not try my porcelain bowl against his earthern dish' (said in contempt) ; 'He who toils with pain eats "with pleasure ;' ' Borrowed money makes time short, working for others makes it long ;' ' Those who cannot sometimes be deaf are unfit to rule ;' Early preferment makes a lazy genius;' 'Large fowls will not eat small grain' (Great mandarins are not content with little bribes) ; ' The best thing is to be respected, and the next to be loved ; it is bad to be hated, but worse still to be despised ;' 'The poor cannot contend with the rich, nor the rich with powerful ;' 'A man's words are like an arrow, straight to the mark : a woman's are like a broken fan ;' ' One lash to a good horse, one word to a wise man ;' ' Let every man sweep the snow from before his own doors, and not busy himself about the frost on his neighbors' tiles ;' though the life of a man be shoit of a hundred years, he gives himself as much pain and anxiety as if ho were to live a thousand ;' 'By nature all men are alike ; but by education widely different.'