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An ant on the move does more than a dozing ox.

Mexican proverb, often credited to Lao Tzu

Philosophy

The story behind the card

Online this is often credited to Lao Tzu, the Chinese sage of the Tao Te Ching, but the book has no such line. It is a Mexican proverb, “Más hace una hormiga andando que un buey echado”, listed in the Mexican Academy of Language's proverb collection as praise for persistent work and a rebuke to idleness. Its English wording appears in Jeff M. Sellers's Folk Wisdom of Mexico (1994). In 2006 a Reader's Digest quotation book printed it as Lao Tzu's, and the mistake spread online.

Türkçe oku
Yürüyen karınca, uyuklayan öküzden çok iş görür.
Lao Tzu'ya mal edilen Meksika atasözü

Bu söz internette çoğunlukla, Tao Te Ching'in yazarı sayılan Çinli bilge Lao Tzu'ya mal edilir; oysa kitapta böyle bir cümle yoktur. Söz aslında bir Meksika atasözüdür: “Más hace una hormiga andando que un buey echado.” Meksika Dil Akademisi'nin atasözleri derlemesi onu tembelliği yeren, azmi öven bir söz diye açıklar. İngilizce biçimi Jeff M. Sellers'ın Folk Wisdom of Mexico (1994) kitabında geçer. 2006'da Reader's Digest'in bir özlü sözler kitabı onu Lao Tzu'ya mal edince yanlış atıf internete yayıldı. Türkçede de karınca çalışkanlığın simgesidir: “Karıncadan ibret al, yazdan kışı karşılar.”

Sources and further reading

Background reading: Lao Tzu
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