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Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach him to fish and you feed him for life.

Traced to Anne Thackeray Ritchie, Mrs Dymond (1885)

PhilosophyProverbs

The story behind the card

Often called an ancient Chinese proverb, the saying has no known Chinese source. Its earliest known version is in Mrs Dymond (1885), a novel by Anne Isabella Thackeray Ritchie, daughter of the novelist William Makepeace Thackeray: give a man a fish and he is hungry again in an hour; teach him to catch one and you do him a good turn. “Feed him for a lifetime” appears by 1961. The idea is older: the 12th-century Jewish scholar Maimonides ranked highest the help that lets a poor person support himself.

Türkçe oku
Birine balık verirsen bir gün doyurursun. Balık tutmayı öğretirsen ömür boyu doyurursun.
Bilinen ilk kaynak: Anne Thackeray Ritchie, Mrs Dymond (1885)

Söz sık sık eski bir Çin atasözü diye anılır, ama bilinen bir Çince kaynağı yoktur. Bilinen en eski biçimi Anne Isabella Thackeray Ritchie'nin Mrs Dymond (1885) romanındadır: Birine balık verirsen bir saat sonra yine acıkır; balık tutmayı öğretirsen ona iyilik etmiş olursun. Yazar, romancı William Makepeace Thackeray'in kızıydı. “Ömür boyu doyurursun” biçimi 1961'de görülür. Fikir daha eskidir: 12. yüzyılın Yahudi bilgini İbn Meymun (Maimonides), yoksula yapılan iyiliğin en üstününün, onu kendi geçimini sağlayacak hâle getirmek olduğunu yazar. Türkçede söz “Balık verme, balık tutmayı öğret” diye de dolaşır.

Sources and further reading

Background reading: Anne Thackeray Ritchie
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