Q0056Even monkeys fall from trees.
Even experts make mistakes — nobody is perfect (Japanese: 'Saru mo ki kara ochiru').
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Q0056
Q0057Beginning is half the task.
The proverb exaggerates to defeat hesitation. Starting does not solve everything, but it breaks the spell of distance: once a task exists in the real world, it is no longer only a fear in the mind.
Q0058The best time to plant a tree was twenty years ago. The second best time is now.
The ideal moment to act passed long ago, but the next best moment is now — so begin today.
Q0059One generation plants the trees. Another gets the shade.
We enjoy the foresight of those before us, and should plant for those who come after.
Q0060A wise man makes his own decisions. An ignorant man follows public opinion.
A saying passed down in the Chinese proverb tradition. It draws a clean line between two ways of deciding: the wise weigh things and choose for themselves, while the unthinking simply drift with whatever the crowd believes. Independent judgement, it suggests, is the real mark of wisdom.
Q0063The tree laden with fruit always bends low.
The truly accomplished are humble — like a fruit-heavy branch, greatness bends low.
Q0064A guest sees more in an hour than the host sees in a year.
Familiarity can make people blind to their own surroundings. A guest notices the pattern, smell, habit or tension the host has stopped seeing, which is why outside eyes can be uncomfortable and useful at once.
Q0065When an elephant is in trouble, even a frog will kick him.
The proverb is a sharp observation about status. When power is intact, people flatter it; when it falters, even the timid may join the attack. It warns that fortune protects reputation less reliably than character does.
Q0067Fortune favours the bold.
Luck tends to reward those who act with courage. From the Latin 'Audentes fortuna iuvat'.
Q0068A healthy mind in a healthy body.
The Latin phrase comes from Juvenal and is usually rendered as 'a sound mind in a sound body.' Modern culture often uses it as a fitness motto, but its deeper force is balance: thought, character, rest, and bodily care belong together.
Q0069The gods help those who help themselves.
An ancient maxim: versions appear in Aesop's fables ('Hercules and the Waggoner') and in Greek tragedy, and the polished English form was spread by Algernon Sidney and then Benjamin Franklin's Poor Richard's Almanack (1736). Despite its churchy sound it is not biblical. The meaning has never changed: fortune tends to arrive where effort is already under way.
Q0071The one who climbs the highest tree sees the furthest, but also falls the hardest.
The proverb does not mock ambition; it prices it. Higher positions can bring wider vision, but also greater exposure, isolation, and consequences when judgement fails.
Q0072Do not stand in a dangerous place hoping not to be hit.
Don't court avoidable danger and trust to luck; remove yourself from harm's way.
Q0073The graveyard is full of people who thought they were indispensable.
This darkly comic proverb is a memento mori for busy people. Work, institutions and families continue after us; remembering that can soften ego, reduce martyrdom, and make rest feel less like betrayal.
Q0074No matter how far a man can urinate, the last drop will always land on his feet.
The coarse humour makes the moral memorable: actions do not travel away from us cleanly. Harm, contempt, or carelessness often returns in social, practical, or emotional form.
Q0075A thief thinks everyone steals.
We suspect in others the faults we carry ourselves; people project their own nature.
Q0105The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.
Often linked to the Tao Te Ching, the line turns a vast goal into a bodily fact: no journey is entered all at once. It begins underfoot, with the first real step rather than the perfect plan.
Q0106The wound is where the light enters you.
Our wounds and broken-open places can become the very openings through which insight and growth arrive. Associated with Rumi.
Q0107The tongue has no bones, but it can break hearts.
The proverb gives language a physical consequence. Words have no bones, but they can change trust, shame, courage, and memory; this is why careful speech is a moral practice, not just politeness.
Q0108The rose's lover must endure the thorn.
A rose is beautiful because it is alive, and living things come with difficulty. The Turkish proverb is not a call to suffer pointlessly; it says mature love sees the whole reality, not only the pleasing part.
Q0109He who has health has hope.
The proverb links health with possibility. Health does not guarantee happiness, but it gives the body and mind enough ground to imagine tomorrow, make plans, and recover from setbacks.
Q0110Fear less, hope more.
This Swedish saying is short enough to sound like a daily rule. It does not pretend fear will vanish; it asks that fear should not be allowed to make the whole climate of the mind.
Q0112Vision without action is a daydream.
Vision gives direction, but action gives it a body. The proverb is useful because it refuses both extremes: activity without aim scatters energy, while vision without action stays safely imaginary.
Q0113Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach him to fish and you feed him for life.
Almost always called an ancient Chinese proverb — but its earliest known form is English, from Anne Ritchie's 1885 novel 'Mrs Dymond'. The idea is timeless anyway: relief feeds someone once, but a skill feeds them for life. Real help builds independence rather than dependence.