Those who have not tasted the bitterest of life’s bitters, can never appreciate the sweetest of life’s sweets.
An angry fist cannot strike a smiling face.
It takes a rat to know a rat.
Extraordinary men are ordinary to God.
Man dreads fame as a pig dreads fat.
Wine can both make and mar.
You can’t get ivory out of a dog’s mouth.
He who is first is prince. He who comes after is minister only.
New-born calves don’t fear tigers.
Money makes a blind man see.
For every man that Heaven creates, Earth provides a grave.
Man is God upon a small scale. God is man upon a large scale.
A near neighbour is better than a distant relation.
Women share adversity better than prosperity.
If a man keeps his mouth shut, his words become proverbial.
You can’t wrap fire in a paper parcel.
Intimate talks leave us few friends.
Without Error, there could be no such thing as Truth.
Note.―Sir E. J. Reed, in his work on Japan, quietly includes as specimens of Japanese proverbs, etc., well-known quotations from Mencius and other Chinese authors, the truth being, of course, that all the high-class literature of Japan, its art, and its civilization, are essentially of Chinese origin.
[Since writing the above paragraph in 1883, I have met with similar instances in overwhelming number. See “The XIX Century and After,” February, 1905.]
THE END.
