Arabic proverbs

Proverbs from all Arabic speaking parts of the world.

Quotes

If a falcon hunts mice he is worthless.
- Islam, A Way of Life by Philip K. Hitti

The food of the lion (causes) indigestion to the wolf.
- As quoted in Arabic Proverbs: Or, The Manners and Customs of the Modern Egyptians by John Lewis Burckhardt and William Ouseley (1830).

The remedy may be worse than the disease.
- English equivalent: The remedy is often worse than the disease; Burn not your house to rid it of the mouse.
- "Action taken to put something right is often more unpleasant or damaging than the original problem."
- Martin H. Manser (2007). The Facts on File Dictionary of Proverbs. Infobase Publishing. p. 232. ISBN 978-0-8160-6673-5.
- Atmaram Sadashiv, G. Jayakar (1900). Omani proverbs (Reimpresa ed.). Oleander Press. p. 69. ISBN 0906672120.
He with no ears gets the earrings !
- Quoted in Bardenstein (2005), p. 66^{[specific citation needed]}
When suitors came asking for her hand, she played hard-to-get, when they all left her, she regretted it.
- Quoted in Bardenstein (2005), p. 66^{[specific citation needed]}

كل ساقط له لاقط
- Translation: Every faller has a catcher.
- حسن, دين، محمد علي (2011). الامثال الشعبية. دار المحجة البيضاء للطباعة والنشر والتوزيع،.

لا يفل الحديد إلا الحديد
- Translation: Only iron strikes iron.
- English equivalent: Fight fire with fire.
- al-Kitäb. 1946.

الوقت كالسيف إن لم تقطعه قطعك
- Translation: Time is like a sword; if you don't cut it it'll cut you.
- "The problem with the future is that it keeps turning into the present"
- Bill Watterson, Calvin and Hobbes (1985)
- Manṣūr, ʻAbd al-Fattāḥ (1987). Mudhakkirāt kāìn maḥmūm.

رجع بخفي حنين
- Translation: He came back empty-handed.
- رجع بخفي حنين - الحكمة (in Arabic).

الطول طول نخلة والعقل عقل سخلة
- Translation: [He has] The length of a palm tree but the brain of a goat.
- فوزية, دريع، (2008). الرجل الحيوان. منشورات الجمل،.

إلى كثروا الرعيان ضاعت الغنم
- If the herders are a lot the sheep will get lost.
- English equivalent: Too many cooks spoiled the broth.
- "There may not be that natural connection and unity so essential to any production of merit."
- Porter, William Henry (1845). Proverbs: Arranged in Alphabetical Order .... Munroe and Company. p. 173.

انا اخبر بشمس بلديي
- I best know the sun of my own country.
- Arabic Proverbs: Or, The Manners and Customs of the Modern Egyptians

اللي مايعرف الصقر يشويه
- Translation: He who doesn't know the falcon roasts it
- Nawfal, Yūsuf Ḥasan (1981). محمد عبد الحليم عبد الله: حياته وأدبه. عمادة شؤون المكتبات، جامعة الرياض،.

لا تقول بـُر ليـن توكيــه
- Translation: Don't say its wheat until you harvest it
- English equivalent: Sell not the bear's skin before you have caught him.
- Meaning: "Do not plan too far ahead and do not be too optimistic. One cannot be sure of the success of a job until it is completed. Unforeseen unfavourable developments can never be excluded."
- Source for meaning of English equivalent: Paczolay, Gyula (1997). "X". European proverbs: in 55 languages, with equivalents in Arabic, Persian, Sanskrit, Chinese and Japanese. Veszprémi Nyomda. p. 217. ISBN 1-875943-44-7.

Riches have disclosed in thy character the bad qualities formerly hidden by thy poverty.
- Ouseley (1830). Arabic Proverbs: Or, The Manners and Customs of the Modern Egyptians. J. Murray. p. 163.

I love you so I overlook your defects. I hate you so I magnify your shortcomings.
- English equivalentː Faults are thick where love is thin.
- Furayḥah, Anīs (1953). Modern Lebanese Proverbs: Collected at Râs Al-Matn, Lebanon; Collated, Annotated and Translated to English. p. 163.