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Talk:German proverbs

I added a section up the top explaining a way of referring to proverbs in German, as I found this a useful way of bringing such proverbs into an argument/essay/discussion. The formatting is a bit clumsy, however I tried to make it consistent with the rest. Also, the introductory statement is a bit obtuse - I was lacking inspiration, but someone else might have an inspired way to a choice, has a problem."

"problem" is IMO not a stupid translation. I can't find an exact translation but if I translate "problem" back to german "Problem" I don't find it fitting. "Qual" could maybe translate to "great pain", but it is not restricted to physical pain which could sound strange, but to intellectual pain. Also note that instead of "a", "the" should be used. --Florian Pesth

I deleted the two englisch proverbs (English Proverb: "Heavy is the head that wears the crown" or "With great power comes great responsibility.") cause their meaning differs clearly from the german one. I don't know a more fitting english proverb though. But better no translation than a wrong one I guess. (Explanation: The original is about the difficulties of choosing sth. and has nothing to do with responsibility or power or influence whatsoever)

My dictionary translates "qual" with "dolor" for am. engl. "dolour" for brit. engl. so, going by this I would translate the proverb as follows: "Who has the choice, has the dolor." I don't know if dolor is a commonly used word in english but this is the closest translation for the word that I can think of. Kiddycat

 * "dolor" is definitely not a commonly used English word. It's rather archaic sounding and most people wouldn't even know what it means. Possible close matches would be something like "torture", "torment", "anguish", or "agony". But I almost think the best, certainly the most idiomatic, would be "worry":  "He who has a choice has a worry". Though "He who has a choice has a torment" is not too bad. Another similar English proverb is "With great power comes great responsibility."
 * Bhugh 07:22, 22 December 2005 (UTC)

 * Spoilt for choice

"Qual" is literally "torment". There's no exact equivalent I know of in English. It's similar to "spoilt for choice", referring to the difficulty one sometimes has choosing between two or more options. Dean

Wer zuerst kommt, mahlt zuerst
used to be: Meaning: "First come, first served."
 * Wer zuerst kommt, mahlt zuerst.
 * Translation: "Who comes first grinds first."

I changed it to

 * Translation: "Who comes first eats first."

since "mahlt" is 3rd person singular from "mahlen" which is an old word for "eating". It comes from the word "Mahl" which can be translated as dinner.

I'm not familiar with wikigroups or anything similar and I didn't bother to read the rules which I now, thinking about it, regret. I don't know if it was ok that I just changed it, but at least here is an explanation why I did it. If I wasn't supposed to change anything then please change it back.

Kiddycat

 * "Who comes first eats first." makes much more sense in English than the previous version. About rules: Good wiki's and good societies, often make their rules very gradually, slowly, and carefully. I think that the best people remain very reserved in making or asserting any rules. About the only rules that I think universally apply to any good activity anywhere is: Be honest and fair, and try to be as helpful as you can while being so. We certainly welcome anyone who can perform translations in different languages. Though this is the English Wikiquote, and a primary aim is collecting English versions of famous statements, having the orignal statements that have been made in other languages, as well as good translations into English, is one of the goals that have been established here. Thank you for your contribution. ~ Kalki 12:42, 5 Jun 2004 (UTC)

As an English speaker, "first come, first served" is certainly the accepted equivalent proverb in my context. To me, "who comes first eats first" makes little metaphorical sense. Perhaps they should both be up there?
 * Ouch! "mahlen is an old word for eating" ouch ouch ouch. This is totally wrong. It has nothing to do with eating. Here is the story: in the old days the farmers carried their corn to the mill. And the Miller served the farmer fist wo came at first in the morning. Thats all. Its like "first in - first out" in logistics. 84.63.56.251 20:23, 24 March 2006 (UTC)

Deutsche Sprache, schwere Sprache.
Deutsche Sprache, schwere Sprache. Literally, "German language, hard language."

Really? Is that what Germans think of their own language? Really? Hard as is hard to learn, or hard as in hard on the ears?

Certainly that gothic typeface (Fraktur?), which looked as it one's pen was leaking, was very hard to read. Fortunately, Germany changed over to something more readable in WW2.

Deutsche Sprache, so schwere, makes you swear. (combined Deutsch und English).

User:syd1435 03:30, 21 Sep 2004 (UTC)

 * Hard as is hard to learn. We germans know that german is a difficult language.

My language is dutch and yes there are some difficult things in german but so there are in dutch and english. But that's part of the fun in learning other languages.

The only Germans I ever met who used this saying seriously, i.e. implying that they were smarter because they did not make grammar mistakes in German, were either some old folks (Bauern) who never learned any foreign languages or supreme idiots who didn't realize the limits of their own abilities in foreign languages. Perhaps the German who wrote, "We germans know that german is a difficult language" is one of the latter group. A German attempting to claim in incorrect English that German is "hard" is like the pot calling the kettle black.

When I do use this proverb "Deutsche Sprache ..." it is more to annoy other Germans who made an obvious mistake. It's usually not ment to be arrogant or self-righteous. --80.129.152.10 21:53, 1 October 2005 (UTC)

 * Yes. That's exactly it. It's commonly used to either excuse one's own mistakes or as a comment on a grammar mistake of someone else. Because it's true: It is a difficult language. There is a bestselling book ("Der Dativ ist dem Genitiv sein Tod") that deals with common mistakes...

Ich glaube Deutsch ist eine schoene Sprache und ist nicht sehr schwer zu lernen. aber die deutsce Prepositionen sind schwer. z.b. mit, nach, von, zu, an usw. sind immer dativ oder fuer, durch usw. sind immer Akkusativ und einige sind Dativ oder Akkusativ. :(

I also know only the use in the context of a grammatical mistake made by oneself or by others. I would not be suprised if other languages had equivalents. I could imagine that the perception of German as "hard" is because of a historical strong diversification by dialects and a comparatively late establishment of a specific language code, there are still many speakers today who prefer regional dialects with considerably deviant grammar. One might call it an adage rather than a proverb, and it is mostly used highly ironically. By the way "hard on the ears" would be expressed as "harte Sprache", not "schwer" which means only "hard" as in difficult, cannot mean "harsh sound" or "hard object".

I know this thread is nine years old, but as a German I have to point out that in "Deutsche Sprache, so schwere, makes you swear." 'schwer' is used as an adverb and should be 'schwer' and not 'schwere'. 87.189.141.190 22:45, 18 August 2013 (UTC)

Personally, I've never heard this proverb being said to a foreigner. NEVER. This proverb is used among Germans to actually point out and make fun of another native speaker who did use incorrect grammar. So please, do not feel insulted as German-students, nor do we want to say that German is the most difficult language to learn. The hardest thing about German are most likely the very randomly picked articles, as everything else somehow has not only a pretty constant rule, but also similarities in other languages. BUT and here comes the difference: unlike Italian, Spanish, French or other male/female-article languages, there are NO indications in German words as to which article has to be used, therefore even with the right grammatical rule used on the wrong article, native speakers will notice you as being a foreigner even after decades living in Germany or Austria. Sorry folks, German might be as hard to learn as any other language, but it definitely is harder to MASTER. – random girl from Austria (hopefully without English grammar mistakes or incorrect spelling)

Alles in Ordnung.
Using the Dutch proverb page as a template, the German proverb pages has been ordered in Alphabetic Order. This makes it much easier to find things, and looks under control at last.

"Everything's in order." This is the loose meaning auf English.

Ashley W., German student for too many years in U.S.A.

User:syd1435 03:37, 21 Sep 2004 (UTC)

Wer zuerst kommt, mahlt zuerst.
German proverb: Wer zuerst kommt, mahlt zuerst.

English: First come, first gains. (Ie. first gains an advantage).

English: First come, first grains. (Ie. first has grain/grains to eat).

Note: (Grain is "bulk" noun as well as singular noun.)

Question: is it a conicidence that in English, grain and gain are very similar words?

Question: What are the equivalent words in other languages? German, Dutch, Italian, etc.

 * First comes, first gains.
 * First comes, first grains.
 * First comes, first attains.
 * First comes, first serves,
 * First comes, first deserves?

User:syd1435 03:42, 21 Sep 2004 (UTC) mahlen=to grind: wer zuerst kommt, is the first to get it's grain grinded

The early bird catches the worm. -- this is the best translation of it. Zweifel (talk) 23:11, 19 September 2013 (UTC)

Wer die Wahl hat, hat die Qual. - He who has a choice, has the doldrums.
Kiddycat said 'My dictionary translates "qual" with "dolor" for am. engl. "dolour" for brit. engl. so, going by this I would translate the proverb as follows: "Who has the choice, has the dolor." I don't know if dolor is a commonly used word in english but this is the closest translation for the word that I can think of.'

As a native born English speaker, "Dolor" is a new word to me. It does not appear in my smallish dictionary. Looking at this dictionary, similar words which may or may not be related, include "Doll" and "Doldrums".

Dolls and Doldrums are both lifeless, and go no where on their own, a bit like someone with a lot of choices but unable to make up their minds - they may have to be taken, before they get anywhere. This lifelessness does partly fit the meaning Kittycat is after.

Perhaps you should have two versions:

He who has a choice, has the doldrums (like a sailing ship with no wind). He who has a choice, can get dumbfounded like a doll.

The meaning of this proverb is: He who can make a choice, can have aches to come to a decision (Qual = agony, pain, aches)

What might kiddycat native language be?

User:syd1435 04:04, 21 Sep 2004 (UTC)

Wer die Wahl hat, hat die Qual. (I updated the headline to include the German version again) [The bigger the choice, the harder it is to choose. Or, literally transl.: Whoever has (the) choice has (the) torment.] Taken from: http://www.dict.cc/deutsch-englisch/Qual.html - random girl from Austria

••• Germanophile American I've seen a shorter form of the phrase a lot: die Qual der Wahl > The agony of choice. Also: He was in an agony of indecision; he made an anguished choice. - If it's: Du hast die Qual der Wahl, then you might even say: You have the burden of choice; You're stuck with having to choose. My point here is that you don't have to translate Qual closely, since part of the reason it's used in the phrase is that it rhymes with Wahl. Many idioms (or soundbites) in many languages go for rhyme or assonance, probably to enhance mnemonic value: no rhyme or reason; done deal; too pooped to pop; neither fish nor fowl; true blue etc. - I definitely don't think doldrums is right for Qual, since it has more to do with depression, lethargy, etc. A sense translation, rather than a close dictionary translation is often better, i.e. truer to the spirit of the original.

 * Anglo, Germano, Spano, Francophile here. When I first heard of this proverb, a lazy but effective rhyme immediately came to mind: "Who has the decision, has the affliction." Variations of this may sound punchier: "Whoever has the decision, has also the affliction." Shout out to any other Romance language speaker, you can replicate this translation into most of your native tongues: "Quien tiene la decision, tiene la afliccion," "Celui qui a la decision, a aussi l'affliction," etc, etc. (Pardon the missing accents, this damned anglo-keyboard you know.)

AND, for those insufferably persnickety ears that can't allow for the possibility of a decision being HAD (instead of taken or made), here's your version: "Whoever takes the decision, takes also the affliction." Yes: taking afflictions. Cuz both parts of the sentence must take the same verb. —This unsigned comment is by 88.26.213.77 (talk • contribs) 16.43, 20 August 2019 (UTC).

Besser ein Spatz in der Hand, als die Taube auf dem Dach.
I've moved Proverb: Ein Spatz in der Hand to Proverb: A bird in the hand because it makes more sense as an en:Wikiquote article title. A redirect remains from the German version. I've also changed the references here and in Finnish proverbs. — Jeff Q (talk) 08:03, 23 Apr 2005 (UTC)
 * The complete proverb is: "Besser ein Spatz in der Hand als eine Taube auf dem Dach"->translation: better a little bird in the hand than a big bird at the roof"-> it is better to have something little but safe than something big but very unsafe

Besser den Spatz in der Hand als die Taube auf dem Dach.

Der Spatz in der Hand ist besser als die Taube auf dem Dach.

A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.

from: http://www.dict.cc/deutsch-englisch/Spatz.html

- random girl from Austria

Wer nicht will, der hat schon

 * Wer nicht will, hat schon.
 * Literal translation: Who don't want, has already.

I revised this entry by removing a recently added English "Ihave said over a million times im germanè I love Kyle!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Correctly: "Wer nicht will, der hat schon." Literal translation: "Who does not want it, has it (or enough) already." English proverb that is most similar: "Take it or leave it."

What about ...
(meaning: approx. "it's really enough, now".) "Enough is enough." "That's the last straw!" from: http://www.dict.cc/?s=Jetzt+schl%C3%A4gt%27s+dreizehn (similar meaning)
 * Jetzt schlägt's aber 13.
 * "Eben ist aber Tag im Topf." hessian: "Ebe is aber Daach im Dibbe"

Besser ein Ende mit Schmerzen als Schmerzen ohne Ende
This translation is IMHO more comprehensive: "Rather a painful ending than endless pain."

 * Agreed. The translation in the article now is literal and technically correct but could be phrased better in English. Also, the proverb "Lieber ein Ende mit Schrecken als ein Schrecken ohne Ende" is usually encountered translated as "Better a horrible end than horror without end." 209.107.127.43 03:50, 8 April 2006 (UTC)

 * No, Rather an End with Pain than Pain without End. Precedingly unsigned comment by 115.70.108.19 14:16, 30 October 2012 (UTC)

another proverb
Zum Gott hinken die Leute, aber zum Teufel laufen sie.

People limp to God but run to the devil.

OR: "Das ist das gleiche in grün" --> That's the same (thing) in green

 * Anyone else familiar with this one:

My Opa used it often, mostly in contempt for those (esp. weathermen) who attempted to predict the future:

Die alte Propheten sind alle tot und die junge wissen nichts.

Translation: The old prophets are all dead and the young ones know nothing.

Equivalent: God only knows.

"

Auf jeden Regen folgt auch Sonnenschein
Being kinky and placing the omnious translation right above everyone else's opinions: "This too shall pass." - random girl from Austria

The equivalent "every cloud has a silver lining" is not correct. These two proverbs are actually very different. The German proverb says that after a sad/pessimistic/negative/bad situation, THERE WILL BE a happy/optimistic/positive/good situation. It basically says that there are ups and downs, or, more precisely, downs and ups. One incident occurs after the other. The English "equivalent" (every cloud has a silver lining), which is widely used in the U.S., says that a bad situation/occurrence can also AT THE SAME TIME bring with it a good occurrence (the silver lining). Something which is perceived as bad (cloud) can be SIMULTANEOUSLY good (the silver lining). I think it goes without saying that these meanings are very different.

 * This, unfortunately, points out a serious that these proverb articles have: nothing in them is sourced, so people feel free to add anything they wish, without getting outside reliable sources for the texts, the translations, or the (sometimes incredibly long) explanatory comments. If we had more folks working to clean up Wikiquote, these proverbs articles would deserve a severe paring and cleanup effort.

 * The Wikimedia Foundation's basic philosophy about accuracy is that we editors cannot include our own statements about what is correct or incorrect in the article, because the community has no way to know who any editor is (and therefore why we should believe one person's statement over another's). The way we are supposed to avoid the problem is to cite evidence provided by responsible published sources.

 * I wouldn't be at all surprised if you're correct on this point, but rather than argue about it here, we should have a citation of a publication that provides both the original and its translation, so we don't need to argue it. You would help Wikiquote tremendously if you could cite such a publication, for this and any other proverbs (or any quotes, for that matter) that you find. Thank you for listening, and for calling attention to this problem. ~ Jeff Q (talk) 06:17, 30 August 2006 (UTC)

Angst verleiht Flügel
I corrected the meaning. Before: "Fear spreads quickly". This is not what the proverb is about. It means, that fear will empower you to do things you wouldn't or couldn't normally do.

-- also, "fear lends wings"

Vertrauen ist gut, Kontrolle ist besser
I'm not sure that the stated provenance from Lenin is correct. I've always understood that it was Stalin who coined this one. Moreover, for either of those two, this quote doesn't properly belong here, since it is not an original German proverb. Stalin didn't speak German anyway and whilst Lenin did, it was not his mother tongue, so in my view the quote should go to Russian proverbs, if it is a proverb at all and not an attribuatble aforism, which is something entirely different. --Recoloniser 18:50, 20 December 2007 (UTC)

Corrected from "Vertrauen ist gut, kontrolle noch besser." Might not be originating in German, but it is used quite often. "Trust, but verify. [Ronald Reagan]" from: http://www.dict.cc/?s=Vertrauen+ist+gut+Kontrolle+ist+besser+%5Bfrei+nach+W+I+Lenin%5D - random girl from Austria

De oama in de jeetzya tollt tue mole
This is not Standard German. Im German and i don't know this proverb. I think its a strange dialect, could anyone please proove it? I would do it myself but i think my English is too bad.

The poor one (oama) and the greedy one (jeetzya) ...  mole is either draw or grind. not sure about the rest, but the first words are in Plautdietsch, Mennonite Low German.

Jeetzya could also be translated as stingy. tollt tue mole translated literally is pays two times. This is indeed Plautdietsch/Low German.

Der frühe Vogel fängt den Wurm

 * Translation: The early bird catches the worm
 * Meaning: Who get up early get's things done
 * Similar equivalent: ?

10:55, 28 July 2009 (UTC)

Besser eigenes Brot als fremder Braten
-> it might also mean "Better your own bread than someone else's roast" rather than "...a strange roast", making it quite similar to the "a bird in the hand"-proverb... ..just thought i'd mention it.. its more like "do it your self is always better than begging other" /parents often say it to their children

Unsourced proverbs
NOTE: Sources must be provided for these before moving back to the main page.

A

 * Adel verpflichtet.
 * Translation: Aristocracy obligates
 * Translation: Noblesse oblige

 * Alle Sünden in eine münden.
 * Translation: All sins flow into one
 * Aller guten Dinge sind drei.
 * Translation: All good things are three.
 * Meaning: Good things come in numbers of three
 * Meaning: [Said on third attempt, strike, or similar third-ness. It does not usually invoke luck.]
 * Equivalent: Third time is a charm.
 * Equivalent: Third time lucky.

 * Alles Gute kommt von oben.
 * Translation: All good come from above.
 * Meaning: God gives us all good things, e.g. rain.
 * Or sometimes ironical, when something falls on someone's head.

 * Alles hat ein Ende, nur die Wurst hat zwei.
 * Translation: Everything has an end, only sausage has two.
 * Meaning: Everything must come to an end.

 * Alles neu macht der Mai.
 * Translation: May makes everything new.
 * Meaning: In spring everything starts anew.

 * Alte Liebe rostet nicht.
 * Translation: Old love does not rust.
 * Equivalent: Old flames never die.

 * Alter schützt vor Torheit nicht.
 * Translation: Age does not protect from foolishness.
 * Equivalent: No fool like an old fool.

 * Altes Brot ist nicht hart, kein Brot, das ist hart.
 * Translation: Old bread isn't hard, no bread, that is hard.
 * Meaning: It is better to have some food than no food.

 * Angst verleiht Flügel.
 * Translation: Fear lends wings.
 * Meaning: Fear will make you do things you would deem impossible in a different situation.

 * Arbeit adelt.
 * Translation: Work ennobles.

 * Arbeit zieht Arbeit nach sich.
 * Translation: Work involves work.

 * Auf alten Pfannen lernt man kochen.
 * Translation: On old pots you learn cooking.
 * Meaning: Older women can teach you a lot in bed.
 * Similar equivalent: Women are like wine; the older the better.

 * Auf alten Pferden lernt man reiten.
 * Translation: On old horses you learn how to ride.
 * Meaning: see the one with the pots above.

 * Auf jeden Regen folgt auch Sonnenschein.
 * Translation: There is sunshine after every rainfall.
 * Similar: Every cloud has a silver lining.
 * Similar equivalent: April showers bring May flowers.

 * Aus einer Mücke einen Elefanten machen.
 * Translation: To make an elephant out of a mosquito.
 * Equivalent: To make a mountain out of a molehill.
 * Meaning: To blow things out of proportion

B

 * Bäume wachsen nicht in den Himmel.
 * Translation: Trees do not grow into the sky.
 * Meaning: There are natural limits to things
 * Meaning: Grandiose [career] plans may not realize [completely]

 * Bescheidenheit ist die höchste Form der Arroganz.
 * Translation: Modesty is the highest form of arrogance.

 * Bescheidenheit ist eine Zier, doch weiter kommt man ohne ihr.
 * Translation: Modesty is an adornment, but you come further without it.
 * Translation: Modesty may be a grace; forget it if you want to win the race.
 * Meaning: Adornment is tought to the people but the succesful ones don't care. (The rhyme is achieved by false German grammar. This symbolises, that people, who don't care too much about rules will succeed).

 * Besser eigenes Brot als fremder Braten.
 * Translation: Better your own bread than another's roast.
 * Meaning: What's yours, is yours.

 * Besser einäugig als blind.
 * Translation: Better one-eyed than blind.
 * Equivalent: Better something than nothing.

 * Betrug ist der Krämer Acker und Pflug.
 * Translation: Fraud is a shopkeepers field and plow.
 * Meaning: Shopkeepers deal in fraud.
 * Equivalent: Buyer Beware.

 * Betrunkene und Kinder sagen die Wahrheit.
 * Translation: The drunk and children tell the truth.

D

 * Dankbarkeit und Weizen gedeihen nur auf gutem Boden.
 * Translation: Gratitude and wheat prosper only on good soil.

 * Das Ei will klüger sein als die Henne.
 * Translation: The egg wants to be smarter than the hen.

 * Das Rad, das am lautesten quietscht, bekommt das meiste Fett.
 * Translation: The wheel that squeaks loudest gets most of the fat.
 * Equivalent: The squeaky wheel gets the grease.

 * Das sitzt wie angegossen.
 * Translation: It fits like cast-on.
 * Meaning: Something—clothes normally—fits very well, as if specially made just for that person.
 * English equivalent: It fits like a glove.

 * Das passt wie Arsch auf Eimer. (not a traditional proverb—slang)
 * Translation: It fits like an ass on a bucket.
 * Meaning: like the one above, but in a more vulgarly way and actually not meant in case of clothes rather than in situations

 * Demut, diese schöne Tugend, ehrt das Alter und die Jugend.
 * Translation: Humility, this beautiful virtue, honors the age and the youth.

 * Den Bock zum Gärtner machen.
 * Lit. translation: Turn a billy-goat into a gardener.
 * Meaning: To disregard a trustee's harmful conflict of interests.
 * English equivalent: Setting a fox to guard the henhouse.
 * English equivalent: To trust the cat to keep the cream.

 * Den Ast absägen, auf dem man sitzt.
 * Lit. translation: To saw off the branch (bough) you're sitting on.
 * Meaning: To foolishly undermine one's own position of power or revenue stream
 * Equivalent: To shoot oneself in the foot.
 * Similar: To bite the hand that feeds you.

 * Den Letzten beißen die Hunde.
 * Lit. translation: The last one is bitten by the dogs.
 * English equivalent: The devil takes the hindmost.

 * Der Teufel scheißt immer auf den größten Haufen.
 * Lit. translation: The devil always shits on the biggest pile.
 * Meaning: Where money already is, more money goes.

 * Der Teufel steckt im Detail.
 * Translation: The devil hides himself in details
 * English equivalent: The devil's in the details.

 * Der Apfel fällt nicht weit vom Stamm.
 * Translation: The apple doesn't fall far from the tree.
 * Meaning: Like father, like son.

 * Der Appetit kommt beim Essen
 * Lit.: The appetite comes at the eating
 * Meaning.: Just do it. You will find out that it's fun while doing it.

 * Der dümmste Bauer erntet die dicksten Kartoffeln.
 * Translation: The dumbest farmer harvests the biggest potatoes.
 * Meaning: Dumb luck.

 * Der erste Eindruck zählt.
 * Translation: The first impressions counts.
 * Equivalent: First impression is the last impression

 * Der Knochen kommt nicht zum Hund, sondern der Hund zum Knochen.
 * Translation: The bone doesn't come to the dog, but the dog goes to the bone.
 * Meaning: You must pursue your dreams, they won't come to you.

 * Der Lauscher an der Wand hört nur die eigene Schand'.
 * Translation: The eavesdropper at the wall hears only his own dishonor.

 * Der Mensch denkt, Gott lenkt.
 * Translation: Humans think, God directs.
 * English equivalent: Man proposes, God disposes.
 * Variation/Extension: Der Mensch dachte, Gott lachte.
 * Lit. Translation: Humans thought, God laughed
 * The variation puts the 1st part of the proverb grammatically into the past.

 * Der Weg ist das Ziel
 * Lit.: The path is the destination / The destination is not important, but the path that leads there.
 * Meaning: Enjoy the present without always dreaming of a better future.

 * Deutsche Sprache, schwere Sprache.
 * Literally, German language, difficult language.
 * 1st Meaning: German language is hard to learn
 * Used when someone (usually German himself) has just made an embarrassing German grammar mistake.
 * General saying about the language.

 * Die Tat wirkt mächtiger als das Wort.
 * Translation: The action has a mightier impact than the word.
 * Similar: Actions speak louder than words.

 * Die dümmsten Bauern ernten die dicksten Kartoffeln.
 * Literally, The most stupid farmers harvest the biggest potatoes
 * Meaning: Dumb people are often very lucky.
 * Equivalent: The sun shines on a dog's tail sometimes. from Sam Sneed, golfer

 * Die Katze im Sack kaufen.
 * Translation: To buy a cat in a bag.
 * Meaning: To pay for something you haven´t seen or you know nothing about.
 * English equivalent: To buy a pig in a poke.

 * (Zusammen oder mit XY) Durch Dick und Dünn gehen.
 * Translation: To go through thick an thin (together or with XY).
 * Meaning: To stay together no matter what.
 * Equivalent: They travelled through thick and thin.

 * Das letzte Hemd hat keine Taschen.
 * Translation: The last shirt has no pockets.
 * Meaning: Piling up money won't serve you anything once you're dead.
 * Equivalent: Money isn't everything.
 * Equivalent: You can't take it with you.

 * Der Blinde erklärt dem Einäugigen die Farben.
 * Translation: The blind man explains the colors to the one-eyed man.
 * Meaning: Somebody tries to explain something he knows nothing about.
 * Similar equivalent: Blind leading the blind.

 * Unter den Blinden ist der Einäugige der König.
 * Translation: Among the blind, the one-eyed man is king.
 * Equivalent: In the land of the blind, the one-eyed is king.
 * Meaning: Someone with limited means can only be considered superior by people with even more limited means.

 * Dumm fickt gut.
 * Translation: Simpleminded fucks well.
 * Meaning: self-explanatory
 * Equivalent: Blonds have more fun

E

 * Einbildung ist auch eine Bildung.
 * Translation: Vanity is also an education.
 * Explanation: It's a pun: Bildung - > education; einBILDUNG -> Vanity So "Einbildung" is also some kind of "Bildung".
 * Ein blindes Huhn findet auch mal ein Korn.
 * Literally: A blind chicken finds a grain once in a while.
 * Equivalent: Even a broken clock is right twice a day.
 * Einem geschenkten Gaul schaut man nicht ins Maul.
 * Translation: Don't look a gift horse in the mouth.
 * Meaning: Do not look for faults when something has been received as a gift.

 * Eine Hand wäscht die andere.
 * Literally: One hand washes the other.
 * Equivalent: You scratch my back and I'll scratch yours.

 * Einmal ist keinmal.
 * Literally: Once is never.
 * Meaning: Used often as an excuse for trying something again after the first try or to make somebody prove him/herself again.
 * Meaning 2: A first time offence should be forgiven.
 * Meaning 3: "It's OK to try anything once." - As a rationalization or an excuse for doing something one perhaps shouldn't, one time.
 * Meaning 4: Something that happened once might as well never happened at all.
 * Note: Sometimes extended to Einmal ist keinmal, aber zweimal ist dreimal
 * Translation: Once is never, but twice is thrice. It all rhymes in German, as you can see
 * Note: Sometimes extended to Einmal ist keinmal, aber zweimal ist einmal zuviel.
 * Translation: Once is never, but twice is once too often
 * Meaning: A first time offence should be forgiven, but a second one will have consequences.

 * Ein Tropfen auf den heißen Stein.
 * Literally: A drop on a hot stone.
 * Meaning: Not enough to make a difference.
 * English Equivalent: A drop in the sea.
 * English equivalent: A drop in the bucket.

 * Ende gut, alles gut.
 * All's well that ends well.

 * Erst kommt das Fressen, dann kommt die Moral (Dreigroschenoper)
 * Translation: First comes chow, then morals.
 * Meaning: A hungry man cannot afford a conscience.
 * Meaning: Higher ethics are not of much use to people whose basic needs are not met.
 * those were the original meanings from the Threepenny's Opera, however the saying got a life of its own and now in the semiliterate public means also and primarily: Morals can wait until pockets are full.
 * Similar: It's a dog-eat-dog world.

 * Es ist noch kein Meister vom Himmel gefallen.
 * Literally: A master has never yet fallen from the sky.
 * Meaning: No one is an expert rightaway without any practice.
 * Similar: Practice makes perfect.

 * Es schüttet wie aus Eimern. (Es schüttet wie aus Kübeln)
 * Literally: It's pouring as if out of buckets.
 * Meaning: Describes heavy rain.
 * Equivalent: It's bucketing it down. (Colloquial English)
 * Equivalent: It's raining cats and dogs.

 * Es wird nichts so heiß gegessen, wie es gekocht wird.
 * Literally: Nothing is eaten as hot as it is cooked.
 * Meaning: Maximum theoretical damage (like from laws, statues, future problem) is not standard in practice, you usually get cut some slack.

 * Et kütt wie et kütt. (Es kommt wie es kommt.)
 * Literally: It comes as it comes.
 * Spanish equivalent: que será, será.
 * English equivalent: What will be, will be.

 * Et hät noch immer joot jejange. (Es ist noch jedesmal gut gegangen.)
 * Translation: It went well everytime.
 * Meaning: Do not fear the future.

F

 * Freunde in der Not, gehen 1000 auf ein Lot.
 * Translation: In time of need, 1000 friends shrink to a lot (16.5 grams).
 * Meaning: In bad times you have very few friends.
 * Equivalent: A friend in need is a friend indeed.
 * Equivalent: Remember man and keep in mind: A faithful friend is hard to find.

G

 * Gleich und gleich gesellt sich gern.
 * Translation: Like and like love to join.
 * Birds of a feather flock together.

 * Gehoppst wie gesprungen. OR Gehuppt wie geduppt. OR Gehupft wie gesprungen.
 * Translation: Hopped just as jumped.
 * Meaning: Two solutions are basically equivalent.
 * English equivalent: Six of one, half a dozen of the other.

 * Geschenkt ist geschenkt - wiedergenommen in die Hölle gekommen OR Geschenkt ist geschenkt - wiederholen ist gestohlen
 * Lit.: A present is a present - you'll go to hell if you are taking it back.
 * Meaning: Gifts are final. (Ironically, they are not always under German law.)

 * "Geschmacksache," sagt der Affe und beißt in die Seife.
 * Lit.: "A matter of taste" says the monkey and bites into soap.
 * Meaning: Personal tastes differ.

 * Gut Ding will Weile haben
 * Lit.: A good thing demands to take a while.
 * Meaning: It takes time to achieve good quality.
 * English equivalent: Rome wasn't built in a day.

 * Guter Rat kommt nie zu Spät
 * Meaning: Good advice never comes too late.

H

 * Hans Dampf in allen Gassen
 * Equivalent: jack-of-all-trades

 * Hast du Geld, muss du nicht beugen.
 * Literal Translation: If you have money, you need not bend.
 * Correct meaning: If you are rich, you need not bow.

I

 * Ich verstehe nur Bahnhof
 * Translation: I only understand Trainstation
 * English equivalent: It's all Greek to me.

 * Iss, was gar ist, trink, was klar ist, und sprich, was wahr ist. (obsolescent)
 * Translation: Eat what's been well cooked, drink liquids which are clear, and speak what is true.
 * More modern (and vulgar) form: Fressen was gar ist, trinken was klar ist, ficken was da ist.
 * Translation: Gorge what's been well cooked, drink what's available (alcohol) ["klar" -> clear OR available/ready (colloquial)] fuck what's around.

 * In der Not frisst der Teufel Fliegen
 * Translation: During hardship, the devil eats flies.
 * English equivalent: Beggars can't be choosers.

 * In der Kürze liegt die Würze.
 * Translation: In briefness lies the spice.
 * Meaning: Be concise; don't ramble.
 * English equivalent: Brevity is the soul of wit (Shakespeare)

 * In der Not schmeckt die Wurst auch ohne Brot.
 * Translation: In hardship, the sausage is just as delicious without bread.
 * Meaning: Enjoy luxury as long as you have it.
 * Meaning: Silly saying either ironically loathing the taste of bread or those who prefer the sausage.

 * Bei Nacht sind alle Katzen grau
 * Translation: In the night all cats are gray
 * Meaning: Human vision switches to monochrome mode in the dark.
 * Meaning: Used when explaining why you could not discern one thing from the other, either literally or as a metaphor. (Polite)
 * other Meaning: If it is late enough and I am drunk enough I don´t care what my one-night-stand looks like. (Vulgar)

J

 * Jacke wie Hose.
 * Translation: Jacket like pants.
 * Meaning: Six of one, half a dozen of the other.

 * Jeder Gefallen rächt sich.
 * Translation: No favor goes unpunished.
 * Meaning: Even if you do a good deed you might get in trouble for that.

 * Jeder Jeck ist anders. Used mainly in the Rheinland (Cologne etc.).
 * Translation: Every loony is different.
 * Meaning: Show some broad-mindedness.

 * Jedem Narr gefällt sei' Kapp.
 * Translation: Every jester likes his hat.
 * Meaning: Personal tastes differ.

K

 * Kommt Zeit, kommt Rat.
 * Literally: If time comes, advice comes.
 * Meaning: With time comes insight.

 * Kräht der Hahn auf dem Mist, ändert sich's Wetter oder 's bleibt wie's ist.
 * Literally: If the cock crows on the dung heap, the weather will change or stay the way it is.
 * Meaning : Do not rely upon proverbs! or The opinion of loud but insignificant people has no influence on the world.
 * Meaning: Satirizing bad science or old wives' tales.
 * Romanian: Daca se urca un cocos pe un maldar de gunoi, poate ploua, poate nu ploua.

 * Kleider machen Leute
 * Clothes make the man.

 * Keine Antwort ist auch eine Antwort.
 * Literally: No answer is also an answer.
 * Meaning: Not responding to a question is still replying.
 * Similar: Silence equals consent.

 * Kindermund tut Wahrheit kund.
 * Literally: The mouthes of children proclaim the truth.
 * Similar: From the mouths of babes.

 * Klug zu reden ist doch schwer, klug zu schweigen noch viel mehr
 * Literally: It's indeed hard to talk cleverly, still harder to be silent cleverly
 * Meaning: Know when to keep your mouth shut

 * Koste es was es wolle.
 * Meaning: Achieve something by whatever it will cost
 * Similar: Come hell or high water.

 * Eine Kuh macht Muh, viele Kühe machen Mühe.
 * Literally: One cow moos, many cows make work.
 * Explanation: It's a pun: "macht Muh" is the german equivalent to "makes a moo (sound)". The grammatical plural form would be "machen Mühe" [make moo (sounds)] but something "macht Mühe" means "gives trouble", "makes work" ["Mühe = trouble, effort ...]

L

 * "Langes Fädchen, faules Mädchen"
 * Lit. translation: Long thread for a lazy girl
 * English equivalent
 * Leben wie Gott in Frankreich.
 * Lit. translation: To live like God in France. (Sometimes, other Countries/Regions/Cities etc. than France are used. The meaning stays the same: "To live like God in ...", or to live the comfortable life of people in ...")
 * English equivalent: To live the life of Riley.
 * English equivalent: To live in clover.

 * Eine Leiche im Keller haben.
 * Translation: To have a corpse in the basement.
 * English equivalent: Skeletons in the closet.

 * Lieber das Messer ablecken als den Löffel abgeben.
 * Translation: Better to lick the knife than to give up the spoon.
 * Meaning: It is preferable to face adversity than to die.

M

 * Mit den Wölfen muss man heulen. or mit den Wölfen heulen
 * Translation: With the wolves one must howl.
 * Similar: When in Rome, do as the Romans do.

 * Mit solchen Freunden braucht man keine Feinde mehr.
 * Lit. Translation: With such friends, one doesn't need enemies anymore.
 * English Proverb: With friends like these, who needs enemies?
 * Meaning: Said if people considered to be friend behave in reality as the worst enemies.

 * Morgen, morgen, nur nicht heute, sagen alle faulen Leute.
 * Translation: Tomorrow, but not today, is what lazy people say.
 * Meaning: If you postpone something, you are lazy. Said usually to tease someone.

 * Man schlägt den Sack und meint den Esel.
 * Translation: Hitting the bag, aiming at the donkey.
 * Meaning: To punish someone for someone else's mistake.

 * Du bist, was du isst. or Man ist, was man isst.
 * Lit. translation: "You are what you eat." or "One is what one eats."
 * In German this is a pun: Man (one) ist (is), was (what) man (one) isst (eats).
 * English Proverb: You are what you eat.

 * Mit Geduld und Spucke wird das schon..
 * Lit. translation: With patience and spit it will go.
 * Meaning: Make haste slowly.
 * Originates from the fiddling of a needle: spit on the loose end and take your time, or you'll have to try it several times.

 * Mit Geduld und Spucke fängt man eine Mucke [actually: Mücke]. (humorous, obsolescent)
 * Lit. translation: With patience and spit one gets the midge (gnat/mosquito).
 * Meaning: like the original proverb, just put into a rhyme (and to get a midge you better are patient).

O
["ohne" = "without"]
 * Ohne Fleiß kein Preis.
 * Lit.: No diligence, no prize.
 * No pain, no gain.
 * No sweet without sweat.

 * Ohne Knete keine Fete (Not traditional)
 * Lit.: No money["Knete" is a colloquial form for money, lit: plasticine], no party.
 * No mon(ey), no fun.

 * Ohne Moos nix los. (Not traditional)
 * Lit.: No money["Moos" is a colloquial form for money, lit. "Moos" = "moss"], nothing going on.
 * No mon(ey), no fun.

P

 * Papier ist geduldig.
 * Translation: Paper is patient.
 * English equivalent: Paper doesn't blush.
 * Meaning: This writing isn't true.
 * Alternative meaning: Paper will listen when people won't. Write a diary.
 * Alternative meaning: Nobody reads what's on paper. Go and complain in person.

 * Probieren geht über studieren.
 * Lit. translation: Trying is worth more than studying.
 * English equivalent: The proof of the pudding is in the eating.

R

 * Reden ist Silber, Schweigen ist Gold
 * Lit.: Talking is Silver, Silence is Gold
 * English Proverb: Talk is cheap, silence is golden.

 * Rein in die Kartoffeln - raus aus den Kartoffeln. oder Mal so, mal so oder ... wie das Fähnchen im Winde. oder Mal hüh, mal hott
 * Literal translation: [Jump] into the potatoes, [jump] out of the potatoes.
 * English equivalent: To chop and change.
 * English equivalent: To blow hot and cold.

 * Rom ist auch nicht an einem Tag erbaut worden.
 * Rome wasn't built in a day.
 * Meaning: If you aim high, allow time.
 * Usually an excuse for being slow.

S

 * Schadenfreude ist die schönste Freude.
 * Translation: Joy from others' misfortune is the best joy.
 * Meaning: Taking pleasure from someone else's misfortune is most enjoyable.

 * Schnee von gestern
 * Translation: Snow from yesteryear. (lit. yesterday)
 * Meaning: A past occurrence, especially something unfortunate, that cannot be undone or rectified.
 * English Equivalent:: Water under the bridge.
 * Alternative meaning: A metaphore to express that something is old and not up to date.
 * English Equivalent: Yesterday's news.

 * Stadtluft macht frei.
 * City air makes you free.
 * Meaning: In medieval times peoples living in free cities were free from a sovereign. They were not bond-slaves like the people in rural areas. So living in a city - ´breathing city air´- meant to be free from bond-slavery to a sovereign. People living in cities could express their own opinion without being harassed. If people escaped to a free city and lived there for one year and one day, they were free of any previous bond to a sovereign.

 * Das kommt mir spanisch vor.
 * Translation: It seems Spanish to me.
 * Meaning: There's something strange.
 * English Equivalent: That's a bit fishy.

T

 * Totgesagte leben länger!
 * Lit. Translation: Declared dead live longer!
 * Similar: There's life in the old dog yet.

 * Träume sind Schäume.
 * Translation: Dreams are foam.
 * Meaning: A dream has nothing to do with reality.

 * Trau, schau, wem.
 * Translation: Trust, (but)look, whom.
 * Meaning: One should be carefull whom one trusts.

U

 * Übung macht den Meister
 * Translation: Practice makes the master.
 * Meaning: Practice makes perfect.

 * Unter Blinden ist der Einäugige König
 * Translation: In the country of the blind, the one-eyed man is king
 * Latin origin: In regione caecorum rex est luscus (Erasmus)
 * Meaning: To stand out doesn't neccessarily imply/require perfection, but to be better then others

V

 * Vater werden ist nicht schwer, Vater sein dagegen sehr (Wilhelm Busch)
 * Translation: It's easy to become a father, but hard to be one

 * Vertrauen ist gut, Kontrolle ist besser (coined by Lenin)
 * Trust is good, but verification is better
 * Trust but verify.

 * Viele Köche verderben den Brei.
 * (Too) Many cooks spoil the broth.
 * Meaning: Large teams are inefficient.
 * Meaning: Shared leadership does not work.

 * Viele Wege führen nach Rom.
 * Translation: Many roads lead to Rome.
 * Meaning: There may be more than one way to solve this problem.
 * Or: In the end, it doesn't matter how you reached your aim.
 * Or: You cannot really avoid or miss [whatever Rome stands for]
 * Similar: There's more than one way to skin a cat.

 * Viel Feind, viel Ehr'.
 * Literal: "Much enemy [sic], much honor"
 * Common proverb attributed to Georg von Frundsberg (1473-1528), a German Landsknecht commander
 * Meaning: "Who fights a lot will be honoured a lot". Also often used when refering to difficult non-military challenges.
 * Meaning: Honorable it is to have [made] many adversaries [implying: having spoken out for truth and cause]
 * English equivalent: The more danger, the more honor
 * English equivalent: More risk, more reward

 * Viele Hände macht leicht Arbeit. (obsolescent)
 * Many hands make light work

 * Vier Augen sehen mehr als zwei.
 * Four eyes see more than two.
 * English equivalent: Two heads are better than one.

 * Friss, Vogel, oder stirb! (also: Friss oder stirb!)
 * Lit. translation: Eat, bird, or die! (Eat or die!)
 * Meaning: You're in a sticky situation where you don't have much of a choice among a wide variety of gourmet meals. In a wider sense, you've got to make do with some unpleasant prospect because the alternative is even worse.
 * English equivalent: It's sink or swim.
 * English equivalent: Take it or leave it!
 * There's an outdated expression in English that was current at the time of the Civil War: "Root, hog, or die!"

 * Von nichts kommt nichts
 * Lit. translation: "From nothing comes nothing.
 * Meaning: The outcome of your effort is related to the effort you put into it. If you don't try, you aren't going to get any results.
 * English equvivalent: You can't make something out of nothing.
 * English equivalent: No pain, no gain.
 * English equivalent: There ain't no such thing as a free lunch (TANSTAAFL).

W

 * Was dem einen recht ist, ist dem anderen billig.
 * Translation: "What's right for one, is fair for the other."
 * English equivalent: "What's sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander."
 * English equivalent: One man's meat is another man's poison.

 * Was der Bauer nicht kennt, das frisst er nicht.
 * Translation: "What the peasant doesn't know, he doesn't eat."
 * Meaning: Used when criticizing someone for refusing to try new ways of doing something.,

 * Was du heute kannst besorgen, das verschiebe nicht auf morgen.
 * Translation: Don't postpone things you can do today to tomorrow.
 * Meaning: You should do tasks straightaway without any postponement.
 * English equivalent: A stitch in time saves nine
 * Spanish equivalent: No dejes para mañana lo que puedes hacer hoy.

 * Was man sich eingebrockt hat, das muss man auch auslöffeln.
 * Literal translation: "What one dishes out, he must also eat."
 * English equivalent: "You made your bed, now lie in it."
 * English equivalent: "You do the crime, you do the time"

 * Was Hänschen nicht lernte, lernt Hans nimmermehr.
 * Translation: "What Hänschen (diminutive, little Hans) didn't learn, (grown-up) Hans will never learn."
 * "You can't teach an old dog new tricks."

 * Wem der Schuh passt, der zieht ihn sich an.
 * Translation: "He whom the shoe fits puts it on."
 * Meaning: If something (usually bad) true has been said about you, better to accept it than to disagree.
 * Meaning2: If something bad has been said about someone, this person reacts angrily only if it is true.
 * English equivalent: "If the shoe fits, wear it."

 * Wenn Gauner sich streiten, kommt die Wahrheit ans Licht.
 * Translation: When scoundrels argue, the truth is revealed.
 * Meaning: Secret or criminal acts can only be kept a secret as long as the perpetrators do not quarrel among themselves.

 * Wer den Pfennig nicht ehrt, ist des Talers nicht wert oder Wer den Cent nicht ehrt, ist den Euro nicht wert.
 * Translation: You aren't worth the Taler (ancient German currency) if you don't honor the Pfennig. (f. G. c.) or You aren't worth the Euro if you don't honor the Cent.
 * Meaning: If you dont respect small amounts of money, you dont deserve big amounts of money.

 * Wer nicht will, der hat schon.
 * Lit. translation: Who wants not, has already.
 * Translation: He who does not want something already has enough.
 * Meaning: Slightly oponionated reply to a refused offer. "So you are provided for already")
 * Meaning: If someone offers something and you dont speak up, the guy either remindes you that you need it real bad or that he wants more appreciation.
 * Similar English idioms: "Use it or lose it." "Speak now or forever hold your peace."

 * Wer zuletzt lacht, lacht am besten.
 * "He who laughs last, laughs best."

 * Wes' Brot ich ess, des' Lied ich sing.
 * Translation: "Whose bread I eat, that's whose song I sing."
 * Meaning: "He who pays the piper calls the tune."

 * Wer die Wahl hat, hat die Qual.
 * Literally: "Who has the choice, has the suffering"
 * Meaning: Decisions can be painful.
 * Meaning: Having the choice also means having to choose.

 * Wein auf Bier, das rat' ich dir. Bier auf Wein, das lass sein. (humorous)
 * Translation: "Wine on beer, I recommend to you. Beer on wine, leave alone."
 * Meaning: "Cider on beer, never fear; beer upon cider, makes a bad rider."
 * Alternate: "Liquor before beer, all is clear; beer before liquor, get sicker and sicker."
 * American: "Beer on whiskey, pretty risky; Whiskey on beer, have no fear." or "Liquor before beer, you're in the clear; beer before liquor, never been sicker."

 * Wie man sich bettet, so liegt man.
 * Literally: "As you put yourself to bed, so you will lie."
 * Meaning: "You made your bed, now lie in it."
 * Meaning: Everyone makes his own fate.

 * Wie Pech und Schwefel.
 * Lit.: "Like pitch and sulphur."
 * Meaning: "E.g. good friends, who are inseparable or/and make all together, are like pitch and sulphur."

 * Wo gehobelt wird, fallen Späne.
 * Lit.: "Where you plane splinters fall."
 * Meaning: If something non-trivial gets done there are non-perfect aspects to it.
 * Meaning: "You can't make an omelette without breaking eggs."

 *  Wo Wäre da noch Geist zu Suchen.
 * Lit.: "Where there could be a mind you should search."

 * Wenn zwei sich streiten, freut sich der Dritte.
 * Lit.: "When two quarrel, the third rejoices."

 * Wer rastet, der rostet.
 * Translation: "He who rests, will be rusting."
 * Meaning: "If you stop moving (in both a physical and an intellectual meaning) it gets harder to start moving again."
 * English proverb: "Use it or lose it." "A rolling stone gathers no moss."

 * Wer poppen will, muss lächeln können. (vulgar) (nontraditional)
 * Translation: "If you want to fuck, you have to know how to smile."
 * Meaning: "If you keep this bad mood, you'll never find a girlfriend."

 * "Wie der Ochs' vorm Scheunentor"
 * Translation: "Like the ox in front of the barn door"
 * Meaning: Said when someone sees the way he must go (the obvious solution), yet he's afraid to go it.

Z

 * Zeit ist Geld.
 * Translation: Time is money. (Henry Ford)

 * Drei Z sind gern beieinander: Zecher, Zänker, Zungenschmied. (obsolescent)
 * Literal translation: Three Z like to be together: drinker, quarreller, tongue-smith.
 * Meaning: Drinking leads to arguments and loose talk.

 * Zwei Fliegen mit einer Klappe schlagen
 * Literal translation: Hit two flies with one fly swatter.
 * Meaning: To solve two problems with one sophisticated solution.
 * English equivalent: Kill two birds with one stone.

 * Zwei Seelen und ein Gedanke, Zwei Herzen, und ein Schlag. (obsolescent)
 * Translation: Two souls, one thought, Two hearts, one beat.

 * Zwei Dumme, ein Gedanke., also: Zwei Kranke, ein Gedanke. (vulgar) (nontraditional)
 * Translation: Two idiots, one thought.
 * English equivalent: Great minds think alike.
 * Explanation: Usually said referring to oneself and someone else who has had the same idea. Generally considered banter and thus not as offensive as it may sound.

 * Zwei Flaschen, ein Kühlschrank. (nontraditional)
 * Literal translation: Two twerps, one fridge.
 * Meaning: Two people had the same (dumb or obvious) idea at the same time.
 * Explanation: "Flasche" can mean "bottle" or "twerp" (idiot). Less offensive than "Zwei Kranke, ein Gedanke", but may not be understood as easily even by native speakers.

Alles ist seinen Preis wert.
Could this also translate to "You get what you pay for"? 173.79.103.231 04:28, 22 May 2013 (UTC)
 * No. It says "a matter's price does not arise from hazard, (even if it may look haphazardly,) it arises from somebody's evaluation of the matter. So, at least for this one seller, it is worth the crazy value stated in his price suggestion, for if offered less, he would not sell." WaldiR (talk)

Der gerade Weg ist der beste.
Article gives a wrong, banal, too literal meaning ("Shortcuts are often longcuts."), missing the allegory. Correct meaning: "Straightforward approach is the best approach.", recommending to abstain from tricks, lies and the like, for such are not only unethical, but would even aggravate achieving one's goal. No source, just my German. And now tell me that sourced nonsense is valued over unsourced wisdom :-) MY wisdom! WaldiR (talk)
 * Your meaning is now added, and the previous one removed. --Spannerjam (talk) 06:30, 19 October 2013 (UTC)

title: Talk:German proverbs


text:
Car

A car (or automobile) is a wheeled, self-powered motor vehicle used for transportation and a product of the automotive industry.

 * See also: transport

Quotes

 * I think cars today are almost the exact equivalent of the great Gothic cathedrals. I mean the supreme creation of an era, conceived with passion by unknown artists, and consumed in image if not in usage by a whole population which appropriates them as a purely magical object.
 * Roland Barthes, The New Citroën (1957)

 * The geezer car should be as large as possible. If a fighter jet can't land on it, you don't want to drive it. If necessary, you should get two cars and have them welded together. You should grip the steering wheel tightly enough that you cannot be detached from it without a surgical procedure, and you should sit way down in the seat so you're looking directly ahead at the speedometer. You should select a speed in advance- 23 miles per hour is very popular- and drive this speed at all times, regardless of whether you're in your driveway or on the interstate. Always come to a full stop when you notice a Potentially Hazardous Road Condition such as an intersection or a store or a sidewalk or a tree. If you're planning to make a turn at any point during the trip, you should plan ahead by putting your blinker on as soon as you start the car. Never park the car without making a minimum of seventeen turns.
 * Dave Barry, Dave Barry Turns 40 (1990). New York: Crown Publishers, p. 177-178

 * Ford then embarked on a brief but successful career as a racing driver. Victory in a race at Grosse Point brought him sufficient kudos for a second company, the Henry Ford Motor Company, founded just seven weeks later. Many invested who had already lost money financing the Detroit Automobile Company. The intention — of he backers at least — was to start making a car based on the one which had been responsible for Ford's famous racing victory. Yet only four months later, Ford was asked to leave and offered a severance payment of $900. The company was renamed the Cadillac Automobile Company and manufactured a car according to Ford's design, but with a single, rather than a two-cylinder motor. After 1909, as part of General Motors, Ford's arch rivals in later years, Cadillac became one of America's most prestigious makes of motor car — the exact opposite of the reputation Ford motor cars later acquired.
 * Ray Batchelor,

 * Driving is a spectacular form of amnesia. Everything is to be discovered, everything to be obliterated. Admittedly, there is the primal shock of the deserts and the dazzle of California, but when this is gone, the secondary brilliance of the journey begins, that of the excessive, pitiless distance, the infinity of anonymous faces and distances, or of certain miraculous geological formations, which ultimately testify to no human will, while keeping intact an image of upheaval. This form of travel admits of no exceptions: when it runs up against a known face, a familiar landscape, or some decipherable message, the spell is broken: the amnesic, ascetic, asymptotic charm of disappearance succumbs to affect and worldly semiology.
 * Jean Baudrillard, America (1988), pp. 9-10

 * You know, when I was sixteen I was only thinking about two things: cars and girls ... I wasn't very good with girls so that kind of narrowed it down a little bit. ... Although if you had the right car, it helped with girls, too. ... I mean, Americans love cars ... They are loving their cars. And, it all started here, too. ... There is really nothing more quintessentially American than the car.
 * Warren Buffett, (quote at 4:30 of 56:25)

 * In Los Angeles, everything is based on driving, even the killings. In New York, most people don't have cars, so if you want to kill a person, you have to take the subway to their house. And sometimes on the way, the train is delayed and you get impatient, so you have to kill someone on the subway. That's why there are so many subway murders; no one has a car.
 * George Carlin, Brain Droppings (1998)

 * The best British cars are Italian.
 * Colin Chapman, radio interview to the BBC, ca. 1958

 * Then there's power. There was a time when people cooed over Ferraris that developed 200 horsepower, whereas today 2.0 litre Escorts can manage that. It's almost impossible to buy a car that won't do a hundred. (If you really want one, various Mercedes diesels make a pretty good stab at it.) Then there's the environment. The Volkswagen Beetle could kill a rain forest at 400 paces whereas today's Golf trundles around with tulips coming out of its exhaust. The gas coming out of a Saab is actually cleaner than the air that went in. That's true, that is.
 * Jeremy Clarkson, Born to be Riled (1999), p. 21

 * Fast, truly exciting cars are being killed off so that pretty soon the officers will all be gone, leaving us with a field full of enlisted men.
 * Jeremy Clarkson, Born to be Riled (1999), p. 34

 * And therein lies the reason why motor industry people don't fawn on journalists. They're in the hot seat, deciding who gets to drive what and who gets to go where. Why should they grovel when they know that without their assistance the motoring journalist is up the creek without a boat, nevermind a paddle?
 * Jeremy Clarkson, Born to be Riled (1999), p. 174

 * Like gun deaths, this epidemic of car-related deaths is a particularly American problem. Other countries have car deaths too, of course. But among developed and prosperous nations, America stands out in the fact that our proportion of vehicle deaths have gone up since 2010, while they’ve gone down in most of our peer nations, according to a New York Times analysis of data from the Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD). According to a report from the Governors Highway Safety Association, 2022 saw the largest number of pedestrians killed in America in more than 40 years.
 * Jill Filipovic, “Opinion: This cultural touchstone is killing far too many Americans”, CNN, (1/4/2024)

 * Tall trucks and SUVs with blunt hoods are particularly dangerous — 45% more likely to kill pedestrians compared to smaller vehicles with sloped front ends, according to research from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. Some of these trucks and SUVs are so tall that the top of the hood aims squarely at the upper torso and neck of the average American woman. The risks become fairly obvious when you think it through: If you’re an average-sized adult hit by a sedan, you’re likely going to be hit in the legs or perhaps the pelvis. If you’re hit by a large truck or SUV, though, you’re hit in the torso, or even head and neck. And the driver may not even be able to see what they’ve hit. Small children become invisible to the driver when they stand in front of these extra-large vehicles. Hundreds of American children have been killed off of public roadways by forward-moving vehicles, most of them trucks or SUVs — in other words, often run over by a driver who simply couldn’t see them beyond the hood.
 * Jill Filipovic, “Opinion: This cultural touchstone is killing far too many Americans”, CNN, (1/4/2024)

 * Trucks and SUVs today are also significantly heavier than they used to be, with the average truck ballooning 34% in weight since 1990. That’s especially bad news for any pedestrians, motorcyclists or cyclists they hit. They’re also vastly more popular, accounting at multiple points in recent years for 80% of new car sales in the US, according to JD Power data cited in a comprehensive look at ever-larger vehicles in Slate.
 * Jill Filipovic, “Opinion: This cultural touchstone is killing far too many Americans”, CNN, (1/4/2024)

 * The longstanding perception that bigger cars are safer is bolstered by vehicle safety ratings which look at the safety of the drivers and passengers, but don’t take into account the dangers any given vehicle poses to pedestrians, something European regulators consider. And these larger, heavier cars are harder on roads, which we all pay to maintain.
 * Jill Filipovic, “Opinion: This cultural touchstone is killing far too many Americans”, CNN, (1/4/2024)

 * But Cayce sees that there is a Michelin Man within her field of vision, its white, bloated, maggot−like form perched on the edge of a dealer's counter, about thirty feet away. It is about two feet tall, and is probably meant to be illuminated from within. The Michelin Man was the first trademark to which she exhibited a phobic reaction. She had been six.
 * William Gibson, Pattern Recognition, 2003.

 * ... America aims at having a car for every citizen. I do not. I want freedom for full expression of my personality.
 * Mahatma Gandhi in Jews and Palestine (July 1946), as quoted in The Gandhi Reader: A Sourcebook of His Life and Writings, p. 327

 * Automobiles are like people: the cheap ones are noisy.
 * E. W. Howe, Country Town Sayings: A collection of paragraphs from the Atchison Globe (1911), p. 201.

 * Nine-tenths of our crimes an' calamities are made possible by th' automobile. It has unleashed all th' pent-up criminal tendencies o' th' ages.  It's th' central figure in murders, hold-ups, burglaries, accidents, elopements, failures an' abscondments.  It has well nigh jimmed th' American home....  No girl is missin' that wuzn' last seen steppin' in a strange automobile....  An' ther hain't a day rolls by that somebuddy hain't sellin' ther sewin' machine, or ther home, or somethin' t' pay on an automobile....  Maybe th' jails an' workhouses are empty, but that's not because th' world is gittin' better.  It's because all th' criminals escape in automobiles.
 * Kin Hubbard writing for his character, "th' Hon. Ex.-Editur Cale Fluhart." Quoted in Norris W. Yeats, The American Humorist: Conscience of the Twentieth Century, Ames, Iowa: Iowa State University Press, 1964, p. 107.

 * Contemporary man has tried to substitute the car for the cow pony, but it simply doesn't work. True, in a car he is mobile, and once behind the wheel he can feel the excitement of command, but nevertheless the car is bound to the road, inhibited by traffic, and frustrated by regulations essential to his safety but which he often feels rob him of the true freedom he wants.
 * Louis L'Amour,

 * Averroës, Kant, Socrates, Newton, Voltaire, could any of them have believed it possible that in the twentieth century the scourge of cities, the poisoner of lungs, the mass murderer and idol of millions would be a metal receptacle on wheels, and that people would actually prefer being crushed to death inside it during frantic weekend exoduses instead of staying, safe and sound, at home?
 * Stanisław Lem, The Futurological Congress (1971), tr. Michael Kandel (1974), p. 136 in the Harcourt edition, ISBN 978-0-15-634040-3

 * [J]umped out of bed and put on my best suit, got in my car and raced like a jet all the way to you.
 * MAGIC!, "Rude", Don't Kill the Magic (2013)

 * Here in my car, I feel safest of all. I can lock all my doors. It's the only way to live, in cars.
 * Gary Numan, "Cars" (August 1979), The Pleasure Principle (September 1979), United Kingdom: Beggars Banquet Records

 * When a man opens a car door for his wife, it's either a new car or a new wife.
 * Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, as quoted in "48 of Prince Philip's greatest gaffes and funny moments", The Telegraph (2 August 2017)

 * Our interest in your Rolls-Royce car does not cease when you take delivery of the car. It is our ambition that every purchaser of a Rolls-Royce car shall continue to be more than satisfied.
 * Rolls-Royce Silver Cloud I Handbook (1955-1958), p. 14

 * Looking out a dirty old window; down below the cars in the city go rushing by. I sit here alone and I wonder why.
 * Kim Wilde, "Kids in America", Kim Wilde (1981)

 * Automobiles go hither and yon, wherever and whenever the driver desires, without timetables. Automobiles encourage people to think they—unsupervised, untutored, and unscripted—are masters of their fates. The automobile encourages people in delusions of adequacy, which make them resistant to government by experts who know what choices people should make.
 * George Will, "Why Liberals Love Trains", Newsweek, (27 February 2011)

 * The only way to clip the wings of the speed maniac is to furnish him with a truck that is geared for low or moderate speed and in which the power is limited, that is to say, furnish him with an electric truck. As an economic feature in the transportation of goods, the electric truck would long ago have secured the dominating position, but for the foolish notion some have derived from the gas car craze that high speed and power are essential to the moving of goods.
 * “Speed Maniac New Menace to Trucks”, in Popular Electricity and the World's Advance, Volume 5 edited by Henry Walter Young, (May 1912), p. 219

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

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Wikiquote:General disclaimer

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zh:Wikiquote:免责声明 tr:Wikiquote:Genel sorumluluk reddi

title: Wikiquote:General disclaimer


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User:BozMo

BozMo mainly contributes on Wikipedia although the email from this site works. I am a sysop on en (if that means anything to anyone) but my main contribution to the project has been the development of the offline Schools Wikipedia for schools in Africa without reliable internet connectivity. And yes, I know, an update is long overdue and I get several messages a week asking me to get on and do the next release (which I will soon).

I do use wikiquote quite a bit but I do not often edit it. That's probably a good thing because I am not accurate enough with exact words; my memory seems to work on concepts and I have to look around to find the accurate wording (hence I come here). Enough chatter..

title: User:BozMo


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Wikiquote talk:Welcome, newcomers

I am not sure that the "three things you can do" remark is helpful.

With quotations there are a number of different reading modes: browsing, looking for something specific etc. If wikiquote is going to be much better then the structure around these functions has to be very good. BozMo(talk) — the preceding comment was posted at 09:39, 4 May 2004 (UTC)

BULLY AUSTRALIAN ADMINS
The totally rude and bullying manner the admins go on with is a disgrace. They must be trying to close wik oz down. They then go and delete posts that try and alert wik that they are carrying on in this manner. They are a total cowardly bullying disgrace and all can just be thankful no one else has to live in their shoes as they only ones stuck with them 24/7 is their own selves. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 203.54.9.137 (talk • contribs) 09:54, 27 July 2006 (UTC)

 * I have not heard of an Australian Wikiquote, but if there is one, you should file a complaint with it, not en:Wikiquote. If you instead have a complaint about this Wikiquote, please be specific about what activities you are complaining about. I see no edits from this IP address besides the above post, so I cannot determine what the supposed problem is. You are also welcome to post complaints directly to my talk page. I would also suggest that personal attacks are not likely to help your case, and are against Wikiquote policy. Jeff Q (talk), en:Wikiquote admin, 14:33, 27 July 2006 (UTC)

Reword proposal
The page currently reads in the lead, "create a user account visit Special:Userlogin," but I think it should say "create a user account, click here!" Newcomers will most likely not know what "Special:Userlogin" means. Thoughts? — RyanCross (talk ) 05:41, 8 January 2009 (UTC)

Incorrect information
The page says that anyone can edit the page including user that aren’t logged in, but the page is locked so only autoconfirmed editors can edit it. – Ilovemydoodle (talk | e-mail) 00:12, 3 June 2022 (UTC)

title: Wikiquote talk:Welcome, newcomers


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User talk:BozMo

Comments here (or in the En.wikipedia talk) for BozMo

title: User talk:BozMo


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Ogden Nash

Ogden Nash (19 August 1902 – 19 May 1971) was an American poet.

Quotes

 * Candy Is Dandy But liquor Is quicker.
 * "Reflections on Ice-Breaking" in Hard Lines (1931); this statement is often misattributed to Dorothy Parker.

 * Oh, things are frequently what they seem, And this is wisdom's crown: Only the game fish swims upstream, But the sensible fish swims down.

 * "When You Say That, Smile", as quoted in Saturday Evening Post, 16 September 1933

 * Man is a victim of dope In the incurable form of hope.
 * "Good-by, Old Year, You Oaf or Why Don't They Pay the Bonus?" in The Primrose Path (1935).

 * Every New Year is the direct descendant, isn't it, of a long line of proven criminals?
 * "Good-by, Old Year, You Oaf or Why Don't They Pay the Bonus?" in The Primrose Path (1935)

 * Just when you think that at least the outlook is so black that it can grow no blacker, it worsens, And that is why I do not like the news, because there has never been an era when so many things were going so right for so many of the wrong persons.
 * "Everybody Tells Me Everything" in The Face Is Familiar (1940)

 * A door is what a dog is perpetually on the wrong side of.
 * "A Dog's Best Friend Is His Illiteracy" in The Private Dining Room (1953)
 * Paraphrased variant: A door is that which a dog is perpetually on the wrong side of.

 * I dreamt that my hair was kempt. Then I dreamt that my true love unkempt it.
 * "My Dream" in You Can't Get There from Here (1957)

 * It is common knowledge to every schoolboy and even every Bachelor of Arts, That all sin is divided into two parts. One kind of sin is called a sin of commission, and that is very important And it is what you are doing when you are doing something you oughtn't...
 * "Portrait of the Artist as a Prematurely Old Man" in The Family Album of Favorite Poems (1959) edited by P. Edward Ernest

 * It is the sin of omission, the second kind of sin, That lays eggs under your skin.
 * "Portrait of the Artist as a Prematurely Old Man" (1959)

 * The moral is that it is probably better not to sin at all, but if some kind of sin you must be pursuing, Well, remember to do it by doing rather than by not doing.
 * "Portrait of the Artist as a Prematurely Old Man" (1959)

 * To keep your marriage brimming, With love in the loving cup, Whenever you're wrong, admit it; Whenever you're right, shut up.
 * "A Word to Husbands" in Marriage Lines (1964)

 * Good wine needs no bush, And perhaps products that people really want need no hard-sell or soft-sell TV push. Why not? Look at pot.
 * "Most Doctors Recommend or Yours For Fast Fast Fast Relief" in The Old Dog Barks Backwards (1972)

 * Among other things I think humor is a shield, a weapon, a survival kit... So here we are several billion of us, crowded into our global concentration camp for the duration. How are we to survive? Solemnity is not the answer, any more than witless and irresponsible frivolity is. I think our best chance lies in humor, which in this case means a wry acceptance of our predicament. We don't have to like it but we can at least recognize its ridiculous aspects, one of which is ourselves.
 * Commencement address at his daughter Linell's boarding school, as quoted in The Washington Post (8 May 2005)

 * Abracadabra, thus we learn, The more you create, the less you earn. The less you earn, the more you're given, The less you lead, the more you're driven, The more destroyed, the more they feed, The more you pay, the more they need The more you earn, the less you keep, And now I lay me down to sleep. I pray the Lord my soul should take If the tax collector hasn't got it before I wake.
 * "One From One Leaves Two"

 * Oh, what a tangled web do parents weave When they think that their children are naive.
 * "Baby, What Makes the Sky Blue?"

 * Behold the hippopotamus! We laugh at how he looks to us, And yet in moments dank and grim, I wonder how we look to him.
 * "The Hippopotamus"

 * Any hound a porcupine nudges Can't be blamed for harboring grudges. I know one hound that laughed all winter At a porcupine that sat on a splinter.
 * "The Porcupine"

 * Hark, hark! the lark On windswept bark Freezes against a sky of lead! Now see him stop, Take one small hop, And suddenly keel over dead!
 * The Lark

"Adventures of Isabel"

 * The bear said, Isabel, glad to meet you, How do, Isabel, now I'll eat you! Isabel, Isabel, didn't worry. Isabel didn't scream or scurry. She washed her hands, and she straightened her hair up, Then Isabel quietly ate the bear up.

 * Once in a night as black as pitch Isabel met a wicked old witch. the witch's face was cross and wrinkled, The witch's gums with teeth were sprinkled. Ho, ho, Isabel! the old witch crowed, I'll turn you into an ugly toad! Isabel, Isabel, didn't worry. Isabel didn't scream or scurry. She showed no rage and she showed no rancor, But she turned the witch into milk, and drank her.

 * The giant was hairy, the giant was horrid, He had one eye in the middle of his forehead.

 * She took those pills from the pill concocter, And Isabel calmly cured the doctor.

Smoot Smites Smut

 * Senator Smoot (Republican, Ut.) Is planning a ban on smut.  Oh rooti-ti-toot for Smoot of Ut. And his reverend occiput. Smite, Smoot, smite for Ut., Grit your molars and do your dut., Gird up your l__ns, Smite h_p and th_gh, We'll all be Kansas By and by.

 * When smut's to be smitten Smoot will smite For G-d, for country, And Fahrenheit.

 * Senator Smoot is an institute Not to be bribed with pelf; He guards our homes from erotic tomes By reading them all himself.

 * Smite, Smoot, Be rugged and rough, Smut if smitten Is front-page stuff.

Free Wheeling (1931)

 * The cow is of the bovine ilk; One end is moo, the other, milk.
 * "The Cow".

 * The song of canaries Never varies, And when they're moulting They're pretty revolting.
 * "The Canary"

Happy Days (1933)

 * Children aren't happy with nothing to ignore, And that's what parents were created for.
 * "The Parent"; paraphrased variants: Children aren't happy without something to ignore, and that's what parents were created for. Parents were invented to make children happy by giving them something to ignore.

 * I can't say that I feel particularly one way or the other towards bell-boys, But I do admit that I haven't much use for the it's-just-as-well boys, The cheery souls who drop around after every catastrophe and think they are taking the curse off By telling you about somebody who is even worse off. No matter how deep and dark your pit, how dank your shroud, Their heads are heroically unbloody and unbowed.
 * "Look for the Silver Lining"

I'm a Stranger Here Myself (1938)

 * The most exciting happiness is the happiness generated by forces beyond your control.
 * "The Anatomy of Happiness"

 * Remorse is a violent dyspepsia of the mind.
 * "A Clean Conscience Never Relaxes"

 * I think remorse ought to stop biting the consciences that feed it.
 * "A Clean Conscience Never Relaxes"

 * One man's remorse is another man's reminiscence.
 * "A Clean Conscience Never Relaxes"

 * Most bankers dwell in marble halls, Which they get to dwell in because they encourage deposits and discourage withdrawals, And particularly because they all observe one rule which woe betides the banker who fails to heed it, Which is you must never lend any money to anybody unless they don't need it.
 * "Bankers Are Just Like Anybody Else, Except Richer"

 * Every Englishman is convinced of one thing, viz.: That to be an Englishman is to belong to the most exclusive club there is.
 * "England Expects"

 * How easy for those who do not bulge To not overindulge!
 * "A Necessary Dirge"

 * Whether elected or appointed He considers himself the Lord's annointed, And indeed the ointment lingers on him So thick you can't get your fingers on him.
 * "The Politician"

 * Camped on a tropic riverside, One day he missed his loving bride. She had, the guide informed him later, Been eaten by an alligator. Professor Twist could not but smile. "You mean," he said, "a crocodile."
 * "The Purist"

 * There is one thing that ought to be taught in all the colleges, Which is that people ought to be taught not to go around always making apologies.
 * "Just Keep Quiet and Nobody Will Notice"

 * So I think there is one rule every host and hostess ought to keep with the comb and nail file and bicarbonate and aromatic spirits on a handy shelf, Which is don't spoil the denouement by telling the guests everything is terrible, but let them have the thrill of finding it out for themselves.
 * "Just Keep Quiet and Nobody Will Notice"

 * Listen, buds, it's March twenty first; Don't you know enough to burst? Come on, birds, unlock your throats! Come on, gardeners, shed your coats!
 * Spring Song

 * Oh, sometimes I sit around and think, what would you do if you were up a dark alley and there was Caesar Borgia, And he was coming torgia…
 * "How Now, Sirrah? Oh, Anyhow"

I Have It On Good Authority

 * There are two kinds of people who blow through life like a breeze, And one kind is gossipers, and the other kind is gossipees, And they certainly annoy each other, But they certainly enjoy each other, Yes, they pretend to flout each other, But they couldn't do without each other...

 * Another good thing about gossip is that it is within everybody's reach, And it is much more interesting than any other form of speech, Because suppose you eschew gossip and just say Mr. Smith is in love with his wife. Why that disposes the Smiths as a topic of conversation for the rest of their life, But suppose you say with a smile, that poor little Mrs. Smith thinks her husband is in love with her, he must be very clever, Why then you can enjoyably talk about the Smiths forever.

 * And I also say Pooh for sweetness and light, And if you want to get the most out of life, why the thing to do is to be a gossiper by day and gossipee by night.

Good Intentions (1942)

 * Life is not having been told that the man has just waxed   the floor.
 * "You and Me and P. B. Shelley"

 * God in his wisdom made the fly And then forgot to tell us why.
 * "The Fly"

 * Some primal termite knocked on wood And tasted it, and found it good! And that is why your Cousin May Fell through the parlor floor today.
 * "The Termite"

 * The further through life I drift The more obvious it becomes that I am lacking in thrift.
 * "A Penny Saved Is Impossible"

Seeing Eye to Eye is Believing

 * I believe that people believe what they believe they believe.

 * When people reject a truth or an untruth it is not because it is a truth or an untruth that they reject it. No, if it isn't in accord with their beliefs in the first place they simply say, "Nothing doing," and refuse to inspect it.

 * These are enlightened days in which you can get hot water and cold water out of the same spigot, And everybody has something about which they are proud to be broad-minded but they also have other things about which you would be wasting your breath if you tried to convince them that they were a bigot.

 * And I have no desire to get ugly, But I cannot help mentioning that the door of a bigoted mind opens outwards so that the only result of the pressure of facts upon it is to close it more snugly.

 * Naturally I am not pointing a finger at me, But I must admit that I find Mr. Ickes or any other speaker far more convincing when I agree with him than when I disagree.

So Does Everybody Else, Only Not So Much

 * O all ye exorcizers come and exorcize now, and ye clergymen draw nigh and clerge, For I wish to be purged of an urge. It is an irksome urge, compounded of nettles and glue, And it is turning all my friends back into acquaintances, and all my acquaintances into people who look the other way when I heave into view.

 * It is an indication that my mental buttery is butterless and my mental larder lardless, And it consists not of "Stop me if you've heard this one," but of "I know you've heard this one because I told it to you myself, but I'm going to tell it to you again regardless..."

 * And what really turns my corpuscles to ice, I carry around clippings and read them to people twice. And I know what I am doing while I am doing it and I don't want to do it but I can't help doing it and I am just another Ancient Mariner, And the prospects for my future social life couldn't possibly be barrener. Did I tell you that the prospects for my future social life couldn't be barrener?

Many Long Years Ago (1945)

 * Don't Cry Darling, It's Blood All Right
 * Title of poem.

 * Purity Is obscurity.
 * "Reflection On A Wicked World"

 * The turtle trapped 'twixt plated decks Doth practically conceal its sex I think it clever of the turtle In such a fix to be so fertile.
 * "The Turtle"

 * I think that I shall never see A billboard lovely as a tree. Indeed, unless the billboards fall, I'll never see a tree at all.
 * "Song of the Open Road" — this poem is a parody of "Trees" by Joyce Kilmer

 * When called by a panther, Don't anther.
 * "The Panther"

 * People expect old men to die, They do not really mourn old men. Old men are different. People look At them with eyes that wonder when... People watch with unshocked eyes; But the old men know when an old man dies.
 * "Old Men"

 * Passivity can be a provoking modus operandi; Consider the Empire and Gandhi.
 * "I Never Even Suggested It"

 * It is my duty, gentlemen, to inform you that women are dictators all, and I recommend to you this moral: In real life it takes only one to make a quarrel.
 * "I Never Even Suggested It"

 * People who have what they want are very fond of telling people who haven't what they want that they really don't want it, And I wish I could afford to gather all such people into a gloomy castle on the Danube and hire half a dozen capable Draculas to haunt it. I dont' mind their having a lot of money, and I don't care how they employ it, But I do think that they damn well ought to admit they enjoy it.
 * "The Terrible People"

 * Perhaps indeed the possession of wealth is constantly distressing, But I should be quite willing to assume every curse of wealth if I could at the same time assume every blessing. The only incurable troubles of the rich are the troubles that money can't cure, Which is a kind of trouble that is even more troublesome if you are poor. Certainly there are lots of things in life that money won't buy, but it's very funny — Have you ever tried to buy them without money?
 * "The Terrible People"

 * If you don't want to work you have to work to earn enough money so that you won't have to work.
 * "More About People"

A Lady Thinks She Is Thirty

 * Miranda in Miranda's sight Is old and gray and dirty; Twenty-nine she was last night; This morning she is thirty.

 * Silly girl, silver girl, Draw the mirror toward you; Time who makes the years to whirl Adorned as he adored you.

 * Time is timelessness for you; Calendars for the human; What's a year, or thirty, to Loveliness made woman?

 * Oh, Night will not see thirty again, Yet soft her wing, Miranda; Pick up your glass and tell me, then — How old is Spring, Miranda?

The Tale of Custard the Dragon

 * Belinda lived in a little white house, With a little black kitten and a little gray mouse, And a little yellow dog and a little red wagon, And a realio, trulio, little pet dragon.

 * Now the name of the little black kitten was Ink, And the little gray mouse, she called him Blink, And the little yellow dog was sharp as Mustard, But the dragon was a coward, and she called him Custard.

 * Belinda was as brave as a barrel full of bears, And Ink and Blink chased lions down the stairs, Mustard was as brave as a tiger in a rage, But Custard cried for a nice safe cage.

 * The pirate gaped at Belinda's dragon, And gulped some grog from his pocket flagon, He fired two bullets, but they didn't hit, And Custard gobbled him, every bit.

Pretty Halcyon Days

 * How pleasant to sit on the beach, On the beach, on the sand, in the sun, With ocean galore within reach, And nothing at all to be done!.

 * To lave in the wave, Majestic and chilly, Tomorrow I crave; But today it is silly. It is pleasant to look at the ocean; Tomorrow, perhaps, I shall swim in it.

 * Leave the earth to the strong and athletic, And the sea to adventure upon. But the sun and the sand No contractor can copy; We lie in the land Of the lotus and poppy; We vegetate, calm and aesthetic, On the beach, on the sand, in the sun.

Children's Party

 * May I join you in the doghouse, Rover? I wish to retire till the party's over.

 * I've earned repose to heal the ravages Of these angelic-looking savages. Oh, progeny playing by itself Is a lonely little elf, But progeny in roistering batches Would drive St. Francis from here to Natchez.

 * Their joy needs another woe's to cushion it, Say a puddle, and someone littler to push in it. They observe with glee the ballistic results Of ice cream with spoons for catapults, And inform the assembly with tears and glares That everyone's presents are better than theirs. Oh, little women and little men, Someday I hope to love you again, But not till after the party's over, So give me the key to the doghouse, Rover

A Watched Example Never Boils

 * The weather is so very mild That some would call it warm. Good gracious, aren't we lucky, child? Here comes a thunderstorm.

 * The sky is now indelible ink, The branches reft asunder; But you and I we do not shrink; We love the lovely thunder.

 * The garden is a raging sea, The hurricane is snarling; Oh, happy you and happy me! Isn't the lightning darling?

 * Fear not the thunder, little one. It's weather, simply weather; It's friendly giants full of fun Clapping their hands together.

 * I hope of lightning our supply Will never be exhausted; You know it's lanterns in the sky For angels who are losted.

 * We love the kindly wind and hail, The jolly thunderbolt, We watch in glee the fairy trail Of ampere, watt, and volt.

 * Oh, than to enjoy a storm like this There's nothing I would rather, Don't dive between the blankets, Miss! Or else leave room for Father.

Song To Be Sung by the Father of Infant Female Children

 * My heart leaps up when I behold A rainbow in the sky; Contrariwise, my blood runs cold When little boys go by. For little boys as little boys, No special hate I carry, But now and then they grow to men, And when they do, they marry. No matter how they tarry, Eventually they marry. And, swine among the pearls, They marry little girls.

 * A fig for embryo Lohengrins! I'll open all his safety pins, I'll pepper his powder, and salt his bottle, And give him readings from Aristotle. Sand for his spinach I'll gladly bring, And Tabasco sauce for his teething ring. Then perhaps he'll struggle through fire and water To marry somebody else's daughter.

Versus (1949)

 * Whales have calves, Cats have kittens Bears have Cubs, Bats have bittens, Swans have cygnets, Seals have puppies, But guppies just have little guppies.
 * "The Guppy"

 * A young person is a person with nothing to learn One who already knows that ice does not chill and fire does not burn... It knows it can spend six hours in the sun on its first day at the beach without ending up a skinless beet, And it knows it can walk barefoot through the barn without running a nail in its feet. . . . Meanwhile psychologists grow rich Writing that the young are ones' should not undermine the self-confidence of which.
 * "Fortunately"

 * First Let the rockets flash and the cannon thunder, This child is a marvel, a matchless wonder. A staggering child, a child astounding, Dazzling, diaperless, dumfounding, Stupendous, miraculous, unsurpassed, A child to stagger and flabbergast, Bright as a button, sharp as a thorn, And the only perfect one ever born. Second Arrived this evening at half-past nine. Everybody is doing fine. Is it a boy, or quite the reverse? You can call in the morning and ask the nurse.
 * "First Child . . . Second Child"

 * Being a father Is quite a bother, But I like it, rather.
 * "Soliloquy in Circles"

 * Your hair may be brushed, but your mind's untidy, You've had about seven hours' sleep since Friday, No wonder you feel that lost sensation; You're sunk from a riot of relaxation.
 * "We'll All Feel Better By Wednesday"

 * Indoors or out, no one relaxes In March, that month of wind and taxes, The wind will presently disappear, The taxes last us all the year.
 * "Thar She Blows"

 * Middle age is when you've met so many people that every new person you meet reminds you of someone else...
 * "Let's Not Climb the Washington Monument Tonight"

 * Life has a tendency to obfuscate and bewilder, Such as fating us to spend the first part of our lives being embarrassed by our parents and the last part being embarrassed by our childer.
 * "What I Know About Life"

 * O Adolescence, O Adolescence I wince before thine incandescence . . . When anxious elders swarm about Crying "Where are you going?", thou answerest "Out," . . . Strewn! All is lost and nothing found Lord, how thou leavest things around! . ..
 * "Tarkington, Thou Should'st Be Living in This Hour"

Possessions are Nine Points of Conversation

 * Some people, and it doesn't matter whether they are paupers or millionaires, Think that anything they have is the best in the world just because it is theirs.

 * Other people, and it doesn't matter if they are Scandinavians or Celts, Think that anything is better than theirs just because it belongs to somebody else.

 * I think that comparisons are truly odious, I do not approve of this constant proud or envious to-do; And furthermore, dear friends, I think that you and yours are delightful and I also think that me and mine are delightful too.

Misattributed

 * Adam Had 'em.
 * This poem has widely been credited to Nash as a poem with the title "Fleas", but is actually the work of Strickland Gillilan and was originally titled "Lines on the Antiquity of Microbes." It has been dated to at least 1927, as published in the Mt Rainier Nature News Notes (1 July 1927).

 * A wonderful bird is a pelican, His bill will hold more than his belican. He can take in his beak Food enough for a week; But I'm damned if I see how the helican.
 * "The Pelican" (1910) by Dixon Lanier Merritt is another poem often misattributed to Nash.

title: Ogden Nash