Wise Chinese Proverbs and Sayings. Great Wisdom of China

A crisis is an opportunity  riding the dangerous wind. It's better to be without a book  than to believe a book entirely. A little impatience will spoil great plans.

If you bow at all, bow low. A journey of a thousand miles  begins with a single step. A smile will gain you ten more years of life.

A bird does not sing because it has an  answer. It sings because it has a song. A book holds a house of gold.

Talk does not cook rice. A man who cannot tolerate small misfortunes  can never accomplish great things. Experience is a comb which  nature gives us when we are bald.

Be not afraid of growing slowly,  be afraid only of standing still. Behave toward everyone as if receiving a guest. A fall into a ditch makes you wiser.

Better a diamond with a flaw  than a pebble without one. He who asks is a fool for five minutes, but  he who does not ask remains a fool forever. An inch of time is an inch of gold but you can't  buy that inch of time with an inch of gold.

A closed mind is like a closed  book; just a block of wood Better to light a candle  than to curse the darkness. A needle is not sharp at both ends. Even a hare will bite when it is cornered.

Habits are cobwebs at first; cables at last. The best time to plant a tree was 20  years ago. The second best time is today.

In a group of many words, there is  bound to be a mistake somewhere in them. Govern a family as you would  cook a small fish - very gently. Patience is a bitter plant,  but its fruit is sweet.

Listening well is as powerful as talking well,  and is also as essential to true conversation. Two good talkers are not worth one good listener. A hundred no's are less  agonizing than one insincere yes.

He who cheats the earth will  be cheated by the earth. Only one who can swallow an insult is a man. One beam, no matter how big, cannot  support an entire house on its own.

Better the cottage where one is merry  than the palace where one weeps. Distant water does not put out a nearby fire. The more acquaintances you  have, the less you know them.

He who thinks too much about every step  he takes will always stay on one leg. All things change, and we change with them. If you want to find out about the road ahead,  then ask about it from those coming back.

Genius can be recognized  by its childish simplicity. There are two kinds of perfect people: those who  are dead, and those who have not been born yet. A clear conscience never fears midnight knocking.

Learning is a weightless treasure  you can always carry easily. Want a thing long enough and you don't. Married couples tell each other  a thousand things without speech.

Small men think they are small;  great men never know they are great. Do everything at the right time,  and one day will seem like three. Solve one problem, and you  keep a hundred others away.

It is easy to open a store - the  hard part is keeping it open. To be totally at leisure for one  day is to be immortal for one day. Fool me once, shame on you;  fool me twice, shame on me.

Teachers open the door. You enter by yourself. Ripe fruit falls by itself - but  it doesn't fall in your mouth.

If you are patient in one moment of anger,  you will escape a hundred days of sorrow. Before preparing to improve the world,  first look around your own home three times. I was angered, for I had no shoes. 

Then I met a man who had no feet. Men trip not on mountains they trip on molehills. Do not want others to know what you have  done?

Better not have done it anyways. A man without a smiling face must not open shop. It is not the knowing that  is difficult, but the doing.

A wise man makes his own decisions, but an  ignorant man mindlessly follows the crowd. The people who talk the best are not the only  ones who can tell you the most interesting things. Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day.

Teach a man to fish and you  feed him for a lifetime. Do not believe that you will reach your  destination without leaving the shore. If you want to avoid being cheated, ask  for prices at three different stores.

A clever person turns great troubles into  little ones, and little ones into none at all. The person who is his own master  cannot tolerate another boss. Guessing is cheap, but guessing  wrong can be expensive.

Learning is a treasure that will  follow its owner everywhere. A bird can roost but on one branch, a mouse  can drink not more than its fill from a river. Never Trust a Woman Who Has  Had Sex With Your Enemy.

A person of high principles is one who can watch  an entire chess game without making a comment. To know another is not to know the person's  face, but to know the person's heart. No matter how tall the mountain  is, it cannot block the sun.

Tenacity and adversity are old foes. Think about your own faults during  the first half of the night, and the faults of others during the second half. If you want your children to have a peaceful life, let them suffer a little  hunger and a little coldness.