A Collection of Wisdom: Proverbs

Italian Proverbs

It is easier to threaten than to kill.

Old thanks are not for new gifts.

He that will not strive in this world should not have come into it.

There are some who despise pride with greater pride.

He who offends writes on sand, he who is offended on marble.

Of future and contingent matters, we can have no definite knowledge.

Better lose the saddle than the horse.

Live and let live.

Who knows most believes least.

Many a true word is spoken in jest.

Not every question deserves an answer.

Not all words require an answer.

Not every truth is good to be told.

He is not a wise man who cannot play the fool on occasion.

Better once than never.

Better ask than go astray.

It is not enough to aim; you must hit.

All the brains are not in one head.

Don’t judge a horse by its harness.

If a fox is preaching, beware of your geese.

Good is good, but better beats it.

The person who enjoys good health is rich, even if he doesn’t know it.

Beware of the person with nothing to lose.

As soon as a new law is made, a way around it is devised.

‘Tis better to ride a donkey that carries you than a horse that throws you.

Experience runs a valuable school, but fools learn in no other.

If you dig a pit for others, you might fall into it yourself!

Every man is nearest himself.

The remedy is often worse than the disease.

Necessity is a great teacher.

Yes and no rule the world.

To the person who watches, everything reveals itself.

The sun passes over filth and is not dirtied.

I might have lost my ring, but I still have my fingers!

After the storm ends, the sun will shine.

Better untaught than ill taught.

He who begins many things, finishes but few.

Yielding is sometimes the best way of succeeding.

Sometimes it’s better to give your apple away than to eat it yourself.

It’s no time to play chess when the house is on fire.

Rome was not built in a day.

A bow that is bent too far will break.

Preventing someone from falling is better than helping him get up.

If you stumble more than once over the same stump, you have no one to blame but yourself.

More Proverbs

Italy is a peninsula in Southern Europe noted for its natural beauty and rich history. The county has a population of about 60 million people, and has been a major influence on world culture during various periods of history.

Around the 1000s BC, Etruscan and Roman societies began spurning in Italy. In the 500s BC, the Roman Republic formed, which encompassed all of Italy by the 200s BC and continued to expand. This caused Roman culture to spread, as well as other cultures to become blended into it. A Roman Empire was officially established in 27 BC, which at one point grew to a vast size before beginning to decline in the 200s AD and coming to an end in 476.

In the 1000s, some Italian cities began growing into larger city-states, and later spurned a highly cultural period known as the Renaissance, lasting from the 1300s to the 1600s. After many various foreign rulers, Italy later became an independent and fully unified nation by the late 1800s. In 1946, the current Italian Republic was formed.

Italian themes include art (including artists such as Leonard da Vinci and Michelangelo), architecture, literature, soccer, basketball, cycling, shopping, lunch, Catholicism, churches, music (including classical music legend Vivaldi and opera star Luciano Pavarotti), filmmaking, museums, art galleries, wine, pasta, olives, fishing, designer clothing, sports cars, steel production, crafts, festivals, and the appreciation of history.