- Let not what you cannot do deter you from what you can do.
- Do not look where you fell but where you slipped.
- If you are on the road to nowhere, find another road.
- Two men in a burning house must not stop to argue.
- One cannot both feast and become rich.
- One tree cannot become a forest.
- Money is sharper than a sword.
- By going and coming a bird weaves its nest.
- It is not shame at all to work for money.
- The surface of water is beautiful, but it is no good to sleep on.
- He who tests the depth of the stream with both feet must be prepared to swim.
- If two selfish young men sit next to a pot of water, the water spills out on the ground.
- The parrot that knows how precious its feathers are does not build its nest by the roadside.
- Do not call the forest that shelters you a jungle.
- What the cat sees and turns its eyes away from, the dog sees and barks at.
- A lizard that knows how to hide grows to become a crocodile.
- The chicken is never declared in the court of hawks.
- The goat says: “They bought my mother, not I”.
- When you are sitting in your own house, you don’t lean anything. You must get out of your house to learn.
- The ruin of a nation begins in the homes of its people.
- If things are getting easier, maybe you’re headed downhill.
- The wise is spoken to in proverbs, not plain language.
- Let not what you cannot do deter you from what you can do.
- A child who asks questions does not become a fool.
- It is the fool whose own tomatoes are sold to him.
- Do not follow the path, go where there is not path to begin a trail.
- The chicken also knows when it’s morning, but still watches the mouth of the cock.
- A big penis does not guarantee orgasm or twins.
- It is the calm and silent water that downs a man.
- Although the snake does not fly it catches the bird whose home is in the sky.
- However long a log stays in the water it will never become a crocodile.
- Hate has no medicine.
- Patience is good, but hard to practice.
- Rain beats a leopard’s skin, but it does not wash out the spots.
- If you want someone more knowledgeable than yourself to identify a bird you do not first remove the feathers.
- One finger cannot pick a stone.
- No one boast of what belongs to another.
- Knowledge is like a baobab tree; no one can encompass it with their hands.
- The Creator created death only for death to kill him.
- One falsehood spoils a thousand truths.
- One lie ruins a thousand truths.
- Until the lion tells his side of the story, the tale of the hunt will always glorify the hunter.
- In a community of beggars, stealing and not begging, is considered a crime.
- If there were no elephant in the jungle, the buffalo would be a great animal.
- Truth is a cure.
- If you want to speak to God, tell it to the wind.
- The wealth of the greedy ultimately goes to the community.
- A man who pays respect to the great paves the way for his own greatness.
- A stranger dances; he does not sing.
- Nobody can prepare for harmattan by drinking plenty of water.
- The moon moves slowly but it crosses the town.
- If you’ve not been to someone else’s farm, you cannot say that you’re the only true farmer.
- Misfortune does not restrict his visits to one day.
- Nature gave us two cheeks instead of one to make it easier to eat hot food.
- Even though the eye is blind, it still contains sleep.
- If you store saliva in your mouth for too long, it turns into water.
- Monkeys play by sizes.
- Looking somewhere is better than not to look anywhere at all.
- If one does not know, another man teaches him.
- Hunger is felt by the worker and King alike.
- Much roaming about deprived the male rat of its fat.
- Fire and gunpowder do not sleep together.
- Nobody is shamed twice.
- If all seeds that fall were to grow, then no one could follow the path under the trees.
- A woman is a flower in a garden; her husband is the fence around it.
- The responsibility of power is like holding an egg. Grasp it too tightly and it will drip through your fingers; hold it too loosely and it will drop and break.
- The antelope says that if you stay at one spot in the forest for far too long, you will become thirsty.
- A knife does not know who is its master.
- Marriage is like a groundnut: you have to crack them to see what is inside.
- It is the fool’s sheep that breaks loose twice.
- By the time the fool has learned the game, the players have dispersed.
- The monkey says there is nothing better than poverty to unlearn man of his conceit.
- The cockerel drinking water raises its head to God in thankfulness.
- Yam is sweet, but one should eat it in the normal way, lest swallowing chokes him.
3 responses to “Ghanaian Proverbs”
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The proverbs are much informative I would like to have them on my email
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Thank you Willy. We will add you to our newsletter when it becomes available.
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I’m enlightened with such insightful proverbs here. Would be glad to be added to your newsletter.
Well done Adinkra Alphabet.
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