Ghanaian Proverbs

• 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.
• 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.