Traditional Wisdom

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Traditional Wisdom

Ability
When one must, one can.
Yiddish

Acceptance
The greatest devotion, greater than learning and praying, consists in accepting the world exactly as it happens to be.
Hasidic

Since we cannot get what we like, let us like what we can get.
Spanish

Tek wa yu get tel yu get wa yu waant.
Take what you get till you get what you want.
Jamaican

If we cannot get what we love, we must love what is within our reach.
French

Accomplishment / Achievement / Excellence
No Limits are set to the ascent of man, and to each and every one the highest stands open. Here it is only your personal choice that decides.
Hasidic

Action / Effort
Turning it over in your mind won't plough the field.
Irish

An ant on the move does more than a dozing ox.
Mexican

When deeds speak, words are nothing.
African

Ain't nothin to it but to do it.
African-American

Actualization / Fulfillment
As you think so shall you become.
Khemetic

A man's fortune must first be changed from within.
Chinese

Adversity
Ezikubingire nizo zikworeka omuhanda.
The troubles that chase you away also show the road.
Kigezi (Southwest Uganda)
in Black Woman's Gumbo Ya-Ya , Terri L. Jewell, ed., 1993

Di aia mongki claim di muo ihn aas expuoz.
The higher the monkey climbs the more his arse is exposed.
Jamaican

Wa no kil fatn.
What does not kill fattens.
Jamaican

Affirmation / Approval
For no man can be blessed without the acceptance of his own head.
Yoruba (Southern Nigeria)

Age / Ageing
The afternoon knows what the morning never suspected.
Swedish

The oldest trees often bear the sweetest fruit.
German

Anger
Indulge not thyself in the passion of anger; it is whetting a sword to wound thine own breast, or murder thy friend.
Khemetic
in Temt Tchaas: Egyptian Proverbs , Muata Ashaya Ashby, ed.

As the whirlwind in its fury teareth up trees, and deforms the face of nature, or as an earthquake in its convulsions overturns whole cities, so the rage of an angry person throws mischief around them.
Ibid.

If you are patient in one moment of anger, you will escape a hundred days of sorrow.
Chinese

Anger is a stone cast into a wasp's nest.
Malabar

Appearance / Form
The way to gain a good reputation is to endeavor to be what you desire to appear.
Khemetic
in Temt Tchaas: Egyptian Proverbs , Muata Ashaya Ashby, ed.

Peace within makes beauty without.
English

Appreciation
Reflection is the business of humankind; a sense of their state is the first duty: but who remembereth themselves in joy? Is it not in mercy then that sorrow is allotted unto us?
Khemetic
in Temt Tchaas: Egyptian Proverbs , Muata Ashaya Ashby, ed.

When you drink the water, remember the spring.
Chinese

A man dies before we appreciate him.
Jabo (Liberia)

When eating fruit, think of the person who planted the tree.
Vietnamese

He who is carried on another's back does not appreciate how far the town is.
African

Bak no nuo wa shot du fi i tel i tier aaf.
The back does not know what the shirt does for it until it is torn off.
Jamaican

Attention / Awareness
Absentmindedness is looking for the horse you are riding.
Russian

Autonomy / Control
The self-mastered man or woman sets himself or herself apart. He or she is like a tree grown in fertile ground. It grows green and doubles its yield of fruit.
Khemetic
from Book of Declarations of Virtues in Kemet and the African Worldview , Maulana Karenga and Jacob Carruthers, eds., 1986

Salvation is accomplished through the efforts of the individual. There is no mediator between man and his/her salvation.
Khemetic
in Temt Tchaas: Egyptian Proverbs , Muata Ashaya Ashby, ed.

In each of us there is a king. Speak to him and he will come forth.
Scandinavian

Avoidance / Denial / Refusal
Do not try to drive pain away by pretending that it is not real. If you seek serenity in oneness, pain will vanish of its own accord.
Sanskrit

Balance
Where there is sunshine, there is also shade.
Kashmiri

The dark threads were as needful, in the weaver's skilful hand,
as the threads of gold and silver, for the pattern which he planned.
Greek

Be humble, for you are made of dung. Be noble, for you are made of stars.
Serbian

Beginning / Endeavour
Wa gaan bad a maanin ciaahn com gud a iivnin.
What has gone bad in the morning cannot come good in the evening.
Jamaican

Belief / Religion
The true believer begins with himself.
Berber (North Africa)

God requires no synagogue – except in the heart.
Hasidic

Light your lamp first at home and afterward at the mosque.
Muslim

Cause
Everything we do is sowing, and all of our experiences are harvests.
Khemetic
in Temt Tchaas: Egyptian Proverbs , Muata Ashaya Ashby, ed.

If you plant turnips you will not harvest grapes.
Akan (West Africa)

Celebration
Celebrate, then, the days of rejoicing and do not tire of them. For lo, none may take their goods with them and none who depart ever come back again.
Khemetic
from Book of Songs , in Kemet and the African Worldview , Maulana Karenga and Jacob Carruthers, eds., 1986

Change
Change is Lord of the Universe … Nothing rests, everything moves; everything vibrates.
Khemetic
in Temt Tchaas: Egyptian Proverbs , Muata Ashaya Ashby, ed.

Character
No one can leave his character behind him when he goes on a journey.
Yoruba (Southern Nigeria)

Collaboration / Synergy
Behind every able man, there are always other able men.
Chinese

One hand can't tie a bundle.
Basa (Liberia/Nigeria)

Wan an ciaahn clap.
One hand cannot clap.
Jamaican

When a blind man carries a lame man, both go forward.
Swedish

When spider webs unite, they can tie up a lion.
Ethiopian

Sticks in a bundle are unbreakable.
Bondei (Kenya)

A single arrow is easily broken, but not ten in a bundle.
Japanese Saying

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