These modified aphorisms will prompt new ideas or inspire you to discover even more obscure ones.

African Proverbs Working Group – Inspirational Stories – Linkedin – Motivation Africa – Proverbicals – Zambian Translators International

I want a world where everything is welcome, everything is valid, everything is acknowledged, embraced, and accepted. To me, that’s a perfect world. ~ CeeLo Green, Source: https://proverbicals.com/

  1. A bamboo shoot is too flexible for solid construction.
  2. A belching toad portends rain if you wait long enough.
  3. A child who refuses to learn from suggestions, commands, or bruises will soon have scars.
  4. A combination of individuals can do things a single one can’t, and vice versa.
  5. A crazy man may drop a diamond ring into a well, but the wise men can’t get it out.
  6. A dominant bull is identified by its plentiful combat scars.
  7. A fat woman warms in the night better than a good fire.
  8. A fool forgets the past, enjoys the present and ignores tomorrow.
  9. A foresight followed with early decisions, actions, movements, mornings, and late evenings will bring success.
  10. A friend with the right stuff can do more good than your family lacking it.
  11. A leopard can never change its spots and would go hungry if it did.
  12. A man who marries your mother must be respected as your father.
  13. A monkey that steals your food is behaving correctly for a monkey.
  14. A person being stingy doesn’t do themselves or others any good.
  15. A person is hated for his superior qualities.
  16. A person who does a foolish thing will forget and do it again years later.
  17. A short period of avoidance of a habit doesn’t eliminate it.
  18. A slave has ideas, and some of them will be worth a king’s hearing.
  19. A stitch in time saves nine repair stitches.
  20. A thief feels he will eventually be exposed for his crimes.
  21. A wild dog is best beaten when hit in the head.
  22. A woman without family or teeth is left to the lions.
  23. Adjust your habits and character by mingling as an equal with those you wish to become.
  24. After you greet someone with a friendly smile, observe their underlying happiness and health.
  25. Although your mother might be dirty, hear her wisdom.
  26. An archer carries an extra bowstring; it is small and light and rarely needed, but without it he may get killed.
  27. An untiring hunter brings home the meat.
  28. Annoying habits like farting are impossible to change after eating beans.
  29. As my mother carried me as a child, I will hold her up in her old age.
  30. At birth, one little arm follows another.
  31. Bad character exposes itself as bad behavior, which it can’t hide for long.
  32. Being sandwiched between two fat women warms even the coldest night.
  33. Being the first to understand events doesn’t mean you will do the right thing.
  34. Choose a powerful goal for society to pursue and pursue it yourself.
  35. Clean up the place where you are about to sit or are to depart.
  36. Displaying a needy child in public gets other people involved in helping it survive.
  37. Do not believe a convict when he tells you that he was condemned unjustly, but investigate the facts.
  38. Do not insult people who you will later need for help.
  39. Do not speak of your prosperity as it creates envy and jealousy.
  40. Do what needs doing, discover the needed skills and practice them until you are competent.
  41. Do your job at the speed that will achieve the level of perfection you want.
  42. Don’t abandon your wife, as she will help get you through your problems better than anyone.
  43. Don’t let too many people handle your things, or they will get lost.
  44. Don’t make promises, but if you do, make certain you fulfill them properly.
  45. Don’t postpone for never what can be done now.
  46. Don’t rely on your friends to provide for you; strive for the betterment of your own life.
  47. Don’t say anything about a group problem until you can make a positive contribution.
  48. Don’t start a fight with others just because your companions are strong.
  49. Don’t throw yourself into other people’s troubles.
  50. Even trees fixed in the earth annoy one another in a strong wind.
  51. Every dog knows that if you love the hand that feeds you, it will feed you in the future.
  52. Everything is unique, and we must encounter it as a particular event.
  53. Famous people’s autobiographies mention that, as a teenager, they set a life goal and listed the steps needed to get there.
  54. Friends who are loaners will not be much help when cooperation is needed.
  55. Get started immediately with later adaptations expected, not rejected, and let perfection result from tested improvements.
  56. God’s riddles are straightforward, but it takes science to unpack them.
  57. Good opportunities may be seen by thoughtful men, but they favor the men of action.
  58. Good people and events are more easily forgotten than bad ones.
  59. Great undertakings take forethought, time, and energy, so get started now!
  60. Hard work comes with high honors, but be prepared to handle honor, bad times, and rejection.
  61. Have preparations for big problems, like a fire, readily at hand.
  62. Have three places where you and your savings are secure from catastrophe.
  63. He is a bad man who stinks.
  64. He spent his money on a woman and died in the famine.
  65. He who appears to be helpful must be proven not to have an evil heart.
  66. He who falls into a deep pit doesn’t rise without help.
  67. He who gives a little will give a little more.
  68. He who has a mild fever from infection might improve with a little extra heat.
  69. He who paddles two canoes soon swims between them.
  70. He who stores food in times of plenty may save many in a time of famine.
  71. He who stubbornly keeps trying after many failures is sometimes spectacularly successful.
  72. I am because of humanity’s past, but I now am because I am me.
  73. I am friendly and harmless unless provoked, and then I am dangerous.
  74. I am not made for work; nature made me to eat, avoid danger and make viable children.
  75. I can survive without the aid of the orator or the wealthy.
  76. I live my life comfortably and don’t want to live with your problems.
  77. If something is part of nature’s plan, it will pull inevitabilities into completed actions.
  78. If you are satisfied with what you have, enjoy it, and ignore the endless quest for better.
  79. If you are ugly, develop a social skill like dancing.
  80. If you have lost your teeth, you must cook your food until it is soft.
  81. If you insist on too much of anything, you will soon suffer.
  82. If you share with your neighbors your surpluses, they will share theirs with you.
  83. If you want to know about the edibility of a mushroom, ask an expert.
  84. Individuals don’t hear the call of the community’s need, but individuals must do the work to fix those problems.
  85. It is during childhood that permanent strengths and injuries become permanent.
  86. It is easy to work productively when you know your efforts are bringing the goal closer.
  87. It takes two or more pieces of firewood to maintain a camp fire.
  88. It’s when a chicken fluffs out its feathers that it looks big.
  89. Jump over a log but don’t get excited over your neighbor’s plans.
  90. Liars prosper from their deceits until they don’t and then die early.
  91. Life is short so use it to be helpful rather than hurtful to others.
  92. Like a wild bird, you choose what you like and dislike.
  93. Luck is a random thing, and ultimately it balances good and bad.
  94. Marriage is bound into your heart at the center of your being.
  95. Mighty is always right, except when it gets beaten, then it vanishes forever.
  96. Monkey mothers share their food with their kids.
  97. No one can work on an empty stomach.
  98. Obey the advice of those who know the world, or you will get hurt.
  99. On the days you are having bad luck, even warm soup feels cold.
  100. One day of rest from an onerous job is essential, but taking a day off from a life calling is a punishment.
  101. One who enters a forest does not listen to the breaking of the twigs in the brush.
  102. One who helps you walk in the night is to be thanked in the day.
  103. One who intends to swim does not stand for long on the dock.
  104. Only a person asking how to change a habit should be given suggestions.
  105. Only mathematicians are proud of making seemingly impossible things simple.
  106. Our children are like the forests of our future world.
  107. Our problems at home need not be broadcast to the public.
  108. People living with problems must find and fix the causes themselves.
  109. Plans for making adaptations after testing is complete are part of the process for finding solutions.
  110. Prepare before the need because it is too late to assemble what’s needed for the action when action is needed.
  111. Respect the realities that come with existence.
  112. Sidestep exhibits of dangerous temptations that lead you astray, but show the ones encouraging you to succeed.
  113. Sit down with the elders and you will eat sparingly, but keep standing and you will eat nothing.
  114. Some decisions must be made, and after due consideration, make yours clear and firm.
  115. Speak quietly to your dog, but have a stick in your hand.
  116. Sports are activities that promote practice, and these are useful to achieve needed skills that have other applications.
  117. Stolen things are only objects possessed and not earned and loved.
  118. Take care of your internal health, as the external appearance of health is easy to fake.
  119. The child of a wise person never starves because their security was preplanned.
  120. The crow who can fly to discover food needn’t worry about chickens scratching for it.
  121. The early bird may catch the worms, but the scratchers in the dry ground get the grain.
  122. The Earth is a sphere; sit in a rowboat and watch another boat go over the horizon equidistantly in any direction.
  123. The elders may not see a thrown stone, but their warnings are based on the experience of previously thrown stones.
  124. The elders use their hindsight of experience to generate foresight of probable futures.
  125. The first to depart don’t always get to the destination first.
  126. The foresight of danger is forewarned with foreboding, or forborne, which then may be forecast and forestalled, and forgotten.
  127. The good die too young, even at a hundred years.
  128. The king lives in the castle above the town, and below the poor live without sanitation and with the open sewers’ stink.
  129. The mouth is the source of many troubles; it eats too much sweet and speaks too much bitter.
  130. The shark who has eaten your pal isn’t interested in eating you.
  131. The stick you have in hand can chase a snarling dog away.
  132. The victim in a war doesn’t know the weapon or its wielder and might like them if they did.
  133. The weight of a personal burden is known only to the one carrying it.
  134. There is nothing that is hidden from God’s natural reality.
  135. There may be annoying things lurking in your mind that don’t expose themselves until you are talking to your friends.
  136. There must be a reason for an elder’s repeated cautions.
  137. Things we want done can often be finished by a group better than alone.
  138. Those who laugh at others’ mistakes are often making the same mistakes themselves.
  139. Those who will not work toward a worthy goal, and only work to avoid punishing survival needs, are to be avoided.
  140. To cut down a tree, you must have an ax as well as the will to succeed.
  141. To face obscure challenges, we need a leader who can create a clear goal.
  142. Tomorrow is unknowable, so use what you have today.
  143. Too much of anything is too much, and it will bring pain.
  144. Treat people well, which means well in what they are expecting.
  145. Treat the days well, and they will treat your evenings and nights well.
  146. Treat the women you encounter with heartfelt respect.
  147. Use what you have in your hands.
  148. Verify the facts before making an assessment of wrong-doing.
  149. Walking together and conversing encourages a wholesome friendship.
  150. We discover who we really are, when we listen to people who have known us a long time.
  151. We inherit our bodies and learn our core beliefs and behaviors from our parents.
  152. We know best where we are and what we have to use to cope with our problems.
  153. We laugh at other people’s antics without noticing ours are even sillier.
  154. We look into the eyes and not the mouth of those speaking.
  155. We must always express gratitude for the tiniest gift.
  156. We must first weed out the bitter roots to get rid of anger.
  157. We naturally take care of our families before we attend to aliens.
  158. We need to be prudent in our physical actions, and civil when with people.
  159. We should listen to everyone because lived experience is unique.
  160. We should observe a person’s health before asking them for anything.
  161. We will never correct the failings of others, but we may appreciate them as they are.
  162. What you do, hidden darkness will influence your daylight thoughts.
  163. What you love and trust sometimes goes away.
  164. Whatever his appearance, a man sent by the king is worthy of respect.
  165. When encountering people with a firm bite on an opinion, pull gently on the facts.
  166. When giving evidence it must be with utmost truth and clarity.
  167. When one commits a bad act, he goes far away for fear of being caught.
  168. When problems come along, keep your attention on doing your present task properly.
  169. When visiting another man’s house, expect him to receive better care from his wife than you will get from her.
  170. When we lack factual proofs it is desirable, before action, to ask someone who does have them.
  171. When we strive toward a worthy goal, we expect bumps and prepare to face them with candor.
  172. When you are at another person’s dinner table you must appreciate what is offered.
  173. When you are on good terms with one another, you can play in any way you want.
  174. When you are rich, be generous to others because fortune may shine on your friends someday.
  175. When you have made up your mind to do something, do it at once.
  176. When your home is certain, it is the best place on Earth.
  177. Whether alone or in a group, be self-reliant in your thoughts and actions.
  178. While in a forest, you can’t worry about every twig that snaps.
  179. You can know the kind of person by the friends he chooses and who choose him.
  180. You can lie to a woman but not to your traveling companion; you will sooner or later get exposed.
  181. You can trust your brother, your father, your mother, but never your wife.
  182. You don’t become a chicken by eating a drum-stick.
  183. You have to look after wealth, but knowledge looks after you.
  184. You may hide anything from men, but everything is part of reality, which can be discovered and revealed.
  185. You never forget a skill that you have mastered.
  186. You understand a man by his behavior when hungry.
  187. You walk away in the morning seeking wealth and adventure, but always come home at night to eat, converse and sleep.
  188. You were lucky you weren’t caught last time, but you will also be punished for last time if caught this time.
  189. Your ill-gotten gains may be flaunted, but you can’t mention how you got them.
  190. Your shoes will bump one another.