Read these amazing African proverbs on Life, Love, and Wisdom.
Table of Contents
Top 10 African Proverbs
Only a fool tests the depth of a river with no feet.
Examine what is said, not who is speaking.
No medicine exists that can cure hatred.
He who refuses to obey cannot command.
The eye never forgets what the heart has seen.
Even the lion protects himself against flies.
Tomorrow belongs to people who prepare for it today.
No shortcuts exist to the top of a palm tree.
When two elephants fight it is the grass that gets hurt.
One falsehood spoils a thousand truths.
African Proverbs about life
If you think education is expensive, try ignorance.
Your body is a temple of knowledge.
Give advice, if people don’t listen let adversity teach them.
A man’s ruin lies in his tongue.
No man can outwit their ancestors.
When deed speaks, words are nothing.
He who does not know one thing knows another.
A child is what you put into him.
13 African Proverbs about love
Where there is love, there is no darkness.
It is better to be loved than to be feared.
He who loves, loves you with your dirt.
If love is a sickness, patience is the remedy.
Love doesn’t listen to rumors.
One who loves the vase, loves also what is inside.
One who marries for love alone will have bad days but good nights.
Love for something makes a man blind and deaf.
Let your love be like the misty rain, coming softly but flooding the river.
The quarrel of lovers is the renewal of love.
Love is a painkiller.
True love means what’s mine is yours.
When one is in love, a cliff becomes a meadow.
Wise African Proverbs
The heart of the wise man lies quiet like limpid water.
Wisdom is like fire. People take it from others.
Only a wise person can solve a difficult problem.
Knowledge without wisdom is like water in the sand.
A wise person will always find a way.
Nobody is born wise.
A man who uses force is afraid of reasoning.
Wisdom is not like money to be tied up and hidden.
One who causes others misfortune also teaches them wisdom.
A fool cannot untie the knot tied by a wise man.
Wisdom does not come overnight.
A wise man fills his head before emptying his mouth.
A wise person doesn’t fall down the same hill twice.
Wisdom does not come overnight.
The wise man never takes a step too long for his leg.
Best African Proverbs
If you want to know the end, look at the beginning.
Knowledge is a garden. If it isn’t cultivated, you can’t harvest it.
A bird that flies off the Earth and lands on an anthill is still on the ground.
All monkeys cannot hang from the same branch.
He who digs a grave for his enemy might as well be digging one for himself.
However long the night, the dawn will break.
If you heal the leg of a person, do not be surprised if they use it to run away.
A roaring lion kills no game.
Do not look where you feel. Look where you slipped.
Restless feet might walk you into a snake pit.
Do not call a dog with a whip in your hand.
The earth is a beehive, we all enter by the same door.
Rain does not fall on one roof alone.
Don’t set sail on someone else’s star.
To try and to fail is not laziness.
Seeing is different than being told.
If there is no enemy within, the enemy outside can do no harm.
When an old man dies, a library is burned with him.
