Proverbs from your country

The early bird catches the worm - The second mouse gets the cheese.

Here's a weird one that I don't think originated here: There's more than one way to skin a cat.  I guess it hearkens back to an era when we were eating cats? 

Just checked, Mark Twain:
Mark Twain used your version in A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court in 1889: “she was wise, subtle, and knew more than one way to skin a cat”, that is, more than one way to get what she wanted.
http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-mor1.htm
Some writers have pointed to its use in the southern states of the US in reference to catfish, often abbreviated to cat, a fish that is indeed usually skinned in preparing it for eating. However, it looks very much from the multiple versions of the saying, their wide distribution and their age, that this is just a local application of the proverb.

Now if you want to go into a whole weird area, look up noodling...


Edited by Slartibartfast - June 23 2009 at 06:09

rushfan4 wrote: He who laughs last, laughs loudest.  Or variation is He who laughs last, laughs best.

Saw that once, although it went
"He who laughs last, thinks slowest"

When the rooks nest high we're in for a fry, but when they nest low we're in for a blow.

Vuk dlaku mijenja, ali ćud nikada.
The wolf changes his hair, but never his character.
Besposlen pop i jariće krsti.
An idle priest will start baptizing goats.
Tiha voda brege dere.
Quiet water wears down mountains.
Bolje spriječiti nego liječiti.
Better to prevent than to cure.
Kad mačka ode, miševi kolo vode.
When cat is absent, mice are dancing.
Hvali more, drž' se kraja.
Respect the sea, stick to the shore.
Na ljutu ranu ljutu travu.
Nasty wound needs a nasty herb.
Počisti prvo pred svojim vratima.
First sweep the ground in front of your own door.
Puno baba, kilavo dijete.
Many midwives, child will be lazy.
Teško žabu u vodu natjerati.
It is not difficult to force the frog into the water.
Sit gladnom ne vjeruje.
The well fed one does not believe to the hungry one.
U svakoj šali pola istine.
In ever joke there's half a truth.
Bog je prvo sebi bradu stvorio.
God first created a beard for himself.

And my favourite one:

Put u pakao popločan je dobrim namjerama.
A road to hell is cobbled with good intentions.

He who laughs last, laughs loudest.  Or variation is He who laughs last, laughs best.

^ I thought it was the other way around - nevermind, you can't have too many of either in the long run.

Raff wrote: Dean wrote:   Short visits makes long friends. An Italian version of the above proverb: "L'ospite è come il pesce - dopo tre giorni puzza" (guests are like fish - on the third day they start stinking).

Mexican version of the same "Las visitas y los muertos a los tres dias apestan" (guest and dead people on the third day they start stinking)

You attract more flies with honey than vinegar.

Although I am completely in favor of changing "flies" to something people would actually want.

Dean wrote:   Short visits makes long friends.

An Italian version of the above proverb: "L'ospite è come il pesce - dopo tre giorni puzza" (guests are like fish - on the third day they start stinking).