Jamaican Proverbs
1. A good conscience is better than a big wage.
2. A lawyer looks at you with one eye, but he looks at your pocket with two.
3. A little axe can cut down a big tree.
4. A little pepper burns a big man's mouth.
5. A man with trousers that are too short should wear long suspenders.
6. An old debt is better than an old grudge.
7. Barking saves biting.
8. Beautiful woman, beautiful trouble.
9. Behind the dog it is "dog," in front of it, it's "mister dog."
10. Bushes have ears, walls have eyes.
11. Clothes cover up character.
12. Cows do not indulge in horseplay.
13. Cows have no business in horseplay.
14. Empty pots will never boil over.
15. Every dog knows his dinnertime.
16. Going to bed without dinner is better than waking up in debt.
17. If "How are you?" cost a cent, few would hear it.
18. If a flea had money, it would buy its own dog.
19. If chickens were judges, cockroaches would be sentenced.
20. If you don't take it, you don't have it.
21. If you follow a fool, you're a fool yourself.
22. If you saw what the river carried, you would never drink the water.
23. Keep both eyes open before you are married and afterwards close only one.
24.. Keep your shop and your shop will keep you.
25. Make a friend when you don't need one.
26. Marriage has teeth and it bites hard.
27. Meat that the cat brings in never gets to your plate.
28. No call alligator long mouth till you pass him.
29. Not everything that is good to eat is good to talk about.
30. Not everything you hear is good for conversation.
31. Prayer only from the mouth is no prayer.
32. Sleep has no master.
33. Sleepy turtles never catch up with the sunrise.
34. That which you do not know is older than you.
35. The hungry fowl wakes early.
36. The nearer the bone, the sweeter the meat.
37. The soldiers' blood, the general's reputation.
38. The spider and the fly can't make a deal.
39. The umbrella was made for rainy days; the white man uses it for the sun.
40. Those who can't dance blame it on the music.
41. Those who can't dance say the music is no good.
42. Tired feet always say that the path is long.
43. Today can't catch tomorrow.
44. Too much hurry, and get there tomorrow; take time, get there today.
45. Virtue never goes far without the company of idleness.
46. When the affected lady is doing well she eats her peas with a pin.
47. When you buy beef, you buy bones; when you buy land, you buy rocks.
48. When you point your finger at someone, look where the other fingers point.
49. When your own funeral is approaching, you don't pick and choose your grave diggers.
50. Words die and men keep on living.
51. Words in mouth, no load upon head.
52. You can say anything to a man with a full stomach.
53. You can stop a bird from flying over you, but you can't stop it building a nest.
54. You cannot tie up a dog with a chain of sausages.
55. You can't have two faces under one hat.
56. You can't take the milk back from the coffee.
57. You shake a man's hand, you don't shake his heart.
58. You will often see a high collar above an empty stomach.
Source: proverbatim.com
Other links:
Asian-Indian Proverbs (Part 1)
Asian-Indian Proverbs (Part 2)
Asian-Indian Proverbs (Part 3)
Cameroonian Proverbs
Azerbaijani Proverbs
Maltese Proverbs
Bosnian Proverbs
Argentine proverbs
