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No place is as desirable as home.
Where there is pleasure there is pain.
Two great men cannot stand side by side.
When the entrance is carefully shut a dog does not come in.
Unless there is wastefulness there is no deficiency.
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Running water does not get stale.
Easily promised, quickly forgotten.
When the purse is light there is no vitality.
Precaution must be taken in advance.
Falling raindrops will wear through a stone.
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Take a profit from your loss.
Avoid and pass by a fool and a madman.
Riches in the shape of children make one's shank thin.
A cornered rat will bite a cat.
Fashion is ruin to some people.
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Better than strangers are relatives.
Early rising has seven advantages.
Walls have ears, wine bottles have mouths.
To the heavy drinker on awakening, water tastes like nectar.
Fast ripe, fast rotten.
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Riches and honors unjustly gained are like floating clouds.
Blood-shared relationships are the best.
When the time comes even a rat becomes a tiger.
Repentance never comes beforehand.
He who sees righteousness and does not do it is not brave.
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The face is the mirror of the heart.
What's in fashion will be out of fashion.
A river that has no bridge cannot be crossed.
A firm resolve pierces even a rock.
The road that is preferred leads to destruction.
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Even a robber fastens his door.
Wealth and fame, strangers gather around. Poverty and lowliness, even relatives depart.
Distant water will not extinguish the neighborhood fire.
A great sage is often taken for a great fool.
Unsown seeds will not sprout.
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Don't say there's a tomorrow.
Too many sailors drive the boat up the mountain.
If the end is good everything is good.
With such a parent there is such a child.
In strategy secrecy is esteemed.
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One seeing is better than one hundred hearings.
Pleasure seekers have no leisure.
Even a rotten rope can be put to use.
Although shrimps may dance around they do not leave the river.
Silence surpasses speech.
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As water lends itself to the shape of the vessel, a man is shaped by his friends - good or bad.
A wife is a household treasure.
Hate the sin but do not hate the person.
The shrewdness of the woman fails to sell the ox.
True patience consists in bearing what is unbearable.
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Emeralds as well as glass will shine when light is shed on them.
Snakes follow the way of serpents.
Don't drive a snake from a bamboo thicket.
Early sleeping and early rising are the essentials for success.
Having learned his lesson with hot soup, he blows cold fish salad.
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The very thing one likes, one does well.
He who has been bitten by a snake fears a decayed rope.
A statement let loose cannot be caught by four horses.
Study well, play well.
Though the whip is long it does not reach the belly of the horse.
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A bad wife is a poor harvest for sixty years.
Emeralds are easily broken.
Better a stitch now than ten stitches later.
By seeing one spot you know the entire leopard.
When the spirit is light the foot also is light.
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Even the stone upon which you stumble is a part of fate.
The superior prevails, the inferior breaks.
Superiors have others above them.
A thief makes a good watchman for thieves.
An exalted temple is known by its gate.
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A quick temper does not bring success.
A quick temper results in loss.
The wind that comes in through a crack is cold.
Brides and mothers-in-law are like dogs and monkeys.
Silk brocade does not make a good mop.
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The castle is not overthrown by precaution.
A wife and floor matting are better when new.
A centipede though dead will not fall.
Business is like the froth from an ox's mouth.
Train the bride when she first comes.
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Oxen go with oxen, horses with horses.
Pain is the seed of pleasure.
Carelessness is a great enemy.
You can't eat the rice cake in a picture.
The cat that does not meow catches rats.
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Take a good wife even if you have to sell your pots and kettles.
Wine is lunatic water.
Choose a bride and piece goods in the daytime.
The cherry blossom among flowers, the warrior among men.
Cheerfulness is the very flower of health.
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The good calligrapher is not choosy about his writing brush.
The bow will hit the target, depending on the bowman.
The overturning of the preceding cart is a warning to the cart following.
It is better to buy than to receive.
Books are preserved minds.
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The boaster and the proud person are fools.
When old, one finds it difficult to follow the world.
Without ordinary men, there would be no great men.
Though she may be a beauty, it is but one layer of skin.
Wine begins with formalities and ends in a riot.
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Japanese Proverbs (001-100)Japanese Proverbs (101-200) Japanese Proverbs (201-300)Japanese Proverbs (301-400)Japanese Proverbs (401-500)Japanese Proverbs (501-536)
