143 Famous Proverbs That Share Important Life Advice

Living a life is not an easy task, especially if you want to live it well. There are things you have to learn from your own experience as you go, but there are also things that are universal and don’t change as centuries pass by. From time immemorial, people have tried to accumulate that knowledge and relay it to the coming generations. This is how proverbs came to exist.

A proverb is a short saying, usually just one or two sentences, that contains a piece of truth about life. They are very succinct and express a deep philosophical concept in just a few words. These old sayings come from the time when people still very much relied on oral communication and instead of writing things down, would just repeat them from one person to another until they became common knowledge.  

As it often happens when things are disseminated by word of mouth, some parts of proverbs have been forgotten. Some of the common proverbs we use today initially had a different meaning, but parts of it got lost over time. That’s why if you want to know the full meaning of a particular proverb, it can be helpful to consult a scientific source.   

Interestingly, some common sayings can be found in different cultures. Though worded in various ways, they essentially portray the same truth. This shows that some things are equally important for everyone, no matter where you come from. 

For this article, we collected popular proverbs from all over the world. Which one do you like the most? Let us know in the comments if you have any favorite sayings that you live by.