增广贤文(英汉对照

A little error may lead to a large discrepancy-a small error to make may lead to a great mistake. 差之毫厘，失之千里。
Good news never goes beyond the gate while bad newwenku.baidu.com spreads far and wide. 好事不出门，恶事传千里。
Would rather believe the possibility than do the impossibility. 宁可信其有，不可信其无。
If you are destined to have something, you can sooner or later have it; if you are not so, don’t you insist on having it. 命里有时终须有，命里无时莫强 求。
I profit more from one talk with you than from ten years of my reading. 同君一席话，胜读十年书。
When the city gate catches fire, the fish in the moat come to grief or suffer bad luck. 城门失火，殃及池鱼。
Wealth is like muck, and yet benevolence and righteousness are as valuable as gold. 钱财如粪土，仁义值千金。
As distance tests a horse’s strength, so time reveals a person’s heart. 路遥知马力，事久见人心。
When you are lucky, even the wind helps you; when you are not lucky, even an unexpected thing may suddenly destroy your hope. 时来风送滕王阁，运去雷轰荐福 碑。
A flower does not grow sometimes when you purposely plant it whereas a willow grows and offers a shade sometimes when you purposelessly transplant it. 有意栽花花不发，无心插柳 柳成荫。
As in the Yangtze River the waves behind drive on those before, so in the world man of a new generation is driving endlessly that of an old one forward. 长江后浪推前浪，世上新人赶旧 人。
A waterside tower gets the moonlight first, plants exposed to the sun meet spring earlier. 近水楼台先得月，向阳花木早逢 春。
Distant water won’t put out a fire close at hand, a relative far off gives less help than a neighbour close by. 远水难救近火，远亲不如近邻。
There is greater merit in saving one life than in building a seven-tiered pagoda. 救人一命，胜造七级浮屠。
To do is more useful than to say, and self-help is better than the help from others – God helps those who help themselves. 使口不如自走，求人不如求己。
The poor are care-free while the rich and powerful are worried. 贫穷自在，富贵多忧
People who give no thought to difficulties in the future is sure to be beset by worries much closer at hand. 人无远虑，必有近忧。
To stifle your indignation once can avoid your worries for a hundred days. 忍得一时之气，免得百日之 忧。
Drink to your heart’s content today while you may, for perhaps you won’t be able to drink another day; if sorrow comes tomorrow, let it be tomorrow’s sorrow. 今朝有酒今朝醉，明日愁来明日忧。
The person who comes to you to make a report about a trouble is none other than the trouble-maker. 来说是非者，便是是非人。
When people have tea and wine enouph to entertain others, they have many guests who seem as intimate as their brothers; when they are in need and danger, nobody comes to their aid. 有茶有酒多兄弟，急难何曾见一 人。
Kind persons suffer from more deceivers, good horses serve more riders. 人善被人欺，马善被人骑。
Without ill-gotten wealth, a person cannot be rich; and similarly, without being fed at night, a horse cannot become fat. 人无横财不富，马无夜草不肥。
Although you may escort a guest a thousand miles, yet the parting must come at last. 送君千里，终须一别。
Dragons in shallow water are teased by shrimps. Tigers that come to a level and open country are bullied by doges. 龙游浅水遭虾戏，虎落平阳被犬 欺。
If you are not a hospitable host at home, you will find it difficult to meet a hospitable host when you visit others away from home. 在家不会迎宾客，出外方知少主 人。
Brothers, when they grow up, may leave each other and be residents of different areas. 小时是兄弟，长大各乡里。
You may go near to a tiger, but you can not go near to a vicious person. 虎身犹可近，人毒不堪亲。
观今宜鉴古，无古不成今。
Although you may know many people, not many are really honest with you. 相识满天下，知心能几人。
If you live close to the water, you will know the character of the fishes well. If you live by a wooded mountain, you will know the different songs of the birds. 近水知鱼性，近山识鸟音。
When you picture a tiger it is easier for you to picture its hide than its bones. When you see a person it is easier for you to know their faces than their hearts and minds. 画龙画虎难画骨，知人知面 不知心。
When you are graced, you should think of the time when you might be disgraced; in times of safety, you should think of anger and difficulty. 得宠思辱，居安思危。
Noticed by none during their 10 years’ hard study, some scholars became known all over the empire once they won honours. 十载寒窗无人问，一举成名天下 知。
Just as one stores up grain against lean years, one rears children against old age. 养儿防老，积谷防饥。
Human relationships are as thin as a sheet of paper, affairs of human life keep changing like chess playing. 人情似纸张张薄，世事如棋局局 新。
It is natural in the world to find trees that are a thousand years old, and it is pretty rare to find persons who are a hundred years of age. 山中也有千年树，世上难逢百岁 人。
A drop of water is as satisfying as sweet dew when people are thirsty, and yet a little bit more liquor is worse than nothing to a drunkard unpleasantly. 渴时一滴如甘露，醉后添杯不如 无
The poor living downtown are called by nobody, and the rich living even in remote mountains are visited by many people including their distant relations. 贫居闹市无人问，富在深山有远 亲。
The water from my native place, no matter whether it is tasty, is beauty; the people from my native place, no matter who they might be, are dear to me. 美不美，乡中水; 亲不亲，故乡 人。
增广贤文(英汉对照)
Popular Collection of Traditional Chinese Wise Sayings
To understand the present, one should first know the past because without the past there is no present.