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Appendix
- Caring
- Cooperation
- Community
- Continuity
- Conflict
- Colonialism
- Courage
Contact

Home
About
Appendix
- Caring
- Cooperation
- Community
- Continuity
- Conflict
- Colonialism
- Courage
Contact

Caring

Raised as we have been in a deeply uncaring world, our acts of love and support have tremendous weight. To love and be loved are invaluable steps on the path to healing and wholeness – and to bolstering our resolve in these dark times. May you find the wisdom you seek – and may it light your way.

“Learning expands great souls.”

Unknown, Malawi

“He who learns, teaches.”

Unknown, Ethiopia

“Few are too young, and none too old, to make the attempt to learn.”

Booker T. Washington, USA

“Anybody can observe the Sabbath, but making it holy surely takes the rest of the week.”

Alice Walker, USA

“No matter what accomplishments you make, somebody helps you.”

Wilma Rudolph, USA

“Every spoiled effort is potentially a new style.”

Unknown, Jamaica

“Sometimes being a friend means mastering the art of timing. There is a time for silence. A time to let go and allow people to hurl themselves into their own destiny. And a time to prepare to pick up the pieces when it’s all over.”

Gloria Naylor, USA

“The mere imparting of information is not education. Above all things, the effort must result in making a man think and do for himself.”

Carter Godwin Woodson, USA

“No one rises to low expectations.”

Les Brown, USA

“Better building bridges than building walls.”

Unknown, Swahili

“Smooth seas do not make skillful sailors.”

Unknown, Africa

“I’ve learned that making a living is not the same as making a life.”

Maya Angelou, USA

“For the benefit of the flowers, we water the thorns, too.”

Unknown, Egypt

“Use missteps as stepping stones to deeper understanding and greater achievement.”

Susan Taylor, USA

“The man who views the world at fifty the same way he did at twenty has wasted thirty years of his life.”

Muhammad Ali, USA

“Those who accomplish great things pay attention to little ones.”

Unknown, Mali

“Wisdom is not like money to be tied up and hidden.”

Unknown, Africa

“Knowledge is like a garden: if it is not cultivated, it cannot be harvested.”

Unknown, Guinea

“Even your dog knows the homes of your friends.”

Unknown, Tetela

“When the moon is not full, the stars shine more brightly.”

Unknown, Buganda

“The embrace at meeting is better than at parting.”

Unknown, Egypt

“It is better to be loved than to be feared.”

Unknown, Africa

“Sorrow is like a precious treasure, shown only to friends.”

Unknown, Madagascar

“No eyes that have seen beauty ever lose their sight.”

Jean Toomer, USA

“Love stretches your heart and makes you big inside.”

Margaret Walker, USA

“You know who you love but you can’t know who loves you.”

Unknown, African

“To be in love is to touch things with a lighter hand.”

Gwendolyn Brooks, USA

“Love is like a baby: it needs to be treated tenderly.”

Unknown, Congo

“Friendship is honey––but don’t eat it all.”

Unknown, Morocco

“Being happy is better than being king.”

Unknown, Nigeria

“Happiness requires something to do, something to love and something to hope for.”

Unknown, Swahili

“If the full moon loves you, why worry about the stars?”

African

“Where there is love, there is no darkness.”

Unknown, Africa

“You should make a new bucket whilst you still have the old one.”

Unknown, Berber

“When you lose, you’re more motivated. When you win, you fail to see your mistakes and probably no one can tell you anything.”

Venus Williams, USA

“Success occurs when preparation meets opportunity.”

Nathaniel Bronner, USA.

“The wise man never takes a step too long for his leg.”

Unknown, Africa

“Too much explanation brings exposure.”

Unknown, Jamaica

“A wise person doesn’t fall down the same hill twice.”

Unknown, Africa

“Cross your river before you throw away your stick.”

Unknown, Jamaica

“If you close your eyes to facts, you will learn through accidents.”

Unknown, Africa

“If you want to lean on a tree, first make sure it can hold you.”

Unknown, Ambede

“If things are getting easier, maybe you’re headed downhill.”

Unknown, Ghana

“Don’t break the branch you climbed.”

Unknown, Africa

“Don’t look where you fell, but where you slipped.”

Unknown, Liberia

“Man cannot live by profit alone.”

James Baldwin, USA

“It isn’t the mountains ahead to climb that wear you out; it’s the pebble in your shoe.”

Muhammad Ali, USA

“A man with too much ambition cannot sleep in peace.”

Unknown, Baguirmi

“Everything will satisfy except money; as much as you have, so much you want.”

Unknown, Morocco

“A tree does not move unless there is wind.”

Nigerian

“You cannot force water up a hill.”

Unknown, Masai

“If you play with a dog, don’t complain when it tears your clothes.”

Unknown, Anaang

“He who conceals his disease cannot expect to be cured.”

Unknown, Ethiopia

“Every shut eye ain’t ‘sleep and every goodbye ain’t gone.”

African-American

“The crocodile is only strong in the water.”

Unknown, Angola

“When weeds invade the land, it means the owner is absent.”

Unknown, Bahumbu

“A chicken that hatches a crocodile’s eggs is looking for trouble.”

Unknown, Malagasy Republic

“The bitter heart eats its owner.”

Unknown, Bantu

“If you don’t know where you come from, it’s difficult to assess where you are. It’s even more difficult to plan where you are going.”

Joseph E. Lowery, USA

“I am not a special person. I am a regular person who does special things.”

Sarah Vaughan, USA

“It’s pretty hard for the Lord to guide you if you haven’t made up your mind which way you want to go.

Madam C. J. Walker, USA

“I believe in the soul. Furthermore, I believe it is prompt accountability for one’s choices, a willing acceptance of responsibility for one’s thoughts, behavior, and actions that make it powerful.”

Alice Walker, USA

“Behave like the chameleon: look forward and observe behind.”

Unknown, Malagasy Republic

“I vowed, right then, to learn something new every day. It was a deep revelation, something I felt throughout my whole self.”

Imamu Amiri Baraka, USA

“He who wants to be famous will have many a sleepless night.”

Unknown, Tunisia

“[on retirement] You can only milk a cow so long, and then you’re left holding the pail.”

Hank Aaron, USA

“Freedom begins within ourselves.”

Machado de Assis, Brazil

“Remember, luck is opportunity meeting up with preparation, so you must prepare yourself to be lucky.”

Gregory Himes, USA

“If you always do what you always did, you will always get what you always got.”

Moms Mabley, USA

“If I’d known I was going to live this long, I’d have taken better care of myself.”

Eubie Blake, USA

“One time de mistake, two time a purpose.”

Unknown, Jamaica

“The reason why the tortoise walks slowly is because it wants to know how deep the ground is.”

Unknown, African

“Do not look where you fell. Look where you slipped.”

Unknown, African

“The eye never forgets what the heart has seen.”

Unknown, Bantu

“Change your steps with changes in the rhythm of the drum.”

Unknown, Ewe

“What tastes sweet in the mouth can burn the belly.”

Unknown, Jamaica

“The most sacred place isn’t the church, the mosque, or the temple, it’s the temple of the body. That’s where spirit lives.”

Susan Taylor, USA

“Never be afraid to sit awhile and think.”

Lorraine Hansberry

“Hurrying and worrying are not the same as strength.”

Unknown, Hausa

“Be grateful for luck. Pay the thunder no mind—listen to the birds. And don’t hate nobody.”

Eubie Blake

“Self-love is the first step to liberation.”

Elisa Lucinda, Brazil

“You cannot tell a hungry child that you gave him food yesterday.”

Unknown, Zimbabwe

“A good deed is something one returns.”

Unknown, Zanzibar

“If God were not forgiving, heaven would be empty.”

Unknown, Berber

“Coconuts fill a basket one by one.”

Unknown, Jamaica

“Midday sun is the remedy for a cold.”

Unknown, Hausa

“How lovely is the sun after rain, and how lovely is laughter after sorrow.”

Tunisia

“No matter how long the winter, spring is sure to follow.”

Unknown, Guinea

“No matter how long the night, the day is sure to come.”

Unknown, Congo

“The darkness of night cannot stop the light of morning.”

Unknown, Cameroon

“You will never drown where you always take a bath.”

Unknown, Mali

“Your own need to be shines out of any dream or creation you imagine.”

James Earl Jones, USA

“Whatever is bringing you down, get rid of it. Because you’ll find that when you’re free, your true creativity, your true self comes out.”

Tina Turner, USA

“You are young, gifted, and black. We must begin to tell our young, there’s a world waiting for you, yours is the quest that’s just begun.”

James Weldon Johnson, USA

“A woman is never old when it comes to the dance she knows.”

Unknown, African

“Only heaven can see the back of a sparrow.”

Unknown, Bantu

“Do not let others’ prejudice define who you are.”

Sueli Carneiro, Brazil

“I Am Somebody.”

Alvin Ailey, USA

“Go within every day and find the inner strength so that the world will not blow your candle out.”

Katherine Dunham, USA

“True freedom lies in being who we are.”

Paulo Lins, Brazil

Acknowledgements

Copyright, Jonathan McDougall 2024

Thanks to Oluwatobi Ajimoko, Kristen Cain, and Kendra Johnson for assistance in compilation and editing, to Ariane Barboza for Brazilian proverbs, and to Liana Alston for editorial suggestions.

Biblography

Joselyn Pine, Book of African-American Quotations (2010)
Gerd de Ley, The Book of African Proverbs (2019)
Maryn Liles, 150 of the Best African Proverbs About Life, Love and Family That Are Full of Poetic Wisdom, Parade (Feb 1, 2023)
African Proverbs, No Sweat Shakespeare (last accessed February 14, 2024)

African Manners
The Wisdom of African Proverbs-Get Inspired From 300 African Proverbs From All Around the Continent, Safari Junkie (last accessed Feb 14, 2024
Quora
Reginald McKnight, African American Wisdom (1994)

Vivien Morris-Brown, The Jamaica Handbook of Proverbs (1993)

Copyright © 2026 Afrodescendant - Griots Wisdom

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