135 Sayings of Nigerian Origin

1. "What the child says, he has heard at home." (Nigerian Sayings) Click to tweet

 

2. "The death that will kill a man begins as an appetite." (Nigerian Sayings) Click to tweet

 

3. "Success is 10% ability, and 90% sweat." (Nigerian Sayings) Click to tweet

 

4. "Let's fight, let's fight, no one knows whom fighting would favor." (Nigerian Sayings) Click to tweet

 

5. "A fowl does not forget where it lays its eggs." (Nigerian Sayings) Click to tweet

 

6. "If there is character, ugliness becomes beauty; if there is none, beauty becomes ugliness." (Nigerian Sayings) Click to tweet

 

7. "Before firing, you must take aim." (Nigerian Sayings) Click to tweet

 

8. "Choose your fellow traveler before you start on your journey." (Nigerian Sayings) Click to tweet

 

9. "Fine words do not produce food." (Nigerian Sayings) Click to tweet

 

10. "What is sensible today may be derangement at another time." (Nigerian Sayings) Click to tweet

 

11. "If you have run out of gunpowder, use your gun as a club." (Nigerian Sayings) Click to tweet

 

12. "No sane person sharpens his machete to cut a banana tree." (Nigerian Sayings) Click to tweet

 

13. "A person always breaking off from work never finishes anything." (Nigerian Sayings) Click to tweet

 

14. "A mother is gold, a father is a mirror." (Nigerian Sayings) Click to tweet

 

15. "Marriage is like a groundnut, you have to crack it to see what is inside." (Nigerian Sayings) Click to tweet

 

16. "Meat does not eat meat." (Nigerian Sayings) Click to tweet

 

17. "The frog does not jump in the daytime without reason." (Nigerian Sayings) Click to tweet

 

18. "Fishing without a net is just bathing." (Nigerian Sayings) Click to tweet

 

19. "No matter how dark it is, the hand always knows the way to the mouth." (Nigerian Sayings) Click to tweet

 

20. "What an old man sees while lying down, a young man can never see even when he climbs up in a tree." (Nigerian Sayings) Click to tweet

 

21. "You cannot compare the living with the dead." (Nigerian Sayings) Click to tweet

 

22. "Give me a push from my back, does not mean give me a hunchback." (Nigerian Sayings) Click to tweet

 

23. "If crocodiles eat their own eggs, what would they do to the flesh of a frog?" (Nigerian Sayings) Click to tweet

 

24. "Although the snake does not fly it has caught the bird whose home is in the sky." (Nigerian Sayings) Click to tweet

 

25. "A hunter who has only one arrow does not shoot with careless aim." (Nigerian Sayings) Click to tweet

 

26. "It is the first step that is difficult." (Nigerian Sayings) Click to tweet

 

27. "One pebble doesn't make a floor." (Nigerian Sayings) Click to tweet

 

28. "A man does not wander far from where his corn is roasting." (Nigerian Sayings) Click to tweet

 

29. "A woman who has not been twice married cannot know what a perfect marriage is." (Nigerian Sayings) Click to tweet

 

30. "When the music changes, so does the dance." (Nigerian Sayings) Click to tweet

 

31. "When the mouse laughs at the cat there is a hole nearby." (Nigerian Sayings) Click to tweet

 

32. "Seeing is better than hearing." (Nigerian Sayings) Click to tweet

 

33. "If all seeds that fall were to grow, then no one could follow the path under the trees." (Nigerian Sayings) Click to tweet

 

34. "A tree is best measured when it's down." (Nigerian Sayings) Click to tweet

 

35. "A wealthy man will always have followers." (Nigerian Sayings) Click to tweet

 

36. "He who does not lose his way by night will not lose his way by day." (Nigerian Sayings) Click to tweet

 

37. "He who lives in the attic knows where the roof leaks." (Nigerian Sayings) Click to tweet

 

38. "The disobedient fowl obeys in a pot of soup." (Nigerian Sayings) Click to tweet

 

39. "The day on which one starts out is not the time to start one's preparations." (Nigerian Sayings) Click to tweet

 

40. "If the bull would throw you, lie down." (Nigerian Sayings) Click to tweet

 

41. "You can't use your hand to force the sun to set." (Nigerian Sayings) Click to tweet

 

42. "Evil knows where evil sleeps." (Nigerian Sayings) Click to tweet

 

43. "Fire has no brother." (Nigerian Sayings) Click to tweet

 

44. "However hard a thing is thrown into the air, it always falls to the ground." (Nigerian Sayings) Click to tweet

 

45. "A traveler to distant places should make no enemies." (Nigerian Sayings) Click to tweet

 

46. "He who marries a beauty marries trouble." (Nigerian Sayings) Click to tweet

 

47. "Some birds avoid the water, ducks look for it." (Nigerian Sayings) Click to tweet

 

48. "You know who you love, but you can't know who loves you." (Nigerian Sayings) Click to tweet

 

49. "From the well of envy, only a fool drinks the water." (Nigerian Sayings) Click to tweet

 

50. "Abundance will make cotton pull a stone." (Nigerian Sayings) Click to tweet

 

51. "Every fault is laid at the door of the hyena, but it does not steal a bale of cloth." (Nigerian Sayings) Click to tweet

 

52. "Man is like pepper, you only know him when you've ground him." (Nigerian Sayings) Click to tweet

 

53. "The only insurance against fire is to have two houses." (Nigerian Sayings) Click to tweet

 

54. "If death be terrible, the fault is not in death, but thee." (Nigerian Sayings) Click to tweet

 

55. "It takes all sorts to make a world." (Nigerian Sayings) Click to tweet

 

56. "Even in Mecca people make money." (Nigerian Sayings) Click to tweet

 

57. "Hyenas are caught with stinking bait." (Nigerian Sayings) Click to tweet

 

58. "All is never said." (Nigerian Sayings) Click to tweet

 

59. "A friendly person is never a good-for-nothing." (Nigerian Sayings) Click to tweet

 

60. "Accomplishment of purpose is better than making a profit." (Nigerian Sayings) Click to tweet

 

61. "If you want to give a sick man medicine, let him first be really ill, so that he can see how well the medicine works." (Nigerian Sayings) Click to tweet

 

62. "The house roof fights the rain, but he who is sheltered ignores it." (Nigerian Sayings) Click to tweet

 

63. "Not to oversee workmen, is to leave your purse open." (Nigerian Sayings) Click to tweet

 

64. "Profit is profit even in Mecca." (Nigerian Sayings) Click to tweet

 

65. "Fowls will not spare a cockroach that falls in their mist." (Nigerian Sayings) Click to tweet

 

66. "One cry of “Thief!” and the whole marketplace is on the lookout." (Nigerian Sayings) Click to tweet

 

67. "However poor the elephant, it will be worth more than ten frogs." (Nigerian Sayings) Click to tweet

 

68. "Midday sun is the remedy for a cold." (Nigerian Sayings) Click to tweet

 

69. "Allah preserve us from “If only I'd known!”." (Nigerian Sayings) Click to tweet

 

70. "Water may cover the footprint on the ground but it does not cover the words of the mouth." (Nigerian Sayings) Click to tweet

 

71. "If you fill your mouth with a razor, you will spit blood." (Nigerian Sayings) Click to tweet

 

72. "Rain does not make friends with anybody, it falls on any person it meets outside." (Nigerian Sayings) Click to tweet

 

73. "People in trouble remember God." (Nigerian Sayings) Click to tweet

 

74. "Overabundance is not far from want." (Nigerian Sayings) Click to tweet

 

75. "The man that won't marry a woman with other admirers won't marry a woman at all." (Nigerian Sayings) Click to tweet

 

76. "He who runs from the white ant may stumble upon the stinging ant." (Nigerian Sayings) Click to tweet

 

77. "A tree is known by its fruit." (Nigerian Sayings) Click to tweet

 

78. "Allah made the silk-cotton tree beautiful, so let the fig tree cease being angry." (Nigerian Sayings) Click to tweet

 

79. "Hold a true friend with both your hands." (Nigerian Sayings) Click to tweet

 

80. "Now the marriage begins, says the woman who has been beaten with thorns." (Nigerian Sayings) Click to tweet

 

81. "A pig that is used to wallowing in the mud looks for a clean person to rub against." (Nigerian Sayings) Click to tweet

 

82. "Being happy in one's home is better than being a chief." (Nigerian Sayings) Click to tweet

 

83. "A smiling face dispels unhappiness." (Nigerian Sayings) Click to tweet

 

84. "Until lions have their own historians, accounts of the hunt will always celebrate the hunter." (Nigerian Sayings) Click to tweet

 

85. "Choose your neighbors before you buy your house." (Nigerian Sayings) Click to tweet

 

86. "As long as you stay in a group, the lion will stay hungry." (Nigerian Sayings) Click to tweet

 

87. "Birth is the only remedy against death." (Nigerian Sayings) Click to tweet

 

88. "Only the thing for which you have struggled will last." (Nigerian Sayings) Click to tweet

 

89. "If a blind man says, “Let's throw stones,” be assured that he has stepped on one." (Nigerian Sayings) Click to tweet

 

90. "Children of the same mother do not always agree." (Nigerian Sayings) Click to tweet

 

91. "Horns do not grow before the head." (Nigerian Sayings) Click to tweet

 

92. "He who does not mend his clothes will soon have none." (Nigerian Sayings) Click to tweet

 

93. "Black goats must be caught early, before it gets dark." (Nigerian Sayings) Click to tweet

 

94. "If the owner of the goat is not afraid to travel by night, the owner of a hyena certainly will not be." (Nigerian Sayings) Click to tweet

 

95. "If you rise too early, the dew will wet you." (Nigerian Sayings) Click to tweet

 

96. "That which brings misfortune is not big." (Nigerian Sayings) Click to tweet

 

97. "Every kind of love is love, but self-love is supreme among them." (Nigerian Sayings) Click to tweet

 

98. "An old man is there to talk." (Nigerian Sayings) Click to tweet

 

99. "He who boasts much can do little." (Nigerian Sayings) Click to tweet

 

100. "Mud houses don't burn." (Nigerian Sayings) Click to tweet

 

101. "Grass does not grow on the nose of a thief." (Nigerian Sayings) Click to tweet

 

102. "Lending is the firstborn of poverty." (Nigerian Sayings) Click to tweet

 

103. "When the right hand washes the left hand and the left hand washes the right hand, both hands become clean." (Nigerian Sayings) Click to tweet

 

104. "He, who wishes to barter, does not like his belongings." (Nigerian Sayings) Click to tweet

 

105. "Hurrying and worrying are not the same as strength." (Nigerian Sayings) Click to tweet

 

106. "A tree does not move unless there is wind." (Nigerian Sayings) Click to tweet

 

107. "More than one mother can make tasty soup." (Nigerian Sayings) Click to tweet

 

108. "It is the fear of offence that makes men swallow poison." (Nigerian Sayings) Click to tweet

 

109. "If the stomachache were in the foot, one would go lame." (Nigerian Sayings) Click to tweet

 

110. "If you give a man a fish, you feed him for a day, if you teach him to fish; you feed him for a lifetime." (Nigerian Sayings) Click to tweet

 

111. "Only a mother would carry the child that bites." (Nigerian Sayings) Click to tweet

 

112. "Being happy is better than being king." (Nigerian Sayings) Click to tweet

 

113. "He who is sick will not refuse medicine." (Nigerian Sayings) Click to tweet

 

114. "Ashes fly back into the face of him who throws them." (Nigerian Sayings) Click to tweet

 

115. "It is more fun doing evil than putting it right." (Nigerian Sayings) Click to tweet

 

116. "If you put a razor in your mouth, you will spit blood." (Nigerian Sayings) Click to tweet

 

117. "Guilt is like the footprint of a hippopotamus." (Nigerian Sayings) Click to tweet

 

118. "It is the woman whose child has been eaten by a witch who best knows the evils of witchcraft." (Nigerian Sayings) Click to tweet

 

119. "One goat cannot carry another goat's tail." (Nigerian Sayings) Click to tweet

 

120. "Not to know is bad; not to want to know is worse." (Nigerian Sayings) Click to tweet

 

121. "If you can't dance well, you'd better not get up." (Nigerian Sayings) Click to tweet

 

122. "If a monkey is amongst dogs, why won't it start barking?" (Nigerian Sayings) Click to tweet

 

123. "Money kills more than do weapons." (Nigerian Sayings) Click to tweet

 

124. "The one being carried does not realize how far away the town is." (Nigerian Sayings) Click to tweet

 

125. "Earth is the queen of beds." (Nigerian Sayings) Click to tweet

 

126. "One who has been bitten by a snake lives in fear of worms." (Nigerian Sayings) Click to tweet

 

127. "The hunter does not rub himself in oil and lie by the fire to sleep." (Nigerian Sayings) Click to tweet

 

128. "Someone else's legs are no good to you when you're travelling." (Nigerian Sayings) Click to tweet

 

129. "A person is a guest for one or two days, but becomes an intruder on the third." (Nigerian Sayings) Click to tweet

 

130. "The child of an elephant will not be a dwarf." (Nigerian Sayings) Click to tweet

 

131. "It takes a village to raise a child." (Nigerian Sayings) Click to tweet

 

132. "The mouth that eats pepper is the one that the pepper influences." (Nigerian Sayings) Click to tweet

 

133. "Familiarity breeds contempt; distance breeds respect." (Nigerian Sayings) Click to tweet

 

134. "A rat is not born a rabbit." (Nigerian Sayings) Click to tweet

 

135. "If you fail to take away a strong man's sword when he is on the ground, will you do it when he gets up?" (Nigerian Sayings) Click to tweet