72 Sayings of Yoruba Origin

1. "Medicine left in the bottle can't help." (Yoruba Sayings) Click to tweet

 

2. "The young cock crows as he hears the old one." (Yoruba Sayings) Click to tweet

 

3. "The hand of the child cannot reach the shelf, nor the hand of the adult get through the neck of the gourd." (Yoruba Sayings) Click to tweet

 

4. "When the white man is about to leave a garden for good, he wrecks it." (Yoruba Sayings) Click to tweet

 

5. "Silence is an attribute of the dead; he who is alive speaks." (Yoruba Sayings) Click to tweet

 

6. "If you damage the character of another, you damage your own." (Yoruba Sayings) Click to tweet

 

7. "We must blame the thief first before we say that where the owner put her property improper." (Yoruba Sayings) Click to tweet

 

8. "Patching makes a garment last long." (Yoruba Sayings) Click to tweet

 

9. "The soup does not move round in an elder's belly." (Yoruba Sayings) Click to tweet

 

10. "Many words do not fill a basket." (Yoruba Sayings) Click to tweet

 

11. "If you don't sell your head, no one will buy it." (Yoruba Sayings) Click to tweet

 

12. "He who eats well speaks well or it is a question of insanity." (Yoruba Sayings) Click to tweet

 

13. "I nearly killed the bird. No one can eat "nearly" in a stew." (Yoruba Sayings) Click to tweet

 

14. "The king's palace that got burnt added beauty to it." (Yoruba Sayings) Click to tweet

 

15. "Calculation is the master of bleeping." (Yoruba Sayings) Click to tweet

 

16. "When your neighbor's horse falls into a pit, you should not rejoice at it, for your own child may fall into it too." (Yoruba Sayings) Click to tweet

 

17. "When the rain falls in the valley, the hill gets angry." (Yoruba Sayings) Click to tweet

 

18. "Stop the old and try something new." (Yoruba Sayings) Click to tweet

 

19. "When you stand with the blessings of your mother and God, it matters not who stands against you." (Yoruba Sayings) Click to tweet

 

20. "Nobody knows the mysteries which lie at the bottom of the ocean." (Yoruba Sayings) Click to tweet

 

21. "When the door is closed, you must learn to slide across the crack of the sill." (Yoruba Sayings) Click to tweet

 

22. "When wood breaks it can be repaired, but ivory breaks forever." (Yoruba Sayings) Click to tweet

 

23. "The butterfly that brushes against thorns will tear its wings." (Yoruba Sayings) Click to tweet

 

24. "Hardship here and there would definitely yield a broken personality." (Yoruba Sayings) Click to tweet

 

25. "Even after healing, a man once mad would still shout “HOI” once in a while." (Yoruba Sayings) Click to tweet

 

26. "One is in a dilemma to choose between two conditions by weighing the merits and demerits." (Yoruba Sayings) Click to tweet

 

27. "Words are like spears, Once they leave your lips they can never come back." (Yoruba Sayings) Click to tweet

 

28. "Discretion is a better part of velour." (Yoruba Sayings) Click to tweet

 

29. "It is head fish uses to swim through water." (Yoruba Sayings) Click to tweet

 

30. "The bell rings loudest in your own home." (Yoruba Sayings) Click to tweet

 

31. "One takes care of one's own, when a bachelor roasts yam, he share's it with his sheep." (Yoruba Sayings) Click to tweet

 

32. "Work is the medicine for poverty." (Yoruba Sayings) Click to tweet

 

33. "Its a new season, a new era." (Yoruba Sayings) Click to tweet

 

34. "To catch a monkey, you must do like a monkey." (Yoruba Sayings) Click to tweet

 

35. "You must be willing to die in order to live." (Yoruba Sayings) Click to tweet

 

36. "If we stand tall it is because we stand on the backs of those who came before us." (Yoruba Sayings) Click to tweet

 

37. "Diseased genitals must keep to themselves." (Yoruba Sayings) Click to tweet

 

38. "The man who has bread to eat does not appreciate the severity of a famine." (Yoruba Sayings) Click to tweet

 

39. "When hunger gets inside you, nothing else can." (Yoruba Sayings) Click to tweet

 

40. "Covetousness is the father of unfulfilled desires." (Yoruba Sayings) Click to tweet

 

41. "If a big masquerade claims it doesn't see the smaller masquerade, the small masquerade will also claim it doesn't see the big masquerade." (Yoruba Sayings) Click to tweet

 

42. "It takes a whole village to raise a child." (Yoruba Sayings) Click to tweet

 

43. "The pot gets all the sweet, the lid nothing but steam." (Yoruba Sayings) Click to tweet

 

44. "Fear a silent man. He has lips like a drum." (Yoruba Sayings) Click to tweet

 

45. "Little by little is how the pig's nose enters the yard." (Yoruba Sayings) Click to tweet

 

46. "Rather than an abatement of her viciousness, a witch gives birth to only female children and witchcraft multiplies." (Yoruba Sayings) Click to tweet

 

47. "The white chicken does not realize its age." (Yoruba Sayings) Click to tweet

 

48. "Where you will sit when you are old shows where you stood in youth." (Yoruba Sayings) Click to tweet

 

49. "Prolonged endurance is what yields elderly maturity." (Yoruba Sayings) Click to tweet

 

50. "Stretch your hands as far as they reach, grab all you can grab." (Yoruba Sayings) Click to tweet

 

51. "When a king's palace burns down, the re-built palace is more beautiful." (Yoruba Sayings) Click to tweet

 

52. "If something that was going to chop off your head only knocked off your cap, you should be grateful." (Yoruba Sayings) Click to tweet

 

53. "Gossipers always suspect that others are talking about them." (Yoruba Sayings) Click to tweet

 

54. "No one can uproot the tree which God has planted." (Yoruba Sayings) Click to tweet

 

55. "The young cannot teach tradition to the old." (Yoruba Sayings) Click to tweet

 

56. "Charity begins at Home." (Yoruba Sayings) Click to tweet

 

57. "You can't stop a pig from wallowing in the mud." (Yoruba Sayings) Click to tweet

 

58. "For no man could be blessed without the acceptance of his own head." (Yoruba Sayings) Click to tweet

 

59. "Those who die through ignorance are many; those who die because they are intelligent are few." (Yoruba Sayings) Click to tweet

 

60. "He who throws a stone in the market will hit his relative." (Yoruba Sayings) Click to tweet

 

61. "Only what you have combated for will last." (Yoruba Sayings) Click to tweet

 

62. "One who waits for chance may wait a year." (Yoruba Sayings) Click to tweet

 

63. "What you give you get, ten times over." (Yoruba Sayings) Click to tweet

 

64. "It is a thief that can trace the footsteps of another thief on a rock." (Yoruba Sayings) Click to tweet

 

65. "You cannot shave a man's head in his absence." (Yoruba Sayings) Click to tweet

 

66. "There was a threat yesterday and tragedy struck today, who doesn't know that it's the threatener of yesterday that is responsible for the tragedy." (Yoruba Sayings) Click to tweet

 

67. "You need a long spoon to dine with the devil." (Yoruba Sayings) Click to tweet

 

68. "The person that eat late, will not eat spoiled food." (Yoruba Sayings) Click to tweet

 

69. "The person who has been a slave from birth does not value rebellion." (Yoruba Sayings) Click to tweet

 

70. "No one rides a horse without moving his head, voluntarily or involuntarily." (Yoruba Sayings) Click to tweet

 

71. "One avoids danger at the early stage." (Yoruba Sayings) Click to tweet

 

72. "Truth came to market but could not be sold; however, we buy lies with ready cash." (Yoruba Sayings) Click to tweet