Igbo Proverbs (79 Proverbs)
- A man who believes that he can do everything, let him dig a grave and bury himself.
(Igbo Proverb)
- A snake that swallows its neighbor will have a tail sticking out of its mouth.
(Igbo Proverb)
- If a baby crawls up to me and pinches me, I will get on my knees and pinch him back.
(Igbo Proverb)
- The little puppy said: "If I fall down and roll over for you, and you fall down and roll over for me, then we are playing. However, if I fall down and roll over for you, but you do not fall down and roll over for me, then that's a fight."
(Igbo Proverb)
- When a person is not as she used to be, she does not behave as she used to behave.
(Igbo Proverb)
- A man who rushes into battle does not realize that battle entails death.
(Igbo Proverb)
- A travelled child knows better than the old man who sits at home.
(Igbo Proverb)
- If a young man is not prudent in seeking what killed his father, what killed his father may also kill him.
(Igbo Proverb)
- The lizard says that he knows the condition of his underbelly.?The reason he has it pressed against the ground.
(Igbo Proverb)
- When a poor man gets a little money, his thoughts go off in ten different directions.
(Igbo Proverb)
- A man who shoots his arrows as he makes them does not realize when he has shot a whole sheaf.
(Igbo Proverb)
- A wayward woman is like the weaver bird. She uses her perch on one tree to scout other trees.
(Igbo Proverb)
- If the kernels are not finished, the jaw will not rest.
(Igbo Proverb)
- The lizard would like to stand erect, but his tail will not permit him.
(Igbo Proverb)
- When a very short man causes the market to break up in a big fight, bystanders ask him to stand up so that they can see how short he really is.
(Igbo Proverb)
- A man with a missing tooth does not eat ugiri with relish.
(Igbo Proverb)
- A woman who needs to borrow a calabash cannot count on going early to the stream.
(Igbo Proverb)
- If you decide to eat a toad, you should at least select one that is big.
(Igbo Proverb)
- The mind is like a bag; everyone has one.
(Igbo Proverb)
- When the leopard has a broken paw, the antellope comes to collect an old debt.
(Igbo Proverb)
- A palm tree climber is not expected to tell everything he sees from up above.
(Igbo Proverb)
- All you can tell about a big belly is that the owner has had a lot to eat, not what he had to eat.
(Igbo Proverb)
- If you wish to eat a mushroom, you cannot consider what the mushroom fed on.
(Igbo Proverb)
- The piglet has the same type of snout as her mother.
(Igbo Proverb)
- When the mother goat breaks into the yam store her kid watches her.
(Igbo Proverb)
- A person can never run so fast as to run away from his backside.
(Igbo Proverb)
- An udara fruit that falls by the roadside must want to be picked up and eaten.
(Igbo Proverb)
- In the daytime do we chase the black goat.
(Igbo Proverb)
- The prince is never guilty in his father's court.
(Igbo Proverb)
- When the music stops, a deaf person continues to dance.
(Igbo Proverb)
- A person who arrives at a feast when the cooked meat is being pulled out of the pot does not know what was endured by others to catch and cook it.
(Igbo Proverb)
- An udara fruit that falls on the side of the road is asking to be eaten.
(Igbo Proverb)
- Knowing but not telling it is what kills old men. Hearing but not heeding it is what kills young men.
(Igbo Proverb)
- The riverside monkey is apt to be blamed for every twig found in the river.
(Igbo Proverb)
- Whether it was the tenant who seduced the landlord's wife, or the landlord who seduced the tenant's wife, it is the tenant who would leave the house.
(Igbo Proverb)
- A person who chases a chicken is due a fall. The chicken is a master of the dodged escaped.
(Igbo Proverb)
- At whatever age a child gets a problem, at the same age she has to shoulder the responsibility.
(Igbo Proverb)
- Let the kite hawk have a perch, and let the eagle also have a perch. Whichever begrudges the other the right to perch, may he break a wing.
(Igbo Proverb)
- The same rain that drenches the slave also drenches the slave driver.
(Igbo Proverb)
- Whichever son is able should bury his father. The first son did not kill him.
(Igbo Proverb)
- A person who happens by a neighbor's house at dinner time, and is invited to join the meal, does not swallow such large morsels as to break the string of pearls around his neck.
(Igbo Proverb)
- Bump-thump-scratch. It's all on a big man's skin.
(Igbo Proverb)
- No one gets a mouthful of food by picking between another person's teeth.
(Igbo Proverb)
- The skunk rat can get as fat and plump as he pleases. If his whole hind leg costs one anini, I still will not buy it.
(Igbo Proverb)
- While the wooden idols are tormenting me, the termites are tormenting them.
(Igbo Proverb)
- A person who is being carried to the market does not realize that the way is long.
(Igbo Proverb)
- Criticism of the brave is behind his back.
(Igbo Proverb)
- One first drives off the fox, before taking the chickens home and blaming them for straying.
(Igbo Proverb)
- The world is like a goat's udder. It does not yile any milk, unless you punch and squeeze at it.
(Igbo Proverb)
- You may be clever but you can never lose your shadow.
(Igbo Proverb)
- A person who underneath the tall palm tree is best positioned to tell on which side the ripe head is.
(Igbo Proverb)
- Dancing the drum will be done where the drum is.
(Igbo Proverb)
- One who knows everything at times draws water with a basket.
(Igbo Proverb)
- Until lions have their own historians, tales of the hunt shall always glorify the hunter.
(Igbo Proverb)
- A bad habit that lasts more than a year may turn into a custom.
(Igbo Proverb)
- A person who uses the world as his carrying pad will find himself carrying his load on his bare head.
(Igbo Proverb)
- Do not argue with a fool, for people will not be able to tell between the two of you.
(Igbo Proverb)
- Stream said that it is because it has nobody to direct it that... it goes in a zigzag way.
(Igbo Proverb)
- What gives the child the itch has already given him the fingernails for scratching it.
(Igbo Proverb)
- A calm spirit will enable a man to survive even a six-month jail sentence.
(Igbo Proverb)
- A pot trader whose fortunes are all invested in her clay pots isn't much of a merchant.
(Igbo Proverb)
- Dog eats excreta, but goat gets rotten teeth.
(Igbo Proverb)
- Swearing in the name of one god while at the shrine of another god.
(Igbo Proverb)
- Whatever the type of firewood found in a place, it is usually good enough for the people of that place to cook with.
(Igbo Proverb)
- A guest mourner does not wail as though his heart is broken.
(Igbo Proverb)
- A servant serves a king, he serves the king well; a servant serves two kings, he is true to one.
(Igbo Proverb)
- Everyone cut the grass. Cut the grass. Let no one call the others 'Prisoners'.
(Igbo Proverb)
- The best way to eat hot soup is little by little.
(Igbo Proverb)
- When a drunk meets a mad man, he learns the difference between being merely drunk and truly mad.
(Igbo Proverb)
- A guest should not cause his host's demise. When the guest is ready to leave, his host should not have given him a hunch-back.
(Igbo Proverb)
- A slave boy is blamed no matter what he does: If he does not wash his hands, he is accused of being dirty. If he washes his hands, he is accused of wasting water.
(Igbo Proverb)
- God swats flies for an animal that has no tail.
(Igbo Proverb)
- The big game often appears when the hunter has given up the hunt for the day.
(Igbo Proverb)
- When a drunken man meets a mad man, he learns the difference between being merely drunk and being truly mad.
(Igbo Proverb)
- A man has the same last name as his brother.
(Igbo Proverb)
- A snake that swallows his friend will have a tail sticking out of his mouth.
(Igbo Proverb)
- He who spits towards the sky is spitting on his face.
(Igbo Proverb)
- The dog said that it is better to walk behind those who have had a lot to eat, because if something doesn't come out of them one way, it is bound to come out of them another way.
(Igbo Proverb)
- When a once-beautiful piece of cloth has turned into rags, no one remembers that it was woven by Ukwa master weavers.
(Igbo Proverb)
More Igbo Proverbs (Based on Topics)
Man - Nature - Mothers - World - God - Fathers - Dancing - Madness - Babies - Guest - Time - Food - Reasoning - Duty - Death & Dying - Criticism - Birds - Home - War & Peace - View All Igbo Proverbs
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