The Jewish people do have a knack of coming up with some wonderful proverbs and other witty sayings. Here are some wonderful Yiddish proverbs:
- If the rich could hire other people to die for them, the poor could make a wonderful living.
- The wise man, even when he holds his tongue, says more than the fool when he speaks.
- What you don’t see with your eyes, don’t invent with your mouth.
- A hero is someone who can keep his mouth shut when he is right.
- One old friend is better than two new ones.
- One of life’s greatest mysteries is how the boy who wasn’t good enough to marry your daughter can be the father of the smartest grandchild in the world.
- Old friends, like old wines, don’t lose their flavor.
- A wise man hears one word and understands two.
- You can’t control the wind, but you can adjust your sails.
Some well known Jewish people are famous for their sayings. Take for example Golda Meir:
- “Don’t be so humble you are not that great.” (to a visiting diplomat)
- “Pessimism is a luxury that a Jew can never allow himself.”
And then there is probably one of the best known Jewish people of all time, Albert Einstein. These sayings are attributed to him:
- “Any intelligent fool can make things bigger and more complex. It takes a touch of genius and a lot of courage to move in the opposite direction.”
- “Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance you must keep moving.”
- When his wife asked him to change clothes to meet the German Ambassador, he said “If they want to see me, here I am. If they want to see my clothes, open my closet and show them my suits.”
- “Intellectuals solve problems; geniuses prevent them.”
- “The hardest thing in the world to understand is income tax.”
- “Imagination is more important than knowledge.” Sign hanging in Einstein’s office at Princeton.
- “Not everything that counts can be counted, and not everything that can be counted counts.”
- “We can’t solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them.”
- “Education is what remains after one has forgotten everything he learned in school.”
- “Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I’m not sure about the universe.”