Proverbs from around the world:

• If two people tell you you are blind, shut one eye. (Georgia)
• Those who have free seats at a play hiss first. (China)
• It is in sugar that you see the dead ant. (Malaysia)
• Seven days is the length of a guest’s life. (Myanmar)
• Silence is a fence round wisdom. (Germany)
• Good things sell themselves; bad things have to be advertised. (Ethiopia)
• Where there is most mind there is least money. (Latin)
• Better a free meal of acorns than a honey feast on trust. (Wales)
• Only an owl knows the worth of an owl. (India)
• Good luck is the guardian of the stupid. (Sweden)
• At birth we cry — at death we see why. (Bulgaria)
• Errands are small on a spring day. (Iceland)
• The nail suffers as much as the hole. (Netherlands)
• The higher the castle the nearer to the lightning. (Russia)
• There never was a five-pound note but there was a ten-pound road for it. (Scotland)
• A contented mind is a continual feast. (England)

(From David Crystal, As They Say in Zanzibar, 2006.)