Bulgarian proverbs:

• Hunger sees nothing but bread.
• In every village is the grave of Christ.
• The clean gets dirty more easily.
• The devil knows everything except where women sharpen their knives.
• Forests have eyes, meadows ears.
• God’s feet are of wool; his hands are of iron.
• One guest hates the other, and the host both.
• Do not lie for lack of news.
• The oversaintly saint is not pleasing even unto God.
• Man is ever self-forgiving.
• God does not shave — why should I?
• A long dark night — the year.
• Do not salt other people’s food.
• Become a sheep and you will see the wolf.
• The smaller saints will be the ruin of God.
• Where there is union a bullet can swim.
• The wife carries her husband on her face; the husband carries his wife on his linen.
• When a wool merchant speaks of sheep he means cloth.

And “God is not sinless. He created the world.”

“It is a well-known fact, too, that in the ancient world in which the entire population were non-smokers, crime of the most horrid type was rampant. It was a non-smoker who committed the first sin and brought death into the world and all our woe. Nero was a non-smoker. Lady Macbeth was a non-smoker. Decidedly, the record of the non-smokers leaves them little to be proud of.” — Robert Lynd

“Stilpo having escaped the burning of his city, in which he had lost wife, children, and property, Demetrius Poliorcetes, seeing him unperturbed in expression amid the great ruin of his country, asked him if he had not suffered loss. He replied No, that thanks to God he had lost nothing of his own.” — Montaigne

“In general, the greatest reverses of fortune are the most easily borne from a sort of dignity belonging to them.” — Hazlitt

“It is easier to sacrifice great than little things.” — Montaigne

“Whenever you observe an animal closely, you feel as if a human being sitting inside were making fun of you.” — Elias Canetti

Proverbs from around the world:

• “Opportunities come but do not linger.” — Nepalese
• “If you buy what you don’t need, you steal from yourself.” — Swedish
• “Happy nations have no history.” — Belgian
• “An old error has more friends than a new truth.” — Danish
• “Nothing is difficult if you’re used to it.” — Indonesian
• “The one being carried does not realize how far away the town is.” — Nigerian
• “Men make laws; women make morals.” — French
• “If you are afraid of something, you give it power over you.” — Moroccan
• “You can’t sew buttons on your neighbor’s mouth.” — Russian
• “Do good and forget it; do ill and remember it.” — Maltese
• “Not to know is bad, not to want to know is worse.” — Gambian
• “There are a thousand roads to every wrong.” — Polish
• “Virtue is not knowing but doing.” — Japanese
• “People show their character by what they laugh at.” — German
• “That which is a sin in others is a virtue in ourselves.” — Peruvian
• “The new boat will find the old stones.” — Estonian
• “The talkers aren’t strong; the strong don’t talk.” — Burmese
• “Pride and dignity would belong to women if only men would leave them alone.” — Egyptian