Top African Wise Proverbs And Inspiring Quotes

African Quotes on Wisdom

• Wisdom is wealth. ~ Swahili
•  Wisdom is like a baobab tree; no one individual can embrace it. ~ Akan proverb
•  The fool speaks, the wise man listens. ~ Ethiopian proverb
• Wisdom does not come overnight. ~ Somali proverb
• The heart of the wise man lies quiet like limpid water. ~ Cameroon proverb
• Wisdom is like fire. People take it from others. ~ Hema (DRC) proverb
• Only a wise person can solve a difficult problem. ~ Akan proverb
• Knowledge without wisdom is like water in the sand. ~ Guinean proverb
• In the moment of crisis, the wise build bridges and the foolish build dams. ~ Nigerian proverb
• If you are filled with pride, then you will have no room for wisdom. ~ African proverb
• A wise person will always find a way. ~ Tanzanian proverb
• Nobody is born wise. ~ African proverb 
• A man who uses force is afraid of reasoning. ~Kenyan proverb
• Wisdom is not like money to be tied up and hidden. ~ Akan proverb

African Quotes on Learning

• Learning expands great souls. ~ Namibian proverb
• To get lost is to learn the way. ~ African proverb
• By crawling a child learns to stand. ~ African proverb
• If you close your eyes to facts, you will learn through accidents. ~ African proverb
• He who learns, teaches. ~ Ethiopian proverb
• Wealth, if you use it, comes to an end; learning, if you use it, increases. ~ Swahili proverb
• By trying often, the monkey learns to jump from the tree. ~ Buganda proverb
• You always learn a lot more when you lose than when you win. ~ African proverb
• You learn how to cut down trees by cutting them down. ~ Bateke proverb
• The wise create proverbs for fools to learn, not to repeat. ~ African proverb
• What you help a child to love can be more important than what you help him to learn. ~African proverb
• By the time the fool has learned the game, the players have dispersed. ~Ashanti proverb
• One who causes others misfortune also teaches them wisdom. ~ African proverb
• You do not teach the paths of the forest to an old gorilla. ~Congolese proverb
• What you learn is what you die with. ~ African proverb
• Instruction in youth is like engraving in stone. ~Moroccan Proverb
• When you follow in the path of your father, you learn to walk like him. ~Ashanti Proverb
• Ears that do not listen to advice, accompany the head when it is chopped off. ~African Proverb
• Advice is a stranger; if he’s welcome he stays for the night; if not, he leaves the same day. ~Malagasy Proverb
• Traveling is learning. ~Kenyan Proverb
• Where there are experts there will be no lack of learners. ~Swahili Proverb
• African proverbs on Peace and Leadership
• Peace is costly but it is worth the expense. ~Kenyan proverb
• War has no eyes ~ Swahili saying
• When a king has good counselors, his reign is peaceful. ~Ashanti proverb
• Peace does not make a good ruler. ~Botswana proverb
• A fight between grasshoppers is a joy to the crow. ~ Lesotho proverb
• There can be no peace without understanding. ~Senegalese proverb
• Milk and honey have different colors, but they share the same house peacefully. ~ African proverb
• If you can’t resolve your problems in peace, you can’t solve war. ~ Somalian proverb
• When there is peace in the country, the chief does not carry a shield. ~Ugandan proverb
• When two elephants fight, it is the grass that gets trampled.  ~ Swahili saying
• Speak softly and carry a big stick; you will go far. ~ West African proverb
• He who thinks he is leading and has no one following him is only taking a walk. ~ Malawian proverb
• An army of sheep led by a lion can defeat an army of lions led by a sheep. ~ Ghanaian proverb
• He who is destined for power does not have to fight for it. ~ Ugandan proverb
• Do not forget what is to be a sailor because of being a captain yourself. ~ Tanzanian proverb
• Without a leader, black ants are confused. ~Ugandan proverb
• He who refuses to obey cannot command. ~ Kenyan proverb
• He who fears the sun will not become chief. ~Ugandan proverb
• A large chair does not make a king. ~ Sudanese proverb
• Because he lost his reputation, he lost a kingdom. ~ Ethiopian proverb
• Where a woman rules, streams run uphill. ~ Ethiopian proverb
• A leader who does not take advice is not a leader. ~ Kenyan proverb
• If the cockroach wants to rule over the chicken, then it must hire the fox as a body-guard. ~ Sierra Leone proverb

African Quotes on Unity and Community

• Unity is strength, division is weakness. ~ Swahili proverb
• Sticks in a bundle are unbreakable. ~ Bondei proverb
• It takes a village to raise a child. ~ African proverb
• Cross the river in a crowd and the crocodile won’t eat you. ~ African proverb
• Many hands make light work. ~ Haya (Tanzania) proverb
• Where there are many, nothing goes wrong. ~ Swahili proverb
• Two ants do not fail to pull one grasshopper. ~ Tanzanian proverb
• A single bracelet does not jingle. ~ Congolese proverb
• A single stick may smoke, but it will not burn. ~ African proverb

African Quotes on Family

• A family is like a forest, when you are outside it is dense, when you are inside you see that each tree has its place. ~ African Proverb
• A united family eats from the same plate. ~ Baganda proverb
• A family tie is like a tree, it can bend but it cannot break. ~ African proverb
• If I am in harmony with my family, that’s success. ~ Ute proverb
• Brothers love each other when they are equally rich. ~ African proverb
• Dine with a stranger but save your love for your family. ~ Ethiopian proverb
• There is no fool who is disowned by his family. ~ African proverb
• Home affairs are not talked about on the public square. ~ African proverb
• If relatives help each other, what evil can hurt them? ~ African proverb
• He who earns calamity, eats it with his family. ~ African proverb
• Dine with a stranger but save your love for your family. ~ Ethiopian proverb
• The old woman looks after the child to grow its teeth and the young one in turn looks after the old woman when she loses her teeth. ~ Akan (Ghana, Ivory Coast) proverb
• When brothers fight to the death, a stranger inherits their father’s estate. ~ Ibo proverb
• Children are the reward of life. ~ African proverb

African Proverbs on Friendship

• To be without a friend is to be poor indeed.  ~ Tanzanian proverb
• Hold a true friend with both hands. ~ African proverb
• The friends of our friends are our friends.  ~ Congolese proverb
• A friend is someone you share the path with. ~ African proverb
• Show me your friend and I will show you your character. ~ African proverb
• Return to old watering holes for more than water; friends and dreams are there to meet you. ~ African proverb
• Between true friends even water drunk together is sweet enough. ~ African proverb
• A small house will hold a hundred friends. ~ African proverb
• A close friend can become a close enemy.~ African proverb
• Bad friends will prevent you from having good friends.  ~ Gabon proverb
• African Proverbs on Money, Wealth, Riches and Poverty
•  Make some money but don’t let money make you. ~ Tanzania
• It is no shame at all to work for money. ~ Africa
• He who loves money must labor. ~ Mauritania
• By labor comes wealth. ~ Yoruba
• Poverty is slavery. ~Somalia
• One cannot both feast and become rich. ~ Ashanti
• One cannot count on riches. ~ Somalia
• Money is sharper than the sword. – Ashanti
• A man’s wealth may be superior to him. ~ Cameroon
• The rich are always complaining. ~ Zulu
• The wealth which enslaves the owner isn’t wealth. ~ Yoruba
• The poor man and the rich man do not play together. ~ Ashanti
• Lack of money is lack of friends; if you have money at your disposal, every dog and goat will claim to be related to you. ~ Yoruba
• With wealth one wins a woman. ~ Uganda
• Dogs do not actually prefer bones to meat; it is just that no one ever gives them meat. ~ Akan
• A real family eats the same cornmeal. ~ Bayombe
• If your cornfield is far from your house, the birds will eat your corn. ~ Congo
• Money can’t talk, yet it can make lies look true. ~ South Africa
• One cannot count on riches. ~ Somalia
• Money is not the medicine against death. ~ Ghana
• He who receives a gift does not measure. ~ Africa
• Much wealth brings many enemies. – Swahili
• There is no one who became rich because he broke a holiday, no one became fat because he broke a fast. ~ Ethiopia
• What you give you get, ten times over. ~ Yoruba
• Greed loses what it has gained. ~ Africa
• You become wise when you begin to run out of money. ~ Ghana
• If ten cents does not go out, it does not bring in one thousand dollars. ~ Ghana
• You should not hoard your money and die of hunger. – Ghana
• Wealth diminishes with usage; learning increases with use. ~ Nigeria
• Wisdom is not like money to be tied up and hidden. ~ Akan
• Having a good discussion is like having riches ~ Kenya
• Knowledge is better than riches. ~ Cameroon
• You must act as if it is impossible to fail. ~ Ashanti
• Do not let what you cannot do tear from your hands what you can. ~ Ashanti

African Proverbs on Beauty

• One who plants grapes by the road side, and one who marries a pretty woman, share the same problem. ~Ethiopian Proverb
• Beautiful from behind, ugly in front. ~Uganda Proverb
• The skin of the leopard is beautiful, but not his heart. ~Baluba proverb
• Ugliness with a good character is better than beauty. ~Nigerian Proverb
• A beautiful one hurts the heart. ~African Proverb
• Anyone who sees beauty and does not look at it will soon be poor. ~Yoruba Proverb
• The surface of the water is beautiful, but it is no good to sleep on. ~Ghanaian Proverb
• If there is character, ugliness becomes beauty; if there is none, beauty becomes ugliness. ~Nigerian Proverb
• You are beautiful, but learn to work, for you cannot eat your beauty. ~Congolese Proverb
• The one who loves an unsightly person is the one who makes him beautiful. ~Ganda Proverb
• Having beauty doesn’t mean understanding the perseverance of marriage. ~African Proverb
• You are beautiful because of your possessions. ~Baguirmi Proverb
• Every woman is beautiful until she speaks. ~Zimbabwean Proverb
• Three things cause sorrow to flee; water, green trees, and a beautiful face. ~Moroccan Proverb
• A beautiful thing is never perfect. ~Egyptian Proverb
• Patience is the mother of a beautiful child. ~Bantu Proverb
• There is no beauty but the beauty of action. ~Moroccan Proverb
• Judge not your beauty by the number of people who look at you, but rather by the number of people who smile at you. ~African Proverb
• A pretty face and fine clothes do not make character. ~Congolese Proverb
• Youth is beauty, even in cattle. ~Egyptian Proverb
• A pretty basket does not prevent worries. ~Congolese Proverb
• It’s those ugly caterpillars that turn into beautiful butterflies after seasons. ~African Proverb
• The most beautiful fig may contain a worm. ~Zulu Proverb
• It is only a stupid cow that rejoices at the prospect of being taken to a beautiful abattoir. ~African Proverb
• A woman who pursues a man for sex loses her spiritual beauty. ~African Proverb
• A chicken with beautiful plumage does not sit in a corner. ~African Proverb
• The cook does not have to be a beautiful woman. ~Shona Proverb
• Beautiful words don’t put porridge in the pot. ~Botswana Proverb
• She is beautiful; she has love, understands; she respects herself and others; everyone likes, loves and honors her; she is a goddess. ~African Proverb
• There is always a winner even in a monkey’s beauty contest. ~African Proverb
• Dress up a stick and it’ll be a beautiful bride. ~Egyptian Proverb
• An ugly child of your own is more to you than a beautiful one belonging to your neighbor. ~Ganda Proverb
• Even the colors of a chameleon are for survival not beauty. ~African Proverb
• Beautiful discourse is rarer than emerald ~ yet it can be found among the servant girls at the grindstones. ~Egyptian 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
• A woman’s polite devotion is her greatest beauty. ~African Proverb
• There are many colorful flowers on the path of life, but the prettiest have the sharpest thorns. ~African Proverb
• He who marries a beauty marries trouble. ~Nigerian Proverb
• Despite the beauty of the moon, sun and the stars, the sky also has a threatening thunder and striking lightening. ~African Proverb
• Getting only a beautiful woman is like planting a vine on the roadside everyone feeds on it. ~African Proverb
• Greatness and beauty do not belong to the gods alone. ~Nigerian Proverb
• Roosters’ tail feathers: pretty but always behind. ~Malagasy Proverb
• Beauty is not sold and eaten. ~Nigerian Proverb
• She is like a road – pretty, but crooked. ~Cameroonian Proverb
• Why they like an ugly person takes long for a beautiful person to know. ~African Proverb
• If you find “Miss This Year” beautiful, then you’ll find “Miss Next Year” even more so. ~Nigerian Proverb
• The beauty of a woman becomes useless if there is no one to admire it. ~African Proverb