Selection of German proverbs, sayings and idioms most used in Germany, translated into Italian, as testimony to the wisdom of its people.
German idioms
- The rare guest is always welcome.
- You have to hunt foxes with foxes.
- Even on the highest throne you are sitting on your butt.
- You don't have to pay for tomorrow today.
- Gratitude and wheat thrive only on good terrains.
- Age does not protect against love, but love protects against age.
- Those who promise a lot, give little.
- In wine there is wisdom, in beer there is strength, in water there are bacteria.
- There is no bad weather, there are only wrong clothes.
- You have to beat the iron while it's hot.
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- Lies have short legs.
- There is no way to turn a plum into an apple.
- Where the planer falls, the chips fall.
- Like the shepherd, so the flock.
- Often wisdom dwells in miserable clothes.
- You have to party as it happens.
- Time is money.
- Eternity is made of first sips of beer.
- The wife is the business card of the man.
- A country can be judged by the quality of its proverbs.
- Suspicion is the poison of friendship.
- Fraud is the seller's field and plow.
- A willing heart makes light feet.
- Young women and eggs should not be kept aside for long.
- The smile is the shortest way between two people.
- Gratitude costs nothing and is good for God and people.
German sayings
- The more the monkey rises, the more it shows its butt.
- The early bird catches the worm.
- A clear conscience is a comfortable pillow.
- Greed is the greatest poverty.
- Where there is will, there is also a road.
- The eyes are the door of love.
- There is a judge in Berlin.
- The rich man goes to heaven only if he dies in a cradle.
- Hope is the lawn on which fools graze.
- The road from words to deeds is long.
- Virtuous woman, she does not fear slander.
- Friendship based on wine lasts only one night like wine.
- A penniless charge makes thieves.
- If you want to warm up in old age, you have to build an oven in your youth.
- There are two good women in the world: one is dead and the other has not yet been found.
- Pessimists are more experienced optimists.
- Beauty without kindness is a house without a door, a ship without a wind, a source without water.
- The thistles do not give bunches.
- Every woman would prefer to be beautiful rather than good.
- Your woman, your sword and your horse can be shown but not loaned.
- Nobody can be forced to love or sing.
- Work, free time and rest, they close the doors to the doctor.
- If the innkeeper is beautiful, wine is also beautiful.
- Beggars and vendors never keep them away.
- A smile is the most beautiful language in the world.
- Getting started is easy, persisting is an art.
German proverbs
- Wrath of love is the bait of love.
- Anyone who goes to the mill is floured.
- You don't eat food as hot as it is when you cook it.
- A farmer between two lawyers is a fish between two cats.
- War makes one rich and ten poor.
- A woman's hair pulls more than a bell rope.
- Red is the color of love, said the pretender to his crafty seductress.
- Whoever borrows sells freedom.
- Suspect is tyrants' fever.
- Do not hang everything on one nail.
- Little thieves are hanged, a hat is raised in front of the big ones.
- Work ennobles man.
- Peacock, look at your paws.
- Any excess is a vice.
- Almost does not kill even a gnat.
- Who does not want to listen, must hear.
- We give to the rich, we take to the poor.
- The fool and the proud grow from the same tree.
- A man carries his age in the bones, a woman on the face.
- Even the smallest enemy should not be despised.
- Everything is fine, what ends well.
- Shared joy is double joy, shared pain is half pain.
- A today is better than ten tomorrow.
- The healthy man does not know how rich he is.
- Today's truth is tomorrow's lie.
- Women are as changeable as the weather in April.
