137.A bird may be in the air but its mind is on the ground. This proverb can be used when one is physically far from home but is mentally still at home (homesick). It could also apply in instances where a person is with someone but loves another person that is not the one they are with.
138.A bird with fire on its tail burns its own nest. If a bird allows its tail to catch fire and it enters its nest, it can’t blame anyone else for ruining its home. Some choices we make, only lead us into danger.
139.A child that they carry on the back, doesn’t know that the road is long. So many times we take for granted the efforts of others to make our lives easier. We don’t appreciate it or take it lightly. It is only when we have to do the same thing for ourselves or others, that we realize that it was a difficult thing to do.
140.A fool is the only one who buys his own tomatoes. A wise person will never allow himself/herself to be misled. They would know better than to fall for such a trap.
141.A little rain each day will fill the rivers to overflowing. The little effort we make on a consistent basis, can accomplish the largest of task. The key is to be consistent at whatever it is we want to achieve.
142.A man that takes gun to settle palaver does not want to talk. A person that wants peace or to resolve issues, does not resort to force. No one that takes the route of force wishes peace.
143.A man who does not spare a day to fix a door to his room, will spend long time searching for money he kept inside but you will never find it. Some things are preventable. It is cheaper or easier to stop and address some issues immediately than to wait for them to boil over. At such times, they become impossible to control or handle.
144.A man's stomach does not hold food for the stomach of somebody else. Some things are only meant to be used for or by you. In this case, you can never eat food and expect it to full another person’s stomach.
145. A person who does not wish to have rags for clothes, should not play with dogs. The situation you put yourself in can affect you in many ways. If you deal with people who are wicked, they could harm you and you would have no one to blame but yourself. Make bedfellows with those that you know will not harm you; or with those that you are comfortable with and willing to live whatever else, that comes out of the relationship.
146. A wise man makes his own decisions; an ignorant man follows the public opinion. Anyone who goes with the wind on issues is at best unreliable since his/her words are as good as the wind, here today, gone tomorrow.
147. Death does not sound a trumpet. Death is a silent visitor. It comes when it pleases and at its own bidding. It gives warnings at times and none at other times, but it never announces its coming with a trumpet or fanfare.
148. Don't call a dog when you have a stone in your hand. Some folks learn quickly, especially from previous experiences. A dog, seeing a stone in your hand, will not come since it does not trust your intentions. You may have good intents but it won’t come. It makes it decision based on what it sees. It goes to show that our actions or outward appearance maybe all others have to judge us. Hence, let our intentions reflect what we do or how we act.
149. Even when there is no rooster, the day will still break. A rooster is a fixture in a typical Liberian community. They are notorious for crowing at dawn, we jokingly say they are announcing the day. This is a natural alarm clock and as such, it annoys those who do not wish to rise early. However, because they are almost everywhere, no one gives it much thought. People accept it and move along with their lives. In this case, although the rooster makes it a point to welcome the dawn, if none is around, day will still come after night. That is the natural order. What is supposed to be will be.
150. Every time an elder dies, a library has burnt down. This parable embodies the essence of this book. Our elders are walking, breathing encyclopedias. We receive from them our customs, tradition, etc. They hold and pass on to us out identities. They are the fabric of our society.
151. If the calf sucks too greedily, it tears away the mother's udder. Impatience can often lead to danger even if it is unintended. It pays to be patient.
152. If the home doesn't sell you, the street won't buy you. Most of the times, it takes an insider to betray you; an outsider doesn’t know your secrets as well as an friend or someone close to you.
153. If there is a way to prevent trouble, we use it. It is better to stay safe than be sorry. Keeping oneself out of trouble is the best way to live.
154.If there is cause to hate someone, the cause to love has just begun. It is no use spending one’s effort hating when you could use that time to love someone.
155. If two friends keep money in the same place, one will laugh and one will cry. This proverb speaks to the act of betrayal. Only those we know and or love can betray us.
156. If you can walk, you can dance; if you can talk, you can sing. Some things follow naturally in life, all we have to do is to try them out. We may have the beginnings or basis of what we need to move to the next level.
157. If you don't sell your head, no one will buy it. The way you present yourself is how others will take you. if you poorly represent yourself, expect others to treat you poorly. Alternatively, this parable could mean that one has to make one’s way; in order to get success; we need to push our agendas ourselves because nobody will do it better for us. We have to fight to get our case heard.
158. If you find yourself on a road that is leading to nowhere, find another road. There are some ventures (we undertake in life) that we must abandon, since they are not producing any meaningful results. We could use the time wisely in other productive things.
159. If you mix yourself with the grains, the pigs will eat you. If we mingle with the wrong crowd, you suffer. The way you treat yourself, that is how others will take you. If you lower your respect, then others will disrespect you.
160. If you see a people standing tall, it is because they stand on the backs of those who came before them. It is important to recognize the work of those that came before us. They laid a solid foundation for us to follow. Our success if as much due to them as it is to us.
161. If you take in the street dog, it doesn’t leave its tics behind. Everyone comes along with packages. It is not possible to take people and leave their packages behind. We should be willing to accept them as they are or leave them alone.
162. If you want to speak to God, tell it to the wind. The wind travels far and wide; speaking to the wind is a good way of saying if you want for everyone to know something, just tell it to the wind. That is a sure way of getting it to travel fast and far.
163.In a community, there is always one person who knows everything. Some people make it their business to poke into others’ affairs.
164.Iron doesn't get hot if they don't put it in the fire. One way of looking at this proverb is this- things will not happen on their own, we need to put effort or move before we can get anything done. Thus, if you want to accomplish something, then, do something about it, don’t wait for a miracle, try acting upon it. Alternatively, we could say that if you do not provoke a person, they will not bother you.
165. It is better to be loved than feared. Respect is not attained by fear. With time, fear disappears and people break free, but respect comes from love; this is the only way it lasts.
166.It is not difficult to hurt, but it is difficult to repair. It is often said that, building is harder than destroying. It takes less to damage a thing, than to build one. Similarly, we see that once a damage is done, trust goes out of the window. Rebuilding that trust is one of the hardest things in a relationship. Along with the trust is pain, discouragement, anger etc. these are all things that make one feels betrayed and as such, harder to repair the damage.
167. It is the habit that a child forms at home, that follows them to their marriage. When a child is well raised, they reproduce that training in their families and society is the better for it. Conversely, a badly raised child reproduces said and society suffers for t
his. People rarely depart from the training they received as children.
168. It is the mother that suffers when the child is ill. Our mothers make immense sacrifices for us always in life.
169. It is the woman whose child has been eaten by a witch who best knows the evils of witchcraft. A person that has gone through something has the experience better than another that has not undergone such experience. This is a simple case of experience being the best teacher.
170. It is trouble that makes some people learn. Some folks are so stubborn, only experience can teach them; they never heed anyone’s advice but life.
171. It will not hurt if your lover steps on you. Love has the power to forgive, ignore and disregard things; things we would not normally take from others, we easily accept because of love.
172. It's not every tree a monkey can climb. A wise person knows which battles to fight and which not to fight. Some ventures are not worth undertaking, or are just too impractical.
173. Kindness allows a person to eat food he did not buy. A kindhearted person gets accepted in quarters reserved for dignitaries. Kindness is priced in the Liberian society; we grow up seeing our parents giving out to the less fortunate. This act is considered priceless. In this case, a kind person does not need to buy food, others they have helped before find ways to pay them back for previous kindness.
174. Life is when you are together with someone; alone you are an animal. This is a situation that runs throughout African culture. The bond of family is strong and holds the society together. This bond starts when a man takes a wife. This is considered one of the most important decisions of the couple’s lives. Thus, a man without a wife, or a woman without a man, is not seen as complete.
175. Little by little fills up the bowl. The smallest efforts we apply constantly, can achieve great things. It is important to be persistent. A thing done devotedly, be it bits by bits or wholesome, gets completed.
176. Love doesn't listen to rumors. A person in love ignores what the naysayers or rumormongers have to say about his/her lover. Love has the power to make people blind.
177. Love doesn't rely on physical features. Love, in its true form, is from the heart, not the eyes alone. What we see on the outside does not necessarily count. This is like saying love is blind, or beauty lies in the eyes of its beholder.
178. Love has to be shown by deeds not words. True love is expressed. The actions of a person in love often tend to speak more than the words. It is undeniably clear, and true for all to see.
179. Love is like a baby; it needs to be treated tenderly. Just like a baby, we need to nurture the love we share. It will not happen on its own. Loves needs caring for, patience, making sacrifices and understanding.
180.Love put the eaglet out of its nest. The eaglet in this case, leaves her nest to search for food for her young. This act is an embodiment of love, especially a mother’s love.
181.Many births mean many burials. The circle of life begins with birth and ends with death. Therefore, the more births there are, it follows that there will be equal amount of funerals; for each birth, there is a death.
182.Marriage is like a peanut, you have to crack it to see what is inside. When one decides to get married, one will never know fully what it entails until you are in it. It is a journey that can only happen when you leave for it. It is true we can get glimpses of our partners, but the real thing is only when the marriage ceremony is over. In this case, one has cracked the ground pea and with time, one will know if it was good or not.
183. Marriage is bittersweet. Married people fight and make up just like everyone else.
184. No child laughs at the ugliness of its mother. Just as it is related in another parable, the sentiments hold true. There is no bad bush for a child. The child has none for its parents as well. The child sees its mother in ways that transcends any negativity others may see.
185. No man is an island. We need others in life as much as they need us. We can do many things alone, but in substance, our lives depend on so many others and what they provide to make us live peaceably or happily.
186. No matter how cold a monkey gets, he doesn't warm himself in leopard skin. There are some things that do not happen. The monkey in this case has and knows it limits. It will never consider wearing a leopard’s skin as something of a play not even if it is facing a desperate situation.
187. No matter how long a log may float in the water, it will never become a crocodile. What you are, you are; what you are not, you are not. We can’t change the natural order of certain things. They are just the way they are.
188.No matter how low a cotton tree falls, it is still taller than grass. Some things are just way beyond our reach or abilities. The grass at its tallest still falls short of the cotton tree at its lowest point.
189.No matter how tight a monkey's trousers are, he has to leave space for his tail. We carry along with us some ingrain things. They never leave us, in fact, we make a conscious effort to provide for them. The monkey here never covers up or leaves its tails hidden, not even for a tight pant.
190.No one can uproot the tree, which God has planted. As mentioned before, the concept of God is not limited to one kind. Liberians are religious on many counts. We believe that fate/destiny has a way of taking its proper place at the proper time. For the traditionalists or the Christians/Muslim etc. it is practically the same.
191.No sane person sharpens his machete to cut a banana. The relative softness of the banana makes it seem foolish for one to use a sharpened knife on it. Some tasks are so obvious or have easy solutions that when others try to make them complicated, it gives room to question their sanity. In this case, the one who sharpens the knife is viewed as insane.
192.Nobody gathers firewood to roast a thin goat. Some tasks require little to low effort; they are virtually useless. The effort to undertake them could be used to do something else more rewarding.
193.Nobody knows the mysteries, which lie at the bottom of the ocean. We say that the ocean holds secrets, or it is too deep. We often mean that no one knows the true nature of another’s heart. We can guess, but to claim with any certainty that we truly know what one holds in one’s heart is foolishly misleading.
194. Nobody mourns an unnoticed death. If one is doing something and it is virtually unnoticed to everyone, then the chances are it is unimportant or doesn’t really matter.
195. One bean does not make a whole meal. It takes a collective effort to accomplish meaningful things. We need to work with others at times to get certain things accomplished. Alone, we can only do so much, but together, we can do more. This speaks to the collective nature of most Liberian communities. Most of the times, these are related people hence, everyone has some interest in the affairs of the others. This is usually helpful but as is with anything else, it can be damaging.
196. One bird in the hand is more valuable than a hundred in the sky. It pays to appreciate what we have; imagining things we do not have or can’t have does not make us to have them. The value of the actual bird in hand, outweighs that of a thousand that one has yet to catch and never may catch.
197.One does not follow the footprints in the water. It is foolish to depend on or make plans that rely on unreliable people or situations. Footprints in the water vanish with the next wave, following this is a fruitless venture; it is not a plan worth implementing because it leads nowhere.
198.One does not need to engage in lengthy discussion with a wise person. A few words from the wise are enough. They speak the right words one needs to make do. This goes to say that a wise person learns quickly not to waste valuable time or to allow experience to teach it difficult things when they can avoid them.
199.One finger cannot kill lice. It takes two to tango they say, well in Liberia, it is common to see parents remove lice from the heads of their children. It itches them and causes discomfort. Some parent end up cutting all the child’s hair. However, to remove the lice or a louse, one needs two fingers or se
veral at times. We need each other in the community to get rid of disturbances.
200.One fly causes the whole carcass of a cow to rot. It takes a lot less to destroy than to build. Alternatively, no matter how huge a situation is, with determination, our little effort can solve it or bring the attention we need to it and thus have it solved.
201.One goat cannot carry another goat's tail. We all have to be responsible for ourselves. There are things for which only we can do for ourselves; no one will do them for us or do them as well as they should be done.
202.One hand washes the other. We can accomplish much if we work together. We need people at times.
203. One lie destroys a thousand truths. It is best not to lie. When one lies, one damages the element of trust that builds any relationship. This level of dishonesty makes people doubt any amount of honesty before it or if anything before it was true in the first place.
204.Sleep is the cousin of death. Just as a dead person is unable to do anything, a person that loves to sleep or that sleeps all the time never gets anything done. For all intents and purposes, they might as well be dead.
205.Smoke does not affect honeybees alone; the honey-gatherers are also affected. Some problems when started affect everybody, not just an intended group. There are consequences to every action, some are foreseeable, and others are not.
206.The greatest remedy for anger is delay. When a person is angry, they are prone to rash decisions; most of which they end up regretting. Our elders caution us to think first, and then act. By waiting, the anger subsides and one is able to think clearly or objectively. This way, they make choices that are more reasonable or they can live with afterwards.
207.The man with the ugly nose does not mind what others are saying about him as long as he can breathe through it. People will always be people. They will say bad and do bad things all the time, it pays to ignore them and focus on your life. As long as you are happy and striving to be comfortable, it does not really matter what others have to say about you.
208. Those who are absent are always wrong. It is common practice when children go to report others, they tell the story as if they were the ones in the right. This attitude continues up to adulthood. People will often tell only parts of a story that they feel puts them in the good light. Thus, the person that is absent gets to be the villain. Our elders are aware of this, and have a system where they would send for the other party to ascertain what happen. Once they have heard both sides, they can decide which party is at fault, or is at the greatest fault.
209.Though the palm tree in the jungle is big, no one knows how big its yield will be. It is unwise to judge things from the outside. A prudent thing to do is to wait for the right time or to get to know people before attempting to render judgment on who or what they are. In this case, the size of the palm tree is not an indicator of its yield potential.
210. Too much walking about deprived the rat of its fatness. In the typical Liberian way this will be like -The grona mouse never gets fat. The time it should be resting to allow itself to grow, it was busy roaming the streets; looking for what it did not lost.
211.When the cat is out of town, the mice rule the place. In the absence of leadership, even the insignificant have the guts to call themselves leaders.
Section IV