🗣️ Proverbs of Egypt

Africa · 2 traditional sayings

Egypt contributes 2 proverbs to this collection. A country’s sayings reveal what its people prize most. See the full profile of Egypt for its geography, languages and history.

عصفور في اليد خير من عشرة على الشجرة

ʿuṣfūrun fī al-yadi khayrun min ʿashrin ʿalā ash-shajara

“A bird in the hand is better than ten on the tree”

A small certain possession beats a large uncertain promise — the same wisdom as the English 'bird in the hand'.

Arabic · Egypt

الصديق وقت الضيق

aṣ-ṣadīqu waqta ḍ-ḍīq

“A friend is (known) at the time of hardship”

A friend in need is a friend indeed — real friendship is proven in trouble, not in good times.

Arabic · Egypt

More Africa proverbs

Ghana · Kenya · Nigeria · South Africa · Tanzania.

Proverbs are traditional folk heritage (public domain); translations and meanings are plain-English renderings. Stored statically.

Proverbs of the World — tukuk.org/proverbs

🗣️ All proverbs

Traditional sayings from around the world, each with its original wording, a romanisation, a plain-English translation and what it really means.

🌍 Africa proverbs

Folk wisdom from 6 Africa countries in the collection.

🌍 Americas proverbs

Folk wisdom from 4 Americas countries in the collection.

🌍 Asia proverbs

Folk wisdom from 12 Asia countries in the collection.

🌍 Europe proverbs

Folk wisdom from 15 Europe countries in the collection.

🌍 Oceania proverbs

Folk wisdom from 2 Oceania countries in the collection.