African proverbs about truth

Neglected teeth spoil a whole face, and truth left unsaid or told carelessly spoils trust the same way. Honesty is something you keep up, not something you simply have or don't.

Words cost nothing and can be taken back endlessly. Deeds are what remain, so you know a person by what they do, not by what they say.

Sugarcane stays sweet however long it is chewed. The proverb says the same of truth: it does not lose its value however long it is examined.

Morning dew covers everything until the sun comes up, then it is gone. Wealth, rank and power are like that: impressive while they last, and gone sooner than they seem.

Schemes against others tend to catch their author too, so if you must plot harm, limit the damage in advance. It's a warning dressed up as practical advice.

Talk of heavenly things is incomplete if it ignores life on the ground. Whatever you say about the spiritual should also answer to everyday, practical realities.

A promise may never be kept; a gift already given is a concrete act. A generous hand is worth far more than a generous-sounding mouth.

A hyena's mottled coat has no single color to stand behind, just like people who say one thing to one listener and another thing to the next. Being the same person to everyone is what separates honesty from performance.

Two people who are each trying to cheat the other can never trust each other enough to let their guard down. Scheming against everyone means expecting everyone, even someone just like you, to be scheming back.

Boiling does not create the scum; it brings to the surface what was already in the water. In the same way, a time of trial shows what was already in a person.

What you eat under cover of night still shows later, in the open. Secrets and wrongdoing work the same way: what's done in the dark doesn't stay hidden, it just waits until hiding it is impossible.

A fish is surrounded by water so constantly that it stops noticing it. What we are most immersed in is often what we see least clearly.

Judge everyone by the same standard, whether they are well liked or not. Otherwise it isn't judgment, just favoritism.

A worm that has only ever lived in one kind of wood can't imagine anything else. If your experience of the world is narrow, you can't know what a wider one holds.

Horns poke through any covering, however carefully arranged. What is truly there, in character and intentions, eventually shows, even if it stays hidden for a while.

In the proverb's image, the chicken sweats like anyone else, but its feathers keep us from seeing it. Most people are carrying more than shows on the outside.

The eye you healed is the one that later looks at you with ill will. The proverb warns that a person you helped may turn against you, and cautions against the ungrateful and the jealous.

People will talk about you whether they love you or hate you. The source explains it this way: when you attract friends, you also attract enemies in equal measure.

Silence does not mean not knowing. Even a silent stone has heard what happened, and so has the person who keeps quiet about it.

The speaker is called when there is work to do and forgotten when there is food to share. The proverb is a complaint about being used without being acknowledged for what one has contributed.

The pit dug to trap someone else ends up taking the one who dug it. The source compares the saying to "you reap what you sow" and "what goes around comes around".

A cat can only produce cats. What a person, family, or institution produces shows what they truly are, not what they claim to be. Look for the real source of any result.