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Birds of a feather flocks together.
Lit: Things of the same characteristics congregate together. |
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zuì 醉 wēng 翁 zhī 之 yì 意 bú 不 zài 在 jiǔ 酒 |
Kissing the baby for the nurse.
Lit: The drunken gentleman's desire is not about the wine. |
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You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him drink.
Lit: You cannot push a cow's head down unless it is drinking water by it's own will. |
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Pride goes before a fall.
Lit: The arrogant (or over-confident) army will lose the battle for sure. |
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Kill two birds with one stone.
Lit: Shoot two birds with one single arrow. |
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Old habits die hard.
Lit: It's is impossible to change your basic characteristics. A leopard cannot change its spots. |
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Too many cooks spoil the broth.
Lit: 3 monks fetching water resulted in no rice gruel (to eat.) |
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yī 一 jiàng 将 gōng 功 chéng 成 wàn 万 gǔ 骨 kū 枯 |
What thousands must die so that Caesar may become great.
Lit: Tens of thousands of bones will become ashes when one general achieves his fame. |
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Once bitten, twice shy.
Lit: Once bitten by a mosquito, you worry about mosquitoes all day. Once bitten by a snake, you are even frightened by a rope that resembles a snake. |
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jīn yù 金玉 qí 其 wài 外 ， bài 败 xù 絮 qí zhōng 其中 |
All that glitters is not gold and beware of the skeleton in the closet.
Lit: Golden coloured on the outside, but rotten inside. (This is from a fable ,"What the tangerine hawker said". The golden colour refers to the skin of the tangerine.) |
