hese selected by no means
exhaust the mine of African proverbial lore but are only a few nuggets that
suggest the Negro's power to infer and generalize and to express himself in
a graphic and concise way relative to life as he observed and experienced
it.[1]

_Anger_
Anger does nobody good, but patience is the father of kindness.

_Assistance_
Not to aid one in distress is to kill him in your heart.

_Birth_
Birth does not differ from birth; as the free man was born so was
the slave.
In the beginning our Lord created all. With him there is neither
slave nor free man, but every one is free.

_Boasting_
Boasting is not courage. He who boasts much cannot do much. Much
gesticulation does not prove courage.

_Borrowing_
Borrowing is easy but the day of payment is hard.

_Chance_
He who waits for chance may wait for a year.

_Character_
Wherever a man goes to dwell his character goes with him. Every
man's character is good in his own eyes.

_Charity_
Charity is the father of sacrifice.

_Children_
There is no wealth without children. It is the duty of children to
wait on elders, not elders on children.

_Condemnation_
You condemn on hearsay evidence alone, your sins increase.

_Contempt_
Men despise what they do not understand.

_Covetousness_
If thou seeketh to obtain by force what our Lord did not give thee,
thou wilt not get it.

_Danger of Beauty_
He who marries a beauty, marries trouble.

_Danger of Poverty_
Beg help and you will meet with refusals; ask for alms and you will
meet with misers.

_Danger of Wealth_
It is better to be poor and live long than rich and die young.

_Disposition_
A man's disposition is like a mark in a stone, no one can efface it.

_Doing Good_
If one does good, God will interpret it to him for good.

_Duty to One's Self_
Do not repair another man's fence until you have seen to your own.

_Effort_
You cannot kill game by looking at it.

_Evil Doer_
The evil doer is ever anxious.

_Experience_
We begin by being foolish and we become wise by experience.

_Familiarity_
Familiarity induces contempt, but distance secures respect.

_Faults_
Faults are like a hill, you stand on your own and you talk about
those of other people.

_Faults of the Rich_
If thou art poor, do not make a rich man thy friend.
If thou goest to a