Customer Reviews

Polish Proverbs

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Beautiful wycinanki, a Polish art form that creates traditional designs by paper cutting, graces front and back covers in full color. Wycinanki designs in black and white illustrate the pages of Polish proverbs inside.

Proverbs gathered from historical and modern day sources offer insight and wit on such topics as love and marriage, romance, law and order, religion, home and family, bread and beer, nature, money, friends, and the cycle of life.

Examples of Polish proverbs:

Love yourself, and be hated by the multitudes.

May the Lord grant me a sword and no need to use it.

Krakow was not built in a day.

Without work there is no bread.

Nowadays to meet an angel, you must go to Heaven.

Trust in the Lord, and then put your shoulder to the wheel.

Eat short banquets, live a long life.

Love your neighbor, but do not remove the fence.

Polish Proverbs is one of a series of proverb books published by Penfield Press. Joanne Asala of Chicago, Ill., is an editor and writer dedicated to the preservation of folklore and traditional customs. Of Polish and Finnish descent, she grew up in Bloomingdale, Ill., and earned an English and Medieval literature degree from the University of Iowa. She is the author of Fairy Tales of the Slav Peasants and Herdsmen, and has edited several collections of proverbs for Penfield Press, including Norwegian Proverbs, Swedish Proverbs, Words of Wisdom from the Vikings, and Czech Proverbs.

This small book (64 pages) packs a wallop! Some of my favorite Polish proverbs are:

"In church, at the inn, and in the grave, all men are equal." (p. 23)

"You should fear the Lord and you should fear him who has no fear of the Lord." (p. 25)

"Mother's voice is God's voice." (p. 28)

"Every vixen praises her own tail." (p. 35). (I remember a different version from childhood: "Every cat praises its own tail.")

"There is no rose without thorns." (p. 38)

"A guest sees more in an hour than the host in a year." (p. 46)

"He who lends money to a friend makes an enemy." (p. 48)

"A good listener makes a good teacher." (p. 59)


A list is provided of books of proverbs for further reading.

There are just a few proverbs, not even the most common ones and just a couple of those have both Polish and English versions.