6 Chinese Proverbs That Could Improve Your Life

We paid a visit to the Chinese Garden at Luneta near our national hero, Jose Rizal's monument. It was almost evening and it was raining, there's hardly anything good to see or take pictures of. However, once we sat on a corridor to take shelter from the rain, I was quite surprised that Chinese Proverbs were posted on (almost) every pillar.

I was actually sick and could've decided not to join the trip. But I was glad, because it turned out to be such a good learning experience... I never visited the garden in my entire life before that (not that I can remember).

Chinese proverbs has been practically useful in our everyday lives. At some point they have become a part of our culture. They're even useful in businesses and approaching certain problems. The Art Of War,  a popular book written by a Chinese military general named Sun Tzu contained a lot of proverbs that can be used in different life scenarios.

So going back to my story, below are the Chinese proverbs that I managed to take note of during my short stay in the park. I'll try to put in my own interpretations below each proverb that I cite.

Chinese Proverbs and Sayings

"People are not innately born with knowledge and wisdom, one must undergo hard work and struggles to gain them".

When I meet people more knowledgeable that I am, I'm not particularly interested on the tings they know. Rather, I'm interested on the things they've been through. I'm interested on the things they've learned to overcome, and in gain wisdom in the process.


I think that people who like to think that a person is naturally smart or wise is making a fool out of themselves. Some smart people may be inborn with the ability to "understand fast", but they were not born with knowledge. Most smart people that I meet are in the habit of reading, talking about sensible things and most of important of all, have the ability to listen carefully. It's also equally important to be able to apply the knowledge that you seek. I don't like going after a knowledge that I will obviously have no use for, remember that we will all at some point leave all the knowledge we have in this world so only consume information that would be profitable to you and for others.

"Study the past to define the future".

Study the past so you would not make the same mistake in the present and in the future. Our past experiences allowed us to gain wisdom. By looking back, we learn a lot of things and how to deal with things. This is one important reason why we study history in school. Why did we have wars such as World War I and World War II? Can we use the things that happened in the past to prevent a World War III? I'm just citing this as an example and I would suggest not to bother yourself with it and start thinking about your own self. By looking back in the past, is there anything you can do to improve your self now?

"If one has no patience in small things, he shall suffer chaos in bigger things".

Great things start from small beginnings... There is no shortcut to success. Even the 2008 Boston Celtics has been through a lot of hard work (alright, I'm a Boston fan ok?). It's not easy to get to the top, but you got to start somewhere... Which is, at the bottom. If you don't have to get through that, well that puts you into some advantage. Do not be over-relaxed though... Remember the parable of the bunny and the turtle, it's better to get there slowly by walking consistently than to run fast finish fast (or worse, and never get there).

"The beginnings of most undertakings are often difficult".

A lot of people want to be rich, right? But only few people want to work hard for richness. It's because starting things such as putting up a business is often difficult. We have to accept that this is the way things are... Zig Ziglar said that we should focus on the benefits rather than the process. So it's already a given that in business, you will really have to work hard for the first few years. But the benefits far outweigh the hardships.

"It is easy to start an enterprise but it is difficult to sustain it".

I have to confess, I started out three blogs with my hope that they would all grow into an empire. However, things started to get out of control... I could not keep up with the demands of one of my blogs (which is my flagship and basically the one that makes most money and sustains the registration of my domains) and basically started to lose focus. The result is that what you see here in EPC, outdated but often lengthier posts.

I have no regrets, I'm glad I was able to start off something. But this has taught me to take things easy as well... I wanted to start up two more blogs that had a lot to do with my personal interests and I was sure that I will be able to find topics that I will be able to write about. But then, I realized that I don't have all the time in the world to sustain them.

"Action first before words".

It makes me feel bad that I said a lot of things and then end up with this one, haha. Anyway, I think we should always strive to be a man (or woman) of action and less of words. In fact, we seem to be able to achieve more things when we act on it fast rather than spend time talking about it or bragging about it.

What we know is useless without proper action. I'll give you an idea, words and actions are some of the ways of manifesting our thoughts (i.e turning thoughts into things). So, if you speak of things first rather than acting upon them you are manifesting them in words and they disappear in thin air! And that's a shame because what we really want is to take action and manifest them into things.

Isn't it amazing how words can either harm us or motivate us? Pay close attention to the words you hear and the words you say because they make you as a person. Feed your mind with helpful and fruitful words such as these six Chinese proverbs that I cited above!



Readers, I encourage you to give your own interpretations about any of the six proverbs above. What can you say about them?

Photo Credit: Dainis Matisons