These proverbs may be used for graduations and transitions.
- Not everything a scholar knows he learned from his teacher. (-Barbados)
- Education is the work of your entire life. (-Haiti)
- Learning is for life, eating is for today. (-Kiswahili)
- Learning is like sailing the ocean: no one has ever seen it all. (-Africa)
- Inquiry saves a man from mistakes. He who makes no inquiry, gets himself into trouble. (-Benin, Nigeria, Togo– Yoruba)
- No one is without knowledge except him who asks no questions. (-Central Africa– Fulfulde)
- Knowledge is like a forest bird, one person alone can’t catch it. (-Ghana– Akan)
- A traveler who asks questions doesn’t miss his way. (-Africa)
- No matter how full the river, it still wants to grow. (-Democratic Republic of the Congo)
- If you understand the beginning well, the end won’t trouble you. (-Ghana, Ashanti)
- Where you will sit when you are old shows where you stood in youth. ( –Benin, Nigeria, Togo, Yoruba)
- Better you lose time than character. (-Jamaica)
- Rice is one, but there are many ways of cooking. (-Kiswahili)
- Some birds avoid the water, ducks look for it. (-Nigeria)
- It is survival not bravery that makes a man climb a thorny tree. (-Uganda– Ganda)
- The river may be wide, but it can be crossed. (-Cote d’Ivoire)
- If one person kindles the fire, others can take live coals from it. (-Ghana– Twi)
- A person is a person because of other persons. (-Lesotho)
- Though a tree grows ever so high, the falling leaves return to its roots. (-Malawi)
- If you climb up a tree, you must climb down the same tree. (-Sierra Leone)
- There is no foot that does not stumble. (-South Africa– Zulu)
For more African proverbs for graduation and other special occasions, please see Lifelines: The Black Book of Proverbs.
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