"The enemy of my enemy is my friend."

Friday, June 30, 2006

We were watching the DVD of season 3 of SMALLVILLE (We already watched season 2 last weekend and for most of the week, and will start on season 4 next. Yeah, we've got it bad here at Procrastination Station.)

Anywhooo....

A character said the quote in the title, which got me thinking, where was that from? I specifically remember it from BLADE II, and wondered about it's origins even then. Was it from Shakespeare? The bible? Like any sane person, I decided to google it.

Turns out it's an ancient Arabian proverb. Turns out there are a lot of very cool Arabian proverbs. (But none quite as amusing as one of my granny's favourite sayings: "Di hiya di monkey clime di more him backside expose." English from patois translation: The higher the monkey climbs, the more his butt is exposed. Meaning: I was pushing my luck. heh.)

But back to the Arabians .... I spent several minutes reading pages of proverbs:

“Keep your friends close - hold your enemies closer”

“Examine what is said, not who speaks”

“A fool may be known by six things: anger, without cause; speech, without profit; change, without progress; inquiry, without object; putting trust in a stranger, and mistaking foes for friends”

“Arrogance diminishes wisdom”

“Judge a man by the reputation of his enemies”

“Do not cut down the tree that gives you shade”

“Marriage is like a besieged castle; those who are on the outside wish to get in; and those who are on the inside wish to get out.”

“Compete, don't envy.”

“When danger approaches, sing to it.”

“The sinning is the best part of repentance.”

So, do you have a favourite proverb? Some seed of wisdom a parent shared? Or warning from a grandparent? *gg*
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8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Courtesy of my late father, who had a slew of them:

"If you keep your mouth shut, people won't know how ignorant you are."

I can think of a FEW folks I'd recommend that practice to...

Anonymous said...

"Courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the judgment that something else is more important than fear." -- Ambrose Redmoon

vanessa jaye said...

Raine, I've heard a variation of that one: Better to keep quiet and be thought ignorant, than to open your mouth and remove all doubt.

Funny thing is, for the most part, I don't equate silence with ignorance. But I've long lost count of the amount of times I've been astounded at the level of stupidity that was vocalized.....

vanessa jaye said...

PBW -- I really like that one. A very elegant way of saying: Suck it up! *gg*

Jordan Summers said...

That quote was also used in Alien vs Predator. Love the quotes, especially "Compete, don't envy." Very cool.

Amie Stuart said...

Jordan should post the one from her husband's granny.

I don't agree with that marriage one though LOL

I can't think of any--how sad but great blog Jaq

vanessa jaye said...

Cece, my granny was a font of sayings, but I could only remember a couple of them. And of those, that one was actually the easiest to 'translate'. :-P

Now I wished I'd save the link to tha page with all the proverbs. There were quite a bit listed, not just Arabic, but other nations/cultures.

vanessa jaye said...

erp. That should be 'fount'. (Well, it could be either, but I think this is more correct.)

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