Romani / Gypsy Proverbs

Below you will find our collection of inspirational, wise, and humorous old Romani / Gypsy Proverbs, Romani / Gypsy quotes, and Romani / Gypsy sayings, collected over the years from a variety of sources. Enjoy reading these insights and feel free to share this page on your social media to inspire others.

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Romani is a minority language spoken by the Romani.

Gypsy is a name for the Romani people, an ethnic group of South Asian origin spread throughout Europe and northern Africa. They can be divided into many groups distinguished by language or dialect, culture, and way of life.

Romani / Gypsy Proverbs in English

A gypsy only tells the truth once in his life but he regrets it afterwards. – Romani/Gypsy Proverbs

A hairy man’s a geary man, but a hairy wife’s a witch. – Romani/Gypsy Proverbs

A lonely old crow, see someone you know
Fly to your right, sure to be right
And if you are hawking, money before night. – Romani/Gypsy Proverbs

A man must put grain in the ground before he can cut the harvest. – Romani/Gypsy Proverbs

A tear in the eye is a wound in the heart. – Romani/Gypsy Proverbs

A witch-wife and an evil is three-halfpence worse than the devil. – Romani/Gypsy Proverbs

After bad luck comes good fortune. – Romani/Gypsy Proverbs

As the crow is made for stewing the dog is made for kicking. – Romani/Gypsy Proverbs

Bad people don’t sing. – Romani/Gypsy Proverbs

Beauty cannot be eaten with a spoon. – Romani/Gypsy Proverbs

Burn your enemies caravan and you burn you future. – Romani/Gypsy Proverbs

Bury me on my feet, I have spent my entire life on my knees. – Romani/Gypsy Proverbs

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Romani/Gypsy Proverbs

Children will tell you what they do, men what they think, and older people what they have seen and heard. – Romani/Gypsy Proverbs

Credit is better than money. – Romani/Gypsy Proverbs

Everybody sees only his own dish. – Romani/Gypsy Proverbs

Go in God’s name–so you ride no witches. – Romani/Gypsy Proverbs

Good horses can’t be of a bad color. – Romani/Gypsy Proverbs

Gypsy gold does not chink and glitter, it gleams in the sun and neighs in the dark. – Romani/Gypsy Proverbs

Happiness you pay for is to be found everywhere. – Romani/Gypsy Proverbs

He that has a white horse and a fair wife need never want for trouble. – Romani/Gypsy Proverbs

He who is late may gnaw the bones. – Romani/Gypsy Proverbs

He who willingly gives you a finger will also give you the whole hand. – Romani/Gypsy Proverbs

I have two masters — God and the devil; I work for the devil until lunch then I follow the Lord. – Romani/Gypsy Proverbs

If a man looks upon your wife pluck out his eye and cook it in a goodly stew. If he eats the stew his manhood will wither and fall off in the next moon. – Romani/Gypsy Proverbs

If you stab out the eye of thy neighbor cut off two finger and dip them in honey. Cook them in lemon curd and present them to his family in a pigeon pie. If they dine on a full moon his eye will sprout again from it’s socket. – Romani/Gypsy Proverbs

Romani/Gypsy quotes

Romani/Gypsy Proverbs

In the hour of your greatest success are sown the seeds of your own destruction. – Romani/Gypsy Proverbs

In the village without dogs the farmers walk without sticks. – Romani/Gypsy Proverbs

It is better to be the head of a mouse, then the tail of a lion. – Romani/Gypsy Proverbs

It is easier to milk a cow that stands still. – Romani/Gypsy Proverbs

May the witches ride off with your manhood him. – Romani/Gypsy Proverbs

May you have a lawsuit in which you know you are in the right. – Romani/Gypsy Proverbs

May your clothes rip and wear out, but may you live on in good health and fulfillment. – Romani/Gypsy Proverbs

Neither money nor the devil can remain in peace. – Romani/Gypsy Proverbs

Never eat at the table of a Priest. – Romani/Gypsy Proverbs

One madman makes many madmen and many madmen makes madness. – Romani/Gypsy Proverbs

One man may better steal a horse than another look on. – Romani/Gypsy Proverbs

Our caravan is our family, and the world is our family. – Romani/Gypsy Proverbs

Sometimes you get the bear and sometimes the bear gets you. – Romani/Gypsy Proverbs

Stay where there are songs. – Romani/Gypsy Proverbs

The buyer needs a hundred eyes, the horse thief not one. – Romani/Gypsy Proverbs

The dog that digs deepest finds the bones. – Romani/Gypsy Proverbs

The dog that trots about finds a bone. – Romani/Gypsy Proverbs

The fat woman gives the sweetest ride. – Romani/Gypsy Proverbs

The gypsy church was made of pork and the dogs ate it. – Romani/Gypsy Proverbs

The patient thief is as a tree whose root runs deep as he waits for the sweet fruit… – Romani/Gypsy Proverbs

The stick that breaks the window does not kill a dog. – Romani/Gypsy Proverbs

The winter will ask what we did all summer. – Romani/Gypsy Proverbs

Romani/Gypsy quotes

Romani/Gypsy Proverbs

The world is a ladder, in which some go up and others go down. – Romani/Gypsy Proverbs

There are such things as false truths and honest lies. – Romani/Gypsy Proverbs

They that burn you for a witch lose all their coals. – Romani/Gypsy Proverbs

We are all wanderers on this earth. Our hearts are full of wonder, and our souls are deep with dreams. – Romani/Gypsy Proverbs

When do we have a day of fast? When there is no bread and ham in the larder. – Romani/Gypsy Proverbs

When the sea turned to honey, the poor man lost his spoon. – Romani/Gypsy Proverbs

When you are given, eat, when you are beaten, run away. – Romani/Gypsy Proverbs

When your drunk the old woman tastes like a virgin… – Romani/Gypsy Proverbs

Where rich people can make honest money, poor people have to steal. – Romani/Gypsy Proverbs

Where the scythe cuts and the sock rives, no more fairies and bee-hives. – Romani/Gypsy Proverbs

Without wood the fire would die. – Romani/Gypsy Proverbs

You can count the apples on a tree but you can’t count the trees from one apple. – Romani/Gypsy Proverbs

You cannot stop a whore, not even with a hundred horses. – Romani/Gypsy Proverbs

You don’t kill a gypsy by cutting him in ten pieces — you only make ten more gypsies. – Romani/Gypsy Proverbs

You have to dig deep to bury your daddy. – Romani/Gypsy Proverbs

Romani/Gypsy quotes

Romani/Gypsy Proverbs

Proverbs From Wikiquote

  • Či perel a phabaj kathar pesko kaš maj dur.
    • English equivalent: The apple does not fall far from the tree.
    • “Children observe daily and — in their behaviour — often follow the example of their parents.”
    • Source for proverbs and meaning: Paczolay, Gyula (1997). European Proverbs in 55 languages. DeProverbio.com. p. 259. ISBN 1-875943-44-7.
  • Anda ‘vresqe jakha sa dikhel anda pesqe khanc.
    • English equivalent: You see the splinter in another’s eye but fail to see the beam in your own.
    • Paczolay, Gyula (1997). European Proverbs in 55 languages. DeProverbio.com. p. 131. ISBN 1-875943-44-7.
  • Kasavi vi e śej saj sar i dej.
    • English equivalent: Like mother, like daughter.
    • “Daughters may look and behave like their mothers. This is due to inheritance and the example observed closely and rarely.”
    • Source for meaning and proverbs: Paczolay, Gyula (1997). European Proverbs in 55 languages. DeProverbio.com. p. 179. ISBN 1-875943-44-7.
  • Kon či kerel butji, godo te na xal.
    • English equivalent: He that will not work, shall not eat.
    • “Without due effort one is not entitled to the fruits of the work.”
  • “Whatever you do, you’ve got to work for it and earn it. Whatever reward you get you’ve got to know that you’ve had your input into that success.”
    • Jack Charlton Reflections on Success (1997)
    • Source for proverb and meaning: Paczolay, Gyula (1997). European Proverbs in 55 languages. DeProverbio.com. p. 256. ISBN 1-875943-44-7.
  • Lel the tacho pirrow, an’ it’s pars kaired.
    • English equivalent: Well begun, is half done.
    • “Starting properly ensures the speedy completion of a process. A – beginning is often blocked by one or more obstacles (potential barriers) the removal of which may ensure the smooth course of the process.”
    • Source for meaning and proverbs: Paczolay, Gyula (1997). European Proverbs in 55 languages. DeProverbio.com. p. 228. ISBN 1-875943-44-7.
  • Lo premièr còp tomba pas l’aubre.
    • English equivalent: Little strokes fell great oaks.
    • “A difficult task, e. g. removing a person/group from a strong position, or changing established ideas cannot be done quickly. It can be achieved gradually, by small steps, a little at a time.”
    • Source for proverbs and meaning: Paczolay, Gyula (1997). European Proverbs in 55 languages. DeProverbio.com. p. 252. ISBN 1-875943-44-7.
  • Numaj dileno ćiriklo xindel po kujbo.
    • English equivalent: It is an ill bird that fouls its own nest; Don’t wash your dirty linen in public.
    • “Why wantonly proclaim one’s own disgrace, or expose the faults or weaknesses of one’s kindred or people?”
    • “It is considered contemptible to defy the rule of solidarity by revealing facts harmful to the group one belongs to.”
    • Source for first meaning: Proverbs of All Nations. W. Kent & Company (late D. Bogue). 1859. p. 109.
    • Source for meaning and proverbs: Paczolay, Gyula (1997). European Proverbs in 55 languages. DeProverbio.com. p. 466. ISBN 1-875943-44-7.
  • O maćho o baro xàla e tikinen.
    • English equivalent: Men are like fish; the great ones devour the small.
    • “Small organizations or insignificant people tend to be swallowed up or destroyed by those that are greater and more powerful.”
    • Source for meaning: Martin H. Manser (2007). The Facts on File Dictionary of Proverbs. Infobase Publishing. p. 27. ISBN 978-0-8160-6673-5. Retrieved on 1 July 2013.
    • Source for meaning and proverbs: Paczolay, Gyula (1997). European Proverbs in 55 languages. DeProverbio.com. p. 420. ISBN 1-875943-44-7.
  • Phaori si duje xulajenqe te keres buti.
    • English equivalent: Nobody can serve two masters.
    • “One cannot serve two conflicting causes simultaneously. If this is attempted neither will be served properly.”
    • Source for meaning and proverbs: Paczolay, Gyula (1997). European Proverbs in 55 languages. DeProverbio.com. p. 283. ISBN 1-875943-44-7.
  • Plaj plajeça ći maladōl, rrom rromesa.
    • English equivalent: A mountain never meets a mountain, but a man meets a man.
    • “There are some things/events that are impossible, like an encounter of mountains, but there is always a chance for people to meet. or Once can always find a possibility for revenge.”
    • Source for proverbs and meaning: Paczolay, Gyula (1997). European Proverbs in 55 languages. DeProverbio.com. p. 213. ISBN 1-875943-44-7.
  • And’e čhib naj kokalo
    • English equivalent: There are no bones in the tongue. (Yet the tongue can speak hard words
  • Fly won’t fly into a mouth that’s shut. (Keep your mouth shut and you won’t get into trouble)

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