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Sayings

Every proverb, poem line and quote used on this site, 77 lines from 54 voices. Each one appears in exactly one post.

• “It is not taboo to go back and fetch what you forgot” Akan proverb (Se wo were fi na wosankofa a yenkyi)

  It is not taboo to go back and fetch what you forgot

• “those who do not know can know from learning.” Akan proverb

  It is not taboo to go back and fetch what you forgot

• “There are always two people in every picture: the photographer and the viewer.” Ansel Adams

  A thousand friends are few, one enemy is too many

• “Colour photographs lack the solidity of black and white.” Ara Güler

  A thousand friends are few, one enemy is too many

• “Every day is a journey, and the journey itself is home.” Bashō

  Looking at flowers from horseback

• “Not only will I stare. I want my look to change reality.” bell hooks, The Oppositional Gaze

  The eyes say as much as the mouth

• “Photographs bear witness to a human choice being exercised in a given situation.” Berger

  A white colt glimpsed through a crack in the wall

• “A bat flits by the neighbor’s wife glances over here” Buson

  It is not taboo to go back and fetch what you forgot

• “hidden among the leaves of the melon patch find yourself a pillow” Buson

  It is not taboo to go back and fetch what you forgot

• “It sits looking / over harbor and city” Carl Sandburg, on fog

  The sun cannot be covered with mud

• “People who know how to look are as rare as those who know how to listen.” Cartier-Bresson

  The eyes say as much as the mouth

• “A white colt glimpsed through a crack in the wall” Chinese proverb (白駒過隙 (bái jū guò xì), from the Zhuangzi)

  A white colt glimpsed through a crack in the wall

• “Looking at flowers from horseback” Chinese proverb (走馬觀花 / 走马观花 (zǒumǎ guānhuā))

  Looking at flowers from horseback

• “The player is lost, the onlooker sees clearly” Chinese proverb (當局者迷，旁觀者清 / 当局者迷，旁观者清)

  The player is lost, the onlooker sees clearly

• “All in a hot and copper sky,” Coleridge

  The sun cannot be covered with mud

• “And straight the Sun was flecked with bars,” Coleridge

  The sun cannot be covered with mud

• “If I stand in front of something, instead of arranging it, I arrange myself.” Diane Arbus

  The eyes say as much as the mouth

• “all bits help” Dutch proverb

  The sun cannot be covered with mud

• “I can hear the wildflowers growing and in the forest the trees talking.” Eino Leino

  A tree does not burn alone

• “And he unrolled his feathers” Emily Dickinson

  A white colt glimpsed through a crack in the wall

• “A tree does not burn alone” Finnish proverb (Ei puu yksin pala)

  A tree does not burn alone

• “lookers-on many times see more than gamesters” Francis Bacon

  The player is lost, the onlooker sees clearly

• “What you give away is yours, what you keep is lost” Georgian proverb (რასაცა გასცემ შენია, რაც არა დაკარგულია)

  What you give away is yours, what you keep is lost

• “All things counter, original, spare, strange” Gerard Manley Hopkins

  A white colt glimpsed through a crack in the wall

• “the hurl and gliding” Gerard Manley Hopkins

  A white colt glimpsed through a crack in the wall

• “the world flows past on both sides distant and mute” Hikmet

  A thousand friends are few, one enemy is too many

• “sapere aude” Horace

  Whoever loves the rose bears its thorns

• “temporary worlds within the ordinary world” Huizinga, on the card-table

  The player is lost, the onlooker sees clearly

• “One does not use someone else's eyes to see the road.” Igbo proverb

  One man cannot launch a vessel

• “One hand does not tie a package” Igbo proverb

  One man cannot launch a vessel

• “The snow is melting and the village is flooded with children.” Issa

  It is not taboo to go back and fetch what you forgot

• “If you wait, the sea road will have fair weather” Japanese proverb (待てば海路の日和あり (mateba kairo no hiyori ari))

  If you wait, the sea road will have fair weather

• “The darkest place is under the candlestick” Japanese proverb (灯台下暗し (tōdai moto kurashi))

  The darkest place is under the candlestick

• “The eyes say as much as the mouth” Japanese proverb (目は口程に物を言う (me wa kuchi hodo ni mono o iu))

  The eyes say as much as the mouth

• “Walls have ears, paper screens have eyes” Japanese proverb (壁に耳あり障子に目あり (kabe ni mimi ari, shōji ni me ari))

  Walls have ears, paper screens have eyes

• “Seeing comes before words.” John Berger

  The sun cannot be covered with mud

• “Soon after we can see, we are aware that we can also be seen.” John Berger

  Walls have ears, paper screens have eyes

• “We only see what we look at. To look is an act of choice.” John Berger

  Walls have ears, paper screens have eyes

• “The line of decision between in and out is the picture's edge.” John Szarkowski

  A thousand friends are few, one enemy is too many

• “It cannot be told by the words of the mouth” Kabir

  Looking at flowers from horseback

• “Only he knows it who has reached that region” Kabir

  Looking at flowers from horseback

• “Why is it so hard to do a thing Now, at the moment when one thinks of it.” Kenkō

  Walls have ears, paper screens have eyes

• “And still a Garden by the Water blows.” Khayyam

  The eyes say as much as the mouth

• “That just divides the desert from the sown,” Khayyam

  The eyes say as much as the mouth

• “And reachin’ landin’s, / And turnin’ corners” Langston Hughes, 1922

  Whoever loves the rose bears its thorns

• “We sit together, the mountain and me, / until only the mountain remains.” Li Po

  Mountains never meet, but people do

• “And a grey mist on the sea's face, and a grey dawn breaking.” Masefield

  The sun cannot be covered with mud

• “Put Impression.” Monet, naming his hazy harbour for the 1874 show

  The sun cannot be covered with mud

• “for the world must be loved this much / if you're going to say 'I lived'” Nazim Hikmet

  A thousand friends are few, one enemy is too many

• “Offering no clarity, veiling reality instead, hüzün brings us comfort.” Orhan Pamuk

  A thousand friends are few, one enemy is too many

• “These fine days have been my ruin.” Orhan Veli

  A thousand friends are few, one enemy is too many

• “Things are because we see them” Oscar Wilde

  If you wait, the sea road will have fair weather

• “The further into the forest, the more trees.” Polish proverb

  A tree does not burn alone

• “Oh that I had wings like a dove! for then would I fly away, and be at rest.” Psalm 55

  A white colt glimpsed through a crack in the wall

• “here there is no place that does not see you.” Rilke

  Whoever loves the rose bears its thorns

• “Let the things be!” Rilke

  Whoever loves the rose bears its thorns

• “It was all the hallways I grew up in.” Roy DeCarava, on Hallway, 1953

  Whoever loves the rose bears its thorns

• “Use a sweet tongue, courtesy, and gentleness,” Saadi

  The eyes say as much as the mouth

• “Whatever makes an impression on the heart seems lovely in the eye.” Saadi

  The eyes say as much as the mouth

• “The real world has more to do with what is hidden.” Saul Leiter

  The player is lost, the onlooker sees clearly

• “The painter constructs, the photographer discloses.” Sontag

  Whoever loves the rose bears its thorns

• “far, near, high, low, no two parts alike.” Su Shi

  Mountains never meet, but people do

• “Life passes like a spring dream without a trace.” Su Shi

  Mountains never meet, but people do

• “Mountains never meet, but people do” Swahili proverb (Milima haikutani lakini binadamu hukutana)

  Mountains never meet, but people do

• “One man cannot launch a vessel” Swahili proverb (Mmoja hashui chombo)

  One man cannot launch a vessel

• “The best chooses me.” Tagore

  Looking at flowers from horseback

• “The Perfect decks itself in beauty for the love of the Imperfect.” Tagore

  Looking at flowers from horseback

• “An empty space is marked off with plain wood and plain walls” Tanizaki

  Walls have ears, paper screens have eyes

• “Were it not for shadows, there would be no beauty.” Tanizaki

  Walls have ears, paper screens have eyes

• “A thousand friends are few, one enemy is too many” Turkish proverb (Bin dost az, bir düşman çok)

  A thousand friends are few, one enemy is too many

• “Bread is in the lion's mouth” Turkish proverb (Ekmek aslanın ağzında)

  Bread is in the lion's mouth

• “The sun cannot be covered with mud” Turkish proverb (Güneş balçıkla sıvanmaz)

  The sun cannot be covered with mud

• “Whoever loves the rose bears its thorns” Turkish proverb (Gülü seven dikenine katlanır)

  Whoever loves the rose bears its thorns

• “Downward to darkness, on extended wings.” Wallace Stevens

  A white colt glimpsed through a crack in the wall

• “The grass will be green again in coming spring,” Wang Wei

  Mountains never meet, but people do

• “I photograph to see what things look like photographed.” Winogrand

  What you give away is yours, what you keep is lost

• “My close friends I count would be water and stone, pine tree, bamboo.” Yun Sŏndo

  A tree does not burn alone