Proverbs 26

Fools Recycle Silliness ¹We no more give honors to fools than pray for snow in summer or rain during harvest.

²    You have as little to fear from an undeserved curse
   as from the dart of a wren or the swoop of a swallow.

³    A whip for the racehorse, a tiller for the sailboat—
   and a stick for the back of fools!

⁴    Don't respond to the stupidity of a fool;
   you'll only look foolish yourself.

⁵    Answer a fool in simple terms
   so he doesn't get a swelled head.

⁶    You're only asking for trouble
   when you send a message by a fool.

⁷    A proverb quoted by fools
   is limp as a wet noodle.

⁸    Putting a fool in a place of honor
   is like setting a mud brick on a marble column.

⁹    To ask a moron to quote a proverb
   is like putting a scalpel in the hands of a drunk.

¹⁰    Hire a fool or a drunk
   and you shoot yourself in the foot.

¹¹    As a dog eats its own vomit,
   so fools recycle silliness.

¹²    See that man who thinks he's so smart?
   You can expect far more from a fool than from him.

¹³    Loafers say, "It's dangerous out there!
   Tigers are prowling the streets!"
   and then pull the covers back over their heads.

¹⁴    Just as a door turns on its hinges,
   so a lazybones turns back over in bed.

¹⁵    A shiftless sluggard puts his fork in the pie,
   but is too lazy to lift it to his mouth.

Like Glaze on Cracked Pottery ¹⁶ Dreamers fantasize their self-importance;
   they think they are smarter
   than a whole college faculty.

¹⁷    You grab a mad dog by the ears
   when you butt into a quarrel that's none of your business.

^18-19    People who shrug off deliberate deceptions,
   saying, "I didn't mean it, I was only joking,"
Are worse than careless campers
   who walk away from smoldering campfires.

²⁰    When you run out of wood, the fire goes out;
   when the gossip ends, the quarrel dies down.

²¹    A quarrelsome person in a dispute
   is like kerosene thrown on a fire.

²²    Listening to gossip is like eating cheap candy;
   do you want junk like that in your belly?

²³    Smooth talk from an evil heart
   is like glaze on cracked pottery.

^24-26    Your enemy shakes hands and greets you like an old friend,
   all the while conniving against you.
When he speaks warmly to you, don't believe him for a minute;
   he's just waiting for the chance to rip you off.
No matter how cunningly he conceals his malice,
   eventually his evil will be exposed in public.

²⁷    Malice backfires;
   spite boomerangs.

²⁸    Liars hate their victims;
   flatterers sabotage trust.