A cat has nine lives
Meaning: Cats (or resilient people) survive many dangerous situations.
Origin: The belief that cats survive what would kill other animals was old enough for John Heywood to write in 1546 that a woman has nine lives like a cat. In Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, Mercutio taunts Tybalt, the "King of Cats," by threatening to take one of his nine lives. Why nine is not recorded; Italian and Spanish give cats seven.
Equivalents in French, Spanish, Japanese, and German
- French: Un chat a neuf vies (literally: A cat has nine lives)
- Spanish: El gato tiene siete vidas (literally: The cat has seven lives)
- Japanese: 猫に九生あり (Neko ni kyūsei ari) (literally: A cat has nine lives)
- German: Eine Katze hat sieben Leben (literally: A cat has seven lives)
More proverbs about Human Nature
- All's fair in love and war — Normal rules don't apply in romance or conflict.
- A friend in need is a friend indeed — True friends show their worth during difficult times.
- The squeaky wheel gets replaced — Constant complainers may be removed rather than accommodated.
- Beauty is in the eye of the beholder — Perception of beauty is subjective and personal.
- The bigger they are, the harder they fall — Powerful people suffer greater consequences when they fail.
- Beauty is only skin deep — Physical appearance is superficial; character matters more.
From our tongue twisters
- A aranha arranha a rã. A rã arranha a aranha. — Contrasts the soft single r of aranha against the hard rolled rr of arranha — one letter…
- 네가 그린 기린 그림은 못 그린 기린 그림이고 내가 그린 기린 그림은 잘 그린 기린 그림이다. (Nega geurin girin geurimeun mot geurin girin geurimigo, naega geurin girin geurimeun jal geurin girin geurimida.) — geurin, girin and geurim rotate through nearly the same syllables with only the vowel mov…
- 앞 집 팥죽은 붉은 팥 풋팥죽이고, 뒷집 콩죽은 햇콩 단콩 콩죽이다. (Ap jip patjugeun bulgeun pat put-patjugigo, dwitjip kongjugeun haetkong dankong kongjugida.) — Stacks Korean's aspirated p and k against the final consonants, so every word ends where…