Don't count your chickens before they hatch
Meaning: Don't assume success before it happens.
Origin: The fable of the milkmaid and her pail, long printed with Aesop's though not among the ancient ones, tells of a girl who plans what she will buy with the chickens her eggs will produce — then tosses her head and spills the milk. Thomas Howell's New Sonnets (1570) has "Count not thy chickens that unhatched be."
Equivalents in French, Spanish, Japanese, and German
- French: Il ne faut pas vendre la peau de l'ours avant de l'avoir tué (literally: Don't sell the bear's skin before killing it)
- Spanish: No vendas la piel del oso antes de cazarlo (literally: Don't sell the bear's skin before hunting it)
- Japanese: 捕らぬ狸の皮算用 (Toranu tanuki no kawazan'yō) (literally: Counting the skin of an uncaught raccoon dog)
- German: Man soll den Tag nicht vor dem Abend loben (literally: One should not praise the day before the evening)
More proverbs about Wisdom
- Knowledge is power — Education and learning give you strength and advantage.
- Time heals all wounds — Emotional pain fades with the passage of time.
- Where there is smoke, there is fire — Rumors or signs usually indicate some truth.
- Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day — Teaching someone is more valuable than doing things for them.
- All that glitters is not gold — Appearances can be misleading.
- The best things in life are free — The most valuable experiences don't cost money.
From our tongue twisters
- Zehn zahme Ziegen ziehen zehn Zentner Zucker zum Zoo. — A sustained 'z' / 'ts' drill — every word starts with the same affricate.
- Wenn Fliegen hinter Fliegen fliegen, fliegen Fliegen Fliegen nach. — Fliegen means 'flies' (insects), 'to fly', and 'flying' — all at once, relentlessly.
- Der Cottbuser Postkutscher putzt den Cottbuser Postkutschkasten. — A jaw-breaking compound-noun 'ts/tsch/sch' marathon — the German love of compound words w…