ProverbWisdom
French origin1532
French origin1532One half of the world knows not how the other half lives.
Meaning: Wealth and privilege create invisible barriers preventing the comfortable from understanding the daily struggles of the poor.
Often credited to: Rabelais, who wrote it in Pantagruel, 1532
Origin: Rabelais wrote in Pantagruel (1532) that half the world does not know how the other half lives, and George Herbert's Outlandish Proverbs (1640) gives it in English. The photographer Jacob Riis borrowed it for How the Other Half Lives (1890), his exposé of New York's slums.
Equivalents in French, Spanish, German, Italian, Russian, and 2 more languages
French: La moitié du monde ne sait comment l’autre vit (literally: One half the world knows not how the other half lives)
Spanish: El harto no cree al hambriento (literally: The well-fed man does not believe the hungry one)
German: Der Satte glaubt dem Hungrigen nicht (literally: The well-fed man does not believe the hungry one)
Italian: Chi è sazio non crede al digiuno (literally: Whoever is full doesn't believe in hunger)
Russian: Сытый голодного не разумеет (Sytyy golodnogo ne razumeet) (literally: The well-fed don't understand the hungry)
Polish: Syty głodnego nie zrozumie (literally: The full won't understand the hungry)
Turkish: Tok açın hâlinden bilmez (literally: The full don't know how the hungry fare)
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