When knaves fall out, true men come by their goods.
Meaning: Dishonest people's conflicts create opportunities for honest people to acquire what was wrongfully taken.
Origin: When thieves quarrel, they betray each other, and honest people recover what was stolen. The proverb dates from the mid-16th century and is more often heard as "when thieves fall out, honest men come by their own."
More proverbs about Morality
- Fair and softly as lawyers go to heaven. — Lawyers proceed toward virtue so rarely and reluctantly that the journey becomes impossib…
- A liar should have a good memory. — Falsehoods require constant mental effort to maintain consistency, making deception exhau…
- The greater truth, the greater libel. — Truth's harshness wounds deeper when it exposes powerful lies or uncomfortable realities…
- Every one as they like best, as the good man said when he kissed his cow. — Absurd personal preferences deserve no justification—everyone pursues their own oddities…
- A little good is soon spent. — Small acts of virtue quickly disappear without sustained effort or intention behind them.
- Losers are always in the wrong. — The defeated rewrite history to blame circumstances rather than acknowledge their own fai…
From our tongue twisters
- Четыре чёрненьких чумазеньких чертёнка чертили чёрными чернилами чертёж. (Chetyre chyornenkikh chumazenkikh chertyonka chertili chyornymi chernilami chertyozh.) — Seven consecutive words built on 'ch' — Russian's ч in every stressed position with barel…
- 红鲤鱼与绿鲤鱼与驴 (Hóng lǐyú yǔ lǜ lǐyú yǔ lǘ) — lǐ, lǜ and lǘ differ only by vowel rounding and tone — nine syllables that all collapse t…
- 八百标兵奔北坡，炮兵并排北边跑。(Bābǎi biāobīng bēn běipō, pàobīng bìngpái běibian pǎo.) — A pure b-versus-p drill, separating Mandarin's unaspirated b from its aspirated p.