Who keeps company with the wolf will learn to howl
Meaning: Association with morally corrupt people inevitably corrupts your own character and behavior through imitation.
Origin: A proverb that bad companions teach bad habits, found in several European languages, including Spanish. Live among wolves long enough and you start to behave like one.
Equivalents in French, Spanish, Japanese, and German
- French: Qui hante le loup apprend à hurler (literally: He who frequents the wolf learns to howl)
- Spanish: Quien con lobos anda, a aullar aprende (literally: He who walks with wolves learns to howl)
- Japanese: 朱に交われば赤くなる (Shu ni majiwareba akaku naru)
- German: Bei Wölfen und Eulen lernt man das Heulen (literally: Among wolves and owls one learns howling)
More proverbs about Perseverance
- Advice comes too late when a thing is done. — Counsel offered after the deed is already done is worthless.
- Every one has a penny to spend at a new ale-house. — Novelty draws everyone's custom; people always find a coin for the latest attraction.
- Keep from the anger of a great man. — Avoid provoking the powerful, whose wrath can do you real harm.
- He that is angry without a cause must be pleased without amends. — Anger without real cause deserves no apology to soothe it.
- Never be ashamed to eat your meat. — Feel no shame in satisfying an honest, natural appetite.
- A wet August never brings dearth. — Rain in August secures the harvest and keeps famine away.
From our idioms
- Den Löffel abgeben — To die.
- Ins Fettnäpfchen treten — To commit an embarrassing social blunder.
- Eulen nach Athen tragen — To do something utterly pointless.