This is basically the Italian equivalent of, "You made your bed, now lie in it." Or it's kind of like when something bad happens to you that's your own fault and someone says, "You asked for it."

Basically it's a refusal to show pity towards someone, and to blame them for their problems.

Literally it means, "The bad that you want doesn't hurt."

Grammatically you get a nice reminder of volere - io voglio, tu vuoi, lui / lei vuole. Ciao for now!

(Thanks to Rachel's father Mr. Piccolotto for this one.)

The old man was never short of a tale to tell, neither to the sun nor to the hearth.

Pretty straightforward. Sounds better in Italian though because of the rhyme.

An ox is esteemed for his horns, a man for his word.

So there you go, a guy who breaks his promises is like an ox without horns!

Grammatically this proverb is a good way to remember the "impersonal si" (si stima). The impersonal si is what you use when you want to make a sweeping, general, universal statement, without referring to anyone specific. In English we use "one", the generic you, or even we, they or people to get this idea across. E.g., "In Canada they play a lot of hockey." The "they" in this sentence is not referring to anyone specific. You're not pointing to an actual group of people playing hockey. You just mean it in a general way. To get this point across in Italian, you would use the impersonal si. "In Canada, si gioca molto a hockey." To form the impersoanl si you just take any verb in the lui/lei or loro form and put "si" in front of it. Si vede / si vedono: one sees, si parla / si parlano: one speaks, si capisce / si capiscono: one understands. So how do you know whether to use the lui/lei or loro form? If the noun that comes after the verb is singular, you use the lui/lei form, if it's plural, the loro form. A Roma si vede il Colosseo. A Roma si vedono molti turisti. Usually if there's no noun after the verb but an adverb instead, you use the lui/lei form - In Italia si mangia bene. C4N!

Nice guys finish last. (Literally, too much goodness ends up in the trash.)

Grammatically this one's a good reminder of the -isc verbs, the subset of -ire verbs that have an -isc- inserted between the stem and the ending of the io, tu, lui/lei and loro forms.

finire

io finisco
tu finisci
lui / lei finisce
noi finiamo
voi finite
loro finiscono

C4N!

If you sleep with kids you get up pissed on.

This proverb warns against spending too much time with people younger or less mature than you. Less literally it can mean not to spend time with people on a lower rung than you in other ways (economically, intellectually, etc).

Grammatically it's a good reminder of the reflexive verbs, verbs where one and the same person both does and receives the action of the verb. We see this in "si alza" (gets up), which is the lui form of the reflexive verb "alzarsi". Reflexive verbs always go with a reflexive pronoun - mi, ti, si, ci, vi, si. Io mi alzo (I get up), tu ti alzi (you get up), lui si alza (he gets up), etc. C4N!

"God gets a lot done in an hour."

You use this one when a bunch of things you've been working on for a long time suddenly all come together all at once. Like let's say you find a job, a girlfriend and an apartment all in the same day, you attribute your good luck to God and say, "In un'ora Dio lavora."

Grammatically it's a good example of the feminine indefinite article before a vowel - un'. Ciao for now!

Hard to translate literally but the idea is that all nice new shoes eventually become old beat up ones. It's something you say to resign yourself to getting old.

Grammatically it's a good reminder of the -are verbs: diventare - divento, diventi, diventa, diventiamo, diventate, diventano.

The original is in napoletano - tutt' 'e scarpe diventano scarpone. Thanks to Luciano for this one! C4N...

"All the knots come to the comb."

Meaning sooner or later our misdeeds catch up with us and we have to face up to put-off difficulties.

Grammatically we see the irregular verb "venire" (to come) in action...

io vengo
tu vieni
lei viene
noi veniamo
voi venite
loro vengono

C4N!

Those who remain silent agree.

So in other words, if an unfair law is passed and you don't fight against it, you support it.

Grammatically a good reminder of -ere verbs (tace is the lui-form of tacere) and the -ire verbs (acconsente is the lui-form of acconsentire). C4N!

Kids find everything in nothing, grown-ups nothing in everything.

That wise maxim about the jadedness of age is by Giacomo Leopardi, Italy's second greatest poet after Dante (though my favourite) and a true pessimist.

It has a lot of great grammar reminders...

We see the masculine plural form - fanciulli (singular would be fanciullo).

We see the masculine plural definite article ("the") for words starting with a consonant other than gn, sc, sp or z, namely "i" - i fanciulli).

And we see the they-form (3rd person plural) of the regular -are verb trovare - trovano.

But most of all it's just a wise beautiful saying by a genius poet. C4N!