Wisdom that was spoken, not written
Albanian was written down late, and for a long time most people lived in villages where knowledge travelled by word of mouth. Proverbs were part of that knowledge, short enough to remember, sharp enough to settle an argument. Collectors only began to write them down in the nineteenth century, during the Albanian national awakening.
One of them was Thimi Mitko, born in 1820, who recorded folk material from 1866 on, mainly from southern Albania. His collection of 505 folk songs and 39 tales and popular sayings was published in 1878 under the title The Albanian Bee and is regarded as the first Albanian folk collection of scholarly quality. Later collections followed; a standard work today is Fjalë të urta të popullit shqiptar, Wise Sayings of the Albanian People, by Jorgo Panajoti and Agron Xhagolli, published in 1983.
Mountains and people
"Mali me mal nuk piqen, njeriu me njeriun piqen." A mountain never meets a mountain, but a person meets a person. Few sayings fit a mountainous country better. The first meaning is hopeful: whatever separates people, they will see each other again. The second is a warning: whoever does wrong to someone should not count on never meeting that person again.
"Trimi i mirë me shokë shumë." A good hero has many companions. A trim is a brave man, the hero of the old songs, and the proverb says that even he is nothing alone. Courage needs friends; nobody gets through life on his own.
Honour and the given word
"Më mirë syri sesa nami." Better to lose an eye than one's good name. In a society where honour decided a person's place, losing one's reputation was worse than a physical injury. The saying puts that order of values into five words.
No value has produced more sayings than besa, the given word. "Besa e shqiptarit nuk shitet pazarit": the besa of an Albanian is not sold at the market. "Besa e shqiptarit si purteka e arit": the besa of an Albanian is like a rod of gold. A study by Fatma Shijaku of the University of Tirana, published in 2025 in the yearbook Proverbium, examines this rich body of besa proverbs and calls besa the holiest word in Albanian culture.
Work, patience and common sense
"Fillimi i mbarë është gjysma e punës." A good start is half the work. "Matë tre herë, prit një herë": measure three times, cut once, the advice of every tailor and carpenter to think before acting. And "Punën e sotme mos e lër për nesër": do not leave today's work for tomorrow, because what is easy today may be harder tomorrow.
Some proverbs are less solemn. "Kush ka turp, vdes për bukë": whoever is too shy dies of hunger, a reminder that you have to ask for what you need. "Kur s'ke punë, luaj derën": when you have no work, rock the door, a mocking comment on people who keep busy without doing anything useful. And "Ustau çatinë e vet e le të pikojë": the master craftsman lets his own roof leak, because whoever works for everyone else forgets his own house.
Family and the house
"Molla nuk bie larg mollës": the apple does not fall far from the apple tree. "Si i ati dhe i biri", like father, like son, and its counterpart "Si e ëma dhe e bija", like mother, like daughter: children watch their parents every day and become like them. "Iku macja, lozin minjtë": the cat has gone, the mice are playing. When the head of the house is away, discipline goes with him.
On life and power
"Sa rron, aq mëson": as long as you live, you learn. "Çdo njeri ndërton fatin e vet": every person builds their own fate. "Peshku i madh ha të voglin": the big fish eats the small one, a sober view of how power works between the strong and the weak. "Mos hidh zjarr në kashtë": do not throw fire into the straw, in other words, do not make a tense situation worse with a careless word. And for advice that nobody follows: "Në njërin vesh hyn, në tjetrin del", it goes in one ear and out the other.
Shared with Europe, and still its own
Some of these sayings will sound familiar. The apple and the tree, the cat and the mice, measuring twice or three times exist in German, English and many other languages. Proverbs travel with traders, soldiers and migrants, and Albanians have always been on the move. Others, like the mountains that never meet or the besa that is worth gold, carry the marks of the Albanian highlands and their values.
Proverbs are heritage in a handy form. A sentence like the one about the mountains that never meet can be passed on in a single breath, at a family table in Prishtina as much as in Zurich, even where little else of the language is spoken.
The B&G football shirt in black and white: Skanderbeg engraved on the chest, the double-headed eagle on the sleeve. Our own artwork, numbered.
SEE THE SHIRT →What does "Mali me mal nuk piqen" mean?+
It is the first half of the proverb "Mali me mal nuk piqen, njeriu me njeriun piqen": a mountain never meets a mountain, but a person meets a person. People always meet again, which can be a comfort or a warning.
What is the Albanian word for proverb?+
Fjalë e urtë, literally a wise word; in the plural, fjalë të urta.
Is there an Albanian proverb about besa?+
Many. Two well-known ones are "Besa e shqiptarit nuk shitet pazarit", the besa of an Albanian is not sold at the market, and "Besa e shqiptarit si purteka e arit", it is like a rod of gold.
- Wikiquote: Albanian proverbs
- Wikipedia: Besa (Albanian culture)
- Fatma Shijaku: Is an Albanian Man's Besa His Bond? A Paremiological Dimension of Besa, Proverbium 42 (2025)
- Wikipedia: Albanian folklore
- Wikipedia: Thimi Mitko
Besa means the given word, and for Albanians it is sacred. What the word means, how it shaped history and why it saved Jewish lives in the Second World War.
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