089Japanese proverb ことわざ
人の振り見て我が振り直せ
ひとのふりみてわがふりなおせHito no furi mite waga furi naose
“Watch others' conduct and mend your own.”
The meaning
Others' faults are a convenient mirror: we see them better than our own. Every irritation can become a lesson turned back on oneself.
At the origin
One of Japan's most taught educational proverbs.
The characters
- 人 hitoothers
- の noof (link)
- 振り furiconduct
- 見て
- 我が
- 振り
- 直せ
のParticleLinks two words: possession or belonging, like “of”.
In practice
What annoys you in someone else: look for its trace in yourself.
Themes
Similar proverbs
- 090 我が身をつねって人の痛さを知れ Pinch yourself to know another's pain.
- 062 人は見かけによらぬもの People are not what they seem.
- 018 百聞は一見に如かず Hearing a hundred times is not worth seeing once.
- 240 我田引水 Drawing the water to one's own rice field.
- 290 やまとうたは、人の心を種として、万の言の葉とぞなれりける Japanese poetry has the human heart as its seed, from which grow myriad leaves of words.