038Japanese proverb ことわざ
情けは人のためならず
なさけはひとのためならずNasake wa hito no tame narazu
“Kindness is never wasted.”
Word for wordCompassion is not for others only.
The meaning
Good done to others eventually returns, by paths one cannot predict. Helping impoverishes no one: it weaves the net that will one day carry us.
At the origin
A proverb often misread even in Japan: it does not say kindness harms, but that it also benefits the giver.
The characters
- 情け nasakekindness
- は watopic marker
- 人 hitoothers
- の
- ため
- ならず
はParticleMarks the topic: what the sentence is about — “as for…”.
In practice
Do a favor without expecting the return: it will come back another way.
Themes
Similar proverbs
Related expressions
- 294 智に働けば角が立つ。情に棹させば流される。意地を通せば窮屈だ。 Act on reason, and you grow sharp-cornered. Pole along feeling, and you are swept away. Force your will, and you are cramped. Decidedly, the human world is hard to live in.
- 067 歳月人を待たず The years wait for no one.
- 076 人間万事塞翁が馬 Everything in life is like the old man's horse.
- 089 人の振り見て我が振り直せ Watch others' conduct and mend your own.