quá tắc vật đạn cải
When making a mistake, do not be afraid to correct it.
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All languages English Tiếng Việt
quán Sở lầu Tần
Chu inns and Qin towers — houses of assignation; the lodgings of passing love.
quân bất hí ngôn
A monarch should not say anything in jest
quân hồi vô lệnh
A rout without orders — troops breaking for home before any command; total disarray.
quân lệnh như sơn
Military orders stand like mountains — a command once given cannot be moved.
quân sư quạt mo
A palm-fan strategist — the adviser whose clever schemes are worth his mo-leaf fan.
quân ta bắn quân mình
friendly fire
quân ta đánh thắng quân mình
friendly fire
quân tử bất khí
a gentleman is no tool
quân tử chu nhi bất tị, tiểu nhân tị nhi bất chu
The gentleman embraces all without favoritism; the small man favors his own and embraces none.
quân tử cố cùng, tiểu nhơn cùng tư lạm hỉ
The gentleman holds firm in poverty; the small man in poverty helps himself — want is character's examination hall.
quân tử gian nan, hồng nhan bạc mệnh
The gentleman meets hardship as the beauty meets a thin fate — excellence of either kind is billed for in suffering.
quân tử khả khi dỉ kì phương
A gentleman can be deceived — but only along the path of reason; his good faith is the opening.
quân tử lao tâm tiểu nhơn lao lực
The gentleman toils in mind, the small man in muscle — each rank pays its own coin of labor.
quân tử là quân tử Tàu, ăn cơm thì ít, ăn rau thì nhiều
A 'gentleman' of the Chinese-novel sort — little rice, plenty of vegetables — the mock title for genteel poverty.
quân tử nhất ngôn
I give you my word; you have my word
quân tử thánh nhơn chi mĩ
The gentleman completes others' good — never their evil; he builds what envy would tear.
quân tử thực vô cầu bảo, cư vô cầu an
The gentleman eats without seeking plenty, dwells without seeking ease — sufficiency is his whole appetite.
quân tử trả thù, mười năm chưa muộn
revenge is a dish best served cold
quân tử tại giả, tiểu nhơn tại triều
Gentlemen in the fields, small men at court — the age turned upside down, rank and place traded.
quân tử viện bào trù
The gentleman keeps clear of the kitchen — great matters upstairs, no accounting of morsels below.
quân tử ưu đạo bất ưu bần
The gentleman worries over the way, not over want — poverty of purse never troubled him, poverty of principle does.
quân tử ứ hự thì đau
A cleared throat wounds the gentleman — to the honorable, the gentlest reproach lands like a blow.
quân vô hí ngôn
A monarch should not say anything in jest
quân-tử phòng thân
The gentleman guards his person — prudence as a nobleman's first weapon.
quét nhà ra rác
Sweep the house and rubbish appears — inspect anything closely enough and faults surface.
quê cha đất tổ
Father's homeland, ancestors' earth — the ground that owns you back.
quí tinh bất quí đa
Prize the refined, not the numerous — an army, or anything, measured in quality over count.
quí vật tìm quí nhơn
Precious things seek precious owners — treasures circulate toward whoever can afford their keeping.
quýt làm cam chịu
having to bear the blame for something one did not do
quýt ngọt chanh chua
Sweet tangerine and sour lime — each nature keeps its flavor; households mix both.
quạ mượn lông công
The crow borrowing peacock feathers — dressing in others' finery to hide what one is.
quạ mổ diều tha
Pecked by crows, snatched by kites — misfortune queuing up for the same victim.
quạ quạ nuôi con tu hú
The crow raising the koel's chick — labor donated to a squatter; the lazy bird's egg hatched by another's warmth.
quạ đội lốt công
A crow in peacock's guise — borrowed splendor over a shabby core.
quả bom tình dục
A sex bomb — smoldering physical magnetism.
quả dục bảo thân
Sparing desire preserves the body — the old physician's ledger of appetite against years.
quả hòa vô thân
Scant harmony, scant friends — the prickly keep an empty visiting-book.
quả kiếp nhân duyên
Karma's fruit and fated bonds — good matches and bad lots alike are cause ripened into effect.
quất ngựa truy phong
Whipping the horse to chase the wind — bolting from a lover without a backward glance.
quần cộc chân chì, không Tứ Kỳ thì cũng Gia Lộc
Short trousers and lead-dark shins — if not Tứ Kỳ, then Gia Lộc — the teasing uniform of the mud-field districts.
quần nghị phụ chiên
Ants swarming rank meat — the stampede toward anything that smells of profit.
quần ngư tranh thực
A shoal of fish fighting for the feed — a free-for-all over the same scrap.
quần tam tụ ngũ
Clustering in threes, knotting in fives — little knots of people gathering to gossip or scheme.
quỉ khốc thần sầu
Ghosts weep and spirits mourn — writing so fine the supernatural grieves; or wickedness so great it appalls them.
quốc dĩ dân vi bổn
The nation takes the people as its root — no populace, no state; the base firm, the country calm.
quốc kêu mùa hè
The moorhen calls all summer — persistence itself, in one bird's throat.
quốc kế dân sinh
State planning and the people's livelihood — the great matters of nation and daily bread.
quỷ khốc thần sầu
Ghosts weep and spirits grieve — dreadful enough to appall the supernatural.
quỷ nhập tràng
A corpse possessed at the shrouding — the dead rising deranged; someone acting past all belief.
quỷ tha ma bắt
goddamn; curse; screw
q in a corner
An old children's game, per- haps the same as our "Puss in the corner"; also something not seen at first, but sub- sequently brought to notice. The thong to which seals are attached in legal documents is in French called the queue] thus we have lettres scettees sur simple queue or sur double queue, according to whether they bear one or two seals.
quack
Any doctor.
quack
An ungraduated ignorant pretender to skill in physic, a vender of nostrums.
quack-salver
A mountebank: a seller of salves.
quag
Abbreviation of quagmire; marshy moorish around.
Quai d'Orsay
The quay in Paris running along the left bank of the Seine where are situated the departments of Foreign Affairs and other government offices. The name is applied to the French Foreign Office and sometimes to the French Government as a whole.
quail-pipe
A woman's tongue; also a device to take birds of that name by imitating their call. Quail pipe boots; boots resembling a quail pipe, from the number of plaits; they were much worn in the reign of Charles II.
quake in one's boots
To be extremely frightened or intimidated
quaker
A lump of excrement.