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English
Etymology
Apparently coined by Anne Isabella Thackeray Ritchie in her 1885 novel Mrs. Dymond, although frequently now attributed to Laozi or other Chinese thinkers.
Pronunciation
Proverb
give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime
- It is better to teach someone to do something themself than to provide the action's reward; education or training is more helpful than charity.
- 1885 August, Anne Thackeray Ritchie, Mrs. Dymond, Vol. I, Macmillan’s Magazine, Vol. LXII, No. 310, p. 246:
- He certainly doesn't practice his precepts, but I suppose the Patron meant that if you give a man a fish he is hungry again in an hour. If you teach him to catch a fish you do him a good turn. But these very elementary principles are apt to clash with the leisure of the cultivated classes.
1911, Alice Loane, The Common Growth, page 138:It is an oft-quoted saying, and one full of social wisdom, "Give a man a fish, and he will be hungry again to-morrow; teach him to catch a fish, and he will be richer all his life."
1972 March 22, Wes Uhlman, “Extensions and Revisions to the Public Works and Economic Development Act of 1965 as Amended”, in U.S. Congress House Committee on Public Works Hearings 1972, volume 2, page 590:It seems to me that the various HUD programs could be characterized as basic programs. It seems to me the real cure for the rural poor is job creation. I believe that people want to work. I do not believe the myth that people are inherently lazy. The old Chinese proverb, I believe, is a good one. "You can give a man a fish, and he will feed himself a day, and you teach him to fish and he will feed himself for a lifetime."
- 1992 October, Thomas D. Kijiner, Statement, Provisional Verbatim Record of the 11th Meeting of the 47th Session of the United Nations General Assembly, A/47/PV.11, p. 111:
- For many years teachers in the Marshall Islands have sought to implement the wise insight of Marcus Aurelius: "Give a man a fish and you have fed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you have fed him for ever." Some of our teachers have even convinced themselves that this is Marshallese folk wisdom! But at least they recognize that the most effective help is self-help.
- 2004, Otto Tien-pok Xing, Friendly Advice for the Future of China, p. 67:
- Western institutions are fundamentally based on Greco-Roman institutions. If you understand the classics, you understand the framework of every western nation and culture... As the American saying goes, "If you give a man a fish, he will eat for a day, but if you teach a man how to fish, he will eat for life."
2010, James E. Hughes Jr., Family: The Compact among Generations, page 73:Maimonides defined the highest level of giving as helping a man achieve a livelihood or profession. This has come down to us in modern parlance in its Chinese form as, "If you give a man fish, he will eat for a day; if you teach him to fish, he will eat for a lifetime." Maimonides took the Jewish negative injunction "to save a life" and made it positive—"to help a man achieve a livelihood."
- 2025 May 13, Jerusalem Demsas & al., "The Myth of the Poverty Trap", "Good on Paper", The Atlantic:
- Paul Niehaus: And we, up until now, have been doing a lot of stuff that's really based on old thinking, right? This sort of good-on-paper-type reasoning, "Teach a man to fish" type thinking... So I would say—and I sort of said this earlier, but—I think that idea of teaching a man to fish is something that when I first heard it made a lot of sense and seemed good on paper. But, like, as we started to test impact over the last 20 years and say, like, What impact do our fishing lessons actually have? I don't think it works very well; the data don't support it.
Demsas: We're bad at teaching people how to fish.
Niehaus: ... The other thing that I think is really interesting—I'll just riff on this a little bit about teaching a man to fish—is the origins of it. So today you hear it, and the way we interpret it is it's saying, like, Don't just give people money, because they're not going to use it in ways that have a lasting benefit. It's important to kind of help them in these other ways, which I think is just empirically untrue.
Translations
training is more helpful than charity
- Arabic: أعطِ رجلاً سمكةً تطعمه ليومٍ واحد؛ علّمه كيف يصطاد السمك، تطعمه مدى الحياة (Aʿṭi rajulan samakatan, tuṭʿimhu liyawmin wāḥid; ʿallimhu kayfa yaṣṭādu al-samak, tuṭʿimhu madā al-ḥayāh)
- Bengali: একটি মানুষ একটি মাছ দাও এবং আপনি একটি দিনের জন্য তাকে ভোজন. মাছ ধরা একটি মানুষ শেখান এবং আপনি সারা জীবনের জন্য তাকে ভোজন (ekṭi manuś ekṭi mach daō eboṅ apni ekṭi diner jonno take bhōjon. mach dhora ekṭi manuś śekhan eboṅ apni śara jiboner jonno take bhōjon)
- Chinese:
- Mandarin: 授人以魚不如授人以漁 / 授人以鱼不如授人以渔 (zh) (shòu rén yǐ yú bùrú shòu rén yǐ yú)
- Czech: dej člověku rybu - nasytíš ho na jeden den; nauč ho chytat ryby - nasytíš jej na celý život
- Danish: Giv en mand en fisk, og han har mad for en dag. Lær en mand at fiske, og han har mad for livet
- Finnish: anna miehelle kala ja ruokit hänet päiväksi; opeta hänet kalastamaan ja ruokit hänet loppuelämäksi.
- French: Donne un poisson à un homme, il mangera un jour. Apprends-lui à pêcher, il mangera toute sa vie.
- German: Gib einem Mann einen Fisch und du ernährst ihn für einen Tag. Lehre einen Mann zu fischen und du ernährst ihn für sein Leben. (rare)
- Hebrew: תן לאדם דג — הוא יהיה שבע ליום אחד; למד אדם לדוג — הוא יהיה שבע לכל החיים (Ten le'adam dag — hu yihiye save'a leyom echad; laméd adam ladug — hu yihiye save'a lekhol hachayim)
- Hindi: किसी के लिए काम करने से बेहतर उसे अपने आप करना सिखाना है (kisī ke lie kām karne se behtar use apne āp karnā sikhānā hai)
- Irish: Tabhair iasc d’fhear, agus beidh sé sásta ar feadh lae; múin dó conas iasc a ghabháil, agus beidh sé sásta ar feadh a shaoil.
- Italian: dà un pesce ad un uomo e lo sfamerai per un giorno; insegna ad un uomo a pescare e lo sfamerai per sempre
- Japanese: 魚を与えるのではなく魚の釣り方を教えよ (さかなをあたえるのではなくさかなのつりかたをおしえよ, Sakana o ataeru no de wa naku sakana no tsurikata o oshie yo)
- Lithuanian: duok žmogui žuvį - bus sotus vieną dieną, išmok jį meškerioti - bus sotus likusį gyvenimą
- Persian: اگر به کسی که گرسنه است ماهی بدهی، گرسنگی او را فقط برای یک روز رفع کردهای؛ اما اگر به او ماهیگیری یاد بدهی، گرسنگی او را تا ابد رفع میکنی
- Polish: dając człowiekowi rybę - karmisz go na jeden dzień; dając człowiekowi wędkę - karmisz go na całe życie.
- Portuguese: dê a um homem um peixe e você o alimentará por um dia. Ensine-o a pescar e você o alimentará por toda uma vida
- Russian: дай челове́ку ры́бу, и ты нако́рмишь его́ на оди́н день, научи́ челове́ка рыба́чить — и ты накормишь его́ на всю жизнь (daj čelovéku rýbu, i ty nakórmišʹ jevó na odín denʹ, naučí čelovéka rybáčitʹ — i ty nakormišʹ jevó na vsju žiznʹ)
- Spanish: dale un pescado a un hombre y lo alimentarás por un día; enséñale a pescar y lo alimentarás de por vida. m
- Ukrainian: Дай людині рибу, і ти нагодуєш її лише раз. Навчи її ловити рибу, і вона буде годуватися нею все життя. (Daj ljudyni rybu, i ty nahoduješ jiji lyše raz. Navčy jiji lovyty rybu, i vona bude hoduvatysja neju vse žyttja.)
- Urdu: آدمی کو ایک مچھلی دو اور تم اُسے ایک دن کا کھانا دیتے ہو، لیکن آدمی کو مچھلی پکڑنا سکھاؤ اور تم اُسے ہمیشہ کے لئے کھانا دیتے ہو۔
- Vietnamese: Nếu cho người khác một con cá, bạn sẽ chỉ nuôi sống người đó một ngày. Còn nếu dạy anh ta cách câu cá, bạn sẽ nuôi sống anh ta cả đời.
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References