Teach a man to fish

Status
Not open for further replies.

bmo

Senior Member
Joined
Jul 24, 2003
Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day. Teach a man to fish and he will eat for a lifetime. - Confucius? Ted G. Sheridan?

1. What is the correct quote?
2. The author?
 

Casiopea

VIP Member
Joined
Sep 21, 2003
Member Type
Other
bmo said:
Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day. Teach a man to fish and he will eat for a lifetime. - Confucius? Ted G. Sheridan?

1. What is the correct quote?
2. The author?

1. Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day. Teach a man to fish and he will eat for a lifetime.

2. Confucius, K'ung Fu-tzu, K'ung-tzu, Kong Zi, Kong Qiu, Zhong Ni
Circa 551 - 479

All the best, :D
 

bmo

Senior Member
Joined
Jul 24, 2003
Thanks a lot. I'll have to go back to my school texts to see how Confucius said it in Chinese. Am impressed with your knowledge of his many names in Chinese.

BMO
 

blacknomi

Key Member
Joined
Apr 21, 2004
Member Type
Student or Learner
Cassie is cool.

But BMO,
"Give a man enough rope and he will hang himself." :D
 

Casiopea

VIP Member
Joined
Sep 21, 2003
Member Type
Other
bmo said:
Thanks a lot. I'll have to go back to my school texts to see how Confucius said it in Chinese. Am impressed with your knowledge of his many names in Chinese.

BMO

:oops: I found the names online; I am studying Chinese, though. :D
 

Casiopea

VIP Member
Joined
Sep 21, 2003
Member Type
Other
blacknomi said:
Cassie is cool.

But BMO,
"Give a man enough rope and he will hang himself." :D

Give a man a fish and he'll ask for a lemon. Teach a man to fish and he'll leave work early on Friday.

Source

Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day. Teach a man to fish and he will go out and buy expensive fishing equipment, stupid-looking
clothes, a sports utility vehicle, travel 1,000 miles to the "hottest" fishing
hole, and stand waist deep in cold water just so he can outsmart a
fish. Average cost per fish: $395.68. Give a man a fish then!

Source

Give Bill Gates a fish, and he’ll buy some tartar sauce to go with it. Teach Bill Gates to fish, and he’ll build a tartar sauce factory and eventually corner the market. The tartar sauce won’t be as good as some other tartar sauce, but people won’t mind, they’ll just think that that faint hint of mercury is how tartar sauce is supposed to taste.

Source

"Give a man a fish, feed him for a day.
Teach a man to fish, feed him his entire life."

Give a man a fish? What fish? Trout? Scrod? Herring? Fresh-water? Salt-water? Pickled? Could you be more specific? Can one fish feed a man for an entire day? Depends on the fish I guess. We need clarification. And come to think of it -- what man? Who is this guy?

Now about this 'teaching a man to fish' nonsense. I don't have time to teach a man to fish. I have enough crap going on in my life. I have bills to pay. I don't need the increased responsibility of running a fishing class for grown-ass men who don't have fish.

There are a lot of tricks to fishing too. Selecting the right pole, the right reel, fishing line, hooks, bait. It's complicated! And he's going to have to put down a deposit in case he breaks something. Does he have a credit card? I'm not getting stuck with repairs. What am I, UNICEF? I should run a background check to make sure he isn't likely to cut my throat with a paring knife.

And I have to be honest; I don't know squat about fishing. I was raised in the city. My dad used to take me to museums, not lakes. We went fishing once. We didn't catch anything so we went to Vons. Grilled up some T-bone steaks instead.

But let's pretend I know how to fish. I'm a regular fishing expert. Where's this guy gonna go fishing? He's going to have to arrange for transportation. "...Teach a man to drive, get him to his destination his entire life." That's a little better. I can teach a man to drive. But what, I gotta rent him a car now too? Screw 'im!

About the best thing I can do for this guy is to teach him how to pick out a fish. You want a fresh fish - that's rule #1. It shouldn't smell. If it smells, the fish isn't fresh. Fresh fish should be kept on ice -- they go bad quickly. You also want a fish that's been cleaned, unless you already know how to clean it. Does this man know how to clean a fish? Oh, he knows how to clean a fish, but he doesn't know how to catch one? That's the trouble with today's educational system. They teach you half of what you need to know. That's not my problem.

This guy should become a vegetarian. In sixty-seconds I can teach him how to catch a celery.

Source
 

blacknomi

Key Member
Joined
Apr 21, 2004
Member Type
Student or Learner
Francois said:
It get one's hands full for the next twenty years...

FRC


Oh, after twenty years, Chinese could/would dominate the world. 8) :p
 
S

Seek22x7

Guest
I believe a man (100% man, 100% God) taught this. Most know him as Jesus, his real name was pronounced "Yeshua."

His scriptures can be found in the English Christian Bible.

http://bible.com/ is a good place to start.
 

Tdol

No Longer With Us (RIP)
Staff member
Joined
Nov 13, 2002
Native Language
British English
Home Country
UK
Current Location
Japan
According to the very site you're recommending, he didn't say it.
 
B

bongbang

Guest
Not Confucius. Probably not even Chinese.

Casiopea said:
1. Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day. Teach a man to fish and he will eat for a lifetime.

2. Confucius, K'ung Fu-tzu, K'ung-tzu, Kong Zi, Kong Qiu, Zhong Ni
Circa 551 - 479

Not true. The most common Chinese variant of this saying is 授人以鱼不如授人以渔 , which means "To give a man fish is not as good as to give [teach] him fishing."

Confucius is most likely not the author of even that quote, which Chinese-language enthusiasts discussed here. Let me cite 古月, who appears to be the most knowledgable on that thread: [translated from Chinese by me]

The English version that Yeti posted is what I hear foreigners use all the time. The inherited Chinese version is now becoming common, too, but the wording is still all over the place — I have also seen the “授人鱼,供一餐之用;授人渔,则享用不尽” version. The citers basically all begin with “ancient people stated…”, “ancient people said…”, “there’s an old saying…” with some going so far as to use “foreigners say China has this ancient saying…” etc. This is one of the many unsettled issues in the world’s gold-jade beautiful words industry. Everybody propagates, everybody uses, full of creativity and wisdom. Even though everybody keeps saying this is “Chinese wisdom”, Chinese scholars are still pedantic. Is this really a case of “[cultural] exchange” or “piracy” and “counterfeit”? No one can determine. Where do words come from? Very likely only God knows :)

“Confucius says, ‘May you live in interesting times!’”, “There’s a Chinese proverb, “Don’t take off your pants when having sex.” This type of dubious [“] Chinese [”] old sayings are as abundant as a cow’s hair, no way to verify them one by one. Some are altogether made up by foreigners who, in order to heighten effects, put their own witticism on Chinese philosophers’ heads. If the thing is composed rather cleverly, like this “fish/fishing” one, then it becomes widespread. When it spreads to China, prominent people have this translation, and it sounds authentic to boot. Such a high-quality maxim, who can refuse? This process of establishing a common expression as “a Chinese ancient saying” is actually quite logical.

That should settle the issue. If not, there's a more detailed write-up on my personal site.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top