1. Polish
First love is like a snake; if it doesn't destroy you, it will paralyze you.

2. German
You can suffer without love, but you can't love without suffering.

3. Avar, Russian Caucasus
Yield to the desires of your body, then endure the disasters that follow.

4. Hausa, Nigeria/Niger
When the heart gives orders, the body becomes its slave.

5. Russian
Love has wings on its shoulders; matrimony has crutches under its arms.

6. Punjabi, India
There are a thousand miseries in one love.

7. Italian
He that marries for love, dies miserably of anger.

8. Russian
Love is like a nettle that stings badly.

9. Spanish
Love is like soup, the first mouthful is very hot, and the ones that follow become gradually colder.

10. Malagasy, Madagascar
Love is like seaweed: You go to her, she leaves you, you leave her, she follows you.

11. Arabic
The promises of the night, made of butter, melt when the first sunrays appear.

Source: Never Marry a Woman With Big Feet: Women in proverbs from around the world. Mineke Schipper. Yale University Press, 2003.

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