Adventures in the Arabic Dictionary

View Original

God, ants, and circuitous destruction

Annals of the South African Museum / Creative Commons

In practice: those elevated to positions above their abilities bring about their own downfall.[1]


[1] This expression first came to me from Tarif Khalidi, but it can be found in J.L. Burckhardt, Arabic Proverbs … (London, 1830), 4.