欲人不知，莫若不为；欲人不闻，莫若不言欲人不知，莫若不為；欲人不聞，莫若不言欲人不知，莫若不為；欲人不聞，莫若不言

if you don't want people to know, better not do it; if you don't want people to hear, better not say it

Saying俗语俗語

Proverb谚语諺語 · Rarely used now

Meaning: Don't do what you must hide, and don't say what you don't want repeated. Close to "if you don't want it known, don't do it".

Sign up for a free account to save sentences and hear them read aloud

Simplified: 欲人不知，莫若不为；欲人不闻，莫若不言
Traditional (Taiwan): 欲人不知，莫若不為；欲人不聞，莫若不言
Pinyin: yù rén bùzhī, mò ruò bù wéi; yù rén bù wén, mò ruò bù yán
Pinyin (Taiwan): yù rén bùzhī, mò ruò bú wèi; yù rén bù wén, mò ruò bù yán
Bopomofo: ㄩˋ ㄖㄣˊ ㄅㄨˋ ㄓ，ㄇㄛˋ ㄖㄨㄛˋ ㄅㄨˊ ㄨㄟˋ；ㄩˋ ㄖㄣˊ ㄅㄨˋ ㄨㄣˊ，ㄇㄛˋ ㄖㄨㄛˋ ㄅㄨˋ ㄧㄢˊ

Written with HSK 7-9 vocabulary, at CEFR level C1.

Words in this sentence

Where this sentence is used

Chinese sayings

Sign up for a free Chinese Boost account

Save the words and sentences you find here to your own list, and hear them read aloud. You can export the list to your flashcards whenever you like.

Create a free account

All Chinese example sentences