Ọwọ́ ẹni la fi ńtú ìwà ara ẹni ṣe.

What it means

Character is repairable, and only by its owner.

Used when

Owomoyela: "Each person's fortune is in his or her own hands"

Notes on the translation

Owomoyela translates ìwà here as "fortune" rather than "character," which is a substantive interpretive choice: the Yorùbá word is the same one rendered "character" everywhere else in this file. The verb tú... ṣe is to untie and redo, used of rebuilding something that was badly made, so the literal sense is closer to "one's own hands are what one uses to remake one's own character." The disagreement between the printed translation and the literal reading is real and is left standing here. Confidence on the rendering: medium.

In this collection

• Ìwà lẹwà.Character is beauty.
• Ìwà rere lẹ̀ṣọ́ èèyàn; ehín funfun lẹ̀ṣọ́ ẹ̀rín.Good character is a person's best adornment; white teeth are the adornment of a smile.
• Ìwà lòrìṣà; bí a ti hù ú sí ní ńgbeni sí.Character is a god; just as one lives it, so it succors one.
• Ìwà lẹ̀sìn.Character is worship.
• Ìwà kì í fi oníwà sílẹ̀.Character will not forsake its owner.
• Tìwà tìwà là ńràjò.It is in the company of one's character that one goes on a journey.