A friend pointed me to an old-school RPG blog called Rolang’s Creeping Doom. Specifically, to a post entitled “A Dwarf Says What?”
The post contains 30 dwarvish proverbs, along with the proper meaning and a mistaken translation or interpretation commonly repeated amongst men.
My favourite is #13:
“Every dwarf must dig his own tunnel.” [Meaning: in life.]
And here is the human interpretation:
Dwarves do not band together during adversity, but dig a tunnel to escape.
Dwarven Glory 