Famous Proverbs

1] A guilty conscience feels continual fear

2] Goodness is better than beauty

3] A quarrelsome man has no good neighbours

4] Open confession is good for the soul

5] Health and money go far

6] Wink at small faults

7] Knowledge is the mother of all virtue; all vice proceeds from ignorance

8] Where the tongue slips, it speaks the truth

9] A sleepy master makes his servant a lout

10] Like father, like son

11] There is a great difference between words and deeds

12] The devil looks after his own

13] A good friend is my nearest relation

14] Greedy eaters dig their graves with their teeth.

15] Who lives by hope will die in hunger

16] A burthen of one’s own choice is not felt

17] The darkest hour is that before the dawn

18] It foolish sheep that makes the wolf his confessor

19] It is safer to hear and take counsel, than give it.

20] A man is valued as he makes himself valuable

21] Kick a tone in anger, and you will hurt your own feet

22] A bad shearer never had a good sickle

23] Kind hearts are more than coronets

24] He that will not be counseled, cannot be helped

25] Business is business

26] Prevention is better than cure

27] He is a fool who makes his physician his heir

28] Bad luck often brings good luck

29] Poverty is the mother of crime

30] Be just before you are generous

31] An angry man opens his mouth and shuts his eyes.

32] The game is not worth the candle

33] One can’t help many, but many can help one

34] A merry companion is a wagon on the way

35] He is wise who looks ahead

36] An oak is not felled at one stroke

37] A bad excuse is better than none at all

38] No bees, no honey’, that sweetness will come in to the mouth

39] A bad workman quarrels with his tools.

40] Fortune favours fools

41] Idleness (or An idle brain) is the devil’s workshop

42] None are so fond of secrets as those who don’t mean to keep them

43] Small gifts make friends, great ones make enemies

44] He loves roast meat well that licks the spit.

45] A black hen lays a white egg

46] We soon believe what we desire

47] As you sow, so shall you reap

48] Beggars must not be choosers

49] Little birds that can sing and won’t sing should be made to sing

50] Not even Hercules could contend against two

51] To advise someone not to gamble is to win money for him

52] I may not have tasted their flesh but I’ve seen enough to know how pigs walk

53] He knows which side his bread is buttered

54] Self do, self have

55] He who gives fair words feds you with and empty spoon

56] When the butcher has already killed your pig, it is useless to discuss with him the price

57] Think not on what you lack as much as what you have

58] We shall beat our swords into ploughshares

59] Ambition loses many a man

60] He that hopes not for good, fears not evil.

61] It is too late to husband when all is spent

62] Fair exchange is no robbery

63] Good wine needs no bush

64] Does sound come from an unstruck drum?

65] Virtue joints man to god

66] Tender-handed stroke a nettle, and it stings you for your pain: grasp it like a man of mettle, and it soft as silk remains

67] Lend only that which you can afford to lose

68] A single filament of silk does not make a thread; a single tree does not make a forest

69] Wine uncloaks the words of the heart

70] By his deeds we know a man

71] Don’t have too many irons in the fire

72] Words bind men

73] Gold goes in at any gate except heaven’s

74] When the fox preaches, then beware your geese

75] The worth of a thing is what it will bring

76] A loveless life is a living death

77] From word to deed is a great space

78] The wolf knows what the ill beast thinks

79] Pride goes before a fall

80] He is lifeless that is faultless

81] Hungry dogs will eat dirty puddings

82] He who never was sick dies the first fit

83] Give us the tools, and we will finish the job

84] Look on the bright side

85] Use makes mastery

86] First impressions are the most lasting

87] Advice when most needed is least heeded

88] Men are not angles

89] Once a knave, always a knave

90] A wise man cares not for what he cannot have

91] The Friar Preached against stealing and had a goose in his sleeve

92] Fall not into the fire when you try to avoid smoke

93] Once bitten, twice shy.

94] The poorer one is, the more devils one meets

95] A fool’s mouth is his destruction

96] Set a beggar on horse back and he’ll ride to the devil

97] He that has a wife, has strife

98] There is no tree but bears some fruit

99] Every man has his price

100] When you drink water from the stream, don’t forget that the source of it is the spring