Famous Proverbs

1] We soon believe what we desire

2] There is no accounting for tastes

3] Half a loaf is better than do bread

4] Every man praises his own wares

5] Take not a musket to kill a butterfly

6] Stolen sweets are sweeter

7] Patience is a virtue

8] You cannot have it both ways

9] One drop of poison infects the whole tun of wine

10] Mustard is a good sauce, but mirth is better

11] Eat at pleasure, drink by measure

12] Eaten bread is soon forgotten

13] Love will find a way

14] Don’t take your harp to the party

15] I saw few die of hunger; of eating, a hundred thousand.

16] He is wise who looks ahead

17] Bees that have honey in their mouths have stings in their tails.

18] No news is good news

19] Open a book and you profit by what you read

20] Suffering does not manifest itself

21] The cobbler should stick to his last

22] He that has a tongue in his head may find his way anywhere

23] Names and natures do often agree

24] The pleasures of the mighty are the tears of the poor

25] He wants both the flour and the cake that it makes

26] Behind the smile, a dagger may be hidden

27] Water is a boon in the desert, but the drowning man curses it.

28] Everyone puts his fault on the times.

29] It is not the hood that makes the monk.

30] The love of money is the root of all evil

31] There’s small choice in rotten apples.

32] The best remedy against an ill man, is much ground between

33] The perfect good is the exercise of virtue

34] Those who are used to the signs of the dumb, understand them

35] In your anxiety to avoid losing a drop, you spill the whole lot

36] Master easy, servant slack

37] Few words are best

38] When a man is happy, he does not hear the clock strike

39] With wealth, you are as grand as a dragon; without wealth you are as insignificant as a worm.

40] Full of courtesy, full of craft

41] The pen is the tongue of the hand

42] No news is good news

43] The buyer needs a hundred eyes, the seller but one

44] Let an ill man lie in the straw and he looks to be thy heir

45] A new broom sweeps clean, but the old brush knows all the corners

46] It’s a long lane that has no turning

47] Have two strings to your bow

48] Slow but sure wins the race

49] A black hen lays a white egg

50] A dwarf on a giant’s shoulders sees the farther of the two

51] Live not to eat, but eat to live

52] What we have seen with out own eyes is very much but what we have not seen is infinite.

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

54] The whole boat is putrid because of a single carp

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

56] You must lose a fly to catch a trout

57] Kingdoms divided soon fall

58] The lion had need of the mouse

59] It is better to be a coward for a minute than dead for the rest of your life

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

61] He that would catch fish must venture his bait

62] It is a sorry flock where the ewe bears the bell

63] Good broth may be made in an old pot

64] Gifts blind the eyes.

65] Even if you wash a crow with rose- water, its feathers won’t become white.

66] It is poor dog that is not worth the whistling

67] Gold brings gold; lack of gold, a headache

68] Better to be safe than sorry.

69] The sun is never the worse for shining on a dunghill

70] Don’t build the sty before the litter comes

71] Ill news comes unsent for.

72] When the boat reaches the middle of the river, it is too late to repair the leak

73] If one will not, another will

74] There is no tree but bears some fruit

75] A good conscience is a sure card

76] The longest (or farthest) way round is the nearest (or shortest) way home.

77] Forewarned is forearmed

78] Judge not the tree by its bark

79] The eye of the master will do more work than both his hands

80] To speak as the common people, to think as the wise

81] The fine pullet shows its excellence from the egg.

82] The sieve says to the needle, “You’ve hole in your head”.(

83] Long looked for, comes at last

84] Let the buyer beware

85] Borrowed garments never fit well

86] Fear the Greeks (or Beware of Greeks) bearing gifts

87] Bind the sack before it be full

88] Tune the harp strings to be neither too loose nor too taut

89] A bad excuse is better than none at all

90] Two midwives will twist the baby’s head

91] Saying is one thing, and doing another

92] Desperate diseases need desperate cures

93] You must grin and bear it

94] Mix work with pleasure and you will never go mad.

95] Care brings grey hair.

96] Money is the sinews of war

97] Diamond cuts diamond

98] Where the dam leaps over, the kid follows

99] A word before is worth two behind

100] Give the devil his due