Famous Proverbs

1] Joy and sorrow are next door neighbours.

2] Plain dealing is best

3] Give a dog a bad name and hang him

4] Pardon one offence and you encourage many

5] What you lose on the swings, you gain on the roundabouts

6] No man is the worse for knowing the worst of himself

7] Make the best of a bad job

8] He that has nothing need fear to lose nothing

9] In haste is error

10] The race is got by running

11] The first day a guest, the second day a guest, the third day a calamity

12] We shall beat our swords into ploughshares

13] T’ is safest making peace with sword in hand

14] Misfortune does not always come to injure

15] Every family has a skeleton in the cupboard

16] Better learn late than never

17] Good clothes open all doors

18] Slow and steady wins the race

19] An honest good look covers many faults.

20] Where there’s muck, there’s money

21] A parrot will only say what it is taught

22] There is no accounting for tastes

23] There is no smoke without fire

24] He who rides on a tiger can never dismount

25] Ill luck is good for something

26] A single arrow is easily broken, but not ten in a bundle.

27] There’s no such thing as free as a free lunch

28] Don’t take your harp to the party

29] An occasion lost cannot be redeemed

30] Even the grubs in the rocks manage to survive

31] Forgive and forget

32] A lion may come to be beholden to a mouse

33] He who seizes the right moment is the right man

34] A good servant must have good wages

35] A bow long bent at last waxes weak

36] Truth is god’s daughter

37] He who never was sick dies the first fit

38] Don’t take your harp to the party

39] Forgiveness is perfect when the sin is not remembered

40] Variety is the spice of life

41] A man’s in his own mouth stinks

42] There’s no such thing as free as a free lunch

43] It at first you don’t succeed, try, try, try again

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

45] Poison is poison though it comes in a golden cup.

46] If the devil finds a man idle, he’ll set him to work

47] What is word but wind?

48] Adversity is the touchstone of friendship

49] When you know there are tigers on the hills, don’t go there

50] Dogs that bark at a distance bite not at hand

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

52] Accidents will happen

53] Use the means, and God will give the blessings

54] You cannot put an old head on young shoulders.

55] It is a sad house where the hen crows louder than the cock

56] The early bird catches the worm

57] They are rich who have true friends

58] Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me

59] Time has wings

60] White there’s life there’s hope

61] Our neighbour’s ground yields better corn than ours

62] Give me fire and I’ll give you light

63] Make the best of a bad bargain

64] The voice is the best music

65] When a dwarf ascends a staircase, he gets higher every step

66] Naturally the same beans from the same bin.

67] Words are but wind

68] Why play the harp to a buffalo?

69] Oh, what a tangled web we weave, when first we practice to deceive!

70] A mill cannot grind with water that is past

71] Anger managers everything badly.

72] In doing we learn.

73] Drinking water neither makes a man sick, nor in debt, nor his wife a widow

74] He that praises himself, spatters himself

75] He that may not do as he would, must do as he may

76] A watched pot never boils

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

78] He is a fool that makes a hammer of his fist

79] The word is far him who has patience

80] Why does one man’s yawning make another yawn?

81] No cross, no crown

82] Never do evil that good may come of it

83] Conscience does make cowards of us all

84] When a tiger dies, it leaves a skin; when a man dies, he leaves a name

85] Better a husband without love than a jealous husband

86] There are more ways of killing a cat than choking it with cream.

87] If anything can go wrong, it will

88] When the cat is away, the mice will play

89] Truth is stranger than fiction

90] Never spend your money before you have it

91] The fairest flowers soonest fade

92] A thing of beauty is a joy forever

93] At the end of the game, the king and pawn go in to the same bag.

94] Forbidden fruit is sweetest

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

96] The borrower is servant to the lender

97] Every oak has been an acorn

98] Green leaves enhance the charm of the peony flower

99] A jug that has been mended lasts two hundred years

100] What is worse than ill luck?