Famous Proverbs

1] Love your neighbour, yet pull not down your hedge

2] A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush

3] The fairest silk is soonest stained

4] Two heads are better than one

5] There’s always room at the top

6] Good words are worth much and cost little

7] A good Conscience is the best divinity

8] He should have (or He needs) a long spoon who sups with the devil

9] A good paymaster needs no surety

10] Bread is the staff of life.

11] A single rose does not mean spring

12] An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure

13] Valour would fight, but discretion would run away

14] Even water has its ebb and flow

15] Every beggar is descended from some king, and every king is descended from some beggar.

16] Do as most men do, then most men well speak well of you

17] Too much money makes one mad

18] The labourer is worthy of his hire

19] There is nothing permanent except change

20] It is ill striving (or swimming) against the stream (or tide)

21] The delay is good which makes the way the safer

22] Be not too bold with your biggers or betters

23] He that sings on Friday, will weep on Sunday

24] The surest way to remain poor is to be an honest man

25] Better to be safe than sorry.

26] A true friend is forever a friend

27] Many irons in the fire, some must cool

28] Quickly come, quickly go

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

30] Live and let live

31] A good Jack makes a good Jill.

32] You cannot get ivory from a dog’s mouth

33] You may lead (or take) a horse to water, but you cannot make him drink

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

35] Good counsel has no price. Nothing is given so freely as advice.

36] A man whose conscience is clear, of a knock at midnight has no fear

37] A little help is worth a deal of pity

38] If you sing before breakfast, you’ll cry before night

39] Discontent is the first step in progress

40] He that gives his goods before he be dead, take up a mallet and knock him on the head

41] God gave us the seed of every plant, but we must sow it.

42] Better the last smile than the first laugh

43] See how the wind blows

44] Our worst misfortunes are those which never befall us

45] Repeat a piece of good advice three times and even a dog will be bored.

46] The more cost, the more honour

47] While there is life, there is hope

48] A trouble shared is a trouble halved.

49] Dirty linen should be washed at home

50] He that promises too much means nothing

51] The rich knows not who is his friend

52] Better be first in a village than second at Rome

53] Advice when most needed is least heeded

54] He who hesitates is lost

55] He who does not rise with the sun does not enjoy the day

56] Nature is conquered by obeying her

57] Three helping one another, bear the burthen of six

58] He who touches pitch will be defiled

59] Fair exchange is no robbery

60] Spread the table, and contention will cease

61] It is easy to find a stick to beat a dog

62] Take things as they come

63] Do not triumph before the victory

64] Don’t make yourself a mouse, or the cat will eat you

65] He that will not have peace, God gives him war

66] A good paymaster never wants workmen

67] On an open plain, the rhododendron is a tall tree

68] He that comes first to the hill, may sit where he will.

69] Necessity knows no law

70] Pride dines on vanity, sups on contempt

71] Life is not all beer and skittles

72] He that speaks not, God hears not

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

74] Least said, soonest mended

75] A good name is better than riches

76] Our worst misfortunes are those which never befall us

77] It never rains it pours

78] Words cut more than swords

79] A man of knowledge increaseth strength

80] The camel never sees its own hump, but that of its brother is always before its eyes

81] There are spots even in the sun

82] Many drops make a shower

83] Hypocrisy is a homage that vice pay to virtue

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

85] Every path has a puddle

86] Out of sight, out of mind

87] Because he would not eat it, the food got maggoty

88] Confess and be hanged

89] Even the tiger will appear if you talk about him

90] Every commodity has its discommodity

91] The result justifies the deed

92] Unless the vessel is clean, what you pour in to it turns sour.

93] Harsh words cut wounds that fester like cankerous sores

94] Idle folks lack no excuses

95] From the sublime to the ridiculous is only a step

96] Names are debts

97] A joke’s a very serious thing

98] The blind man is not afraid of ghosts

99] A quarrelsome man has no good neighbours

100] Young colts will canter.