Famous Proverbs

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

2] Love turns pimples

3] The devil dances in an empty pocket

4] It is as hard to please a knave as knight

5] The longest night will have an end

6] It is easier to commend poverty than endure it.

7] The grass is always greener on the other side of the fence

8] Don’t cross the bridge before you get to it

9] Waste makes wants

10] Weak things united become strong

11] Fish begins to stink at the head

12] He who depends on another, dines ill and sups worse

13] Whatsoever was the father of a disease, an ill diet was the mother.

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

15] A bad shearer never had a good sickle

16] Neither bribe, nor lose thy right

17] Do not triumph before the victory

18] Nothing seek, nothing find

19] Hungry dogs will eat dirty puddings

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

21] A rolling stone gathers no moss

22] Every ass likes to hear himself bray

23] Money gives a bold front: it doesn’t talk – it screams

24] The dog that fetches, will carry.

25] Love sees no fault

26] There is none misfortune cannot reach

27] He that eats well should do his duty well

28] All things require skills but an appetite

29] What is money to a cat?

30] As you plant wild grass, you won’t get a crop of rice.

31] Misfortunes never come singly

32] No man is indispensable

33] Union (or Unity) is strength

34] Abundance, like want, ruins many

35] Advice is something the wise don’t need and fools won’t take

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

37] Better bend than break

38] Friends agree best at a distance

39] What soberness conceals, drunkenness reveals

40] You cannot have it both ways

41] Every medal has its reverse

42] He that makes himself a sheep, shall be eaten by the wolf

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

44] Strike while the iron is hot

45] Give a lie a twenty-four-hour start, and you can never overtake it.

46] An apple a day keeps the doctor away

47] Sour, sweet, bitter and pungent flavours must all be tasted

48] Striving to better, often we mar what’s well.

49] You must grin and bear it

50] When I lent, I was a friend; and when I asked, I was unkind

51] Destroy the lion while he is yet but a whelp

52] Lovers’ quarrels are soon mended

53] All glory comes from daring to begin

54] An ill payer (or paymaster) never wants an excuse

55] An open door may tempt a saint

56] Keep not ill men company, lest you increase the number

57] The eye sees only what it has the power of seeing

58] Courtesy (Or Civility, or Politeness) costs nothing

59] By his deeds we know a man

60] The hunchback does not see his own hump, but his companion’s

61] Don’t count your chickens before they are hatched

62] When the horse has reached the brink of the precipice, it is too late to pull the reins.

63] The tongue ever turns to the aching tooth

64] Better the last smile than the first laugh

65] A wounded reputation is seldom cured

66] Enquire not what boils in another’s pot. ¶ Listeners seldom hear good of themselves

67] Give a servant a rod, and he’ll beat his master

68] He that the devil drives, feels no lead at his heels

69] Content lodges oftener in cottages than palaces

70] A knave and a fool never take thought

71] God’s help is better than the early rising

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

73] Little things please little minds

74] In wine there is truth

75] Wise is the man who never exposes himself to unnecessary danger

76] If each would sweep before his own door, we should have a clean city

77] Thieves and rogues have the best luck, if they do but escape hanging

78] Don’t cross the bridge before you get to it

79] Who suffers much is silent

80] Truth has no need of rhetoric

81] A little body often harbours a great soul

82] The first step is the hardest

83] Even Buddha has a limit to what he can tolerate

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

85] Hitch your wagon to a star

86] A prophet is not without honour, save in his own country and in his home

87] The eye that sees all things else sees not itself

88] The bull must be taken by the horns

89] Idle folks lack no excuses

90] Cast not the first stone.

91] He that speaks well, flights well

92] Words fly, writings remain

93] Confide in an aunt and the world will know

94] No one is rich enough to do without his neighbours

95] Submitting to one wrong brings on another.

96] Wake not a sleeping lion

97] Even silence may be eloquent

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

99] What is deferred is not abandoned

100] A watched pot never boils