Famous Proverbs

1] An empty sack cannot stand upright

2] Patient men with the day.

3] The last straw breaks the camel’s back

4] Love is never without jealousy

5] Hunger drives the wolf out of the wood

6] Don’t wash your dirty linen in public

7] One man’s means another man’s poison

8] There is no tree but bears some fruit

9] The bigger they are, the harder they fall

10] A clear conscience fears not false accusations

11] Who errs and mends, to god himself commends

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

13] It is the bridle and spur that makes a good horse

14] The kind-hearted person has a heavy load.

15] Misfortunes never come singly

16] All covet all lose.

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

18] Poverty is not a crime

19] Children and chickens must be always picking

20] Never was a cat or dog drowned, that could but see the shore

21] Barking dogs seldom bite

22] Jesters do oft prove prophets

23] We can live without our friends, but not without our neighbours

24] A cat has nine lives

25] Soon learnt, soon forgotten

26] He that ventures not fails not.

27] The righteous man sins before an open chest

28] Where the dam leaps over, the kid follows

29] Little and often fills the purse

30] Nothing crave, nothing have

31] Virtue and happiness are mother and daughter

32] He gives twice who gives quickly

33] A long tongue is a sign of a short hand

34] Travel broadens the mind

35] Past experiences are the best guide for future undertakings

36] Long life has long misery

37] Remove an old tree and it will wither to death

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

39] He that brings good news, knocks hard

40] He is a gentleman that has gentle conditions

41] The folly of one man is the fortune of another

42] The devil lurks behind the cross

43] Where there is a question, there must be an answer

44] All’s fair in love and war

45] It takes a wise man to be a fool

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

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

48] Handsome is as handsome does

49] Bare walls make giddy housewives

50] Don’t take a bull in to a china shop.

51] They bow to you when borrowing; you bow to them when collecting

52] Wiles help weak folk

53] In the country of the blind, the one-eyed man is king

54] Kill two birds with one stone

55] Better a good cow than a cow of a good kind

56] Not good is it to harp on the frayed string

57] Every dog has his (its) day

58] Bare walls make giddy housewives

59] He that increaseth knowledge increaseth sorrow

60] You cannot have it both ways

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

62] Make yourself all honey and the flies will devour you

63] Exchange (or Fair exchange) is no robbery

64] Four eyes see better than two.

65] Abundance, like want, ruins many

66] Money breeds (or makes, or begets) money

67] Lookers-on see more than players

68] He is a good friend that speaks well of us behind our backs

69] Love your friend with his fault

70] Better cut the shoe than pinch the foot

71] A fool’s bolt is soon shot

72] The perfect good is the exercise of virtue

73] Tomorrow never comes

74] One is not smelt where all stink

75] Old vessels must leak

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

77] The death of the wolves is the safety of the sheep

78] Anger begins with folly and ends with repentance.

79] He seems wise with whom all things thrive

80] The tongue is more to be feared than the sword

81] He that loveth danger shall perish therein

82] A bow long bent at last waxes weak

83] Don’t tell tales out of school

84] Patience is a flower that grows not in everyone’s garden

85] After a dream of a wedding, comes a corpse

86] Little pitchers have big ears.

87] He who would hang his dog gives out first that it is mad

88] Tell a lie and stick to it.

89] Money would be gotten if there were money to get it with

90] No man is born wise or learned

91] A wicked man is his own hell

92] That which proves too much proves nothing

93] Every shoe fits not every foot

94] A man’s best fortune, or his worst, is a wife

95] Advice when most needed is least heeded

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

97] Beauty opens locked doors

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

99] The remedy for injuries is not to remember them

100] Dreams go by contraries