Famous Proverbs

1] Every flow must have its ebb

2] A good heart conquers ill fortune

3] A house divided against itself cannot stand

4] What everybody says must be true

5] A great calligrapher isn’t choosy about his brushes.

6] Never spend your money before you have it

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

8] They are rich who have true friends

9] An honorable man would rather be a chicken’s beak than the rump of an ox.

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

11] In a church, in an inn, and in a coffin, all men are equal

12] Appearances are deceptive

13] A lion may be beholden to a mouse

14] Pouring oil on the fire is not the way to quench it

15] All heiresses are beautiful.

16] He who cannot bear misfortune is truly unfortunate.

17] A prophet is without honour in his own country

18] Homo is a common name to all men.

19] Good hand, good hire

20] Give a fool (or a thief) enough rope and he will hang himself

21] Work smart; don’t work hard

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

23] Ninety per cent of inspiration is perspiration

24] Hunger is sharper than the sword

25] If wishes were horses, beggars would ride (or might ride)

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

27] Pitchers have ears

28] To study a great deal is to acquire a priceless treasure

29] In everything consider the end

30] A fault confessed is half redressed

31] However much the arm may swing out, the armpit is where it sticks

32] The labour we delight in physics pain

33] The heart soon forgets what the eye sees not

34] He that is in poverty is still in suspicion

35] What cannot gold do?

36] When it pleases not God, the saint can do little

37] First try and then trust

38] An occasion lost cannot be redeemed

39] It is the first step that is troublesome

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

41] Nothing venture (or ventured), nothing gain (or gained)

42] An ill paymaster never wants excuse

43] The balance distinguishes not between gold and lead

44] Her that is down need fear no fall

45] Comfort is not known if poverty does not come before it

46] Sweet are the uses of adversity

47] The cat shuts its eyes while it steals cream

48] Half a loaf is better than do bread

49] Like mistress, like maid

50] A child can have too much of his mother’s blessings

51] Expectation is better than realisation

52] Slow but sure wins the race

53] We shall lie all alike in our graves

54] The mob tramples on the coward

55] Drops that gather one by one finally become a sea

56] Like master, like man

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

58] Misfortunes find their way even on the darkest night

59] Love is sweet torment

60] Take the tone of the company you are in

61] Double charge will rive a cannon

62] Only the wearer knows where the shoe pinches

63] Children have wide ears and long tongues.

64] You may force a man to shut his eyes but you can’t make him sleep

65] He that would know what shall be, must consider what has been

66] An army marches on its stomach

67] If the thorn falls, the leaf is pierced; if the leaf falls the leaf is pierced

68] The pitcher goes often to the well that it is broken at last

69] He that is born a fool is never cured

70] God comes with leaden feet, but strikes with iron hands

71] Too long burden makes weary bones

72] Send a donkey to Paris, he’ll return no wiser than he went

73] The leopard cannot change its spots

74] Poverty obstructs the road to virtue

75] When the fox preaches, then beware your geese

76] From a foolish judge, a quick sentence

77] Mischief comes by the pound and goes away by the ounce

78] Like father, like son

79] Many irons in the fire, some must cool

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

81] Every bean has its black

82] They are rich who have true friends

83] All are not saints that go to church

84] Big words seldom go with good deeds

85] Go while the going is good

86] Anything will fit a naked man.

87] Even the compelling beauty of the Diamond Mountain cannot be appreciated when the stomach is empty

88] He knows the water best who has waded through it

89] Deeds are fruits; words are but leaves

90] If one sheep leaps o’er the dyke, all the rest will follow

91] All’s fair in love and war

92] The mean is the best

93] As long as the old horse lives, his habits will not change

94] The worst wheel of the cart creaks most

95] He that falls today may rise tomorrow

96] God heals, and the physician takes the fee

97] A hundred pounds of sorrow pays not one ounce of debt

98] A true friend is forever a friend

99] Even the grubs in the rocks manage to survive

100] Eat to live and not live to eat.