Famous Proverbs

1] Take things as you find them

2] The voice is the best music

3] When in doubt, do nothing

4] Self-preservation is the first law of nature

5] Kinsman helps kinsman, and woe to him that has none

6] Lovers are madmen

7] Wash your dirty linen at home

8] If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em

9] The quarrel of lovers is the renewal of love

10] Nothing is as good as it seems before hand

11] Dying men speak true

12] A man may lose more in an hour than he can get in seven

13] The wise forget an insult, as the ungrateful a kindness

14] When you live next to a cemetery, you cannot weep for everyone

15] He is wise who looks ahead

16] A man in debt is caught in a net

17] Everything new is fine

18] He who sits in the well to observe the sky does not see very much.

19] A good face is a letter of recommendation

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

21] Hard cases make bad law

22] Bad news travels fast

23] The tongue is more venomous than a serpent’s sting

24] Poverty parts friendship

25] He who considers too much will perform little.

26] Grin and bear it

27] Fair face, foul heart

28] He that has good money, gives few alms

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

30] He knows which side his bread is buttered

31] Man punishes the action but God the intention

32] Sparrows who emulate peacocks are likely to break a thigh

33] Gold may be bought too dear

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

35] Old foxes want no tutors

36] Diligence is the mother of good fortune

37] If you play with fire you get burnt

38] His bark is worse than his bite

39] When a man grows angry, his reason rides out.

40] Riches along make no men happy

41] All things are possible with god

42] He that has a full purse never wanted a friend

43] A wicked man is his own hell

44] He that obey cannot command

45] The wish is father to the thought

46] Pleasant hours fly past

47] Quarrels do not last long if the wrong is only on one side

48] They are rich who have true friends

49] He who sits chatting about nothing loses his candle

50] We shall beat our swords into ploughshares

51] He that will thrive, must rise at five; he that has thriven, may lie till seven; but he that will never thrive may lie till eleven

52] Children and chickens must be always picking

53] He who demands does not command

54] Curses, like chickens, come home to roost

55] Trouble brings experience and experience brings wisdom

56] A word before is worth two behind

57] Every family has a skeleton in the cupboard

58] High places have their precipices

59] There is nothing like being on the safe side

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

61] He that keeps not crust not crumb, shall ever want some

62] Sooner will men hold fore in the mouth than keep a secret

63] No pains, no gains

64] There is truth in wine

65] Haste is of (or from) the devil

66] With seven nurses, the child loses its eye

67] Crime does not pay

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

69] Where the dam leaps over, the kid follows

70] The hand that gives, gathers

71] We must not look for a golden life in an iron age

72] He thinks not well that thinks not again

73] A good husband makes a good wife

74] Those that make the best use of their time, have none to spare

75] The end justifies the means

76] Time lost cannot be recalled

77] A healthy man is a successful man

78] The greatest talkers are the least doers

79] Morning dreams come true

80] If you want a thing well done, do it yourself

81] Nearest the heart comes out first

82] The grapes are sour’, as the fox said when he could not reach them

83] First come, first served

84] Old vessels must leak

85] If the lad goes to the well against his will, either the can will break or the water will spill

86] A goose drinks as much as gander

87] It is easier to raise the devil than to lay him

88] What we spent, we had; what we gave, we have: what we left, we lost

89] Water is a boon in the desert, but the drowning man curses it.

90] Help a lame dog over a stile

91] He that desires but little has no deed of much

92] Take the will for the deed

93] Experience without learning is better than learning without experience

94] Money is the only monarch

95] Not lock will hold against the power of gold

96] Time has wings

97] Tune the harp strings to be neither too loose nor too taut

98] He that would eat the kernel must crack the nut

99] An ounce of patience is worth a pound of brains

100] Habits are at first cobwebs, at last cables