Famous Proverbs

1] Comparisons are odious

2] If you would be well served, serve yourself

3] Many a little makes a mickle

4] Abundance, like want, ruins many

5] A cat may look at a king

6] He seems wise with whom all things thrive

7] You cannot unscramble eggs

8] First think, and then speak

9] It chances in an hour, that appears not in seven years

10] Nothing befalls any man which he is not fitted to endure

11] The poor suffer all the wrong

12] Adversity comes with instruction in its hand

13] Habits are at first cobwebs, at last cables.

14] The best of men are but men at best.

15] The longest way round is the shortest way home

16] All men are mortal

17] All’s fair in love and war

18] Ignorance is the peace of life

19] Four eyes see better than two.

20] Vast chasms can be filled, but the heart of man never

21] A good conscience is a soft pillow

22] He may find fault that cannot mend

23] He is lifeless that is faultless

24] Let people laugh, as long as I am warm

25] The righteous man sins before an open chest

26] Slow but sure wins the race

27] Gold will not buy everything

28] The end crowns the work.

29] A bad shearer never had a good sickle

30] Crows are all completely black

31] Nothing so bad in which there is not something of good

32] He that has good money, gives few alms

33] Money is the only monarch

34] Catch not at the shadow and lose the substance

35] He preaches well (or best) that lives well (or best).

36] Wine does not intoxicate men; men intoxicate themselves

37] A little help is worth a deal of pity

38] Many would be cowards, if they had courage enough

39] A good beginning is half the battle.

40] The cow knows not what her tail is worth till she has lost it

41] A living dog is better than a dead lion

42] In peace, prepare for war

43] Zeal without prudence is frenzy

44] Cowards die many times before their deaths

45] Soon gotten, soon spent

46] He that increaseth knowledge increaseth sorrow

47] When things are at the worst, they begin to mend

48] An evil life is a kind of death.

49] Enough is as good as a feast

50] A little too late, is much too late

51] Better to ask the way than go astray.

52] He who sows, trusts in God

53] Know your own faults before blaming others for theirs.

54] Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery

55] One can’t help many, but many can help one

56] He who comes first, grinds first.

57] He that loses anything and gets wisdom by it is a gainer by the loss

58] Full of courtesy, full of craft

59] A fault confessed is half redressed

60] Time stays not for the fool’s leisure

61] The submitting to one wrong brings on another

62] The good intention excuses the bad action

63] It is not gay coat that makes the gentleman

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

65] Care killed the cat

66] All covet all lose.

67] A man’s discontent is his worst evil

68] One kindness is the price of another

69] You can’t tell a book by its cover

70] Don’t look a gift horse in the mouth

71] Beauty is eloquent even when silent

72] Don’t ride the high horse

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

74] By falling we learn to go safely

75] There grows no herb t heal a coward heart

76] Vice is often clothed in virtue’s habit

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

78] When angry, count a hundred

79] To be discontented is to be like a snake trying to swallow an elephant

80] Don’t teach your grandmother how to suck eggs

81] Wise men learn by other men’s harm, fools, by their own

82] Choose your neighbour before your house and your companion before the road.

83] Health and gaiety foster beauty.

84] The course of true love never did run smooth

85] The last drop makes the cup run over

86] Hope keeps man alive

87] He that repairs not a part, builds all

88] A good lawyer must be a great liar

89] If you always say ‘No’, you’ll never get married

90] He who wills the end, Wills the means

91] Don’t cry stinking fish

92] If fortune turns against you, even jelly breaks your tooth

93] Man punishes the action but God the intention

94] Bread is the staff of life.

95] A liar can go round the world but cannot come back

96] If you wish to die young, make your physician your heir

97] One is not smelt where all stink

98] Facts are more eloquent than oratory

99] It is not the burden but the overburden that kills the beast

100] Nothing costs so much as what is given us