Famous Proverbs

1] Happy is the country (or nation) that has no history

2] Fortune favours the brave (or bold).

3] A good reaper deserves a good sickle.

4] Sometimes clemency is cruelty, and cruelty clemency

5] The peacock has fair features, but foul feet.

6] Keep some till further more come

7] A secret fire is discovered by the smoke

8] Once a knave, always a knave

9] He that hopes not for good, fears not evil.

10] He that will not endure to itch must endure to smart

11] The worse the evil, the calmer we face it.

12] His own ingenuity pricks him.

13] Hypocrisy is a homage that vice pay to virtue

14] Standing pools gather fifth

15] Far from eye, far from heart

16] Words cut more than swords

17] Custom takes the taste from the most savoury dishes

18] A blow with a word strikes deeper than a blow with a sword

19] He who serves is not free

20] No man can serve two masters

21] Rome was not built in a day

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

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

24] A tiger that roars is not a man-eater

25] Anything will fit a naked man.

26] Where ignorance is bliss, ‘tis folly to be wise

27] He who pays the piper calls the tune

28] Every man for himself, and God for us all.

29] There is plenty of sound in an empty barrel

30] Wine unveils the words of the heart

31] In everything consider the end

32] Wife and Children are bills of charges

33] He is lifeless that is faultless

34] Neither praise nor dispraise thyself; thy actions serve the turn

35] Bold resolution is the favourite of providence

36] Better to have one eye than be blind altogether

37] All’s fish that comes to the net

38] Every advantage has its disadvantage

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

40] The bee sucks honey out of the bitterest flowers

41] It is poor dog that is not worth the whistling

42] Promises are like pie-crust, made to be broken

43] A swine over-fat, is the cause of his own bane

44] Where there is whispering there is lying

45] He who does not kill hogs, ill not get black puddings

46] No one ought to judge in his own cause

47] Sooner begun, sooner done

48] God sends cold after Clothes

49] A curse will not strike out an eye unless a fist goes with it

50] The love of money is the root of all evil

51] Rich folk have many friends

52] Hard words break no bones

53] A fool may give a wise counsel. A fool’s bolt may sometimes hit the mark.

54] Truth has no need of rhetoric

55] Though it rains gold and silver there, it’s a foreign land; though it rains daggers and spears here, it’s our own country

56] God is always on the side of the big battalions

57] Fortune favours those who use their judgement

58] The worse luck now, the better another time

59] Learning makes a good man better and an ill man worse

60] Dumb dogs are dangerous

61] Put out your tubs when it is raining

62] Leave well alone

63] Rip not up old sores

64] He that is absent is soon forgotten

65] The voice is the best music

66] Experience must be bought

67] He knows most who speaks least

68] Wrong has no warrant

69] Much law but little justice

70] The fine pullet shows its excellence from the egg.

71] Man proposes, God disposes

72] Never hit a man when he’s down

73] Lend only that which you can afford to lose

74] Tie a chicken with an elephant rope, and it will slip off; tie an elephant with a chicken-tether, and it will break away.

75] The labourer is worthy of his hire

76] An occasion lost cannot be redeemed

77] Idle folks have the least leisure

78] The day obliterates the promise of the might

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

80] Cowards die often. He that fears death lives not

81] Cruelty is more cruel, if we defer the pain

82] Not even Hercules could contend against two

83] A bow long bent at last waxes weak

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

85] Pardon one offence and you encourage many

86] Morning dreams come true

87] Wisdom is neither inheritance nor legacy

88] The tree that god plants, no wind hurts it

89] Many hands make light work

90] Bold men have generous hearts

91] The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak

92] Give yourself a pinch, and you will know how a pinch must hurt others

93] It’s an ill wind that blows nobody any good

94] Revenge is sweet

95] On an open plain, the rhododendron is a tall tree

96] Much meat, much malady

97] Beauty opens locked doors

98] Hungry dogs will eat dirty puddings

99] The pot calls the kettle black

100] The eye is bigger than the belly