Famous Proverbs

1] Go not to hell for company

2] A small pepper is hotter than a large one

3] If you don’t make mistakes, you don’t make anything

4] When the dog catches mice, it is meddling in the cat’s business.

5] If the wise erred not, it would go hard with fools.

6] Golden lads and girls all must, as chimney-sweepers, come to dust

7] A burnt child dreads the fire

8] The more cost, the more honour

9] Boys will be boys

10] Many words, many buffets

11] It’s either not to begin or not to stop once you’ve begun

12] Homer sometimes nods

13] Lucky men need no counsel

14] Drinking water neither makes a man sick, nor in debt, nor his wife a widow

15] Nothing seek, nothing find

16] An old man’s sayings are seldom untrue

17] Poison is poison though it comes in a golden cup.

18] Time has wings

19] A man can die but once

20] Do not cut down the tree that gives you shade

21] Confession of our fault is the next thing to innocence

22] See a pin and let it lie, you’ll want a pin before you die

23] Creditors have better memories than debtors

24] All covet all lose.

25] Laugh before breakfast, you’ll cry before supper

26] Custom reconciles us to everything

27] Virtue carries a lean purse

28] Who greases his way travels easily

29] Little fishes slip through nets, but great fishes are taken

30] A little is better than none

31] The highest tree has the greatest fall

32] Marriage halves our griefs, doubles our joys and quadruples our expenses

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

34] He that flings dirt at another dirtieth himself most

35] The best remedy against an ill man, is much ground between

36] A good heart conquers ill fortune

37] Little wealth, little care

38] When the cat is away, the mice will play

39] He that is afraid of bad luck will never know good.

40] Don’t cut off your nose to spite your face

41] Wake not a sleeping lion

42] Adversity makes strange bedfellows

43] Of thy sorrow be not too sad, of thy joy be not too glad

44] A short cut is often a wrong cut

45] A pound of care will not pay an ounce of debt.

46] The dog that is idle barks at his fleas, but he that is hunting feels them not.

47] Care brings grey hair.

48] Desert and reward seldom keep company

49] Much science, much sorrow

50] All’s well that ends well

51] An apple a day keeps the doctor away

52] A blister will rise upon one’s tongue that tells a lie

53] There are hills, and there are swamps as well.

54] Union is strength.

55] Waste makes wants

56] Strike while the iron is hot

57] When one door shuts, another opens

58] What is told in the ear of a man is often heard a hundred miles away

59] Wine and wenches empty men’s purses

60] Youth and age will never agree

61] Better beg than steal.

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

63] Hope is the poor man’s bread

64] He who works before dawn will soon be his own master

65] Bad excuses are worse than none.

66] Hope keeps man alive

67] Nearest the heart comes out first

68] Grief pent up will break the heart

69] A straight stick is crooked in water

70] The rain of tears is necessary to the harvest of learning

71] Live not to eat, but eat to live

72] If you run after two hares, you will catch neither

73] Love knows hidden paths

74] Far fowls have fair feather

75] The more you get, the more you want

76] Clean and whole makes poor clothes shine.

77] His own ingenuity pricks him.

78] A creaking gate (or door) hangs long

79] He that dwells next door to a cripple, will learn to halt

80] Law cannot persuade where it cannot punish

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

82] He that has a wife, has strife

83] Nothing seek, nothing find

84] Wash your dirty linen at home

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

86] New brooms sweep clean

87] Content lodges oftener in cottages than palaces

88] Good ware makes quick market

89] Dogs that bark at a distance bite not at hand

90] To take revenge is often to sacrifice oneself

91] The end justifies the means

92] III luck is good for something

93] He that comes first to the hill, may sit where he will.

94] Curses, like chickens, come home to roost

95] It is all in the day’s work

96] Discontent is the first step in progress

97] Petty laws breed great crimes

98] One sheep follows another

99] What is bred in the bone will never come out of the flesh

100] Necessity is the mother of invention