Famous Proverbs

1] A cotton dress wants to be alongside a silk one

2] The best of friends must part

3] Fair is not fair, but that which pleases.

4] Past cure, past care

5] While the word is in your mouth, it is your own; when ‘tis another’s

6] He who comes first, grinds first.

7] Three helping one another, bear the burthen of six.

8] Make the best of a bad bargain

9] Under the tongue, men are crushed to death

10] He that compiles against his will, is of his own opinion still

11] A wise man will learn something even from the words of a fool

12] An obedient wife commands her husband

13] For a web begun, God sends the thread

14] A good drink makes the old young

15] Scatter with one hand, gather with two

16] Marriage is a lottery

17] The physician who praises himself has no good medicine

18] He who has a mind to beat his dog will easily find a stick.

19] He who squeezes in between the onion and the peel, picks up its stink.

20] It is too late to husband when all is spent

21] When the ear will not listen, the heart escapes sorrow

22] He who sits chatting about nothing loses his candle

23] Soft fire makes sweet malt

24] How seldom in life is the moon directly overhead

25] Gossiping and lying go together

26] Truth is mighty and will prevail

27] Words are but wind

28] A spear you can see can easily be avoided; a hidden arrows is difficult to guard against.

29] Truth may walk through the world unarmed

30] There are more ways to kill a dog than hanging it.

31] Will iron become fine gold, however often refined?

32] Gluttony kills more than the sword

33] Health without money is half an ague

34] Where there is peace, there is blessing

35] A single arrow is easily broken, but not ten in a bundle.

36] Love rules without a sword, and binds without a cord

37] Better never begin than never make an end

38] Not lock will hold against the power of gold

39] The cat shuts its eyes while it steals cream

40] What is new cannot be true

41] No pains, no gains

42] Change of pasture makes fat calves

43] What’s done is done

44] Let us eat and drink; for tomorrow we die.

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

46] It is a foolish bird that soils (or defiles ) its own nest

47] Might is right

48] Better at home than a mile from it

49] Adventures are to be adventurous

50] To beat a tiger, one must have a brother’s help.

51] The best things carried to excess are wrong

52] Knowledge humbles the great man, astonishes the common man and puffeth up the little man

53] Beauty is eloquent even when silent

54] A deaf husband and a blind wife are always a happy couple

55] Set a beggar on horse back and he’ll ride to the devil

56] The delay is good which makes the way the safer

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

58] There are more ways of killing a cat than choking it with cream.

59] The devil looks after his own

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

61] Hypocrisy is a homage that vice pay to virtue

62] They bow to you when borrowing; you bow to them when collecting

63] He that dare not venture must not complain of ill luck

64] All’s fair in love and war

65] The best throw of the dice is to throw them away

66] Fortune does not stand waiting at any man’s door

67] A good face is a letter of recommendation

68] Go not to hell for company

69] It is all in the day’s work

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

71] Love knows no limit

72] You cannot serve God and Mammon

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

74] The mob tramples on the coward

75] No misfortune will go on forever

76] The Pen is mightier than the sword

77] No man ever becomes thoroughly bad all at once

78] The first time, a novice the second time, an adept

79] Let an ill man lie in the straw and he looks to be thy heir

80] Care is no cure

81] Be not afraid of going slowly; be only afraid of standing still

82] He that may not do as he would, must do as he may

83] He’s his father’s (or mother’s) son

84] A traveller may lie with authority

85] A dragon that is stranded in shallow water, becomes the butt of shrimps

86] Children should be seen and not heard

87] A mouse may help a lion

88] Dreams go by contraries

89] He gives twice who gives quickly

90] Strings high stretched either soon crack or quickly grow out of tune.

91] The tongue is more to be feared than the sword

92] A new broom sweeps clean, but the old brush knows all the corners

93] Wine is the best broom for trouble

94] A loveless life is a living death

95] Hard words break no bones

96] A merchant that gains not, loses

97] He that will steal a pin will steal a better thing

98] What’s the good of thatching someone else’s roof?

99] Sadness and happiness succeed each other.

100] One hand washes the other