Famous Proverbs

1] Love me, love the crows on my roof

2] Experience must be bought

3] He daren’t say ‘boo’ to a goose

4] When the fox preaches, then beware your geese

5] All our pomp the earth covers

6] Ignorance is the peace of life

7] Lightning never strikes twice in the same place

8] What will not money do?

9] Do not kick against the pricks

10] Men are not angles

11] Jesters do oft prove prophets

12] One swallow does not make a summer

13] Work won’t kill but worry will.

14] The end makes all equal

15] He is not poor that has little, but he that desires much

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

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

18] It is courage that wins, and not good weapons

19] Choose thy company before thy drink

20] What the king wills, that the law wills

21] Marriage is a lottery

22] The mill cannot grind with water that is past

23] A still tongue makes a wise head

24] What the eye doesn’t see, the heart grieves not

25] There is no blindness like ignorance

26] Take heed is a fair thing

27] Who greases his way travels easily

28] He that serves well need not be afraid to ask his wages

29] He knows on which side his bread is buttered

30] No man better knows what good is than he who has endured evil

31] Hard cases make bad law

32] Train the child in the way he should go.

33] He who touches pitch will be defiled

34] Destroy the lion while he is yet but a whelp

35] Crows are all completely black

36] He that repairs not a part, builds all

37] He who can does. He who cannot teaches

38] He is a good friend that speaks well of us behind our backs

39] Learn weeping and you shall gain laughing

40] A thing you don’t want is dear at any price.

41] Do unto others as they should do unto you

42] Slow and steady wins the race

43] Good ware makes quick market

44] Point not at other’s spots with a foul finger

45] Discretion of speech is more than eloquence.

46] See how the wind blows

47] Dying is as natural as living

48] It takes all sorts to make a world

49] Better be born lucky than wise.

50] If one sheep leaps o’er the dyke, all the rest will follow

51] Hope springs eternal in the human heart

52] Better do a kindness near home than go to a temple far away to burn incense.

53] He that comes of a hen, must scrape

54] Sour, sweet, bitter and pungent flavours must all be tasted

55] Even the lion must defend itself against flies

56] When two tigers fight, one is sure to be hurt

57] A merchant that gains not, loses

58] There is many a good tune played on an old fiddle

59] Joy and sorrow are next door neighbours.

60] Blood is thicker than water

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

62] You can’t win them all

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

64] Love cannot be compelled

65] Many kiss the hand they wish to cut off

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

67] Appearances are deceptive

68] When you do not know what to do – wait.

69] Knowledge is the mother of all virtue; all vice proceeds from ignorance

70] What’s yours is mine and what’s mine is my own

71] When a friend asks, there is not tomorrow

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

73] Quickly come, quickly go

74] Good counsel has no price. Nothing is given so freely as advice.

75] Hunger is the best sauce

76] An ounce of mother is worth a ton of priest

77] The weeds overgrow the corn.

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

79] Flesh is frail

80] The labourer is worthy of his hire

81] Give me fire and I’ll give you light

82] He who can wait obtains what he wishes.

83] The fairest flowers soonest fade

84] Idleness (or An idle brain) is the devil’s workshop

85] The more a man dreams, the less he believes

86] Beauty is only skin deep

87] Eavesdroppers never hear any good of themselves

88] Experience must be bought

89] A fault confessed is half redressed

90] What cannot gold do?

91] Give us the tools, and we will finish the job

92] He who carries the burden knows the weight of it.

93] No man so good but another may be as good as he

94] Have but few friends, though many acquaintances

95] You see a man’s face but not his heart.

96] Better an egg today than a hen tomorrow.

97] Industry is fortune’s right hand, and frugality her left

98] Keep no more cats than will catch mice

99] He that tells his wife news, is but newly wed

100] The rich man thinks of the future, the poor man thinks of today