Famous Proverbs

1] In indecision itself, grief is present.

2] You may force a man to shut his eyes but you can’t make him sleep

3] The tongue is more venomous than a serpent’s sting

4] All things require skills but an appetite

5] Between two stools you fall to the ground

6] Bare walls make giddy housewives

7] No news is good news

8] You cannot put an old head on young shoulders.

9] The whole boat is putrid because of a single carp

10] A man’s best fortune, or his worst, is a wife

11] It’s hard to get one’s own sword back when it’s in someone else’s scabbard

12] He that shows his purse, longs to be rid of it

13] Talk of the devil, and he is bound to appear

14] Jackdaw always perches by jackdaw.

15] Expectation is better than realisation

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

17] He would command must serve

18] Too much curiosity lost paradise

19] Better be born lucky than wise.

20] Many dishes make many diseases

21] An oak is not felled at one stroke

22] Each man, in corrupting others, corrupts himself

23] When Greek meets Greek, then comes the tug of war

24] No man is born wise or learned

25] It is easier to get a favour from fortune than to keep it

26] When in doubt, do nothing

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

28] There is nothing lost by civility

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

30] A wise man hears one word and understands two

31] Little and often fills the purse

32] The absent party is always to blame.

33] Don’t have too many irons in the fire

34] Laziness travels so slowly that poverty soon overtakes him

35] Venture a small fish to catch a big one

36] The buyer needs a hundred eyes, the seller but one

37] Greedy eaters dig their graves with their teeth.

38] Nothing is more contagious than a bad example

39] A man apt to promise, is apt to forget

40] Few words are best

41] Friends agree best at a distance

42] Empty vessels make the most sound

43] We always weaken whatever we exaggerate

44] Ill news comes apace.

45] The owl thinks her own young fairest

46] Death devours lambs as well as sheep

47] Don’t pour out the dirty water before you have cleaned

48] If you play with fire you get burnt

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

50] Moderation in all things

51] All that glitters is not gold

52] Wine unveils the words of the heart

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

54] Of a new prince, new bondage

55] Black will take no other hue

56] Jack would be a gentleman if he could speak French

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

58] Mirth without measure is madness

59] Children and fools have merry lives

60] The surest way to remain poor is to be an honest man

61] We soon believe what we desire

62] Patience is a virtue

63] The devil’s children have the devil’s luck

64] Better go about than fall in to the ditch

65] Numbers overcome the brave

66] Kindle not a fire that you cannot extinguish

67] The higher the mountain, the greater the descent

68] A fool’s bolt is soon shot

69] You cannot sell the cow and sup (or drink) the milk

70] Few words are best

71] Accidents will happen

72] The coward threatens only when he is safe

73] Parents are patterns

74] He that is afraid of the devil does not grow rich

75] He that has a full purse never wanted a friend

76] He that seeks trouble never misses

77] It is all in the day’s work

78] Nothing succeeds like success

79] The money you refuse will never do you good

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

81] There’s no place like home

82] Whether the pitcher strikes the stone, or the stone the pitcher, it is bad for the pitcher

83] A good paymaster never wants workmen

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

85] No man is born wise or learned

86] Nothing is certain but the unforeseen

87] Fair play’s a jewel

88] The joy of the heart makes the face fair.

89] Petty laws breed great crimes

90] It is a poor kin that has neither whore nor thief in it

91] No road is long with good company

92] A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush

93] An old fox is not easily snared

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

95] No honest man ever repented his honesty

96] Without luck, it is better not to be born

97] The fairest flowers soonest fade

98] Appetite comes with eating

99] A chain is no stronger than its weakest link

100] Do not triumph before the victory