Famous Proverbs

1] Call a spade a spade

2] It is as well to know which way the wind blows

3] Give a clown your finger, and he will take your hand

4] Error cannot be defended but by error

5] A good conscience is a sure card

6] One can’t help many, but many can help one

7] Green leaves enhance the charm of the peony flower

8] Sooner begun, sooner done

9] In all the weeding cake, hope is the sweetest plum.

10] A good beginning makes a good ending.

11] If you have bread, don’t look for cake

12] The longer you look at it, the less you will like it

13] A good lawyer must be a great liar

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

15] Old cattle breed not

16] Time flees without a delay

17] From word to deed is a great space

18] Unless the vessel is clean, what you pour in to it turns sour.

19] Fear the Greeks (or Beware of Greeks) bearing gifts

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

21] Fortune favours those who use their judgement

22] A small pepper is hotter than a large one

23] A gentleman never remembers unkindness shown towards him

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

25] Money gives a bold front: it doesn’t talk – it screams

26] Repentance is a bitter physic

27] We shall lie all alike in our graves

28] Love sees no fault

29] If you can’t ride two horses at once, you shouldn’t be in the circus

30] Health is great riches

31] The hen that lays the eggs knows the pain

32] Children and chickens must be always picking

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

34] Claw me, and I’ll claw thee

35] Cease to hope and you will cease to fear.

36] Learn weeping and you shall gain laughing

37] Kick a tone in anger, and you will hurt your own feet

38] A bad excuse is better than none at all

39] He who cannot bear misfortune is truly unfortunate.

40] Blue are the far away hills

41] The pleasures of the mighty are the tears of the poor

42] Things past cannot be recalled

43] Where there is peace, there is blessing

44] It is easy to find a stick to beat a dog

45] Don’t wash your dirty linen in public

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

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

48] Nature is content with little.

49] He that would the daughter win, must with the mother first begin

50] Money refused loses its brightness

51] A merry companion is a wagon on the way

52] Great trees keep down the little ones

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

54] Trust not the many-minded populace

55] There is no blindness like ignorance

56] All truths are not to be told

57] When Adam delved and Eve span, who was then a gentleman?

58] He that would have eggs must endure the cackling of hens

59] Use the means, and God will give the blessings

60] What cannot gold do?

61] Half a loaf is better than do bread

62] He that mischief hatches mischief catches.

63] Haste trips up (or over) its own heels

64] Don’t try to run before you walk

65] No man is content with his lot

66] A good lawyer must be a great liar

67] Take time by the forelock

68] Even Buddha has a limit to what he can tolerate

69] Courtesy is the inseparable companion of virtue

70] Honour is the reward of virtue

71] Too many cooks spoil the broth

72] Patience is the remedy of the world

73] A living dog is better than a dead lion

74] Virtue is a jewel of great price.

75] A good payer is master of another’s purse

76] Self-preservation is the first law of nature

77] Slow help is no help

78] One must howl with the wolves

79] No man fears what he has seen grow

80] Pat any man and dust will fly

81] He who comes late must eat what is left

82] Creditors have better memories than debtors

83] To take revenge is often to sacrifice oneself

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

85] He that will eat the kernel, must crack the nut

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

87] Good broth may be made in an old pot

88] Beauty is in the eye of the beholder

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

90] The submitting to one wrong brings on another

91] Don’t change horses in mid-stream

92] Pardon one offence and you encourage many

93] The world is full of fools

94] The proof of the pudding lies in the eating

95] Servants will not be diligent, where the master’s negligent

96] Wisdom is better than strength

97] Honest is the best policy

98] Poor men’s words have little weight

99] Fields have eyes and woods have ears

100] He loves roast meat well that licks the spit.