Famous Proverbs

1] A great city, a great solitude

2] Exceptional bravery is often hidden under a cloak of timidity

3] The child says nothing but what it hears by the fire

4] Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery

5] Good luck beats early rising

6] Repentance comes too late

7] Praise makes good men better and bad men worse

8] He who sows, trusts in God

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

10] Everyone puts his fault on the times.

11] The quarrel of lovers is the renewal of love

12] Between two stools you fall to the ground

13] He freezes who does not burn

14] He that loses anything and gets wisdom by it is a gainer by the loss

15] Give and spend, and God will send

16] When a fool is sent to market, the storekeepers rejoice

17] What is the mother of industry

18] Look at the bright side

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

20] Better bend than break

21] One beats the bush, and another catches the birds

22] The best things come in small packages

23] Every ass likes to hear himself bray

24] Words have wings, and cannot be recalled

25] They that dance must pay the fiddler

26] Money has no smell

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

28] If you want peace, prepare for war

29] One must howl with the wolves

30] Rome was not (or cannot be) built in a day

31] Once you have been bitten by a snake, even a piece of cord will frighten you.

32] Work smart; don’t work hard

33] A light purse makes a heavy heart

34] Great hopes make great men

35] Health and money go far

36] As you brew, so shall you drink.

37] He who sits chatting about nothing loses his candle

38] A man without a wife is but half a man

39] Hasty climbers have sudden falls

40] Nothing costs so much as what is given us

41] It’s a silly fish that is caught twice with the same bait.

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

43] He that lives wickedly can hardly die honestly

44] No man is the worse for knowing the worst of himself

45] Accidents will happen

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

47] He who does not rise early never does a good day’s work

48] The end justifies the means

49] Through hardship to the stars

50] He who excuses himself accuses himself

51] It is the first step that is troublesome

52] He who serves is not free

53] Once a use and ever a custom

54] The camel never sees its own hump, but that of its brother is always before its eyes

55] One cannot love and be wise

56] A burnt child dreads the fire

57] Learning makes a good man better and an ill man worse

58] Neglect will kill an injury sooner than revenge

59] The axe falls on a straight tree first

60] A hedge between keeps friendship green

61] When good cheer is lacking, our friends will be packing

62] One learns to know oneself best behind one’s back

63] Where there is whispering there is lying

64] He that goes a borrowing goes a-sorrowing

65] When two elephants struggle, it is the grass that suffers

66] Adventures are to be adventurous

67] A mouse may help a lion

68] Let like mate with like

69] It is no use spoiling the ship for a half penny worth of tar

70] It is useless to flog a dead horse

71] Wine uncloaks the words of the heart

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

73] Don’t wash your dirty linen in public

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

75] Who is more busy than he that has least to do?

76] There’s no fence against ill fortune.

77] There’s no place like home

78] First think, and then speak

79] Help a lame dog over a stile

80] Don’t burn the candle at both ends

81] What you lose on the swings, you gain on the roundabouts

82] Zeal without prudence is frenzy

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

84] The bread never falls but on its buttered side

85] Of a new prince, new bondage

86] It is easier to capture a tiger in the hills than to ask for favours from a man

87] An old man is a bed full of bones

88] There is death in the pot.

89] Content is the philosopher’s stone that turns all it touches in to gold

90] Who is worse shod than the shoemaker’s wife?

91] Poverty is no disgrace but it is a great inconvenience

92] Mirth without measure is madness

93] It is not easy to steal when the landlord is a thief

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

95] Take things as they come

96] Money is power

97] The result justifies the deed

98] Curiosity killed the cat.

99] First impressions are most lasting

100] A fool’s bolt is soon shot