Famous Proverbs

1] He who never was sick dies the first fit

2] All is vanity.

3] Fingers were made before forks

4] Ready money is a ready remedy

5] All’s grist that comes to the mill.

6] Virtue has all things in itself

7] A black hen lays a white egg

8] Everything comes to him who waits

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

10] When the butcher has already killed your pig, it is useless to discuss with him the price

11] In your anxiety to avoid losing a drop, you spill the whole lot

12] Variety is charming

13] Long looked for, comes at last

14] A soft answer turns away wrath

15] The devil finds work for idle hands to do

16] Go while the going is good

17] Zeal without prudence is frenzy

18] Death keeps no calendar

19] A great city, a great solitude

20] The orange that is too hard squeezed yields a bitter juice

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

22] None are so fond of secrets as those who don’t mean to keep them

23] The bull must be taken by the horns

24] Good clothes open all doors

25] Good counsel never comes amiss

26] Think of ease, but work on.

27] Much meat, much malady

28] Neglect will kill an injury sooner than revenge

29] Giving much to the poor, doth enrich a man’s store.

30] Whom god loves, his house is sweet to him

31] Excessive happiness produces pain

32] Hard cases make bad law

33] One father is more than a hundred school masters

34] He that gives his goods before he be dead, take up a mallet and knock him on the head

35] The worth of a thing is what it will bring

36] Better at home than a mile from it

37] There is no place like home

38] Great trees keep down the little ones

39] Misfortunes never come singly

40] It is better to conceal one’s knowledge than to reveal one’s ignorance

41] Small is the seed of every greatness

42] Harp not for ever on the same string

43] Patient men with the day.

44] God (or Providence) is always on the side of big battalions

45] Fortune favours the brave (or bold).

46] Don’t build the sty before the litter comes

47] Misery loves company.

48] Who keeps company with the wolf, will learn to howl

49] Crows are all completely black

50] A successful man is seldom at ease; a life of ease does not breed success

51] One drop of poison infects the whole tun of wine

52] A pot that belongs to many is ill stirred and worse boiled

53] Still waters run deep

54] Much meat, much malady

55] Adversity is the touchstone of friendship

56] All are not thieves that dogs bark at

57] Long absent, soon forgotten

58] Poison is poison though it comes in a golden cup.

59] Who receives a gift, sells his liberty

60] Desperate diseases need desperate cures

61] Though the left hand conquers the right, no advantage is gained

62] Good merchandise finds a ready buyer

63] All’s grist that comes to the mill.

64] The most high Good sees and bears; me neighbour knows, nothing, and yet is always finding fault.

65] He who begins many things, finishes but few

66] Repeat a piece of good advice three times and even a dog will be bored.

67] When misfortune sleeps, let no one wake her

68] At the game’s end we shall see who gains

69] Do not limp before the lame

70] He that has a fellow-ruler, has an over-ruler. ¶ There is no good accord, where every man would be a lord

71] Dogs bite twice those who wear ragged clothes.

72] A good word for a bad one is worth much and costs little

73] Better late than never, but better never late

74] There are more men threatened than stricken

75] Out of debt, out of danger

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

77] He that has a good memory, gives few alms

78] Hunger makes hard bean sweet

79] It takes two to make a quarrel

80] A good tongue is a good weapon

81] An empty sack cannot stand upright

82] A fool’s mouth is his destruction

83] Better to be safe than sorry.

84] Revenge is sweet

85] Since god has not bent the top of the palm tree, he has given a long neck to the giraffe

86] Hasty climbers have sudden falls

87] You can’t win them all

88] Never too late to late to repent

89] He that goes a borrowing goes a-sorrowing

90] Words and feathers the wind carries away

91] Wishes can never fill a sack

92] What is sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander

93] Hope keeps man alive

94] A wise man changes his mind, a fool never.

95] Anger without power is folly

96] Poverty is the mother of crime

97] A man with no hands is given a ring.

98] Make the best of a bad job

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

100] A white –wasted crow will not long remain white