Famous Proverbs

1] Vice makes virtue shine

2] Bare walls make giddy housewives

3] If you pile up enough sand, you can make a pagoda

4] All meat No dish pleases all palates alike pleases not all mouths

5] When the boat reaches the middle of the river, it is too late to repair the leak

6] Half a loaf is better than do bread

7] Patience surpasses learning

8] If cattle are scattered, the tiger seizes them.

9] The fowler’s pipe sounds sweet till the bird is caught.

10] A crust is better than no bread.

11] When a tiger dies, it leaves a skin; when a man dies, he leaves a name

12] Little things are great to little men

13] One hour today is worth two tomorrow

14] Better be born lucky than wise.

15] Even the compelling beauty of the Diamond Mountain cannot be appreciated when the stomach is empty

16] Never tell your enemy that your foot aches

17] Never buy a pig in a poke

18] A loveless life is a living death

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

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

21] Better eye sore than al blind

22] Too much hope deceives

23] The wolf may lose his teeth, but never his nature

24] The best go first

25] Send a fool to France and he’ll come back a fool

26] Soon learnt, soon forgotten

27] Nothing so bad as not to be good for something

28] Almost’ never killed a fly.

29] What the king wills, that the law wills

30] Even a clever wife cannot prepare a meal when there is no food

31] Valour delights in the test

32] If you want a thing well done, do it yourself

33] Naturally the same beans from the same bin.

34] He that eats well should do his duty well

35] Men are not to be measured in inches

36] Just give me one end of the line and I’ll get to the other

37] Talk much end err much

38] An enemy may chance to give good counsel

39] Arms bend inwards – not outwards.

40] No man can serve two masters

41] Live not to eat, but eat to live

42] First try and then trust

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

44] He that has nothing need fear to lose nothing

45] There is no tree but bears some fruit

46] Love is without reason

47] Give a servant a rod, and he’ll beat his master

48] Trusting often makes fidelity

49] A sleepy master makes his servant a lout

50] What soberness conceals, drunkenness reveals

51] A blow with a word strikes deeper than a blow with a sword

52] Don’t take your harp to the party

53] There is no garden without its weeds

54] Now is now, and then was then

55] He that does most at once, does least

56] God gives us the milk, but not the pail

57] Every Jack must have his Jill

58] Covetousness breaks the sack

59] Behind the smile, a dagger may be hidden

60] Reputation is often got without merit, and lost without crime

61] Will without reason is blind, and against reason, is mad

62] The beaten road is the safest

63] Faint heart never won fair lady

64] An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth

65] The game is not worth the candle

66] It is n time to stoop when the head is off.

67] Ill weeds grow apace (or fast)

68] You must grin and bear it

69] One must be a servant before one can be a master

70] Beware of him who makes thee presents

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

72] I saw few die of hunger; of eating, a hundred thousand.

73] We should publish our joys and conceal our griefs

74] There’s no place like home

75] A cat has nine lives

76] A black hen lays a white egg

77] If it were not for hope, the heart would break

78] A growing youth has a wolf in his belly

79] A hundred pounds of sorrow pays not one ounce of debt

80] He who leaps high must take a long run

81] Desire beautifies what is ugly

82] A burnt child dreads the fire

83] If the wise erred not, it would go hard with fools.

84] A good Jack makes a good Jill.

85] He loses his thanks who promises and delays

86] It at first you don’t succeed, try, try, try again

87] He seems wise with whom all things thrive

88] He who owes is in all the wrong

89] The ass that brays most eats

90] Do unto others as you would they should do unto you.

91] When you drink water from the stream, don’t forget that the source of it is the spring

92] It is ill striving against the stream

93] Dirty linen should be washed at home

94] Set a wolf to keep the sheep

95] The courteous one learns his courtesy from the discourteous.

96] Nothing is so certain as death

97] Diligence is the mother of good fortune

98] Little by little and bit by bit.

99] Beware of no man more than himself

100] Silence is also speech