Famous Proverbs

1] Experience is the mother of wisdom

2] Neither bribe, nor lose thy right

3] You cannot have it both ways

4] After dinner sit a while, after supper walk a mile.

5] Hunger is the teacher of many

6] He who serves is not free

7] Marriage makes or mars a man

8] Fool’s haste is no speed

9] Tell a lie and stick to it.

10] A horse that will not carry a saddle must have no oats.

11] Enquire not what boils in another’s pot. ¶ Listeners seldom hear good of themselves

12] There’s small choice in rotten apples.

13] More than enough is too much

14] A willful man will have his way

15] Where there’s a will there’s a way

16] Great minds think alike

17] Content is better than riches

18] When the fox preaches, then beware your geese

19] No land without stones, or meat without bones

20] Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery

21] Too much curiosity lost paradise

22] Work won’t kill but worry will.

23] Don’t count your chickens before they are hatched

24] The poorer one is, the more devils one meets

25] A beggar pays a benefit with a louse

26] Sparrows who emulate peacocks are likely to break a thigh

27] Hunger drives the wolf out of the wood

28] To the hungry soul, every bitter thing is sweet. To a thirsty man any drink is sweet.

29] Thrift is a great revenue

30] Take away fuel, take away flame

31] He laughs best who laughs last

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

33] If you lie down with dogs, you will get up with fleas

34] He who touches pitch will be defiled

35] He is an ill husband who is not missed

36] Dry bread at home is better than roast meat abroad

37] All’s fair in love and war

38] He that lends, gives

39] One needs a full stomach to keep the precepts

40] Poverty is not a shame, but the being ashamed of it is

41] The worse the evil, the calmer we face it.

42] When two men look after a horse, it will surely be thin; when two families keep a boat, it will surely leak

43] Stolen goods never thrive

44] A ragged coat may cover an honest man.

45] The mills of God grind slowly but they grind exceedingly small

46] First come, first served

47] Anger without power is folly

48] Speech is silver, silence is golden

49] Well done is better than well said

50] Pride goes before a fall

51] What has been, may be

52] First impressions are half the battle

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

54] Talk much end err much

55] They bow to you when borrowing; you bow to them when collecting

56] He knows most who speaks least

57] A gift in hand is better than two promises.

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

59] Much babbling is not without offence

60] Penny wise, pound foolish

61] The hand that gives, gathers

62] Necessity and opportunity may make a coward valiant

63] None so busy as those who do nothing.

64] Wise men are caught in wiles

65] A fool’s mouth is his destruction

66] A bad padlock invites a picklock

67] Waste is not grandeur

68] A wise man cares not for what he cannot have

69] Divide and rule

70] Misfortunes find their way even on the darkest night

71] Pouring oil on the fire is not the way to quench it

72] Poverty is not a crime

73] Every beginning is hard

74] A little impatience will spoil great plans

75] Avoid a questioner, for he is also a tattler

76] Little things please little minds

77] Alms never make poor

78] No like is the same.

79] Hasty climbers have sudden falls

80] The mills of God grind slowly but they grind exceedingly small

81] The king can do no wrong

82] Better die a beggar than live a beggar

83] You must grin and bear it

84] There is no garden without its weeds

85] The bull must be taken by the horns

86] As long as the old horse lives, his habits will not change

87] However much the arm may swing out, the armpit is where it sticks

88] It’s a long lane that has no turning

89] Whatever is made by the hand of man, by the hand of man by overturned

90] What the king wills, that the law wills

91] Sickness soaks the purse

92] As you bake, so shall you eat.

93] All covet all lose.

94] Strings high stretched either soon crack or quickly grow out of tune.

95] He has not lost all who has one cast left

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

97] A good heart cannot lie.

98] Men are known by the company they keep.

99] If one will not, another will

100] An ill marriage is a spring of ill fortune