Famous Proverbs

1] Don’t hide your light under a bushel

2] Necessity knows no law

3] Many a true word is spoken in jest

4] Beware of a silent man and still water

5] Charity excuseth not cheating.

6] We should publish our joys and conceal our griefs

7] If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em

8] Paddle your own canoe

9] Blood is thicker than water

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

11] Black will take no other hue

12] He that hopes not for good, fears not evil.

13] It is better to travel hopefully than to arrive

14] The darkest hour is that before the dawn

15] To be discontented is to be like a snake trying to swallow an elephant

16] Fling dirt enough, and some will stick

17] Venture a small fish to catch a big one

18] Envy is the sorrow of fools.

19] Better the foot slip than the tongue

20] Forecast is better than work-hard

21] The wisest of the wise may err.

22] Harp not for ever on the same string

23] Good counsel has no price. Nothing is given so freely as advice.

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

25] The belly carries the legs

26] Gold will not buy everything

27] A true friend is forever a friend

28] He who rouses a sleeping tiger exposes himself to danger

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

30] Friends are thieves of time

31] Hunger is sharper than the sword

32] A small pepper is hotter than a large one

33] You never know your luck

34] He that hath a wife and children hath given hostages to fortune

35] The fox may grow grey, but never good

36] If the mountain will not come to Mohammed, then Mohammed must go to the mountain.

37] Keep your eyes wide open before marriage, and half shut afterwards

38] If fools went not to market, bad wares would not be sold.

39] Bold resolution is the favourite of providence

40] Never hit a man when he’s down

41] The hero appears only when the tiger is dead

42] What is bred in the bone will never come out of the flesh

43] Exchange (or Fair exchange) is no robbery

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

45] Health is not value till sickness comes

46] It is safer to hear and take counsel, than give it.

47] He who comes first, grinds first.

48] Jack would be a gentleman if he had money

49] We have all been once in our life

50] Take care of the pence and the pounds will take care of themselves

51] A merry companion is a wagon on the way

52] When things are at the worst, they begin to mend

53] Be not too bold with your biggers or betters

54] Arms bend inwards – not outwards.

55] Don’t play with edged tools

56] Words bind men

57] Know thyself

58] He who is afraid of asking is ashamed of learning

59] Friends are thieves of time

60] Love is sweet torment

61] Either mend or end

62] Little fishes slip through nets, but great fishes are taken

63] There are more ways to the wood than one.

64] A man without a smiling face must not open a shop

65] Lavishness is not generosity

66] He that is absent is soon forgotten

67] Time flies

68] Tigers and deer do not over.

69] To be discontented is to be like a snake trying to swallow an elephant

70] Six feet of earth make all men equal

71] Experience is the best teacher

72] The wisest of the wise may err.

73] Advice when most needed is least heeded

74] The soldier who retreated fifty paces laughed at the one who had fallen back a hundred paces

75] A fool may give a wise counsel. A fool’s bolt may sometimes hit the mark.

76] Pat any man and dust will fly

77] Do as say, not as I do

78] The worth of a thing is best known by the want of it

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

80] Company in misery makes it light

81] Dream of a funeral and you hear of a marriage

82] You cannot teach an old dog new tricks

83] Care brings grey hair.

84] Every horse thinks its own pack heaviest

85] If the lad goes to the well against his will, either the can will break or the water will spill

86] Ill news comes apace.

87] From hearing, comes wisdom; from speaking, repentance

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

89] A trouble shared is a trouble halved.

90] Punishment is a cripple, but it arrives

91] The difficult is done at once; the impossible takes a little longer

92] Man does what he can, and God what he will

93] All that glitters is not gold

94] Even silence may be eloquent

95] A cotton dress wants to be alongside a silk one

96] Scatter with one hand, gather with two

97] He that brings good news, knocks hard

98] Bees that have honey in their mouths have stings in their tails.

99] Cowards die often. He that fears death lives not

100] Health and money go far