Famous Proverbs

1] It is easier to get a favour from fortune than to keep it

2] A chain is no stronger than its weakest link

3] A sleepy master makes his servant a lout

4] Four eyes see more than two

5] All are not thieves that dogs bark at

6] You cannot get ivory from a dog’s mouth

7] Better the devil you know than the devil you don’t know

8] Lovers are madmen

9] Talk of the devil, and he is bound to appear

10] When you are an anvil, hold still; when you are an anvil, hold still; when you are a hammer, strike your fill.

11] Many a little makes a mickle

12] A fool may give a wise man counsel

13] Self do, self have

14] Soon gotten, soon spent

15] Brevity is the soul of wit

16] To beat a tiger, one must have a brother’s help.

17] It is a foolish bird that soils (or defiles ) its own nest

18] Petty laws breed great crimes

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

20] It is poor dog that is not worth the whistling

21] Every beginning is hard

22] Habit is second nature

23] No wrong without a remedy

24] Give a lie a twenty-four-hour start, and you can never overtake it.

25] All work and no play makes jack a dull boy

26] Union (or Unity) is strength

27] Half the world knows not how the other half lives

28] Covetousness brings nothing home

29] Not good is it to harp on the frayed string

30] Beware of no man more than himself

31] You cannot catch old birds with chaff

32] Punishment is a cripple, but it arrives

33] A joke never gains over an enemy, but often loses a friend

34] Nothing ventured, nothing gained

35] There is plenty of sound in an empty barrel

36] They brag most who can do least

37] Every advantage has its disadvantage

38] Every man must carry his own cross

39] That which is easily done is soon believed

40] It is an ill sign to see a fox lick a lamb

41] To speak as the common people, to think as the wise

42] A fair face may hide a foul heart.

43] The road to hell is paved with good action

44] Where there is no might, right loses itself

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

46] There is no royal road to learning

47] Life is short and time is swift

48] All lay loads on a willing horse

49] Knowledge humbles the great man, astonishes the common man and puffeth up the little man

50] Better go about than fall in to the ditch

51] Wine is the best broom for trouble

52] One lie makes many

53] There is honour among thieves

54] Friends are thieves of time

55] The crow laughs at the pig for being black

56] Catch not at the shadow and lose the substance

57] Men make houses, women make homes

58] Let us eat and drink; for tomorrow we die.

59] Don’t swap horses while crossing a stream

60] Wise men silent, fools talk

61] Never spur a willing horse

62] All are not thieves that dogs bark at

63] The pen is the tongue of the hand

64] You cannot make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear

65] The pleasures of the mighty are the tears of the poor

66] One swallow does not make a summer

67] Be just before you are generous

68] In wine there is truth

69] Words fly, writings remain

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

71] Cruelty is more cruel, if we defer the pain

72] He who never was sick dies the first fit

73] Time has wings

74] A burdened conscience will never need a hangman

75] He that praises himself, spatters himself

76] Every light has its shadow

77] Nature surpasses art

78] There’s a time and place for everything

79] Money isn’t everything

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

81] It is a blind goose that comes to the fox’s sermon

82] The rain of tears is necessary to the harvest of learning

83] A bad excuse is better than none at all

84] He is a good friend that speaks well of us behind our backs

85] His bark is worse than his bite

86] Let like mate with like

87] She’s her father’s (or mother’s) daughter

88] There is a time to speak and a time to be silent

89] He would command must serve

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

91] He preaches well (or best) that lives well (or best).

92] He that is afraid of the devil does not grow rich

93] If you play with fire you get burnt

94] He knows most who speaks least

95] Though it rains gold and silver there, it’s a foreign land; though it rains daggers and spears here, it’s our own country

96] Hope is the last thing to abandon the unhappy

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

98] Nothing venture (or ventured), nothing gain (or gained)

99] Respect is greater from a distance

100] A good lather is half the shave