Famous Proverbs

1] Sour, sweet, bitter and pungent flavours must all be tasted

2] As you make your bed, you must lie on it

3] Lend your money and lose a friend

4] Ask a silly question and you’ll get a silly answer.

5] Even the weariest river winds somewhere safe to sea

6] There is nothing like being on the safe side

7] Worry is the interest we pay on trouble before it is due

8] First things first

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

10] It the counsel be good, no matter who gave it.

11] Too much hope deceives

12] Fortune knocks once at every man’s door

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

14] Better unborn than untaught

15] Coming events cast their shadows before

16] Two heads are better than one

17] Money can influence even the spirits

18] When misfortune sleeps, let no one wake her

19] Diamond cuts diamond

20] Save a stranger from the sea and he’ll turn your enemy

21] The end makes all equal

22] Every man for himself, and the devil take the hindmost

23] One father is more than a hundred school masters

24] Give us the tools, and we will finish the job

25] Dogs that bark at a distance bite not at hand

26] A creaking gate (or door) hangs long

27] Don’t hallo (or shout, or whistle) until you are out of the wood

28] You cannot make a crab walk straight

29] Desperate diseases need desperate cures

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

31] The devil knows many things because he is old

32] In haste is error

33] He who pays the piper calls the tune

34] If the father is spotted, the son will be speckled

35] Care is no cure

36] That which proves too much proves nothing

37] Save a stranger from the sea and he’ll turn your enemy

38] Don’t hide your light under a bushel

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

40] If wishes were butter cakes, beggars might bite

41] An obedient wife commands her husband

42] No man ever becomes thoroughly bad all at once

43] Truthfulness becomes the gentleman

44] A true man and a thief think not the same

45] God rejoices when one beggar scratches another

46] Praise no man till he is dead.

47] Every deed is to be judges by the doer’s intention.

48] Rain water leaks through the roof-top

49] First catch your hare

50] The knowledge of a learned man is limited if he stays at home all the time

51] Might overcome right.

52] The delay is good which makes the way the safer

53] He who does no good, does evil enough

54] God never sends mouths but he sent meat

55] A drowning man will clutch at a straw

56] Excessive politeness is often a cloak for insincerity

57] Think on the end before you begin

58] All covet all lose.

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

60] New things are fair

61] Absence diminished little passions and increases great ones

62] Dogs bite twice those who wear ragged clothes.

63] Kingdoms divided soon fall

64] A good conscience is a constant feast

65] Beggars must not (can’t) be choosers

66] The strength of the chain is in the weakest link.

67] A mouse may help a lion

68] Give a fool (or a thief) enough rope and he will hang himself

69] When the word is out it belongs to another

70] East or west, home is best

71] A pound of care will not pay an ounce of debt.

72] He who touches pitch will be defiled

73] Don’t kick against the pricks

74] Friendship cannot stand always on one side

75] If you put noting into your purse, you can take nothing out

76] Credit lost is like a Venice glass broken

77] He who does nothing but sits and eats, will wear away a mountain of wealth

78] Everything comes to him who waits

79] When all men say you are an ass, it is time to bray

80] You can’t take it with you when you die

81] Praise is a spur to the good, a thorn to the evil

82] Fool’s haste is no speed

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

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

85] No one is satisfied with his fortune, nor dissatisfied with his intellect

86] False friends are worse than bitter enemies.

87] He that eats least eats most

88] He who cannot put up with extreme hardship cannot be the best among men

89] Better beg than steal.

90] Sooner begun, sooner done

91] Paddle your own canoe

92] An ill wound is cured, not an ill name

93] Poor folk fare the best

94] No land without stones, or meat without bones

95] A good wife makes a good husband

96] Enough is enough

97] A mouse may help a lion

98] A bad padlock invites a picklock

99] If you have known one, you have known them all

100] Laugh and the world laughs with you; weep and you weep alone