Famous Proverbs

1] Will is no skill

2] Health and wealth create beauty

3] The mill cannot grind with water that is past

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

5] Learn to see in another’s misfortune, the ills which you should avoid.

6] Ill weeds grow apace (or fast)

7] The ant had wings to her hurt

8] Learning is the eye of the mind

9] Great hopes make great men

10] He that would catch fish must venture his bait

11] Every cloud has a silver lining

12] Praise makes good men better and bad men worse

13] Sooner will men hold fore in the mouth than keep a secret

14] Arms bend inwards – not outwards.

15] Mirth without measure is madness

16] Be careful to whom you give

17] He who envies admits his inferiority

18] What is the good of a sundial in the shade?

19] God provides for him that trusts

20] The end justifies the means

21] Hunger is the teacher of many

22] Big fish eat little fish

23] Excessive happiness produces pain

24] Seldom is a long man wise, or a low man lowly

25] Only a fool will make the doctor his heir

26] What must be must be

27] Well done is better than well said

28] There is no tree but bears some fruit

29] When a friend asks, there is not tomorrow

30] He that hath a full purse never wanted (or lacked) a friend

31] He that makes himself a sheep, shall be eaten by the wolf

32] The unexpected always happens.

33] A fool at forty is a fool indeed

34] We do as we can, since we can’t do as we would

35] Fools rejoice at promises

36] Diligence is the mother of good luck

37] He that never ate flesh, thinks a pudding is a dainty

38] Constant dripping (or dropping) wears away the stone

39] Better bend than break

40] A good lawyer must be a great liar

41] Live and Learn

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

43] It is not the hood that makes the monk.

44] Learning makes a good man better and an ill man worse

45] One learns to know oneself best behind one’s back

46] Kick a tone in anger, and you will hurt your own feet

47] You win some, you lose some

48] See which way the cat jumps

49] Like mistress, like maid

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

51] He laughs ill that laughs himself to death

52] There is no blindness like ignorance

53] New meat begets a new appetite

54] A living dog is better than a dead lion

55] Look at the bright side

56] One man sows and another reaps

57] New lords, new laws

58] He that is absent is soon forgotten

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

60] A ragged colt may make a good horse.

61] Great actions speak minds

62] One today is worth two tomorrows

63] Poor folk fare the best

64] Corn him well and he will work better

65] Nature is content with little.

66] Money has no smell

67] Children have wide ears and long tongues.

68] The king can do no wrong

69] Kind hearts are more than coronets

70] A foolish man knows not the art of forgiveness

71] Courtesy is the inseparable companion of virtue

72] A bribe will enter without knocking

73] A monk can’t shave his own head

74] Love delights in praise

75] Bad excuses are worse than none.

76] No news is good news

77] The slowest barker is the surest biter

78] Second thoughts are best

79] No tie can oblige the perfidious

80] Fool’s haste is no speed

81] Point not at other’s spots with a foul finger

82] He that will not endure to itch must endure to smart

83] There is a black sheep in every flock

84] A good reaper deserves a good sickle.

85] Advice is something the wise don’t need and fools won’t take

86] Jack would be a gentleman if he could speak French

87] Drunkards and fools cannot lie.

88] Desperate diseases need desperate cures

89] Money can influence even the spirits

90] All things that great men do are well done

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

92] Self-praise is no recommendation

93] Don’t stitch your seam before you’ve tacked it.

94] An account is an account, and a brother a brother.

95] Dead dogs bark not

96] The ass that brays most eats

97] The eye that sees all things else sees not itself

98] The best things come in small packages

99] Suffering does not manifest itself

100] As you brew, so shall you drink.