Famous Proverbs

1] Facts are stubborn things

2] No answer is also an answer

3] The best horse needs breaking, and the aptest child needs teaching

4] Money has no smell

5] Like will to like

6] He that lives ill, fear follows him

7] He who comes late must eat what is left

8] What the king wills, that the law wills

9] Do right and fear no man

10] Empty vessels make the most noise

11] Bells call others, but themselves enter not in to the church

12] If you pile up enough sand, you can make a pagoda

13] I may not have tasted their flesh but I’ve seen enough to know how pigs walk

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

15] Many kiss the hand they wish to cut off

16] The darkest hour is that before the dawn

17] The bread never falls but on its buttered side

18] Don’t judge any man until you have walked two moons in his moccasins.

19] Money has no smell

20] Every horse thinks its own pack heaviest

21] Now is now, and then was then

22] Industry is fortune’s right hand, and frugality her left

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

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

25] Fish begins to stink at the head

26] He who works before dawn will soon his own master

27] What is sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander

28] I saw few die of hunger; of eating, a hundred thousand.

29] Without knowing the force of words, it is impossible to know the man

30] A good wife and health is a man’s best wealth

31] Absence makes the heart grow fonder

32] III luck is good for something

33] The peony, though large, is useless; the date blossom, though small, yields fruit

34] You cannot sell the cow and sup (or drink) the milk

35] It is as hard to please a knave as knight

36] Poverty is no sin

37] Truth is god’s daughter

38] Misery acquaints men with strange bedfellows

39] Half a word is enough for a wise man

40] Mustard is a good sauce, but mirth is better

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

42] Tell the truth and shame the devil

43] A kind heart loseth nought at last.

44] Absence makes the heart grow fonder

45] The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak

46] Poverty obstructs the road to virtue

47] No hair so small but has his shadow

48] Little birds that can sing and won’t sing should be made to sing

49] If youth knew what age would crave. It would both get and save

50] When Greek meets Greek, then comes the tug of war

51] Affection blinds reason

52] The course of true love never did run smooth

53] Everyone puts his fault on the times.

54] Manners and money make a gentleman

55] A word before is worth two behind

56] Wise men are caught in wiles

57] What is the mother of industry

58] Put not the bucket too often in the well

59] A short cut is often a wrong cut

60] Only with a new ruler do you realize the value of the old

61] Real friendship does not freeze in winter

62] God defend me from my friends; from enemies, I can defend myself.

63] Respect is greater from a distance

64] Experience is good if not bought too dear

65] Of thy sorrow be not too sad, of thy joy be not too glad

66] Send a fool to France and he’ll come back a fool

67] Drops that gather one by one finally become a sea

68] Wine uncloaks the words of the heart

69] The worth of a thing is what it will bring

70] Slow and steady wins the race

71] Shrouds have no pockets

72] It is easier to praise poverty than to bear it.

73] Everyone is a kin to the rich man

74] He daren’t say ‘boo’ to a goose

75] Patience is a plaster for all sores

76] With patience and time, the mulberry leaf becomes a silk gown

77] Don’t try to run before you walk

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

79] Beauty fades like a flower.

80] Every cock crows on his own dunghill

81] False friends are worse than bitter enemies.

82] If you would be well served, serve yourself

83] Neither bribe, nor lose thy right

84] Wise men learn by other men’s harms (or mistakes), fools, by their own

85] He that sows virtue reaps fame

86] Good riding at two anchors, men have told, for if one breaks the other may hold

87] Youth and age will never agree

88] Tomorrow is another day

89] The falling drops hollow the stone

90] He that is afraid of bad luck will never know good.

91] He is a gentleman that has gentle conditions

92] Long roads test the horse; long dealings test the friend

93] He that asks faintly begs a denial.

94] A good name is better than riches

95] No man is content with his lot

96] He knows most who speaks least

97] The wish is father to the thought

98] Let an ill man lie in the straw and he looks to be thy heir

99] A man’s mother is his other God

100] Good merchandise finds a ready buyer