Famous Proverbs

1] There are hills, and there are swamps as well.

2] A barber learns to shave by shaving fools

3] What the king wills, that the law wills

4] Don’t wash your dirty linen in public

5] Money is power

6] A good Jack makes a good Jill.

7] Don’t put the cart before the horse

8] Fear the Greeks (or Beware of Greeks) bearing gifts

9] The greatest step is that out of doors

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

11] Choose thy company before thy drink

12] You cannot have it both ways

13] A fool at forty is a fool indeed

14] Don’t build the sty before the litter comes

15] Everything comes to him who waits

16] Go while the going is good

17] God (or Providence) is always on the side of big battalions

18] Things are only worth one makes them worth

19] Sorrow will pay no debt

20] No man so good but another may be as good as he

21] Lose a leg rather than a life

22] He loved mutton well that licked where the ewe lay

23] Bold resolution is the favourite of providence

24] The mob tramples on the coward

25] Success makes a fool seem wise.

26] Wife and Children are bills of charges

27] Why keep a dog and bark yourself?

28] A loveless life is a living death

29] If you agree to carry the calf, they’ll make you carry the cow.

30] It is useless to flog a dead horse

31] Never buy a pig in a poke

32] A hungry man is angry man

33] Though a lie be swift the truth overtakes it

34] Fortune is blind

35] Let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth

36] There is nothing new under the sun

37] A bully is always a coward

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

39] He who comes first, grinds first.

40] The tide must be taken when it comes

41] An old fox is not easily snared

42] Sow thin and mow thin

43] Variety is the spice of life

44] Never tell your enemy that your foot aches

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

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

47] The higher the mountain, the greater the descent

48] It is better to conceal one’s knowledge than to reveal one’s ignorance

49] The strong man and the waterfall channel their own path

50] He who carries the burden knows the weight of it.

51] A stitch in time saves nine

52] He that stumbles twice over one stone, deserves to break his shin

53] Kindness is the noblest weapon to conquer with.

54] Those who live near water know the nature of fish; those who live near hills know the calls of birds

55] The bigger they are, the harder they fall

56] Charity excuseth not cheating.

57] Sickness soaks the purse

58] No news is good news

59] Bind the sack before it be full

60] He loses his thanks who promises and delays

61] The ass loaded with gold still eats thistles

62] You eat, I dreams, the custard of the day

63] Hunger finds no fault with the cookery

64] Open a book and you profit by what you read

65] Men leap over where the hedge is lowest

66] Nothing is easy to the unwilling

67] If we have not the world’s wealth, we have the world’s ease

68] Blue are the far away hills

69] An enemy may chance to give good counsel

70] Pleasure is due only when all duty’s done.

71] By doing nothing, we learn to do ill

72] The tongue ever turns to the aching tooth

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

74] A beggar pays a benefit with a louse

75] No matter how much perfume you put on an onion, it will still emit a bad smell.

76] A contented mind is a perpetual feast

77] A good friend is my nearest relation

78] If cattle are scattered, the tiger seizes them.

79] All must be as God will

80] A good payer is master of another’s purse

81] Nothing so bad in which there is not something of good

82] Every shoe fits not every foot

83] There is no fool like an old fool

84] Never try to prove what nobody doubts

85] It’s either not to begin or not to stop once you’ve begun

86] Never too late to late to repent

87] Hope is grief’s best music

88] Pride is at the bottom of all mistakes

89] It is better to have done something great than to have never been successful

90] If Jack’s in love, he’s no judge of Jill’s beauty

91] He that lives ill, fear follows him

92] Fools rejoice at promises

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

94] A man with no hands is given a ring.

95] Naturally the same beans from the same bin.

96] Kind hearts are more than coronets

97] The best fish swim near the bottom

98] Silence gives (or means) consent

99] Golden lads and girls all must, as chimney-sweepers, come to dust

100] If you can’t ride two horses at once, you shouldn’t be in the circus