Famous Proverbs

1] Never catch a falling knife or a falling friend

2] At a good bargain thinks twice

3] Let not your tongue run at rover

4] Burn not your house to rid it of the mouse.

5] If wishes were butter cakes, beggars might bite

6] The devil lurks behind the cross

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

8] There’s small choice in rotten apples.

9] No man is the worse for knowing the worst of himself

10] Tell a lie and stick to it.

11] If you don’t make mistakes, you don’t make anything

12] A bow long bent at last waxes weak

13] After a storm comes a calm

14] Words cut more than swords

15] Marry in haste, repent at leisure

16] Praise without profit puts little in the pot

17] A wise man hears one word and understands two

18] Things are seldom what they seem.

19] Love is lawless.

20] Go while the going is good

21] A prophet is not without honour, save in his own country and in his home

22] He that has a good memory, gives few alms

23] Other times, other manners

24] The mob has many heads but no brains

25] He who sows, trusts in God

26] If one sheep leaps over the ditch (or dyke), all the rest will follow

27] Half a word is enough for a wise man

28] Rome was not (or cannot be) built in a day

29] You must lose a fly to catch a trout

30] Death keeps no calendar

31] Dead men don’t bite

32] Better a bare foot than none

33] He that has nothing need fear to lose nothing

34] Ready money is a ready remedy

35] Love will go through stone walls

36] A good Jack makes a good Jill.

37] Excessive happiness produces pain

38] The hand that rocks the cradle rules the world

39] Forewarned is forearmed

40] He that cannot ask, cannot live

41] Virtue is its own reward

42] When the word is out it belongs to another

43] Past cure, past care

44] Will iron become fine gold, however often refined?

45] Sailors get their money like horses, and spend it like asses

46] He is a gentleman that has gentle conditions

47] The axe falls on a straight tree first

48] Where your will is ready, your feet are light

49] Truthfulness becomes the gentleman

50] Things past cannot be recalled

51] Abundance, like want, ruins many

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

53] Experience is good if not bought too dear

54] It is better to travel hopefully than to arrive

55] Vice is often clothed in virtue’s habit

56] Knowledge is power

57] Drinking water neither makes a man sick, nor in debt, nor his wife a widow

58] Names and natures do often agree

59] He who aims at the moon may hit the top of a tree; he who aims at the top of a tree is unlikely to get off the ground

60] A fool believes everything

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

62] No news is good news

63] A bad excuse is better than none at all

64] He that tells a secret, is another’s servant.

65] None so blind as those who will not see

66] Deliver your words not by number but by weight

67] Opportunity makes the thief

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

69] Even the tiger will appear if you talk about him

70] Destroy the lion while he is yet but a whelp

71] Dumb dogs are dangerous

72] Nothing costs so much as what is given us

73] There is truth in wine

74] The dog is a lion in his own house

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

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

77] In the land of hope there is never any winter

78] Beauty is but skin-deep

79] Wisdom is neither inheritance nor legacy

80] Well done is better than well said

81] Haste trips up (or over) its own heels

82] All for one, and one for all.

83] A fox should not be of the jury at a goose’s trial

84] No man can serve two masters

85] Will is no skill

86] Better be alone than in bad company

87] When two men look after a horse, it will surely be thin; when two families keep a boat, it will surely leak

88] Lend never that thing you needed most

89] Give a dog a bad name and hang him

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

91] Trusting often makes fidelity

92] A watched pot never boils

93] He that peeps in at his neighbor’s window may chance to lose his eyes

94] A banana tree won’t bear fruit twice.

95] It is the bridle and spur that makes a good horse

96] Misfortunes never come singly

97] The good is often the enemy of the best

98] He is wise who looks ahead

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

100] Every man must carry his own cross