Famous Proverbs

1] A good beginning is half the battle.

2] Even though one’s aunt sells the cakes, one will not buy unless they are cheap.

3] Cowardice is afraid to be known or seen

4] Life is short and time is swift

5] He who handles a nettle tenderly is soonest stung

6] Every cock crows on his own dunghill

7] The last suitor wins the maid

8] Anger and haste hinder good counsel

9] Rats desert (or forsake) a sinking ship

10] Does sound come from an unstruck drum?

11] No bees, no honey’, that sweetness will come in to the mouth

12] A willing helper does not wait until he is asked.

13] The tongue talks at the heads cost

14] Safety lies in the middle course

15] The more cost, the more honour

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

17] A good marksman may miss

18] Friendship should not be all on one

19] The cat would eat fish and would not wet her feet

20] You cannot teach an old dog new tricks

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

22] Hope is the poor man’s bread

23] The hole calls the thief

24] Zeal without prudence is frenzy

25] You cannot put a quart into a pint pot

26] The proof of the pudding lies in the eating

27] A nod is as good as wink to a blind horse

28] Avoid a questioner, for he is also a tattler

29] One kindness is the price of another

30] You may force a man to shut his eyes but you can’t make him sleep

31] Opportunity makes the thief

32] Bad news travels fast

33] Ugly women finely dressed, are the uglier for it.

34] The axe falls on a straight tree first

35] Great fortune brings with it great misfortune

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

37] Beware of a silent man and still water

38] The thing which is rare is dear

39] He’s his father’s (or mother’s) son

40] Pardoning the bad is injuring the good

41] A scalded cat fears hot water.

42] He laughs ill that laughs himself to death

43] Let your yea be yea; and your nay, nay.

44] Nature does nothing in vain

45] Better the foot slip than the tongue

46] It’s an ill wind that blows nobody any good

47] Every commodity has its discommodity

48] A sluggard takes a hundred steps because he would not take one in due time.

49] Cleanliness is next to godliness

50] All’s fish that comes to the net

51] Never make threats you cannot carry out.

52] The wolf knows what the ill beast thinks

53] The voice is the best music

54] Neither a borrower nor a lender be.

55] No cross, no crown

56] A man without a smiling face must not open a shop

57] It is more pain to do nothing than something

58] Light burden I heavy if far borne

59] It is ill striving (or swimming) against the stream (or tide)

60] When you drink water from the stream, don’t forget that the source of it is the spring

61] You cannot run with the hare and hunt with the hounds

62] Money is the sinew of affairs

63] It is a great victory that comes without blood

64] Some people will never learn anything because they understand everything too soon.

65] Would you know what money is, got borrow some

66] All is fair in love and war

67] The absent saint gets no candle

68] Money makes the man

69] If the doctor cures, the sun sees it; but if he kills, the earth hides it.

70] Though the left hand conquers the right, no advantage is gained

71] That fish will soon be caught that nibbles at every bait

72] The folly of one man is the fortune of another

73] Give me fire and I’ll give you light

74] All heiresses are beautiful.

75] Penny and penny laid up will be many

76] Hunger drives the wolf out of the wood

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

78] Too much money makes one mad

79] Bread is the staff of life.

80] Through obedience learn to command.

81] Sometimes clemency is cruelty, and cruelty clemency

82] The bull must be taken by the horns

83] It is a foolish sheep that makes the wolf his confessor

84] He that goes a borrowing goes a-sorrowing

85] First come, first served

86] Nature is conquered by obeying her

87] Good goods are not cheap; cheap goods are not good

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

89] Children and chickens must be always picking

90] Every why has a wherefore

91] Don’t burn the candle at both ends

92] No land without stones, or meat without bones

93] A black hen lays a white egg

94] The pen is the tongue of the hand

95] It is easy to move rivers and mountains, but difficult to change a person’s basic nature

96] Comparisons make enemies of our friends.

97] In the country of the blind, the one-eyed man is king

98] Never buy a pig in a poke

99] Go while the going is good

100] Pursuits become habits