Famous Proverbs

1] Wake not a sleeping lion

2] Pat any man and dust will fly

3] The whole boat is putrid because of a single carp

4] Dangerous foreseen are soonest prevented

5] To err is human

6] Water far away will not extinguish a fire that is nearby; relatives far from you are not as good as neighbours close to you.

7] Give and take is fair play

8] Good merchandise finds a ready buyer

9] Think not on what you lack as much as what you have

10] Do as you would be done by

11] He that is in poverty is still in suspicion

12] The hasty leaps over his opportunities

13] Law cannot persuade where it cannot punish

14] It is more pain to do nothing than something

15] From word to deed is a great space

16] A miss is as good as a mile

17] Confide in an aunt and the world will know

18] Union is strength.

19] A growing youth has a wolf in his belly

20] Example is better than precept

21] Excessive politeness is often a cloak for insincerity

22] Do right and fear no man

23] Bad laws are the worst sort of tyranny

24] Better an open enemy than a false friend

25] The Friar Preached against stealing and had a goose in his sleeve

26] Every commodity has its discommodity

27] If one will not, another will

28] Choose thy company before thy drink

29] Hope deferred makes the heart sick

30] Vast chasms can be filled, but the heart of man never

31] He may find fault that cannot mend

32] A bad workman always blames his tools

33] Every beggar is descended from some king, and every king is descended from some beggar.

34] The road to hell is paved with good action

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

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

37] Every horse thinks its own pack heaviest

38] Children and fools have merry lives

39] If today will not, tomorrow may

40] Absence diminished little passions and increases great ones

41] Lose a leg rather than a life

42] Luck for fools and chance for the ugly

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

44] Little fishes slip through nets, but great fishes are taken

45] Truth conquers all things

46] Wise men silent, fools talk

47] Armies are maintained for years to be used on a single day.

48] When someone gives up a peach, return him a plum

49] Charity covers a Multitude of sins

50] Praise no man till he is dead.

51] He would command must serve

52] Health is better than wealth

53] The ass that brays most eats

54] Everything is of use to a housekeeper

55] He that flings dirt at another dirtieth himself most

56] All cats love fish but fear to wet their paws

57] He who spends before he thrives will beg before he thinks

58] Even fools sometimes speak to the purpose

59] No choice amongst stinking fish

60] As well be hanged for a sheep as for a lamp

61] No man is his craft’s master the first day

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

63] That which Nature paints never fades

64] Adversity comes with instruction in its hand

65] Give credit where credit is due

66] If the thorn falls, the leaf is pierced; if the leaf falls the leaf is pierced

67] Steer not after every mariner’s direction

68] The bull must be taken by the horns

69] The most high Good sees and bears; me neighbour knows, nothing, and yet is always finding fault.

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

71] It is a foolish bird that soils (or defiles ) its own nest

72] Three helping one another, bear the burthen of six

73] The word is far him who has patience

74] Words have wings, and cannot be recalled

75] A burthen of one’s own choice is not felt

76] It costs more to do ill than to do well

77] Evil often triumphs but never conquers.

78] Don’t put the cart before the horse

79] It is a silly fish that is caught twice with the same bait.

80] Debt is an evil conscience

81] Least said, soonest mended

82] Too much cunning undoes

83] Oh, what a tangled web we weave, when first we practice to deceive!

84] The eye sees only what it has the power of seeing

85] Needs must when the devil drives

86] Care brings grey hair.

87] Will is no skill

88] Every groom is a king at home

89] Thrift is a great revenue

90] Mirth without measure is madness

91] Ill luck is good for something

92] Saying is one thing, and doing another

93] Every man has his faults

94] Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery

95] It is ill waiting for dead men’s shoes

96] Necessity turns a lion into a fox

97] Don’t hide your light under a bushel

98] He laughs ill that laughs himself to death

99] One can’t go to bed when a visit or stays late

100] You know what you can do till you try.