Famous Proverbs

1] An ill payer (or paymaster) never wants an excuse

2] Forewarned is forearmed

3] Expectation is better than realisation

4] Words have wings, and cannot be recalled

5] Too far east is west

6] Never too late to repent

7] A knave and a fool never take thought

8] Every man has the defects of his own virtues (or qualities)

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

10] Trust is the mother of deceit

11] It will be the same a hundred years hence

12] Love your neighbour, yet pull not down your hedge

13] Cast not the first stone.

14] Nothing is easy to the unwilling

15] Little things are pretty

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

17] Desert and reward seldom keep company

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

19] Cleanliness is next to godliness

20] The tide must be taken when it comes

21] Tie a chicken with an elephant rope, and it will slip off; tie an elephant with a chicken-tether, and it will break away.

22] Better to have one eye than be blind altogether

23] Experience must be bought

24] Every little helps

25] You cannot get ivory from a dog’s mouth

26] Many dishes make many diseases

27] No man can serve two masters

28] We are all Adam’s children

29] He that travels far knows much

30] Possibilities are infinite

31] God is a sure paymaster

32] A thing of beauty is a joy forever

33] Jackdaw always perches by jackdaw.

34] It is easy to be wise after the event

35] The best remedy against an ill man, is much ground between

36] Goods that are much on show lose their colour

37] What’s in a name?

38] Hasty work, double work,

39] Better at home than a mile from it

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

41] It is the lot of a king to do well but to be ill-spoken of

42] He who last, laughs longest.

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

44] He that will steal a pin will steal a better thing

45] No one is satisfied with his fortune, nor dissatisfied with his intellect

46] Judge not the tree by its bark

47] What children hear at home, soon files abroad

48] When the fox preaches, then beware your geese

49] There is truth in wine

50] He who depends on another, dines ill and sups worse

51] Tempt not a desperate man

52] If you want a thing well done, do it yourself

53] Though a man lives for less than a hundred years, he burdens himself with the anxieties of a thousand years

54] A heavy purse makes a light heart

55] Nothing is so bad but might have been worse

56] Learning is a treasure which accompanies its owner everywhere.

57] Six feet of earth make all men equal

58] There is no redemption from hell

59] Strike while the iron is hot

60] The reason of the strongest is always the best.

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

62] More have repented speech than silence

63] Why keep a dog and bark yourself?

64] He that is long a-giving knows not how to give

65] Welcome is the best dish in the kitchen

66] United we stand, divided we fall

67] When you live next to a cemetery, you cannot weep for everyone

68] First come, first served

69] Old habits die hard

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

71] Where the dam leaps over, the kid follows

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

73] The tide must be taken when it comes

74] Stolen pleasures are sweetest

75] Easier said than done

76] Everything is good in its season

77] The best fish swim near the bottom

78] No man is infallible

79] What one loses (or you lose) on the swings, one makes up (or you gain) on the roundabouts

80] Ill news comes unsent for.

81] Never try to prove what nobody doubts

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

83] He who comes first, grinds first.

84] With wealth, you are as grand as a dragon; without wealth you are as insignificant as a worm.

85] It is not easy to steal when the landlord is a thief

86] Custom takes the taste from the most savoury dishes

87] Lose a leg rather than a life

88] Best is cheapest

89] Of the ten fingers, some are long and some are short.

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

91] Good advice is often annoying, bad advice never.

92] He is a gentleman that has gentle conditions

93] Anything will fit a naked man.

94] Nothing is so bad but might have been worse

95] Stolen sweets are sweeter

96] No man is wise at all times

97] Keep your eyes wide open before marriage, and half shut afterwards

98] In doing we learn.

99] To be discontented is to be like a snake trying to swallow an elephant

100] Every groom is a king at home