Famous Proverbs

1] Naughty boys sometimes make good men.

2] He who owes is in all the wrong

3] Ask, and it shall be given to you.

4] If the father is spotted, the son will be speckled

5] Bread is the staff of life.

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

7] Misery acquaints men with strange bedfellows

8] Forewarned, forearmed; to be prepared is half the victory

9] Great fortune brings with it great misfortune

10] Words cut more than swords

11] Little things are pretty

12] Kindness is the noblest weapon to conquer with.

13] Knowledge is power

14] Let us eat and drink; for tomorrow we die.

15] A clear conscience fears not false accusations

16] Marriage is a lottery

17] The perfect good is the exercise of virtue

18] He that will not have peace, God gives him war

19] Confess and be hanged

20] Dead men tell no tales

21] Idleness is the root of all evil

22] Be not too bold with your biggers or betters

23] There is more than one way to skin a cat.

24] A pot that belongs to many is ill stirred and worse boiled

25] Better die a beggar than live a beggar

26] Where there is no trust there is no love

27] Don’t pour out the dirty water before you have cleaned

28] One thief will not rob another

29] Nothing is more contagious than a bad example

30] Friends agree best at a distance

31] Love will go through stone walls

32] Waste not, want not

33] Credit lost is like a Venice glass broken

34] Distance lends enchantment to the view

35] I may not have tasted their flesh but I’ve seen enough to know how pigs walk

36] Sometimes clemency is cruelty, and cruelty clemency

37] When meat is in anger is out

38] A parrot will only say what it is taught

39] The devil knows many things because he is old

40] An account is an account, and a brother a brother.

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

42] The tongue breaks bone, and herself has none

43] See how the wind blows

44] A good garden may have some ill weeds

45] He that speaks not, God hears not

46] The word is far him who has patience

47] Nothing crave, nothing have

48] He preaches well (or best) that lives well (or best).

49] Neither a borrower nor a lender be.

50] Habits are at first cobwebs, at last cables.

51] New lords, new laws

52] There is no rose without a thorn

53] Files are easier caught with honey than with vinegar

54] Experience without learning is better than learning without experience

55] A monk can’t shave his own head

56] The worst wheel of the cart creaks most

57] A good paymaster needs no surety

58] Better late than never, but better never late

59] The peacock has fair features, but foul feet.

60] Each day brings its own bread

61] New brooms sweep clean

62] A good lawyer must be a great liar

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

64] Good words are worth much and cost little

65] Charity covers a Multitude of sins

66] A change is as good as rest

67] Covetousness is always filling a bottomless vessel

68] There’s always room at the top

69] Dreams go by contraries

70] He who comes first, grinds first.

71] A deaf husband and a blind wife are always a happy couple

72] Keep no more cats than will catch mice

73] Don’t hallo (or shout, or whistle) until you are out of the wood

74] We always weaken whatever we exaggerate

75] Lovers’ quarrels are soon mended

76] The labourer is worthy of his hire

77] An ounce of practice is worth a pound of precept

78] Man punishes the action but God the intention

79] Patience is a flower that grows not in everyone’s garden

80] The bait hides the hook

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

82] Be still and have thy will

83] The last suitor wins the maid

84] The grapes are sour’, as the fox said when he could not reach them

85] Now is now, and then was then

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

87] Envy eats nothing but it own heart

88] Pride goes before a fall

89] He that ventures not fails not.

90] Bold men have generous hearts

91] One good turn deserves another

92] A chain is no stronger than its weakest link

93] They are rich who have true friends

94] Fling dirt enough, and some will stick

95] Not lock will hold against the power of gold

96] Love rules without a sword, and binds without a cord

97] Better at home than a mile from it

98] Black will take no other hue

99] Familiarity breeds contempt

100] Wife and Children are bills of charges