Famous Proverbs

1] A strong town is not won in an hour

2] He seems wise with whom all things thrive

3] A spear you can see can easily be avoided; a hidden arrows is difficult to guard against.

4] Things past cannot be recalled

5] Example is the greatest of all seducers

6] In doing we learn.

7] Poor men’s words have little weight

8] If you would know the value of a ducat, try to borrow one

9] Mettle is dangerous in a blind horse

10] Better some of a pudding than none of a pie.

11] The devil’s children have the devil’s luck

12] A whip for a fool, and a rod for a school, is always in good seasons

13] That voyage never has luck where each one has a vote.

14] Go not to hell for company

15] A creaking gate (or door) hangs long

16] A willful man will have his way

17] Never try to prove what nobody doubts

18] Don’t cry before you are hurt

19] Love knows hidden paths

20] He that will steal an egg, will steal an ox

21] A change is as good as rest

22] Confess and be hanged

23] Beggars must not (can’t) be choosers

24] If you would make an enemy, lend a man money and ask it of him again

25] Mercy to the criminal may be cruelty to the people

26] The tongue is more to be feared than the sword

27] It is too late to husband when all is spent

28] Zeal without prudence is frenzy

29] Everyone leaps over the dyke where it is lowest

30] A burdened conscience will never need a hangman

31] Bear with evil and expect good

32] Respect is greater from a distance

33] Never buy a pig in a poke

34] You cannot make an omelette without breaking eggs

35] He that will eat the kernel, must crack the nut

36] Kindle not a fire that you cannot extinguish

37] It is hard to wive and thrive both in a year

38] Small is beautiful

39] Anger managers everything badly.

40] Point not at other’s spots with a foul finger

41] He freezes who does not burn

42] The earthen pot must keep clear of the brass kettle

43] The more you have the more you want

44] It is misery enough to have once been happy

45] No man better knows what good is than he who has endured evil

46] Honesty is the best policy

47] There’s many a slip ‘twixt the cup and the lip

48] A good horse cannot wear two saddles

49] The early man ever borrows from the late man

50] Content is the philosopher’s stone that turns all it touches in to gold

51] You cannot sell the cow and sup (or drink) the milk

52] A fool says what he knows, and a wise man knows what he says.

53] No pains, no gains

54] It is easier to commend poverty than endure it.

55] Those near the temple deride the gods

56] Health is better than wealth

57] Take things as they come

58] A trouble shared is a trouble halved.

59] Experience is a dear school, but fools learn in no other

60] He that pities another remembers himself

61] The voice is the best music

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

63] What cannot gold do?

64] He that will thrive must rise at five

65] No man better knows what good is than he who has endured evil

66] A word spoken is past recalling

67] Rip not up old sores

68] There is safety in numbers

69] Bind the sack before it be full

70] If wishes were butter cakes, beggars might bite

71] Jack would be a gentleman if he could speak French

72] The delay is good which makes the way the safer

73] The coward threatens only when he is safe

74] A fool’s bolt may sometimes hit the mark

75] If cattle are scattered, the tiger seizes them.

76] Through hardship to the stars

77] You never miss the water till the well runs dry

78] From small beginnings come great things

79] Well begun is half done.

80] Where ignorance is bliss, ‘tis folly to be wise

81] Deliver your words not by number but by weight

82] Kind hearts are more than coronets

83] Self-preservation is the first law of nature

84] Wine and wenches empty men’s purses

85] It the counsel be good, no matter who gave it.

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

87] He who considers too much will perform little.

88] Money is the root of all evil

89] New lords, new laws

90] Hunger drives the wolf out of the wood

91] Nature is content with little.

92] Better be first in a village than second at Rome

93] Experience must be bought

94] Don’t cut off your nose to spite your face

95] Calamity is the touchstone of a brave mind

96] Make the best of a bad job

97] Marriage halves our griefs, doubles our joys and quadruples our expenses

98] He may find fault that cannot mend

99] Where grooms and householders are all alike great, very disastrous will it be for the houses and all that dwell in them

100] Zeal is fit only for wise men, but is found mostly in fools