Famous Proverbs

1] Better a louse in the pot than no flesh at all

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

3] He who seizes the right moment is the right man

4] The mob has many heads but no brains

5] Books and friends should be few but good

6] Often and little eating makes a man fat

7] You never know your luck

8] Share and share alike

9] He is a gentleman that has gentle conditions

10] Better the devil you know than the devil you don’t know

11] Since god has not bent the top of the palm tree, he has given a long neck to the giraffe

12] A discontented man knows not where to sit easy

13] The squeaking wheel gets the grease

14] Where there are reeds, there is water

15] Christmas comes but once a year

16] A man with no hands is given a ring.

17] Custom makes all things easy

18] He that hath a wife and children hath given hostages to fortune

19] Friends are thieves of time

20] Fortune favours fools

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

22] One master in a house is enough

23] To speak as the common people, to think as the wise

24] There is a time to speak and a time to be silent

25] The hen that lays the eggs knows the pain

26] A fool may give a wise counsel. A fool’s bolt may sometimes hit the mark.

27] You cannot make a crab walk straight

28] If you run after two hares, you will catch neither

29] Rats desert (or forsake) a sinking ship

30] Of evil manners, spring good laws

31] Mirth without measure is madness

32] The cord breaks t last by the weakest pull

33] He that has a fellow-ruler, has an over-ruler. ¶ There is no good accord, where every man would be a lord

34] Quietness is a great treasure

35] Bees that have honey in their mouths have stings in their tails.

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

37] Love conquers all

38] One thief will not rob another

39] Let an ill man lie in the straw and he looks to be thy heir

40] Manners make the man

41] A good word for a bad one is worth much and costs little

42] Every cock crows on his own dunghill

43] Virtue is praised by all, but practiced by few

44] Poor men seek meat for their stomach; rich men stomach for their meat.

45] An old man’s sayings are seldom untrue

46] Love is sweet torment

47] Better ask the way than go astray

48] Fall not into the fire when you try to avoid smoke

49] The hunchback does not see his own hump, but his companion’s

50] If you want peace, prepare for war

51] Extremity of right is wrong

52] Too much money makes one mad

53] What may be done at any time is done at no time

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

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

56] Praise makes good men better and bad men worse

57] Even fools sometimes speak to the purpose

58] The blind man is not afraid of ghosts

59] It is a hard-fought field where no man escapes unkilled

60] The thread breaks where it is weakest

61] Union is strength.

62] Praises fill not the belly

63] Who chatters to you, will chatter of you.

64] All things are difficult before they are easy

65] He mediates revenge who least complains.

66] Lovers’ quarrels are soon mended

67] Poison is poison though it comes in a golden cup.

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

69] Fortune favours fools

70] Forewarned is forearmed

71] Better an apple given than eaten

72] The child says nothing but what it hears by the fire

73] The tyranny of a multitude is a multiplied tyranny

74] In indecision itself, grief is present.

75] Better an egg today than a hen tomorrow.

76] If you put noting into your purse, you can take nothing out

77] Dead men tell no tales

78] A true man and a thief think not the same

79] When two men look after a horse, it will surely be thin; when two families keep a boat, it will surely leak

80] The voice is the best music

81] Time and tide wait for no man

82] Never try to prove what nobody doubts

83] Soft fire makes sweet malt

84] Necessity breaks iron

85] One beats the bush, and another catches the birds

86] He that commits a fault, thinks everyone speaks of it.

87] What we spent, we had; what we gave, we have: what we left, we lost

88] Fools grow without watering.

89] All are not thieves that dogs bark at

90] A fool may give a wise man counsel

91] Misery acquaints men with strange bedfellows

92] He should have a long spoon who sups with the devil.

93] The owl thinks her own young fairest

94] All work and no play makes jack a dull boy

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

96] Corruption of the best becomes the worst

97] A word is enough to the wise

98] When we have gold, we are in fear; when we have none we are in danger

99] Company in misery makes it light

100] Virtue is the only true nobility