Famous Proverbs

1] Better fill a man’s belly than his eye

2] Desire beautifies what is ugly

3] Children should be seen and not heard

4] Rome was not built in a day

5] Don’t cry before you are hurt

6] Law makers should not be law breakers

7] If you gently touch a nettle, it’ll sting you for your pains; grasp it like a man of mettle, and it soft as silk remains.

8] Speech is silver, silence is golden

9] Truth is stranger than fiction

10] Never too late to learn

11] No honest man ever repented his honesty

12] Give him (or knaves) an inch and he (they) will take a yard (or mile)

13] You cannot put a quart into a pint pot

14] The goat must browse where she is tied

15] Even if you wash a crow with rose- water, its feathers won’t become white.

16] As you plant wild grass, you won’t get a crop of rice.

17] Poverty does not hurt him who has not been rich before

18] Accusing the times is but excusing ourselves.

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

20] Every man has his faults

21] The hand that rocks the cradle rules the world

22] An ill marriage is a spring of ill fortune

23] Once you have been bitten by a snake, even a piece of cord will frighten you.

24] A word to the wise is enough

25] Expectation is better than realisation

26] Much travel is needed to ripen a man’s rawness

27] The devil is not as black as he is painted

28] Don’t put all your eggs in one basket

29] The race is got by running

30] Spend not where you may save, spare not where you must spend

31] Know your own faults before blaming others for theirs.

32] He who would hang his dog gives out first that it is mad

33] Keep not ill men company, lest you increase the number

34] A man is valued as he makes himself valuable

35] A blister will rise upon one’s tongue that tells a lie

36] A loveless life is a living death

37] Novelty always appears handsome

38] Charity excuseth not cheating.

39] Water is the king of food

40] A quarrelsome man has no good neighbours

41] Wise men learn by other men’s harm, fools, by their own

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

43] No pain, no cure

44] Every flow must have its ebb

45] He who handles a nettle tenderly is soonest stung

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

47] It foolish sheep that makes the wolf his confessor

48] That which is easily done is soon believed

49] Cleanliness is next to godliness

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

51] Half a word is enough for a wise man

52] Better at home than a mile from it

53] Evil to him who evil thinks.

54] Ambition loses many a man

55] A secret fire is discovered by the smoke

56] Sparrows who emulate peacocks are likely to break a thigh

57] The thief doth fear each bush an offer

58] To know the husband, observe the face of the wife

59] A woman’s work is never done

60] It is too late to grieve when the chance is past

61] There’s a black sheep in every flock

62] He who carries the burden knows the weight of it.

63] The bread never falls but on its buttered side

64] When the boat reaches the middle of the river, it is too late to repair the leak

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

66] Mettle is dangerous in a blind horse

67] Hunger makes hard bean sweet

68] It’s a silly fish that is caught twice with the same bait.

69] If two men ride on a horse, one must ride behind

70] In fair weather prepare for foul

71] Extremes meet

72] Vice is often clothed in virtue’s habit

73] Idle folks have the least leisure

74] Two blacks do not make a white

75] Trust is the mother of deceit

76] Better die a beggar than live a beggar

77] Pride dines on vanity, sups on contempt

78] Necessity knows no law

79] The ass that brays most eats

80] Where there is no trust there is no love

81] Words cut more than swords

82] There grows no herb t heal a coward heart

83] Charity excuseth not cheating.

84] Even the lion must defend itself against flies

85] The love of money is the root of all evil

86] The remedy for injuries is not to remember them

87] Money would be gotten if there were money to get it with

88] Misfortunes find their way even on the darkest night

89] Money gives a bold front: it doesn’t talk – it screams

90] A tiger that roars is not a man-eater

91] It is the bridle and spur that makes a good horse

92] See how the wind blows

93] A white –wasted crow will not long remain white

94] You cannot make bricks without straw

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

96] The worse the evil, the calmer we face it.

97] The bird is known by his note, the man by his words

98] He who works before dawn will soon his own master

99] It is not the hood that makes the monk.

100] Even reckoning makes long friends