Famous Proverbs

1] Venture a small fish to catch a big one

2] Time lost cannot be recalled

3] When it rains porridge, the beggar has no spoon.

4] It is ill jesting with edged tools

5] Save your breath to cool the porridge

6] Idle folks have the least leisure

7] The mills of God grind slowly but they grind exceedingly small

8] Love your friend with his fault

9] Greedy eaters dig their graves with their teeth.

10] Advice is something the wise don’t need and fools won’t take

11] He that has a tongue in his head may find his way anywhere

12] A good name is a rich heritage

13] Bad excuses are worse than none.

14] Creditors have better memories than debtors

15] Easier said than done

16] A loveless life is a living death

17] Expectation is better than realisation

18] Better do a kindness near home than go to a temple far away to burn incense.

19] What’s learnt in the cradle lasts till the tomb

20] Men are not angles

21] Manners make the man

22] One volunteer is worth two pressed men

23] It is more pain to do nothing than something

24] A swine over-fat, is the cause of his own bane

25] Children should be seen and not heard

26] When you are an anvil, hold still; when you are an anvil, hold still; when you are a hammer, strike your fill.

27] Every law has a loophole

28] A rich man’s joke is always funny

29] Suffering does not manifest itself

30] Marriage is a lottery

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

32] Those who sell dog-meat often display a lamb’s head

33] A miss is as good as a mile

34] He that borrows must pay again with shame or loss

35] Love turns pimples

36] First try and then trust

37] The weeds overgrow the corn.

38] A goose drinks as much as gander

39] Knavery may serve for a turn, nut honesty is best in the long run

40] Welcome is the best dish in the kitchen

41] The more cost, the more honour

42] Work expands so as to fill the time available

43] Great fortune brings with it great misfortune

44] All roads lead to Rome

45] Beggars must not be choosers

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

47] A good servant must have good wages

48] A man of words and not of deeds is like a garden full of weeds

49] Constant dripping (or dropping) wears away the stone

50] Poverty is not a crime

51] A blow with a word strikes deeper than a blow with a sword

52] When two tigers fight, one is sure to be hurt

53] Love and business teach eloquence

54] The beaten road is the safest

55] Have patience with a friend rather than lost him forever.

56] Save a thief from the gallows and he’ll cut your throat

57] He that boasts of his own knowledge proclaims his ignorance

58] It is easy to do what one’s own self wills

59] Little fishes slip through nets, but great fishes are taken

60] Every beggar is descended from some king, and every king is descended from some beggar.

61] Riches rather enlarge than satisfy appetites

62] Even the weariest river winds somewhere safe to sea

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

64] Better eye sore than al blind

65] Vice makes virtue shine

66] Man does what he can, and God what he will

67] An old ox will find a shelter for himself

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

69] First impressions are most lasting

70] First come, first served

71] The joy of the heart makes the face fair.

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

73] The little cannot be great unless he devours many

74] All things for not all persons

75] Fine feathers make fine birds.

76] A man may bear till his back breaks

77] Never put off till tomorrow what may be done today

78] Friendship should not be all on one side

79] Habits are at first cobwebs, at last cables

80] Good hand, good hire

81] No cross, no crown

82] A good heart conquers ill fortune

83] What the king wills, that the law wills

84] Children and fools must not play with edged tools

85] Haste trips up (or over) its own heels

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

87] He who makes no mistakes makes nothing

88] Better be out of the world than out of the fashion.

89] An ape’s an ape, a varlet’s a varlet, though they be clad in silk or scarlet

90] It is no use spoiling the ship for a half penny worth of tar

91] Much babbling is not without offence

92] Strike while the iron is hot

93] One needs a full stomach to keep the precepts

94] When you know there are tigers on the hills, don’t go there

95] Better never begin than never make an end

96] None so blind as those who will not see

97] The last suitor wins the maid

98] Example is the greatest of all seducers

99] Claw me, and I’ll claw thee

100] The physician who praises himself has no good medicine