Famous Proverbs

1] If we have not the world’s wealth, we have the world’s ease

2] After a storm comes a calm

3] None can guess the jewel by the casket

4] Valour delights in the test

5] Oh, what a tangled web we weave, when first we practice to deceive!

6] Take things as they come

7] The bull must be taken by the horns

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

9] No wrong without a remedy

10] The devil tempts all, but the idle man tempts the devil

11] Grin and bear it

12] A door must be either shut or open

13] He who comes first, grinds first.

14] Worse things happen at sea

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

16] Brute strength without reason falls of its own weight

17] Hope deferred makes the heart sick

18] One must be a servant before one can be a master

19] Ill weeds grow apace (or fast)

20] Ambition makes people diligent

21] Old age doesn’t protect from folly

22] Extreme justice is extreme injustice.

23] Pursuits become habits

24] Dogs bark as they are bred.

25] Clothes do not make the man

26] The difficult is done at once; the impossible takes a little longer

27] A good wife and health is a man’s best wealth

28] The word is far him who has patience

29] Erring is not heating

30] A stitch in time saves nine

31] Never trouble trouble till trouble troubles you

32] Never look a gift horse in the mouth.

33] Little things are great to little men

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

35] He that is born a fool is never cured

36] Keep thy shop and thy shop will keep thee.

37] Bare walls make giddy housewives

38] Let sleeping dogs lie

39] He daren’t say ‘boo’ to a goose

40] A trouble shared is a trouble halved.

41] His bark is worse than his bite

42] There’s no fence against ill fortune.

43] He that blows best, bears away the horn

44] He that lives ill, fear follows him

45] Give a loan and buy quarrel

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

47] It is courage that wins, and not good weapons

48] Self-praise is no recommendation

49] It is easy to bear the misfortunes of others

50] He freezes who does not burn

51] Rust wastes more than use

52] Let a fool hold his tongue and he will pass for a sage

53] The value of money is having it.

54] Keep no more cats than will catch mice

55] Great trees keep down the little ones

56] An ill wound is cured, not an ill name

57] The squeaking wheel gets the grease

58] Fortune favours the brave (or bold).

59] You never know your luck

60] You cannot teach an old dog new tricks

61] Catch not at the shadow and lose the substance

62] We should publish our joys and conceal our griefs

63] Life begins only in success

64] New brooms sweep clean

65] Beauty is in the eye of the beholder

66] A pound of care will not pay an ounce of debt.

67] No matter how much perfume you put on an onion, it will still emit a bad smell.

68] You are never too old to learn

69] He who gives fair words feds you with and empty spoon

70] You never know your luck

71] Water is a boon in the desert, but the drowning man curses it.

72] Crows are all completely black

73] Woods that grows warped can never be straightened

74] Don’t make yourself a mouse, or the cat will eat you

75] Hunger is sharper than the sword

76] God comes with leaden feet, but strikes with iron hands

77] He that dare not venture must not complain of ill luck

78] None but the brave deserves the fair

79] Shame in a kindred cannot be avoided

80] Vice is often clothed in virtue’s habit

81] Beauty fades like a flower.

82] Pinch the right thigh and the left will feel the pain too.

83] Better be the head of a dog than the tail of a lion

84] It is a blind goose that comes to the fox’s sermon

85] Fortune favours fools

86] History repeats itself

87] Misfortune arrives on horseback but departs on foot

88] Beauty is only skin deep

89] Tender-handed stroke a nettle, and it stings you for your pain: grasp it like a man of mettle, and it soft as silk remains

90] They are never alone that are accompanied with noble thoughts

91] A good reaper deserves a good sickle.

92] No man is his craft’s master the first day

93] The dancing girl who could not dance, said that the hall was not big enough.

94] Through hardship to the stars

95] He that has an ill name is half hanged

96] You can’t teach an old dog new tricks

97] Laugh before breakfast, you’ll cry before supper

98] Every cock crows on his own dunghill

99] Every ass thinks himself worthy to stand with the kings horses.

100] Everyone leaps over the dyke where it is lowest