Famous Proverbs

1] An empty purse fills the face with wrinkles

2] The death of the wolves is the safety of the sheep

3] Who is more busy than he that has least to do?

4] Nothing venture (or ventured), nothing gain (or gained)

5] Stolen goods never thrive

6] Better die a beggar than live a beggar

7] The folly of one man is the fortune of another

8] He who can wait obtains what he wishes.

9] Pride is the mask of one’s own faults

10] Goodness is better than beauty

11] All for one, and one for all.

12] The first day a guest, the second day a guest, the third day a calamity

13] Out of the frying-pan into the fire

14] A man in debt is caught in a net

15] Who greases his way travels easily

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

17] Good company on the road is the shortest cut

18] Words have wings, and cannot be recalled

19] If fools went not to market, bad wares would not be sold.

20] The more laws, the more offenders

21] A miss is as good as a mile

22] Everything must have a beginning

23] Men are known by the company they keep.

24] Don’t build the sty before the litter comes

25] The Friar Preached against stealing and had a goose in his sleeve

26] God tempers that wind to the shorn lamb

27] All roads lead to Rome

28] No man limps because another is hurt

29] Call a spade a spade

30] Give the devil his due

31] Envy never enriched any man.

32] Muck and money go together

33] Words are but wind, but seeing’s believing

34] They that dance must pay the fiddler

35] Step by step the ladder is ascended

36] Truth is stranger than fiction

37] Promises are like pie-crust, made to be broken

38] There is no royal road to learning

39] Though a lie be swift the truth overtakes it

40] If you wish to die young, make your physician your heir

41] A bad workman always blames his tools

42] Change brings life

43] Riches along make no men happy

44] The falling drops hollow the stone

45] Virtue and happiness are mother and daughter

46] Laugh and the world laughs with you; weep and you weep alone

47] Woods that grows warped can never be straightened

48] He that will not be counseled, cannot be helped

49] Stolen pleasures are sweetest

50] An old man is a bed full of bones

51] Money isn’t everything

52] Health without money is half an ague

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

54] A good friend is my nearest relation

55] All glory comes from daring to begin

56] No day so clear but has dark clouds

57] A lion may come to be beholden to a mouse

58] If there were no clouds, we should not enjoy the sun

59] A good paymaster never wants workmen

60] Everyone puts his fault on the times.

61] The fox may grow grey, but never good

62] Misery acquaints men with strange bedfellows

63] You cannot run with the hare and hunt with the hounds

64] Does sound come from an unstruck drum?

65] He that shows his purse, longs to be rid of it

66] The race is got by running

67] Manners and money make a gentleman

68] He who rouses a sleeping tiger exposes himself to danger

69] Neither praise nor dispraise thyself; thy actions serve the turn

70] Mere wishes are silly fishes

71] Virtue is a jewel of great price.

72] A curse will not strike out an eye unless a fist goes with it

73] Men strain at gnats and swallow camels

74] Better are small fish than an empty dish

75] He laughs ill that laughs himself to death

76] The game is not worth the candle

77] Poor men go to heaven as soon as rich

78] Before you marry, be sure of a house wherein to tarry

79] Money breeds (or makes, or begets) money

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

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

82] Do it now

83] If the devil finds a man idle, he’ll set him to work

84] He that hopes not for good, fears not evil.

85] Curiosity is ill manners in another’s house

86] Half an egg is better than empty shell

87] Little pitchers have big (or long) ears

88] A piece of churchyard fits every body

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

90] Hope is the last thing to abandon the unhappy

91] Facts are stubborn things

92] Men do more things through habit than reason

93] High places have their precipices

94] All’s grist that comes to the mill.

95] The last straw breaks the camel’s back

96] A gift much expected is paid, not given

97] If you wish to die young, make your physician your heir

98] Better a good cow than a cow of a good kind

99] Honest is the best policy

100] Be just before you are generous