Famous Proverbs

1] A loveless life is a living death

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

3] If one sheep leaps o’er the dyke, all the rest will follow

4] Go to bed with the lamb, and rise with the lark

5] A still tongue makes a wise head

6] Eat to live and not live to eat.

7] Don’t burn the candle at both ends

8] The sun shines upon all alike.

9] There are more ways of killing a cat than choking it with cream.

10] Remember, you are but a man

11] Better the last smile than the first laugh

12] Laziness travels so slowly that poverty soon overtakes him

13] Worse things happen at sea

14] There would be no great ones if there were no little ones

15] Know when to spend and when to spare, and you need not be busy, you’ll never be bare

16] Covetousness is the root of all evil

17] It is more pain to do nothing than something

18] A old poacher makes the best gamekeeper

19] God comes at last when think he is farthest off

20] Mirth without measure is madness

21] Don’t cast your pearls before swine

22] Advice when most needed is least heeded

23] If you want peace, prepare for war

24] Things past cannot be recalled

25] An ill tongue may do much

26] Save a stranger from the sea and he’ll turn your enemy

27] Don’t stitch your seam before you’ve tacked it.

28] One cannot put back the clock

29] A straw will show which way the wind blows.

30] Slow and steady wins the race

31] Experience without learning is better than learning without experience

32] The tongue is not steel, yet it cuts

33] Better be born lucky than wise.

34] Punishment is a cripple, but it arrives

35] Example is better than precept

36] Only with a new ruler do you realize the value of the old

37] No garden without its weeds.

38] After dinner sit a while, after supper walk a mile.

39] Do unto others as they should do unto you

40] The coward threatens only when he is safe

41] A fool always rushes to the fore.

42] Plain dealing is best

43] Don’t swap horses while crossing a stream

44] How who makes no mistakes, makes nothing.

45] Knowledge has bitter roots but sweet fruits

46] Keep your eyes wide open before marriage, and half shut afterwards

47] Everything is of use to a housekeeper

48] Good fences make good neighbours

49] To refuse and to give tardily is all the same

50] If you trust before you try, you may repent before you die

51] A nod is as good as wink to a blind horse

52] Vows made in storms are forgotten in calm

53] When fortune smiles, embrace her.

54] What is not even scabies, he makes out to be an ulcer

55] The course of true love never did run smooth

56] Give a fool (or a thief) enough rope and he will hang himself

57] Six feet of earth make all men equal

58] Don’t kick against the pricks

59] Never do evil that good may come of it

60] He who would catch fish must not mind getting wet.

61] He that peeps in at his neighbor’s window may chance to lose his eyes

62] The little cannot be great unless he devours many

63] The bull must be taken by the horns

64] The kind-hearted person has a heavy load.

65] All for one, and one for all.

66] We soon believe what we desire

67] There is more than one way to skin a cat.

68] A wounded reputation is seldom cured

69] Every man has the defects of his own virtues (or qualities)

70] A good servant should never be in the way and never out of the way

71] First things first

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

73] A wise man is never less alone than when alone

74] Exchange (or Fair exchange) is no robbery

75] Man may have a thousand plans, but god’s plan is best

76] One today is worth two tomorrows

77] Much learning makes men mad

78] Sadness and happiness succeed each other.

79] Truth is god’s daughter

80] Three helping one another, bear the burthen of six.

81] Hope springs eternal in the human heart

82] The early man ever borrows from the late man

83] Blessed is he who excepts nothing, for he shall never be disappointed

84] It is better to conceal one’s knowledge than to reveal one’s ignorance

85] Old foxes want no tutors

86] No honest man ever repented his honesty

87] All is fair in love and war

88] He who aims at the moon may hit the top of a tree; he who aims at the top of a tree is unlikely to get off the ground

89] Everybody’s business is nobody’s business

90] The eye is bigger than the belly

91] Poverty is no disgrace but it is a great inconvenience

92] A fault confessed is half redressed

93] You cannot have it both ways

94] Brave actions never want a trumpet.

95] A lion may be beholden to a mouse

96] All doors open to courtesy

97] Envy eats nothing but it own heart

98] Everything is good in its season

99] Love will find a way

100] Dirty water does not wash clean.