Famous Proverbs

1] The deed comes back upon the doer.

2] He that speaks not, God hears not

3] Much learning makes men mad

4] The receiver is as bad as the thief

5] A fool may give a wise counsel. A fool’s bolt may sometimes hit the mark.

6] What is the mother of industry

7] Green leaves enhance the charm of the peony flower

8] A hundred pounds of sorrow pays not one ounce of debt

9] Two blacks do not make a white

10] Necessity knows no law

11] Armies are maintained for years to be used on a single day.

12] If you want peace, prepare for war

13] Friendship should not be all on one

14] A fault confessed is half redressed

15] Idle folks have the least leisure

16] From a foolish judge, a quick sentence

17] A sluggard takes a hundred steps because he would not take one in due time.

18] There’s small choice in rotten apples.

19] Children and fools have merry lives

20] Better be a fool than a knave

21] Practice what you preach

22] Tie a chicken with an elephant rope, and it will slip off; tie an elephant with a chicken-tether, and it will break away.

23] Give me fire and I’ll give you light

24] All things for not all persons

25] Soon learnt, soon forgotten

26] It is easier to capture a tiger in the hills than to ask for favours from a man

27] The tongue is more venomous than a serpent’s sting

28] 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

29] Think on the end before you begin

30] An old dog barks not in vain

31] The gods send nuts to those who have no teeth

32] One good deed makes up for a thousand bad ones.

33] Blessings brighten as they take their flight

34] Two blacks do not make a white

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

36] How ever much you learn, you won’t know how to raise the dead

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

38] Necessity is mother of invention

39] A good paymaster needs no surety

40] Eat to live and not live to eat.

41] If you pile up enough sand, you can make a pagoda

42] Fling dirt enough, and some will stick

43] Gossiping and lying go together

44] Too much cunning undoes

45] Good company on the road is the shortest cut

46] All our pomp the earth covers

47] An angry man is not fit to pray

48] Eaten bread is soon forgotten

49] Often and little eating makes a man fat

50] A dragon that is stranded in shallow water, becomes the butt of shrimps

51] Dogs that bark at a distance bite not at hand

52] Great consolation may grow out of the smallest saying

53] Through obedience learn to command.

54] Life is short and time is swift

55] Faint heart never won fair lady

56] Art improves Nature

57] Extreme justice is extreme injustice.

58] Wedlock is padlock

59] It is a poor (or sad) heart that never rejoices

60] Exchange is no robbery

61] Little things are great to little men

62] The best things are hard to come by.

63] Take the tone of the company you are in

64] Enough is enough

65] Every one thinks his own cross is heaviest

66] No pot so ugly as not to find a cover

67] No man is infallible

68] Discontent is the first step in progress

69] Hunger is the best sauce

70] Out of debt, out of danger

71] Good fences make good neighbours

72] Hunger finds no fault with the cookery

73] Don’t wash your dirty linen in public

74] Health and gaiety foster beauty.

75] Death is the grand leveler

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

77] One barber shaves another gratis

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

79] Muck and money go together

80] If cattle are scattered, the tiger seizes them.

81] A foolish man knows not the art of forgiveness

82] Ill news comes apace.

83] To study a great deal is to acquire a priceless treasure

84] The darkest hour is that before the dawn

85] Where ignorance is bliss, ‘tis folly to be wise

86] There’s no place like home

87] Nothing is easy to the unwilling

88] Rip not up old sores

89] In vain they rise early that used to rise late

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

91] New brooms sweep clean

92] The peony, though large, is useless; the date blossom, though small, yields fruit

93] Fair face, foul heart

94] A good reaper deserves a good sickle.

95] If a thing is worth doing, it is worth doing well

96] An old horse knows the route

97] A man’s discontent is his worst evil

98] Work expands so as to fill the time available

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

100] Lovers are madmen