Famous Proverbs

1] Little pitchers have big (or long) ears

2] See which way the cat jumps

3] Worse things happen at sea

4] One needs a full stomach to keep the precepts

5] The shoemaker’s son always goes barefoot.

6] One cannot love and be wise

7] Discretion of speech is more than eloquence.

8] Know thyself

9] When a tiger dies, it leaves a skin; when a man dies, he leaves a name

10] It is easier to commend poverty than endure it.

11] A man can die but once

12] The eye that sees all things else sees not itself

13] United we stand, divided we fall

14] Even if you wash a crow with rose- water, its feathers won’t become white.

15] The coward threatens only when he is safe

16] One hand washes the other

17] Vice is often clothed in virtue’s habit

18] So many countries, so many customs

19] Sooner will men hold fore in the mouth than keep a secret

20] Cut your coat according to your cloth

21] Hazard not your wealth on a poor man’s advice

22] He knows which side his bread is buttered

23] Win a good reputation, and sleep at your ease

24] No man is the worse for knowing the worst of himself

25] Don’t cry for the moon

26] No one is rich enough to do without his neighbours

27] Variety is charming

28] Gnaw the bone which is fallen to thy lot

29] Plain dealing is best. Plain dealing is a jewel

30] The ant had wings to her hurt

31] Almost’ never killed a fly.

32] He knows on which side his bread is buttered

33] Little things please little minds

34] All is fair in love and war

35] The grapes are sour’, as the fox said when he could not reach them

36] Little things are pretty

37] If you lie down with dogs, you will get up with fleas

38] Necessity turns a lion into a fox

39] Safety lies in the middle course

40] He that once deceives, is ever suspected

41] Six feet of earth make all men equal

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

43] Whom god loves, his house is sweet to him

44] He that would know what shall be, must consider what has been

45] That voyage never has luck where each one has a vote.

46] Don’t play with edged tools

47] The poorer one is, the more devils one meets

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

49] All our pomp the earth covers

50] Don’t cross the bridge before you get to it

51] It is a sad house where the hen crows louder than the cock

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

53] Dying men speak true

54] Thieves and rogues have the best luck, if they do but escape hanging

55] The first step is the hardest

56] Mettle is dangerous in a blind horse

57] An arrow shot upright falls on the shooter’s head

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

59] Heaven helps those who help themselves

60] There is death in the pot.

61] He knows the water best who has waded through it

62] There is no tree but bears some fruit

63] The absent party is always to blame.

64] From the sublime to the ridiculous is only a step

65] Easter so longed for is gone in a day

66] The best wine comes from an old vessel

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

68] Better a bare foot than none

69] Do not kick against the pricks

70] Six feet of earth make all men equal

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

72] Give a lie a twenty-four-hour start, and you can never overtake it.

73] Bold men have generous hearts

74] You can’t take it with you when you die

75] He who does not rise with the sun does not enjoy the day

76] Zeal is fit only for wise men, but is found mostly in fools

77] Just give me one end of the line and I’ll get to the other

78] Better an open enemy than a false friend

79] The bee sucks honey out of the bitterest flowers

80] Trouble brings experience and experience brings wisdom

81] He that lives ill, fear follows him

82] It is hard to sail over the sea in an egg-shell

83] Bind the sack before it be full

84] He who demands does not command

85] An ounce of mother is worth a ton of priest

86] Between two stools you fall to the ground

87] Young saint, old devil.

88] The soldier who retreated fifty paces laughed at the one who had fallen back a hundred paces

89] When we sing, everybody hears us; when sigh, nobody hears us

90] He that blows best, bears away the horn

91] Love is never without jealousy

92] A man’s studies pass in to his character

93] To advise someone not to gamble is to win money for him

94] Precept begins, examples accomplish

95] A trouble shared is a trouble halved.

96] A chain is no stronger than its weakest link

97] An hour in the morning is worth two in the evening

98] Big words seldom go with good deeds

99] The falling drops hollow the stone

100] Everything in moderation.