Famous Proverbs

1] One can’t help many, but many can help one

2] Nature does nothing in vain

3] Bad luck often brings good luck

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

5] If there is no wind, the trees will not move

6] The beaten road is the safest

7] No one betrays himself by silence

8] Every horse thinks its own pack heaviest

9] Dying men speak true

10] Men strain at gnats and swallow camels

11] A soft answer turns away wrath

12] Loyalty is worth more than money

13] Exchange is no robbery

14] The strength of the chain is in the weakest link.

15] A single rose does not mean spring

16] As soon as man is born, he begins to die

17] Cowardice is afraid to be known or seen

18] If the father is spotted, the son will be speckled

19] Half the world knows not how the other half lives

20] Courtesy is the inseparable companion of virtue

21] A pot that belongs to many is ill stirred and worse boiled

22] It chances in an hour, that appears not in seven years

23] Learn to see in another’s misfortune, the ills which you should avoid.

24] Better a lean peace than a fat victory

25] The best things in life are free

26] A cat may look at a king

27] A penny saved is a penny gained

28] Things are seldom what they seem.

29] Desperate diseases need (or must have) desperate cures

30] A door must be either shut or open

31] Crime does not pay

32] Marriage is a lottery

33] Death alone can kill hope

34] Give a servant a rod, and he’ll beat his master

35] When the butcher has already killed your pig, it is useless to discuss with him the price

36] Plain dealing is a jewel, but they that use it die beggars

37] It is easier to praise poverty than to bear it.

38] He who would climb the ladder must begin at the bottom

39] Content is the philosopher’s stone that turns all it touches in to gold

40] Time flees without a delay

41] Creditors have better memories than debtors

42] Corn him well and he will work better

43] Strength grows stronger by being tried

44] Mercy surpasses justice

45] Things are only worth one makes them worth

46] Throw out a sprat to catch a mackerel

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

48] Men count up the faults of those who keep them waiting

49] Wake not a sleeping lion

50] More haste, less speed

51] Use makes mastery

52] Come with the wind, got with the water

53] Every flow must have its ebb

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

55] Waste makes wants

56] No man ever becomes thoroughly bad all at once

57] The best things are hard to come by.

58] There is a time to speak and a time to be silent

59] Do unto others as they should do unto you

60] Appetite comes with eating

61] Heaven helps those who help themselves

62] The remedy for injuries is not to remember them

63] The anvil lasts longer than the hammer

64] One of these days is none of these days

65] Jam tomorrow and jam yesterday – but never jam today

66] You eat, I dreams, the custard of the day

67] He that is in poverty is still in suspicion

68] It is late to cover the well when the child is drowned.

69] Stolen sweets are sweeter

70] A fool may give a wise man counsel

71] Better die a beggar than live a beggar

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

73] The borrower is servant to the lender

74] A man may bear till his back breaks

75] Be careful to whom you give

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

77] Common fame is a liar

78] Words have wings, and cannot be recalled

79] An ounce of practice is worth a pound of theory

80] To speak as the common people, to think as the wise

81] Ask, and it shall be given to you.

82] He that once deceives, is ever suspected

83] Example is better than precept

84] Spread the table, and contention will cease

85] Affection blinds reason

86] The receiver is as bad as the thief

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

88] To be discontented is to be like a snake trying to swallow an elephant

89] It is more pain to do nothing than something

90] Gold is tried in the fire

91] He who works before dawn will soon be his own master

92] What must be must be

93] Better a bare foot than none

94] The worse the evil, the calmer we face it.

95] Desperate diseases need desperate cures

96] What can you expect from a pig (or hog) but a grunt?

97] Even a worm will turn

98] Alms never make poor

99] Experience is not always the kindest of teachers, but it is surely the best

100] Love your neighbour, yet pull not down your hedge