Famous Proverbs

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

2] The cowl does not make the monk.

3] Luck for fools and chance for the ugly

4] Whether the pitcher strikes the stone, or the stone the pitcher, it is bad for the pitcher

5] Keep not ill men company, lest you increase the number

6] Death keeps no calendar

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

8] Weeds need no sowing

9] If the wise erred not, it would go hard with fools.

10] Health and gaiety foster beauty.

11] Jesters do oft prove prophets

12] Sometimes clemency is cruelty, and cruelty clemency

13] Ninety per cent of inspiration is perspiration

14] Marriage is a lottery

15] Laziness travels so slowly that poverty soon overtakes him

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

17] Take away fuel, take away flame

18] What is deferred is not abandoned

19] Envy never enriched any man.

20] A forced kindness deserves no thanks

21] Know your own faults before blaming others for theirs.

22] An old ox will find a shelter for himself

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

24] Never put off till tomorrow what may be done today

25] A knave and a fool never take thought

26] There is a black sheep in every flock

27] Bread is the staff of life.

28] No man fears what he has seen grow

29] He who sits chatting about nothing loses his candle

30] Dying is as natural as living

31] The greatest talkers are the least doers

32] At the end of the game, the king and pawn go in to the same bag.

33] At a good bargain thinks twice

34] The first step is the hardest

35] The value of money is having it.

36] When the ear will not listen, the heart escapes sorrow

37] Content lodges oftener in cottages than palaces

38] Don’t burn the candle at both ends

39] The best is often the enemy of the good

40] Why keep a dog and bark yourself?

41] Necessity is the mother of invention

42] He that fights and runs away may live to fight another day

43] Men are not to be measured in inches

44] A bad padlock invites a picklock

45] He that has no rest at home is in the world’s hell

46] Few words are best

47] None are so fond of secrets as those who don’t mean to keep them

48] He is wise who looks ahead

49] No playing with a straw before an old cat.

50] If your can’t help friend with money, help him at least with a sigh

51] Seldom is a long man wise, or a low man lowly

52] Saying is one thing, and doing another

53] An open door may tempt a saint

54] What is sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander

55] Lend your money and lose a friend

56] Let the buyer beware

57] Ill luck is good for something

58] Judge not, that ye be not judged

59] A quarrelsome man has no good neighbours

60] Man punishes the action but God the intention

61] He loved mutton well that licked where the ewe lay

62] A good conscience is a sure card

63] Use the means, and God will give the blessings

64] He who sows, trusts in God

65] An empty purse fills the face with wrinkles

66] What you lose on the swings, you gain on the roundabouts

67] When one door shuts, another opens

68] Grasp all, lose all

69] Might knows no right

70] If you want a thing well done, do it yourself

71] It signifies nothing to play well if you lose.

72] First impressions are the most lasting

73] Too long burden makes weary bones

74] Opportunity seldom knocks twice

75] A thief knows a thief knows a thief as a wolf knows a wolf

76] The perfect good is the exercise of virtue

77] In doing we learn.

78] Quarrels do not last long if the wrong is only on one side

79] The king can make a knight, but not a gentleman

80] You must lose a fly to catch a trout

81] When two men look after a horse, it will surely be thin; when two families keep a boat, it will surely leak

82] You can’t clap with one hand

83] One barber shaves another gratis

84] Dead men tell no tales

85] You may know by a handful the whole sack

86] He that talks much, errs much

87] Never hit a man when he’s down

88] The higher you climb, the harder you fall

89] Expectation is better than realisation

90] Waste not, want not

91] T’ is safest making peace with sword in hand

92] Give a clown your finger, and he will take your hand

93] Don’t bargain for fish which are still in the water

94] Men are blind in their own cause

95] Slow but sure wins the race

96] It is too late to call back yesterday

97] On an open plain, the rhododendron is a tall tree

98] Quickly come, quickly go

99] A thief knows a thief knows a thief as a wolf knows a wolf

100] He who comes first, grinds first.