Famous Proverbs

1] Health and gaiety foster beauty.

2] Set a thief to catch a thief

3] Dry bread at home is better than roast meat abroad

4] Bad luck often brings good luck

5] They can do least two boast loudest

6] God gives us the milk, but not the pail

7] A barber learns to shave by shaving fools

8] The orange that is too hard squeezed yields a bitter juice

9] Don’t cut the bough you are standing on

10] We have all been once in our life

11] Health without money is half an ague

12] Every advantage has its disadvantage

13] Patience under old injuries invites new ones

14] He who owes is in all the wrong

15] Paddle your own canoe

16] Men are blind in their own cause

17] The garment worn determines how one is served

18] The more wicked, the more lucky

19] The healthful man can give counsel to the sick

20] Words and feathers the wind carries away

21] No convenience without its inconvenience

22] An evil life is a kind of death.

23] War, hunting and love are as full of trouble as pleasure

24] Rome was not (or cannot be) built in a day

25] If anything can go wrong, it will

26] Time flies

27] There is no royal road to learning

28] Work has a bitter root but sweet fruit.

29] Revenge never repairs an injury

30] The devil knows many things because he is old

31] None so deaf as those that will not hear

32] Never trouble trouble till trouble troubles you

33] You must lose a fly to catch a trout

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

35] It is too late to grieve when the chance is past

36] Forgive and forget

37] Poor folk fare the best

38] There is no time like the present

39] Nothing venture (or ventured), nothing gain (or gained)

40] Not good is it to harp on the on the frayed string

41] Make the best of a bad bargain

42] Everything tempts the man who fears temptation. If you can’t be good, be careful.

43] The ass that brays most eats

44] The course of true love never did run smooth

45] One man’s means another man’s poison

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

47] Covetousness brings nothing home

48] Arms bend inwards – not outwards.

49] A man of many trades, begs his bread on Sunday

50] Custom takes the taste from the most savoury dishes

51] All roads lead to Rome

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

53] It is poor dog that is not worth the whistling

54] Laziness travels so slowly that poverty soon overtakes him

55] A good anvil does not fear the hammer

56] Cheats never prosper

57] A bad shearer never had a good sickle

58] Enough is as good as a feast

59] Better fill a man’s belly than his eye

60] Kingdoms divided soon fall

61] There is safety in numbers

62] He that is down need fear no fall

63] It is easy to be wise after the event

64] Take things as they come

65] Think on the end before you begin

66] One man sows and another reaps

67] He that cannot pay in purse must pay in person

68] Never say die

69] No man can serve two masters

70] Every one thinks his own sack heaviest

71] He is a fool that kisses the maid when he may kiss the mistress

72] Where there are reeds, there is water

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

74] A prophet is without honour in his own country

75] One speak of rat droppings will spoil a whole pan of rice

76] First impressions are the most lasting

77] Gold goes in at any gate except heaven’s

78] The best things carried to excess are wrong

79] Dreams go by contraries

80] Burn not your house to fright the mouse away

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

82] It’s either not to begin or not to stop once you’ve begun

83] He is a gentleman that has gentle conditions

84] Every tub must stand on its own bottom

85] All must be as God will

86] Laws catch flies but let hornets go free

87] They bow to you when borrowing; you bow to them when collecting

88] A short cut is often a wrong cut

89] Spend and be free, but make no waste

90] God made the country ,and man made the town

91] Why play the harp to a buffalo?

92] A fool’s bolt may sometimes hit the mark

93] Tender-handed stroke a nettle, and it stings you for your pain: grasp it like a man of mettle, and it soft as silk remains

94] He has not lost all who has one cast left

95] The result justifies the deed

96] Have two strings to your bow

97] The best things come in small packages

98] Everything would fain live

99] All doors open to courtesy

100] Great talkers are never great doers