Famous Proverbs

1] Long looked for, comes at last

2] An occasion lost cannot be redeemed

3] A thousand cranes in the air are not worth one sparrow in the fist.

4] How seldom in life is the moon directly overhead

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

6] If wishes were horses, beggars would ride (or might ride)

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

8] Let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth

9] Self-preservation is the first law of nature

10] A still tongue makes a wise head

11] Too long burden makes weary bones

12] A penny saved is a penny gained

13] One man sows and another reaps

14] One man’s loss is another’s gain

15] Avoid a questioner, for he is also a tattler

16] However much the arm may swing out, the armpit is where it sticks

17] The good intention excuses the bad action

18] Sickness shows us what we are

19] When someone gives up a peach, return him a plum

20] Wine uncloaks the words of the heart

21] The rich man thinks of the future, the poor man thinks of today

22] One today is worth two tomorrows

23] Truth may walk through the world unarmed

24] Better belly burst than good meat lost

25] First try and then trust

26] The early man ever borrows from the late man

27] Wine and wenches empty men’s purses

28] He that comes of a hen, must scrape

29] The envious grow thin at others’ prosperity

30] Take things as you find them

31] Brave actions never want a trumpet.

32] Judge not the tree by its bark

33] Good to begin well, better to end well.

34] It is as hard to please a knave as knight

35] Great minds think alike

36] We live by laws, not by examples

37] Grief pent up will break the heart

38] Beauty is potent but money is omnipotent

39] When you drink water from the stream, don’t forget that the source of it is the spring

40] Vast chasms can be filled, but the heart of man never

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

42] Lend, and lose the loan or gain an enemy

43] The biter is sometimes bit

44] If one will not, another will

45] Give him (or knaves) an inch and he (they) will take a yard (or mile)

46] Woods that grows warped can never be straightened

47] You scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours

48] One fool praises another

49] Spread the table, and contention will cease

50] We do as we can, since we can’t do as we would

51] Do not halloo till you are out of the wood

52] Every advantage has its disadvantage

53] Morning dreams come true

54] The devil finds work for idle hands to do

55] Death is the grand leveler

56] Catch not at the shadow and lose the substance

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

58] They that value not praise, will never do anything worthy of praise

59] An oak is not felled at one stroke

60] What’s in a name?

61] The rich knows not who is his friend

62] A barber learns to shave by shaving fools

63] What is brought by the wind will be carried away by the wind

64] The pitcher goes often to the well that it is broken at last

65] He who is afraid of asking is ashamed of learning

66] The camel never sees its own hump, but that of its brother is always before its eyes

67] God is a sure paymaster

68] If you sing before breakfast, you’ll cry before night

69] He that pities another remembers himself

70] Everyone puts his fault on the times.

71] Anything will fit a naked man.

72] As is the mould, so will the cake be.

73] Accidents will happen in the best regulated families

74] An ill marriage is a spring of ill fortune

75] Hope is but the dream of those that wake

76] Better to wear out than rust out

77] New brooms sweep clean

78] Even Homer sometimes nods

79] Wives must be had, be they good or bad

80] Pinch the right thigh and the left will feel the pain too.

81] Homer sometimes nods

82] Praise is always pleasant

83] One of these days is none of these days

84] There would be no great ones if there were no little ones

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

86] A liar is not believed when he speaks the truth

87] Where there is whispering there is lying

88] Wine unveils the words of the heart

89] We always weaken whatever we exaggerate

90] Hope is the last thing to abandon the unhappy

91] A liar is sooner caught than a cripple

92] The escaped mouse ever feels the taste of the bait.

93] Truth has a good face but bad clothes

94] It is easy to do what one’s own self wills

95] Mix work with pleasure and you will never go mad.

96] Money isn’t everything

97] Think on the end before you begin

98] All heiresses are beautiful.

99] We shall lie all alike in our graves

100] Lend, and lose the loan or gain an enemy