Famous Proverbs

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

2] No tie can oblige the perfidious

3] A good name is better than a golden girdle

4] Long absent, soon forgotten

5] Constant dripping (or dropping) wears away the stone

6] Curses, like chickens, come home to roost

7] Health without money is half an ague

8] Don’t count your chickens before they are hatched

9] Comparisons are odious

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

11] When we have gold, we are in fear; when we have none we are in danger

12] When the fox preaches, then beware your geese

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

14] Forgiveness is perfect when the sin is not remembered

15] Save your breath to cool the porridge

16] None so busy as those who do nothing.

17] Better an apple given than eaten

18] Leave well alone

19] You may have too much of a good thing

20] In my own house, I am king

21] Half a loaf is better than do bread

22] Creditors have better memories than debtors

23] With patience and time, the mulberry leaf becomes a silk gown

24] A wounded reputation is seldom cured

25] Youth will have its course.

26] Suffering does not manifest itself

27] Failure teaches success

28] If fortune turns against you, even jelly breaks your tooth

29] No sweet without sweat

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

31] Take the tone of the company you are in

32] Never grieve for what you cannot help

33] It is easy to get a thousand prescriptions but hard to find a cure.

34] Truth is mighty and will prevail

35] Lovers are madmen

36] See which way the cat jumps

37] Trust is the mother of deceit

38] A burnt child dreads the fire

39] By falling we learn to go safely

40] What everybody says must be true

41] Death devours lambs as well as sheep

42] Work won’t kill but worry will.

43] The peacock has fair features, but foul feet.

44] The absent saint gets no candle

45] The hand that rocks the cradle rules the world

46] The receiver is as bad as the thief

47] The absent party is always to blame.

48] Envy eats nothing but it own heart

49] Look before you leap

50] Solitude is the best nurse of wisdom

51] Do as you would be done by

52] One can’t go to bed when a visit or stays late

53] What must be must be

54] It is a good tongue that says no ill, and a better heart that thinks none

55] Custom takes the taste from the most savoury dishes

56] Every dog has his day

57] Haste makes waste

58] Hungry bellies have no ears

59] Make hay while the sun shines

60] Great minds think alike

61] Hope is but the dream of those that wake

62] A good servant must have good wages

63] Cheap is dear in the long run.

64] You never know your luck

65] Misfortune arrives on horseback but departs on foot

66] Praise is a spur to the good, a thorn to the evil

67] How who makes no mistakes, makes nothing.

68] Tell the truth and shame the devil

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

70] One pair of heels is often worth two pairs of hands

71] Every one thinks his own cross is heaviest

72] In all the weeding cake, hope is the sweetest plum.

73] A fool always rushes to the fore.

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

75] There are spots even in the sun

76] Among the blind, the one-eyed man is king

77] Poor folk fare the best

78] Men are blind in their own cause

79] Good words are worth much and cost little

80] Time and tide wait for no man

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

82] If God does not give us what we want, He gives us what we need

83] A man without a wife is but half a man

84] There is plenty of sound in an empty barrel

85] God is a sure paymaster

86] Desert and reward seldom keep company

87] You may lead (or take) a horse to water, but you cannot make him drink

88] Beauty is but skin-deep

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

90] Better belly burst than good meat lost

91] An egg thief will become a camel thief

92] Fortune knocks once at every man’s door

93] Great hopes make great men

94] Let the buyer beware

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

96] Call a spade a spade

97] The ass that brays most eats

98] Never spend your money before you have it

99] Where the dam leaps over, the kid follows

100] Spend and be free, but make no waste