Famous Proverbs

1] One sword keeps another in the sheath

2] Custom reconciles us to everything

3] He that would know what shall be, must consider what has been

4] Fling dirt enough, and some will stick

5] The physician who praises himself has no good medicine

6] Even a clever wife cannot prepare a meal when there is no food

7] He who demands does not command

8] Might overcome right.

9] Covetousness is the root of all evil

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

11] Sooner will men hold fore in the mouth than keep a secret

12] Riches along make no men happy

13] He who squeezes in between the onion and the peel, picks up its stink.

14] Follow love and it will flee thee; flee love and it will follow thee

15] The end justifies the means

16] Many kiss the hand they wish to cut off

17] Make the best of a bad bargain

18] Greedy eaters dig their graves with their teeth.

19] When you do not know what to do – wait.

20] You cannot have your cake and eat it

21] Nature does nothing in vain

22] Calamity is the touchstone of a brave mind

23] Know when to spend and when to spare, and you need not be busy, you’ll never be bare

24] Forethought is easy, repentance hard

25] Every one thinks his own sack heaviest

26] Like master, like man

27] A good paymaster never wants workmen

28] He that follows Nature , is never out of his way

29] We always weaken whatever we exaggerate

30] Lavishness is not generosity

31] A guilty conscience feels continual fear

32] Wherever an ass falls, there will he never fall again

33] Beauty is in the face; grace is all over.

34] Nothing is given so freely as advice

35] What is money to a cat?

36] Better sit still than rise and fall

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

38] Do not triumph before the victory

39] Fair is not fair, but that which pleases.

40] Travel makes a wise man better, but a fool worse

41] Hoist your sail when the wind is fair

42] You never miss the water till the well runs dry

43] A good wife is a good prize

44] He that lives wickedly can hardly die honestly

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

46] Where there are reeds, there is water

47] To fright a bird is not the way to catch her

48] When wrath speaks, wisdom veils her face.

49] What children hear at home, soon files abroad

50] Choose neither women nor linen by candlelight.

51] Gossiping and lying go together

52] Oaks may fall when reeds stand the storm

53] If you trust before you try, you may repent before you die

54] Beware of no man more than himself

55] There is no garden without its weeds

56] He should have (or He needs) a long spoon who sups with the devil

57] The buyer needs a hundred eyes, the seller but one

58] He who cannot bear misfortune is truly unfortunate.

59] Even Buddha has a limit to what he can tolerate

60] Common fame is a liar

61] Water far away will not extinguish a fire that is nearby; relatives far from you are not as good as neighbours close to you.

62] Pursuits become habits

63] The most high Good sees and bears; me neighbour knows, nothing, and yet is always finding fault.

64] Talk much end err much

65] The morning hour has gold in its mouth

66] Men strain at gnats and swallow camels

67] Hope deferred makes the heart sick

68] He that praises himself, spatters himself

69] Never do things by halves

70] If he ball does not stick to the wall, it will at least leave a mark

71] Better late than never, but better never late

72] Adam’s ale is the best brew

73] What we spent, we had; what we gave, we have: what we left, we lost

74] Good luck beats early rising

75] Marriage is a lottery

76] The hero appears only when the tiger is dead

77] A man’s best fortune, or his worst, is a wife

78] You cannot make bricks without straw

79] An empty purse fills the face with wrinkles

80] Cease to hope and you will cease to fear.

81] Work expands so as to fill the time available

82] Dead dogs bark not

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

84] Absence sharpens love, presence strengthens it

85] He is an ill husband who is not missed

86] Dying is as natural as living

87] Do unto others as they should do unto you

88] Let not the sun do down on your wrath

89] God sends cold after Clothes

90] Money breeds (or makes, or begets) money

91] There is no time like the present

92] God comes with leaden feet, but strikes with iron hands

93] Dead men don’t bite

94] Brevity is the soul of wit

95] The absent party is always to blame.

96] The great fish eat up the small

97] Saving one man’s life is better than building a seven- storied temple.

98] An ill marriage is a spring of ill fortune

99] The devil lurks behind the cross

100] The first blow is half the battle