Famous Proverbs

1] Every tub must stand on its own bottom

2] Long roads test the horse; long dealings test the friend

3] A good heart cannot lie.

4] The eye sees only what it has the power of seeing

5] Wise men learn by other men’s harm, fools, by their own

6] Men do more things through habit than reason

7] Too much cunning undoes

8] First catch your hare

9] Hasty climbers have sudden falls

10] Big words seldom go with good deeds

11] Love knows no limit

12] Rust wastes more than use

13] Unpaid debts are unforgiven sins

14] Three helping one another, bear the burthen of six

15] Friends agree best at a distance

16] Comparisons are odious

17] A prophet is without honour in his own country

18] Confession of our fault is the next thing to innocence

19] Money can influence even the spirits

20] Repentance comes too late

21] Little pitchers have big (or long) ears

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

23] That which proves too much proves nothing

24] Though the fox runs, the chicken has wings

25] Love your friend with his fault

26] A great calligrapher isn’t choosy about his brushes.

27] His own ingenuity pricks him.

28] Pitchers have ears

29] The value of money is having it.

30] All good things must come to an end

31] United we stand, divided we fall

32] Better sit still than rise and fall

33] When it pleases not God, the saint can do little

34] A friend is easier lost than found

35] Grasp all, lose all

36] The loftiest towers rise from the ground

37] Sweet are the uses of adversity

38] Hope deferred makes the heart sick

39] Those that make the best use of their time, have none to spare

40] Blue are the far away hills

41] Great barkers are no biters

42] Many a little makes a mickle

43] He is not fit to command others, that cannot command himself

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

45] Covetousness brings nothing home

46] Though it rains gold and silver there, it’s a foreign land; though it rains daggers and spears here, it’s our own country

47] Anger without power is folly

48] It is easy to move rivers and mountains, but difficult to change a person’s basic nature

49] Patch by patch is good housewifery, but patch upon patch is plain beggary

50] We always weaken whatever we exaggerate

51] All heiresses are beautiful.

52] Good advice (or counsel) is beyond price

53] God defend me from my friends; from enemies, I can defend myself.

54] Asking costs little

55] The best of men are but men at best.

56] Habits are at first cobwebs, at last cables

57] He is lifeless that is faultless

58] He that does most at once, does least

59] Even reckoning makes long friends

60] A short cut is often a wrong cut

61] Without knowing the force of words, it is impossible to know the man

62] Absence makes the heart grow fonder

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

64] Ill comes often on the back worse

65] When you are an anvil, hold still; when you are an anvil, hold still; when you are a hammer, strike your fill.

66] The fairest flowers soonest fade

67] The mouse that has but one hole is quickly taken

68] He who says what he likes shall hear what he does not like

69] In a church, in an inn, and in a coffin, all men are equal

70] Every oak has been an acorn

71] Hope is grief’s best music

72] What costs little is little esteemed

73] Ill – gotten goods never prosper

74] Easter so longed for is gone in a day

75] Jack would be a gentleman if he could speak French

76] When a fool is sent to market, the storekeepers rejoice

77] Bad excuses are worse than none.

78] A barber learns to shave by shaving fools

79] Where there is no trust there is no love

80] Don’t teach your grandmother how to suck eggs

81] A monk can’t shave his own head

82] Forewarned is forearmed

83] All things that great men do are well done

84] He that boasts of his own knowledge proclaims his ignorance

85] Since god has not bent the top of the palm tree, he has given a long neck to the giraffe

86] Jack would be a gentleman if he had money

87] Don’t swap horses while crossing a stream

88] The earthen pot must keep clear of the brass kettle

89] He that hath a wife and children hath given hostages to fortune

90] Why play the harp to a buffalo?

91] A man of courage never wants weapons

92] Courtesy on one side never lasts long

93] A bad shearer never had a good sickle

94] If you would wed fitly, wed in your station

95] The value of money is having it.

96] Like question, like answer.

97] He that blows best, bears away the horn

98] He who leaps high must take a long run

99] Burn not your house to fright the mouse away

100] A cat has nine lives