Famous Proverbs

1] The result justifies the deed

2] Kind hearts are soonest wronged

3] Choose your neighbour before your house and your companion before the road.

4] The world is full of fools

5] What’s the good of thatching someone else’s roof?

6] Either mend or end

7] It is ill striving against the stream

8] Necessity breaks iron

9] If today will not, tomorrow may

10] Fingers were made before forks

11] Bread is the staff of life.

12] Don’t wear out (or outstay) your welcome

13] He that is in poverty is still in suspicion

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

15] Prove your friend ere you have need

16] Better be first in a village than second at Rome

17] The tongue is not steel, yet it cuts

18] All meat No dish pleases all palates alike pleases not all mouths

19] A loveless life is a living death

20] The courteous one learns his courtesy from the discourteous.

21] Pat any man and dust will fly

22] Of evil manners, spring good laws

23] He that hath a full purse never wanted (or lacked) a friend

24] The mills of God grind slowly but they grind exceedingly small

25] A chain is no stronger than its weakest link

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

27] A good example is the best sermon

28] He that never ate flesh, thinks a pudding is a dainty

29] A man of knowledge increaseth strength

30] Delays are not denials

31] Covetousness brings nothing home

32] Money makes the man

33] A fool may give a wise counsel. A fool’s bolt may sometimes hit the mark.

34] Don’t go near the water until you learn how to swim

35] None but the brave deserves the fair

36] Union is strength.

37] Don’t put all your eggs in one basket

38] Better learn late than never

39] Two things do prolong they life: a quiet heart and a loving wife

40] Love sees no fault

41] Give and spend, and God will send

42] The disinterested observer may perceive what is missed by those who are directly involved

43] The worse luck now, the better another time

44] If each would sweep before his own door, we should have a clean city

45] Petty laws breed great crimes

46] Far fowls have fair feather

47] The money you refuse will never do you good

48] He who aims at the moon may hit the top of a tree; he who aims at the top of a tree is unlikely to get off the ground

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

50] There is nothing new under the sun

51] In the land of hope there is never any winter

52] By falling we learn to go safely

53] Strings high stretched either soon crack or quickly grow out of tune.

54] The coward threatens only when he is safe

55] There is many a good tune played on an old fiddle

56] Better an apple given than eaten

57] Even though one’s aunt sells the cakes, one will not buy unless they are cheap.

58] No tie can oblige the perfidious

59] An egg thief will become a camel thief

60] He who has a mind to beat his dog will easily find a stick.

61] Take the will for the deed

62] Nothing is so certain as death

63] You may know by a handful the whole sack

64] Where there is peace, God is

65] If you always say ‘No’, you’ll never get married

66] Love turns pimples

67] The dog that fetches, will carry.

68] One good deed makes up for a thousand bad ones.

69] You know what you can do till you try.

70] A bow long bent at last waxes weak

71] Never grieve for what you cannot help

72] Easier said than done

73] Money refused loses its brightness

74] Though the left hand conquers the right, no advantage is gained

75] Even dust, when piled up, may form a hill

76] Drops that gather one by one finally become a sea

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

78] The submitting to one wrong brings on another

79] What you lose on the swings, you gain on the roundabouts

80] Giving much to the poor, doth enrich a man’s store.

81] Health and wealth create beauty

82] Cleanliness is next to godliness

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

84] Talk of an angel and you’ll hear the fluttering of his wings

85] Marriage is a lottery

86] A pot that belongs to many is ill stirred and worse boiled

87] Every man must carry his own cross

88] Love is never without jealousy

89] None so busy as those who do nothing.

90] Know thyself

91] Mustard is a good sauce, but mirth is better

92] All truths are not to be told

93] What’s learnt in the cradle lasts till the tomb

94] He that will steal an egg, will steal an ox

95] The grace of God enough

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

97] A straw will show which way the wind blows.

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

99] Dreams are lies

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