Famous Proverbs

1] A crust is better than no bread.

2] What children hear at home, soon files abroad

3] A fool may sometimes speak to the purpose

4] There is more than one way to skin a cat.

5] Bad laws are the worst sort of tyranny

6] A man of gladness seldom falls into madness

7] Do leaves sprout on rootless trees?

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

9] Golden lads and girls all must, as chimney-sweepers, come to dust

10] What is not even scabies, he makes out to be an ulcer

11] Children should be seen and not heard

12] No tie can oblige the perfidious

13] We soon believe what we desire

14] All’s grist that comes to the mill.

15] Vows made in storms are forgotten in calm

16] Good hand, good hire

17] If wishes were butter cakes, beggars might bite

18] Bees that have honey in their mouths have stings in their tails.

19] You cannot have your cake and eat it

20] Young colts will canter.

21] An empty purse fills the face with wrinkles

22] An open door may tempt a saint

23] Men are not angles

24] Steer not after every mariner’s direction

25] Be not too bold with your biggers or betters

26] Bare walls make giddy housewives

27] Armies are maintained for years to be used on a single day.

28] In my own house, I am king

29] There is no redemption from hell

30] Not good is it to harp on the on the frayed string

31] Wait’ is a hard word to the hungry.

32] A man with no hands is given a ring.

33] What is word but wind?

34] A piece of churchyard fits every body

35] There are more ways of killing a cat than choking it with cream.

36] Never catch a falling knife or a falling friend

37] He who carries the burden knows the weight of it.

38] Pursuits become habits

39] Opportunity seldom knocks twice

40] Without diligence, no prize

41] It is not easy to steal when the landlord is a thief

42] With wealth, you are as grand as a dragon; without wealth you are as insignificant as a worm.

43] He that has no shame has no conscience

44] Like will to like

45] Do not kick against the pricks

46] Heaven takes care of children, sailor and drunken men

47] Either mend or end

48] The submitting to one wrong brings on another

49] Too much curiosity lost paradise

50] Don’t bargain for fish which are still in the water

51] The anvil lasts longer than the hammer

52] He who last, laughs longest.

53] Hunger drives the wolf out of the wood

54] He that would have the fruit, must climb the tree.

55] Wisdom is better than strength

56] An ill payer (or paymaster) never wants an excuse

57] Children and chickens must be always picking

58] The cobbler’s children are always the worst shod

59] Acorns were good till bread was found

60] It is not work that kills but worry

61] The surest way to remain poor is to be an honest man

62] The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak

63] What soberness conceals, drunkenness reveals

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

65] He that is in poverty is still in suspicion

66] Beauty is but skin-deep

67] A wise man cares not for what he cannot have

68] A jack of all traders is master of none

69] Death and life are in the power of the tongue

70] No, thank you’ has lost you many a good butter-cake

71] As you brew, so shall you drink.

72] Let every pedlar carry his own burden

73] Great trees keep down the little ones

74] Men strain at gnats and swallow camels

75] Take things as you find them

76] Two dogs fight for a bone, and a third runs away with it.

77] There are more ways to the wood than one.

78] First impressions are half the battle

79] Needs must when the evil drives

80] It the counsel be good, no matter who gave it.

81] Asking costs little

82] It signifies nothing to play well if you lose.

83] Great barkers are no biters

84] Experience must be bought

85] A beggar pays a benefit with a louse

86] Luck for fools and chance for the ugly

87] Silence is golden

88] It will be the same a hundred years hence

89] A liar can go round the world but cannot come back

90] Man proposes, God disposes

91] An hour in the morning is worth two in the evening

92] Children speak only words they have heard.

93] One may change the place but not the mind.

94] Footprints on the sands of time are not made by sitting down

95] Share and share alike

96] The tongue ever turns to the aching tooth

97] An ounce of patience is worth a pound of brains

98] Life means strife

99] The eye is bigger than the belly

100] The calmest husbands make the stormiest wives