Famous Proverbs

1] A good anvil does not fear the hammer

2] It is late to cover the well when the child is drowned.

3] There are two sides to every question

4] However much the arm may swing out, the armpit is where it sticks

5] A bad shearer never had a good sickle

6] The first step is the hardest

7] A bad padlock invites a picklock

8] Let sleeping dogs lie

9] Ambition loses many a man

10] Kill two birds with one stone

11] Nothing so bad as not to be good for something

12] Handsome is as handsome does

13] The crow laughs at the pig for being black

14] Care is no cure

15] Might overcome right.

16] Slow and steady wins the race

17] If you deal with a fox, think of his tricks

18] Every man praises his own wares

19] Prove your friend ere you have need

20] Blood will have blood

21] Muck and money go together

22] A blind man who sees is better than a seeing man who is blind

23] Let a fool hold his tongue and he will pass for a sage

24] Many dishes make many diseases

25] What is money to a cat?

26] It needs more skill than I can tell to play the second fiddle well

27] Covetousness is the root of all evil

28] All our pomp the earth covers

29] A fox should not be of the jury at a goose’s trial

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

31] The leopard cannot change its spots

32] Many kiss the hand they wish to cut off

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

34] 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

35] Well begun is half done.

36] Neither bribe, nor lose thy right

37] No feast lasts forever.

38] When you drink water from the stream, don’t forget that the source of it is the spring

39] Habits are at first cobwebs, at last cables.

40] Rome was not (or cannot be) built in a day

41] Open a book and you profit by what you read

42] A fool at forty is a fool indeed

43] Of evil manners, spring good laws

44] A rose by any other name would smell as sweet

45] A hedge between keeps friendship green

46] In wine there is truth

47] There is many a fair thing full false

48] So many countries, so many customs

49] Drive thy business or it will drive thee.

50] Old age doesn’t protect from folly

51] The hunchback does not see his own hump, but his companion’s

52] You cannot know the wine by the barrel

53] Give yourself a pinch, and you will know how a pinch must hurt others

54] Jack is as good as his master

55] As you sow, so shall you reap

56] The devil’s children have the devil’s luck

57] No misfortune will go on forever

58] The bird is known by his note, the man by his words

59] He mediates revenge who least complains.

60] Good clothes open all doors

61] Every advantage has its disadvantage

62] Sour, sweet, bitter and pungent flavours must all be tasted

63] The poorer one is, the more devils one meets

64] The pen is the tongue of the hand

65] There is no fool like an old fool

66] Art improves Nature

67] It is too late to look up after you have collided

68] A man whose conscience is clear, of a knock at midnight has no fear

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

70] A foolish man knows not the art of forgiveness

71] Marriage is a lottery

72] Can we ever too much of a good thing?

73] Better an egg today than a hen tomorrow.

74] The squeaking wheel gets the grease

75] Ill gotten, ill spent

76] Laws catch flies but let hornets go free

77] No tie can oblige the perfidious

78] The great would have none great, and the little all little

79] Never do things by halves

80] We always weaken whatever we exaggerate

81] All men are mortal

82] Beauty is in the eye of the beholder

83] Slender cannot make a good man bad; when the water recedes, the stone is still there.

84] Practice what you preach

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

86] The pitcher goes so often to me well that it is broken at last

87] The rich knows not who is his friend

88] He that cannot pay in purse must pay in person

89] There is truth in wine

90] Time and tide wait for no man

91] Little by little and bit by bit.

92] Common fame is seldom to blame

93] Nature will have her course

94] An account is an account, and a brother a brother.

95] You cannot know the wine by the barrel

96] A pound of care will not pay an ounce of debt.

97] Every horse thinks its own pack heaviest

98] Thatch your roof before the rain begins

99] Like mistress, like maid

100] Pardon makes offenders