Famous Proverbs

1] There is no smoke without fire

2] The mill cannot grind with water that is past

3] Don’t cry stinking fish

4] Ill – gotten goods never prosper

5] Calamity is the touchstone of a brave mind

6] Our own opinion is never wrong

7] He that sows virtue reaps fame

8] It is all in the day’s work

9] Revenge is sweet

10] It is easy to find a stick to beat a dog

11] Money makes the man

12] We soon believe what we desire

13] Better die a beggar than live a beggar

14] It is a hard-fought field where no man escapes unkilled

15] Brave actions never want a trumpet.

16] Don’t cry before you are hurt

17] Mix work with pleasure and you will never go mad.

18] The first step is the hardest

19] Intimacy lessens fame

20] He that is afraid of the devil does not grow rich

21] The crow laughs at the pig for being black

22] Valour delights in the test

23] Children and fools have merry lives

24] Like mother, like daughter

25] A thief passes for a gentle man when stealing has made him rich

26] New lords, new laws

27] He laughs ill that laughs himself to death

28] You cannot put an old head on young shoulders.

29] Old cattle breed not

30] Industry is fortune’s right hand, and frugality her left

31] Nature is the true law

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

33] Exchange is no robbery

34] Servants will not be diligent, where the master’s negligent

35] A horse that will not carry a saddle must have no oats.

36] A good lawyer must be a great liar

37] God gives the grain, but we must make the furrow

38] Pleasure is due only when all duty’s done.

39] Two wrongs do not make a right

40] Every cock crows on his own dunghill

41] Absence makes the heart grow fonder

42] Every Jack must have his Jill

43] Advise none to marry or to go to war

44] Praises fill not the belly

45] It is a blind goose that comes to the fox’s sermon

46] His own ingenuity pricks him.

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

48] Only the wearer knows where the shoe pinches

49] Content is the philosopher’s stone that turns all it touches in to gold

50] It is easy to do what one’s own self wills

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

52] Deliver your words not by number but by weight

53] Praise is always pleasant

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

55] It is easier to pour away water than to gather it.

56] Make the best of a bad job

57] Every dog has his day

58] The cat shuts its eyes while it steals cream

59] It is better to travel hopefully than to arrive

60] Joy and sorrow are next door neighbours.

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

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

63] Ask a silly question and you’ll get a silly answer.

64] Let every pedlar carry his own burden

65] Best is cheapest

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

67] Burn not your house to fright the mouse away

68] Away goes the devil when he finds the door shut against him

69] He who sits in the well to observe the sky does not see very much.

70] Everyone is a kin to the rich man

71] If you pay not a servant his wages, he will pay himself

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

73] No man so good but another may be as good as he

74] Far from eye, far from heart

75] Every family has a skeleton in the cupboard

76] Give a dog a bad name and hang him

77] Hungry bellies have no ears

78] The fairest silk is soonest stained

79] A thing of beauty is a joy forever

80] Homo is a common name to all men.

81] An ass must be tied where the master will have him

82] Penny wise, pound foolish

83] Learning is like sailing against the tide - if you don’t move forward, you go backward

84] What everybody says must be true

85] Seldom seen, soon forgotten

86] If you can’t bite, never show your teeth.

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

88] A bad shearer never had a good sickle

89] Laughter makes good blood

90] If the father is spotted, the son will be speckled

91] Burn not your house to rid it of the mouse.

92] A thief passes for a gentle man when stealing has made him rich

93] Don’t ask a blind man which is the right way

94] The mob has many heads but no brains

95] Don’t cross the bridge before you get to it

96] Discretion of speech is more than eloquence.

97] A monk can’t shave his own head

98] In a gambling house, there are no fathers and sons.

99] Children speak only words they have heard.

100] Give a loan and buy quarrel