Famous Proverbs

1] If you sing before breakfast, you’ll cry before night

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

3] Blood is thicker than water

4] Full of courtesy, full of craft

5] He that is fallen cannot help him that is down

6] When things are at the worst, they begin to mend

7] Eat an apple going to bed, make the doctor beg his bread.

8] Nothing is impossible to a willing heart

9] No feast lasts forever.

10] From word to deed is a great space

11] A foolish man knows not the art of forgiveness

12] Conscience does make cowards of us all

13] The grapes are sour’, as the fox said when he could not reach them

14] A man of words and not of deeds is like a garden full of weeds

15] Nature is the true law

16] Bare walls make giddy housewives

17] Use makes mastery

18] Gnaw the bone which is fallen to thy lot

19] Honesty is the best policy

20] Dumb dogs are dangerous

21] You cannot have it both ways

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

23] Men are blind in their own cause

24] Cloudy mornings turn to clear afternoons

25] He who makes no mistakes makes nothing

26] Once bitten, twice shy.

27] As you sow, so shall you reap

28] A sluggard takes a hundred steps because he would not take one in due time.

29] It is easy to bear the misfortunes of others

30] As is the mould, so will the cake be.

31] The grace of God enough

32] Live and Learn

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

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

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

36] Finger were made before forks, and hands before knives

37] If you walk in the sun, you will know the blessedness of being in the shade

38] The least boy always carries the greatest fiddle

39] Cast not the first stone.

40] There is no smoke without fire

41] The higher you climb, the harder you fall

42] Money has no smell

43] Like master, like man

44] Better cut the shoe than pinch the foot

45] Travel with open eyes and you will become a scholar

46] Beggars must not (can’t) be choosers

47] Marriage halves our griefs, doubles our joys and quadruples our expenses

48] We always weaken whatever we exaggerate

49] Quickly come, quickly go

50] Dirty water does not wash clean.

51] Do not kick against the pricks

52] You cannot get ivory from a dog’s mouth

53] Tell the truth and shame the devil

54] A liar is not believed when he speaks the truth

55] A thousand cranes in the air are not worth one sparrow in the fist.

56] He who gives to the unworthy loses doubly

57] A good word stills great anger

58] The eye is bigger than the belly

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

60] Our worst misfortunes are those which never befall us

61] He that comes first to the hill, may sit where he will.

62] Between two stools you fall to the ground

63] Venture a small fish to catch a big one

64] Love your neighbour, yet pull not down your hedge

65] One needs a full stomach to keep the precepts

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

67] Good advice is often annoying, bad advice never.

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

69] God comes with leaden feet, but strikes with iron hands

70] It is a sorry flock where the ewe bears the bell

71] One fool praises another

72] Nothing ventured, nothing gained

73] The unexpected always happens.

74] If a thing is worth doing, it is worth doing well

75] Necessity is a powerful weapon

76] It is more pain to do nothing than something

77] Everything would fain live

78] Comparisons make enemies of our friends.

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

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

81] The faulty stands on his guard

82] Fall not into the fire when you try to avoid smoke

83] There’s a time and place for everything

84] The devil finds work for idle hands to do

85] Learn to walk before you run

86] A fool and his money are soon parted

87] History repeats itself

88] The money you refuse will never do you good

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

90] The tyranny of a multitude is a multiplied tyranny

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

92] If you would know the value of a ducat, try to borrow one

93] Desperate diseases need (or must have) desperate cures

94] Have two strings to your bow

95] The devil finds work for idle hands to do

96] Neither praise nor dispraise thyself; thy actions serve the turn

97] He who touches pitch will be defiled

98] Many kiss the hand they wish to cut off

99] Ill – gotten goods never prosper

100] Laws were made to be broke