Famous Proverbs

1] Don’t build the sty before the litter comes

2] Keep conscience clear, then never fear

3] A fool is ever dancing on the tip of his tongue

4] Brave actions never want a trumpet.

5] It is profound ignorance that inspires the dogmatic tone

6] Every cloud has a silver lining

7] A wise man will learn something even from the words of a fool

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

9] It is a great victory that comes without blood

10] Absence makes the heart grow fonder

11] He that commits a fault, thinks everyone speaks of it.

12] Sadness and happiness succeed each other.

13] He that will steal a pin will steal a better thing

14] Double charge will rive a cannon

15] Pardon one offence and you encourage many

16] It is better to travel hopefully than to arrive

17] If you don’t make mistakes, you don’t make anything

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

19] Arms bend inwards – not outwards.

20] Don’t judge any man until you have walked two moons in his moccasins.

21] When luck comes, who doesn’t; when luck doesn’t come, who does?

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

23] It takes two to make a quarrel

24] Necessity breaks iron

25] The sun is never the worse for shining on a dunghill

26] Soon gotten, soon spent

27] Speech is silver, silence is golden

28] What’s done is done

29] Every flow must have its ebb

30] Those that make the best use of their time, have none to spare

31] Pleasant hours fly past

32] All’s well that ends well

33] As well be hanged for a sheep as for a lamp

34] You cannot have it both ways

35] Advise none to marry or to go to war

36] A barber learns to shave by shaving fools

37] Better the foot slip than the tongue

38] Lend never that thing you needed most

39] Deliver your words not by number but by weight

40] Many a little makes a mickle

41] Whatsoever was the father of a disease, an ill diet was the mother.

42] If the fingers of one hand quarrel, they cannot pick up food

43] The borrower is servant to the lender

44] He who hesitates is lost

45] More have repented speech than silence

46] If you have bread, don’t look for cake

47] The bee sucks honey out of the bitterest flowers

48] He who lives with cats will get a taste for mice

49] A bad workman always blames his tools

50] It is an ill bargain where no man wins

51] Honesty is ill to thrive by

52] The sign brings customers

53] Hope is but the dream of those that wake

54] Enquire not what boils in another’s pot. ¶ Listeners seldom hear good of themselves

55] Some have been thought brave because they are afraid to run away

56] Blessings brighten as they take their flight

57] The labourer is worthy of his hire

58] Health and gaiety foster beauty.

59] A man may lose more in an hour than he can get in seven

60] What everybody says must be true

61] No naked man is sought after to be rifled

62] Old age doesn’t protect from folly

63] Mirth without measure is madness

64] He that will eat the kernel, must crack the nut

65] The purse of the patient protracts the disease

66] There’s a black sheep in every flock

67] Idleness is the root of all evil

68] Cut your coat according to your cloth

69] A fool says what he knows, and a wise man knows what he says.

70] You must lose a fly to catch a trout

71] The eye that sees all things else sees not itself

72] Morning dreams come true

73] Haste makes waste

74] Advice when most needed is least heeded

75] Deliver your words not by number but by weight

76] It is easier to capture a tiger in the hills than to ask for favours from a man

77] Drive thy business or it will drive thee.

78] A blow with a word strikes deeper than a blow with a sword

79] Ill gotten, ill spent

80] A man without a smiling face must not open a shop

81] Go not to hell for company

82] Love your friend with his fault

83] First impressions are most lasting

84] Fortune knocks once at everyone’s door (or gate)

85] A rich man can do nothing wrong

86] Do unto others as they should do unto you

87] He that follows Nature , is never out of his way

88] An ill tongue may do much

89] It takes a wise man to be a fool

90] He daren’t say ‘boo’ to a goose

91] Steer not after every mariner’s direction

92] Waste not, want not

93] Thieves and rogues have the best luck, if they do but escape hanging

94] Knowledge is power

95] Penny wise, pound foolish

96] Set a thief to catch a thief

97] Charity begins at home.

98] Make not your sauce, before you have caught the fish.

99] A good wife makes a good husband

100] You cannot catch old birds with chaff