Famous Proverbs

1] Even a clever wife cannot prepare a meal when there is no food

2] Hazard not your wealth on a poor man’s advice

3] It is a poor (or sad) heart that never rejoices

4] Double charge will rive a cannon

5] Never was a cat or dog drowned, that could but see the shore

6] Do not triumph before the victory

7] God heals, and the physician takes the fee

8] Without knowing the force of words, it is impossible to know the man

9] All things for not all persons

10] Never try to prove what nobody doubts

11] Adam’s ale is the best brew

12] When the word is out it belongs to another

13] Don’t take your harp to the party

14] Birds once snared fear all bushes

15] Anger begins with folly and ends with repentance.

16] A sleepy master makes his servant a lout

17] There is no place like home

18] Look after your money and don’t make your neighbour a thief

19] The peony, though large, is useless; the date blossom, though small, yields fruit

20] His own ingenuity pricks him.

21] He is wise who looks ahead

22] Laziness travels so slowly that poverty soon overtakes him

23] Few words are best

24] When we sing, everybody hears us; when sigh, nobody hears us

25] He that has lost his credit, is dead to the world

26] A mill cannot grind with water that is past

27] A new broom sweeps clean, but the old brush knows all the corners

28] Necessity is a powerful weapon

29] A small pepper is hotter than a large one

30] Ill weeds grow apace (or fast)

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

32] Exchange is no robbery

33] So many countries, so many customs

34] The day obliterates the promise of the might

35] Truth is god’s daughter

36] Time has wings

37] A black hen lays a white egg

38] Let like mate with like

39] An enemy may chance to give good counsel

40] Don’t ride the high horse

41] No pain, no cure

42] Cloudy mornings turn to clear afternoons

43] Where there is no trust there is no love

44] When one door shuts, another opens

45] A good dog deserves a good bone

46] What the fool does in the end, the wise man does at the beginning

47] It is easier to raise the devil than to lay him

48] It is easy to bear the misfortunes of others

49] He who makes no mistakes makes nothing

50] A good anvil does not fear the hammer

51] The sun shines upon all alike.

52] Have but few friends, though many acquaintances

53] Truth is mighty and will prevail

54] A hungry man smells meat afar off

55] An ill marriage is a spring of ill fortune

56] There are more ways to kill a dog than hanging it.

57] Patience under old injuries invites new ones

58] All heiresses are beautiful.

59] Work expands so as to fill the time available

60] Lovers are madmen

61] What is worth doing is worth doing well

62] God makes the back for the burden

63] Words and feathers the wind carries away

64] Make yourself all honey and the flies will devour you

65] Ambition loses many a man

66] The best things carried to excess are wrong

67] The faulty stands on his guard

68] A constant guest is never welcome

69] By falling we learn to go safely

70] What is deferred is not abandoned

71] Grief pent up will break the heart

72] It is easier to praise poverty than to bear it.

73] Out of the frying-pan into the fire

74] If there is no wind, the trees will not move

75] Don’t make yourself a mouse, or the cat will eat you

76] A friend is easier lost than found

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

78] What can you expect from a hog but a grunt?

79] The best throw of the dice is to throw them away

80] Conscience is a thousand witnesses

81] The loftiest towers rise from the ground

82] An Englishman’s home is his castle

83] You can be head a man but you can’t shut his mouth

84] First impressions are most lasting

85] Every beginning is hard

86] Slow and steady wins the race

87] A gift in hand is better than two promises.

88] Better do a kindness near home than go to a temple far away to burn incense.

89] Rats know the ways of rats

90] He who has seen little marvels much

91] Patient waiters are no losers

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

93] Send a donkey to Paris, he’ll return no wiser than he went

94] First things first

95] Who receives a gift, sells his liberty

96] No naked man is sought after to be rifled

97] Strike while the iron is hot

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

99] He that is long a-giving knows not how to give

100] He that would the daughter win, must with the mother first begin