Famous Proverbs

1] Repentance is a bitter physic

2] In everything consider the end

3] When Adam delved and Eve span, who was then a gentleman?

4] Divine grace was never slow

5] A merry companion is a wagon on the way

6] Laughter makes good blood

7] When two men look after a horse, it will surely be thin; when two families keep a boat, it will surely leak

8] Do not triumph before the victory

9] Fools rejoice at promises

10] Weapons breed peace

11] Parents are patterns

12] Where there’s muck, there’s money

13] All meat No dish pleases all palates alike pleases not all mouths

14] Set a wolf to keep the sheep

15] The great fish eat up the small

16] Never spend your money before you have it

17] If you agree to carry the calf, they’ll make you carry the cow.

18] A good servant must have good wages

19] Rip not up old sores

20] To teach is to learn twice over

21] Alms never make poor

22] United we stand, divided we fall

23] No matter how much perfume you put on an onion, it will still emit a bad smell.

24] A good name keeps its luster in the dark

25] Never too late to late to repent

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

27] Practice is the science that gives confidence

28] Misfortune arrives on horseback but departs on foot

29] Better a little loss than a long sorrow

30] It is ill striving (or swimming) against the stream (or tide)

31] Before you marry, be sure of a house wherein to tarry

32] He that dwells next door to a cripple, will learn to halt

33] Wisdom is better than strength

34] He who would climb the ladder must begin at the bottom

35] All heiresses are beautiful.

36] Behind the smile, a dagger may be hidden

37] He who is afraid of asking is ashamed of learning

38] Love and business teach eloquence

39] Men are blind in their own cause

40] Of the ten fingers, some are long and some are short.

41] Her that is down need fear no fall

42] You may have too much of a good thing

43] Wise men learn by other men’s harms (or mistakes), fools, by their own

44] The Friar Preached against stealing and had a goose in his sleeve

45] He that serves every body is paid by nobody

46] Excessive politeness is often a cloak for insincerity

47] The tongue is more venomous than a serpent’s sting

48] Abundance, like want, ruins many

49] Keep thy shop and thy shop will keep thee.

50] No hair so small but has his shadow

51] Grasp all, lose all

52] We live laws, not by examples

53] A bow long bent at last waxes weak

54] Virtue is the only true nobility

55] Gifts blind the eyes.

56] All things are difficult before they are easy

57] Whatever man has done, man can do

58] A mouse may help a lion

59] Share and share alike

60] Good broth may be made in an old pot

61] Actions speak louder than words

62] Better be out of the world than out of the fashion.

63] Second thoughts are best

64] Better the devil you know than the devil you don’t

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

66] Saying is one thing, and doing another

67] Two things do prolong they life: a quiet heart and a loving wife

68] Diseases are the price of ill pleasures

69] Anger and haste hinder good counsel

70] No remedy but patience

71] Exchange (or Fair exchange) is no robbery

72] He that has a fellow-ruler, has an over-ruler. ¶ There is no good accord, where every man would be a lord

73] Train the child in the way he should go.

74] Two things do prolong they life: a quiet heart and a loving wife

75] Our neighbour’s ground yields better corn than ours

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

77] When it pleases not God, the saint can do little

78] Soon hot, soon cold

79] Pursuits become habits

80] A burthen of one’s own choice is not felt

81] When in doubt, do nothing

82] The exception proves the rule

83] One must howl with the wolves

84] The best of men are but men at best.

85] What’s done cannot be undone

86] Where there is peace, God is

87] Silence never makes mistakes

88] No man fears what he has seen grow

89] Names are debts

90] Where bad’s the best, bad must be the choice

91] A hungry man smells meat afar off

92] He that hopes not for good, fears not evil.

93] Love turns pimples

94] If today will not, tomorrow may

95] Every lot is to be overcome by endurance

96] He’s his father’s (or mother’s) son

97] Every horse thinks its own pack heaviest

98] He who says what he likes shall hear what he does not like

99] Extremity of right is wrong

100] We shall lie all alike in our graves