Famous Proverbs

1] Vice is often clothed in virtue’s habit

2] Tender-handed stroke a nettle, and it stings you for your pain: grasp it like a man of mettle, and it soft as silk remains

3] All cats are grey in the dark

4] A long tongue is a sign of a short hand

5] Every man has his price

6] He knows the water best who has waded through it

7] The hole calls the thief

8] When the horse has reached the brink of the precipice, it is too late to pull the reins.

9] Save a thief from the gallows and he’ll cut your throat

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

11] He that has plenty of goods will have more

12] No feast lasts forever.

13] There is a great difference between words and deeds

14] You cannot serve God and Mammon

15] The last straw breaks the camel’s back

16] Silence never makes mistakes

17] Enough is as good as a feast

18] It is lawful to learn even from an enemy

19] Give a servant a rod, and he’ll beat his master

20] The little cannot be great unless he devours many

21] One swallow does not make a summer

22] It’s an ill wind that blows nobody any good

23] Goodness is better than beauty

24] Only a fool will make the doctor his heir

25] Beauty is in the eye of the beholder

26] Every flow must have its ebb

27] No naked man is sought after to be rifled

28] When misfortune sleeps, let no one wake her

29] Better a bare foot than none

30] He daren’t say ‘boo’ to a goose

31] Fortune is blind

32] Ambition makes people diligent

33] The hand that rocks the cradle rules the world

34] Unless the vessel is clean, what you pour in to it turns sour.

35] Cheats never prosper

36] A word spoken is past recalling

37] Good clothes open all doors

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

39] God (or Providence) is always on the side of big battalions

40] Much law but little justice

41] In your anxiety to avoid losing a drop, you spill the whole lot

42] Fools live poor to die rich

43] Knowledge humbles the great man, astonishes the common man and puffeth up the little man

44] Where the tongue slips, it speaks the truth

45] He who does no good, does evil enough

46] Every dog has his (its) day

47] Custom makes all things easy

48] At the game’s end we shall see who gains

49] Anger restrained is wisdom gained

50] Man may have a thousand plans, but god’s plan is best

51] Weak things united become strong

52] After a storm comes a calm

53] Virtue is praised by all, but practiced by few

54] Keep some till further more come

55] Step by step the ladder is ascended

56] They that dance must pay the fiddler

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

58] Of thy sorrow be not too sad, of thy joy be not too glad

59] Too much curiosity lost paradise

60] To the hungry soul, every bitter thing is sweet. To a thirsty man any drink is sweet.

61] Patience is a flower that grows not in everyone’s garden

62] They are rich who have true friends

63] What’s the good of thatching someone else’s roof?

64] He who comes first, grinds first.

65] No man is a hero to his valet

66] A sleepy master makes his servant a lout

67] Every ass thinks himself worthy to stand with the kings horses.

68] Without wisdom, wealth is worthless

69] Good words are worth much and cost little

70] Love sees no fault

71] The good is often the enemy of the best

72] Shrimps get broken backs when whales fight

73] It is better to travel hopefully than to arrive

74] He gives twice who gives quickly

75] Let another’s shipwreck be you sea-mark.

76] He that has an ill name is half hanged

77] Even Homer sometimes nods

78] God is a sure paymaster

79] Look at the bright side

80] Asking costs little

81] Files are easier caught with honey than with vinegar

82] He that comes of a hen, must scrape

83] Trust is dead-ill payment killed it.

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

85] Ready money is a ready remedy

86] It is better to have done something great than to have never been successful

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

88] Don’t take a bull in to a china shop.

89] He that has a tongue in his head may find his way anywhere

90] One father is more than a hundred school masters

91] A whip for a fool, and a rod for a school, is always in good seasons

92] Three helping one another, bear the burthen of six

93] Laws were made to be broke

94] Good counsel has no price. Nothing is given so freely as advice.

95] He that ventures not fails not.

96] Distance lends enchantment to the view

97] When wine sinks, words swim

98] He is a gentleman that has gentle conditions

99] Hope deferred makes the heart sick

100] When the dog catches mice, it is meddling in the cat’s business.