Famous Proverbs

1] Eat to live and not live to eat.

2] Dogs bite twice those who wear ragged clothes.

3] The bull must be taken by the horns

4] Easy come, easy go

5] Solitude is the best nurse of wisdom

6] The road to hell is paved with good action

7] He knows which side his bread is buttered

8] Fortune is blind

9] Practice what you preach

10] Don’t teach your grandmother to suck eggs.

11] He wants both the flour and the cake that it makes

12] Keep your eyes open: a sale is a sale

13] Don’t play with edged tools

14] Don’t ask a blind man which is the right way

15] First think, and then speak

16] It is a foolish bird that soils (or defiles ) its own nest

17] A swine over-fat, is the cause of his own bane

18] Success has many friends

19] It’s either not to begin or not to stop once you’ve begun

20] Poor men’s words have little weight

21] Venture a small fish to catch a great one.

22] Example, is better than precept

23] Nothing so bad in which there is not something of good

24] An ounce of practice is worth a pound of theory

25] If you always say ‘No’, you’ll never get married

26] Patch by patch is good housewifery, but patch upon patch is plain beggary

27] Where there’s muck, there’s money

28] The dog that is idle barks at his fleas, but he that is hunting feels them not.

29] The least boy always carries the greatest fiddle

30] A true man and a thief think not the same

31] From hearing, comes wisdom; from speaking, repentance

32] When the butcher has already killed your pig, it is useless to discuss with him the price

33] Once a use and ever a custom

34] Bad excuses are worse than none.

35] Virtue and happiness are mother and daughter

36] Why play the harp to a buffalo?

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

38] Distance lends enchantment to the view

39] When we have gold, we are in fear; when we have none we are in danger

40] He that dare not venture must not complain of ill luck

41] Pat any man and dust will fly

42] He gives twice who gives quickly

43] In vain they rise early that used to rise late

44] When the weather is cold, there is not such thing as dirty clothing

45] Everyone leaps over the dyke where it is lowest

46] First come, first served

47] The squeaking wheel gets the grease

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

49] Make hay while the sun shines

50] He who handles a nettle tenderly is soonest stung

51] A fault confessed is half redressed

52] Even Homer sometimes nods

53] You cannot sell the cow and sup (or drink) the milk

54] There is no redemption from hell

55] He who depends on another, dines ill and sups worse

56] Out of debt, out of danger

57] He that serves well need not be afraid to ask his wages

58] When you do not know what to do – wait.

59] Bad excuses are worse than none.

60] He that has a full purse never wanted a friend

61] Nature does nothing in vain

62] He who holds the ladder is as bad as the thief

63] Precept begins, examples accomplish

64] Expectation is better than realisation

65] A short cut is often a wrong cut

66] Patience under old injuries invites new ones

67] If you put noting into your purse, you can take nothing out

68] Sooner begun, sooner done

69] Honey is sweet, but the bee stings

70] A bad shearer never had a good sickle

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

72] How ever much you learn, you won’t know how to raise the dead

73] Health is great riches

74] Open confession is good for the soul

75] If the devil finds a man idle, he’ll set him to work

76] A strong town is not won in an hour

77] Come with the wind, got with the water

78] Shame arises more from fear of men than of God

79] Accidents will happen

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

81] He that is down need fear no fall

82] Every beginning is hard

83] Many eyes upon the king

84] Hope often deludes the foolish man

85] The eye of the master will do more work than both his hands

86] Remove an old tree and it will wither to death

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

88] Ask, and it shall be given to you.

89] Waste not, want not

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

91] There is no tree but bears some fruit

92] Her that is down need fear no fall

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

94] Don’t bite the hand that feeds you

95] We shall beat our swords into ploughshares

96] Pinch the right thigh and the left will feel the pain too.

97] The deed comes back upon the doer.

98] All meat pleases not all mouths

99] All heiresses are beautiful.

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