Famous Proverbs

1] He knows which side his bread is buttered

2] Dirty linen should be washed at home

3] A gentleman never remembers unkindness shown towards him

4] There is nothing lost by civility

5] A tree often transplanted, bears not much fruit

6] Seldom seen, soon forgotten

7] Virtue joints man to god

8] The wise forget an insult, as the ungrateful a kindness

9] Prevention is better than cure

10] Pride is the mask of one’s own faults

11] Opportunity makes the thief

12] Forethought is easy, repentance hard

13] Beauty is in the face; grace is all over.

14] Put not the bucket too often in the well

15] It is a foolish sheep that makes the wolf his confessor

16] He that blows best, bears away the horn

17] An ill wound is cured, not an ill name

18] Ill weeds grow apace (or fast)

19] With seven nurses, the child loses its eye

20] When Greek meets Greek, then comes the tug of war

21] Ready money is a ready remedy

22] Standing pools gather fifth

23] He that compiles against his will, is of his own opinion still

24] Who greases his way travels easily

25] Gold goes in at any gate except heaven’s

26] Virtue carries a lean purse

27] Lookers-on see most of the game

28] We must not look for a golden life in an iron age

29] Many drops make a shower

30] Share and share alike

31] Great fortune brings with it great misfortune

32] Experience is a dear school, but fools learn in no other

33] Quickly come, quickly go

34] Love will find a way

35] Through indecision, opportunity is often lost.

36] First catch your hare

37] The resolved mind has no cares

38] Better be the head of a dog than the tail of a lion

39] Spread the table, and contention will cease

40] Error cannot be defended but by error

41] He that boasts of his own knowledge proclaims his ignorance

42] Laziness travels so slowly that poverty soon overtakes him

43] He that asks faintly begs a denial.

44] Needs must when the evil drives

45] Who is more busy than he that has least to do?

46] If you sing before breakfast, you’ll cry before night

47] Wherever an ass falls, there will he never fall again

48] The difficult is done at once; the impossible takes a little longer

49] Use makes mastery

50] Let an ill man lie in the straw and he looks to be thy heir

51] He that boasts of his own knowledge proclaims his ignorance

52] Charity begins at home.

53] Beauty is in the face; grace is all over.

54] When you are an anvil, hold still; when you are an anvil, hold still; when you are a hammer, strike your fill.

55] Bold resolution is the favourite of providence

56] Money gives a bold front: it doesn’t talk – it screams

57] He that lives ill, fear follows him

58] Oh, what a tangled web we weave, when first we practice to deceive!

59] Stolen goods never thrive

60] A house divided against itself cannot stand

61] A jug that has been mended lasts two hundred years

62] A good conscience is a soft pillow

63] Laugh and grow fat

64] Let not the sun do down on your wrath

65] He that would catch fish must venture his bait

66] Laziness travels so slowly that poverty soon overtakes him

67] The time to come is no more ours than the time past

68] Misfortunes never come singly

69] Come with the wind, got with the water

70] All our pomp the earth covers

71] God heals, and the physician takes the fee

72] Every man has the defects of his own virtues (or qualities)

73] He that would have the fruit, must climb the tree.

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

75] Sometimes the best gain is to lose

76] Wherever an ass falls, there will he never fall again

77] Rip not up old sores

78] Anger makes a rich man hated, and a poor man scorned.

79] It is an ill dog that deserves not a crust

80] If you would know the value of a ducat, try to borrow one

81] A rich man’s joke is always funny

82] Divide and rule

83] Crust is better than no bread

84] Love is without reason

85] He that tells his wife news, is but newly wed

86] Bind the sack before it be full

87] Many a little makes a mickle

88] Jesters do oft prove prophets

89] Grief pent up will break the heart

90] No feast lasts forever.

91] Names and natures do often agree

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

93] Saying is one thing, and doing another

94] The faulty stands on his guard

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

96] Never judge from appearances

97] A deaf husband and a blind wife are always a happy couple

98] All things are possible with god

99] The company makes the feast

100] Waste makes wants