Famous Proverbs

1] From small beginnings come great things

2] Use the means, and God will give the blessings

3] The knowledge of a learned man is limited if he stays at home all the time

4] You cannot serve God and Mammon

5] No one is satisfied with his fortune, nor dissatisfied with his intellect

6] An ill tongue may do much

7] Never buy a pig in a poke

8] There’s small choice in rotten apples.

9] Mere wishes are silly fishes

10] The more a man dreams, the less he believes

11] It takes all sorts to make a world

12] Enquire not what boils in another’s pot. ¶ Listeners seldom hear good of themselves

13] What the king wills, that the law wills

14] Give and take is fair play

15] Rich folk have many friends

16] He who seizes the right moment is the right man

17] He who begins many things, finishes but few

18] Absence sharpens love, presence strengthens it

19] Do it now

20] He that loses anything and gets wisdom by it is a gainer by the loss

21] Good broth may be made in an old pot

22] Experience is the mother of wisdom

23] The envious grow thin at others’ prosperity

24] He who has seen little marvels much

25] Wise men propose, and fools determine

26] Tell a lie and stick to it.

27] There is no time like the present

28] A man apt to promise, is apt to forget

29] Idle folks lack no excuses

30] Nothing comes from nothing

31] What we spent, we had; what we gave, we have: what we left, we lost

32] Many irons in the fire, some must cool

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

34] Ready money is a ready remedy

35] Good fame is better than a good face

36] Of a new prince, new bondage

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

38] A fool at forty is a fool indeed

39] Care killed the cat

40] Sooner begun, sooner done

41] We live by laws, not by examples

42] Much meat, much malady

43] There is safety in numbers

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

45] He that brings good news, knocks hard

46] All are not thieves that dogs bark at

47] Beauty opens locked doors

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

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

50] It is too late to look up after you have collided

51] Tie a chicken with an elephant rope, and it will slip off; tie an elephant with a chicken-tether, and it will break away.

52] It takes two to make a quarrel

53] Life means strife

54] You never know your luck

55] The weakest goes to the wall

56] Judge not the tree by its bark

57] Every medal has two sides

58] There is many a fair thing full false

59] The king can make a knight, but not a gentleman

60] At the end of the game, the king and pawn go in to the same bag.

61] A good payer is master of another’s purse

62] Marriage makes or mars a man

63] Custom takes the taste from the most savoury dishes

64] Success has many friends

65] Mount Fuji itself is not So beautiful to one who is cold and hungry

66] You cannot teach an old dog new tricks

67] An old ox will find a shelter for himself

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

69] Mettle is dangerous in a blind horse

70] Familiarity breeds contempt

71] If you would make an enemy, lend a man money and ask it of him again

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

73] No like is the same.

74] A tree often transplanted, bears not much fruit

75] If you wish to die young, make your physician your heir

76] Hew not too high lest the chips fall in thine eye

77] Half a loaf is better than do bread

78] Take away fuel, take away flame

79] A sluggard takes a hundred steps because he would not take one in due time.

80] The bull must be taken by the horns

81] Creditors have better memories than debtors

82] Four eyes see more than two

83] The rotten apple injures its neighbours.

84] Ill news comes often on the back of worse

85] Comfort is not known if poverty does not come before it

86] In a gambling house, there are no fathers and sons.

87] You cannot make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear

88] Cloudy mornings turn to clear afternoons

89] If you gently touch a nettle, it’ll sting you for your pains; grasp it like a man of mettle, and it soft as silk remains.

90] I may not have tasted their flesh but I’ve seen enough to know how pigs walk

91] The best things carried to excess are wrong

92] No cross, no crown

93] Prosperity makes friends, adversity tries them

94] He who cannot bear misfortune is truly unfortunate.

95] Those near the temple deride the gods

96] The effect speaks, the tongue need not

97] Courtesy is the inseparable companion of virtue

98] No man can serve two masters

99] Beauty is in the eye of the beholder

100] The devil looks after his own