Famous Proverbs

1] Cleanliness is next to godliness

2] Nothing is as good as it seems before hand

3] Slow help is no help

4] A man in debt is caught in a net

5] One sheep follows another

6] Give me fire and I’ll give you light

7] Nature surpasses art

8] The first time, a novice the second time, an adept

9] It is easy to move rivers and mountains, but difficult to change a person’s basic nature

10] A good drink makes the old young

11] Don’t cry for the moon

12] Even dust, when piled up, may form a hill

13] Home is where the heart is

14] Praise is a spur to the good, a thorn to the evil

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

16] Go to bed with the lamb, and rise with the lark

17] Through indecision, opportunity is often lost.

18] A creaking gate (or door) hangs long

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

20] Great alms-giving lessens no man’s living

21] He preaches well (or best) that lives well (or best).

22] Great actions speak minds

23] Every man must carry his own cross

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

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

26] No man knows what good is than he who has endured evil

27] A creaking gate (or door) hangs long

28] Pitchers have ears

29] By his deeds we know a man

30] Every cock crows on his own dunghill

31] Life means strife

32] Even Homer sometimes nods

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

34] An occasion lost cannot be redeemed

35] Manners make the man

36] He that follows Nature , is never out of his way

37] Some people will never learn anything because they understand everything too soon.

38] You eat, I dreams, the custard of the day

39] White there’s life there’s hope

40] Cast not the first stone.

41] He that borrows must pay again with shame or loss

42] If he ball does not stick to the wall, it will at least leave a mark

43] Great talkers are never great doers

44] No day so clear but has dark clouds

45] Envy shoots at others and wounds herself

46] Submitting to one wrong brings on another.

47] God arms the harmless

48] The sign brings customers

49] Through obedience learn to command.

50] Content lodges oftener in cottages than palaces

51] Accusing the times is but excusing ourselves.

52] Old habits die hard

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

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

55] He is not poor that has little, but he that desires much

56] A burdened conscience will never need a hangman

57] Patience under old injuries invites new ones

58] Happy is the country (or nation) that has no history

59] It is not work that kills but worry

60] Hunger finds no fault with the cookery

61] All that glitters is not gold

62] You never miss the water till the well runs dry

63] That fish will soon be caught that nibbles at every bait

64] Much would have more

65] He that keeps not crust not crumb, shall ever want some

66] Lookers-on see most of the game

67] Laws were made to be broke

68] Much babbling is not without offence

69] One man’s means another man’s poison

70] Look at the bright side

71] Footprints on the sands of time are not made by sitting down

72] Friendship should not be all on one side

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

74] They are rich who have true friends

75] Plain dealing is a jewel

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

77] It signifies nothing to play well if you lose.

78] Just give me one end of the line and I’ll get to the other

79] Little by little and bit by bit.

80] Dreams are lies

81] Every path has a puddle

82] Files are easier caught with honey than with vinegar

83] Every dog is a lion at home

84] There is nothing permanent except change

85] Vice makes virtue shine

86] Virtue and happiness are mother and daughter

87] Even dust, when piled up, may form a hill

88] The pot calls the kettle black

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

90] The lion had need of the mouse

91] An old cart well used may outlast a new one abused

92] He mediates revenge who least complains.

93] Pardoning the bad is injuring the good

94] Beauty is in the eye of the beholder

95] A word before is worth two behind

96] There is none misfortune cannot reach

97] Trust not the many-minded populace

98] The word is far him who has patience

99] Exchange (or Fair exchange) is no robbery

100] You cannot put an old head on young shoulders.