Famous Proverbs

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

2] The devil sometimes speaks the truth

3] You cannot have it both ways

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

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

6] Petty laws breed great crimes

7] First creep, then walk

8] Desert and reward seldom keep company

9] Don’t have too many irons in the fire

10] If you don’t have good weapons, it is better for you to submit

11] Welcome is the best dish in the kitchen

12] He that would catch fish must venture his bait

13] Better sit still than rise and fall

14] Too much cunning undoes

15] Talk of an angel and you’ll hear the fluttering of his wings

16] Idle folks have the least leisure

17] A good word stills great anger

18] When in doubt, do nothing

19] Pride is at the bottom of all mistakes

20] It takes two to make a quarrel

21] An old fox is not easily snared

22] Every man has his price

23] Ill luck is good for something

24] The great fish eat up the small

25] A blister will rise upon one’s tongue that tells a lie

26] Necessity is mother of invention

27] Laugh and grow fat

28] T’ is safest making peace with sword in hand

29] Good counsel never comes amiss

30] Who keeps company with the wolf, will learn to howl

31] Poor men’s words have little weight

32] A good garden may have some ill weeds

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

34] It is better to travel hopefully than to arrive

35] Early sow, early mow

36] Better beg than steal.

37] Every path has a puddle

38] Dress up a stick and it does not appear to be a stick

39] Have two strings to your bow

40] In wine there is truth

41] He who begins many things, finishes but few

42] Hope keeps man alive

43] The tongue is more venomous than a serpent’s sting

44] To take revenge is often to sacrifice oneself

45] Coming events cast their shadows before

46] Where the tongue slips, it speaks the truth

47] Almost’ never killed a fly.

48] A single rose does not mean spring

49] Brute strength without reason falls of its own weight

50] Envy never enriched any man.

51] Beauty draws more than oxen

52] One kindness is the price of another

53] Through obedience learn to command.

54] Better late than never

55] Great trees keep down the little ones

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

57] Kindle not a fire that you cannot extinguish

58] Of three main roads, take the middle one

59] He that desires but little has no deed of much

60] Better the last smile than the first laugh

61] Hope is the last thing to abandon the unhappy

62] Wife and Children are bills of charges

63] Bear with evil and expect good

64] The fine pullet shows its excellence from the egg.

65] Men count up the faults of those who keep them waiting

66] To take revenge is often to sacrifice oneself

67] If every man would sweep before his own door, the city would soon be clean

68] If you don’t have good weapons, it is better for you to submit

69] Live and let live

70] Hard words break no bones

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

72] The labour we delight in physics pain

73] You can’t clap with one hand

74] Travel with open eyes and you will become a scholar

75] If you pay not a servant his wages, he will pay himself

76] Hope deferred makes the heart sick

77] There is no accounting for tastes

78] Neither a borrower nor a lender be.

79] Be still and have thy will

80] Don’t cast your pearls before swine

81] In the land of hope there is never any winter

82] You win some, you lose some

83] Vows made in storms are forgotten in calm

84] An ill marriage is a spring of ill fortune

85] Men make houses, women make homes

86] Those who live near water know the nature of fish; those who live near hills know the calls of birds

87] It is the lot of a king to do well but to be ill-spoken of

88] The labour we delight in physics pain

89] Better die a beggar than live a beggar

90] He that cannot ask, cannot live

91] Poverty is no sin

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

93] Poverty parts friendship

94] The strong man and the waterfall channel their own path

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

96] A good heart cannot lie.

97] Hard words break no bones

98] If wishes were horses, beggars would ride (or might ride)

99] Lovers are madmen

100] He who pays the piper calls the tune