Famous Proverbs

1] Easter so longed for is gone in a day

2] It’s a silly fish that is caught twice with the same bait.

3] Don’t ride the high horse

4] Because he would not eat it, the food got maggoty

5] Learning is like sailing against the tide - if you don’t move forward, you go backward

6] In a church, in an inn, and in a coffin, all men are equal

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

8] More than enough is too much

9] There is no royal road to learning

10] Every man has his price

11] The good is often the enemy of the best

12] Drinking water neither makes a man sick, nor in debt, nor his wife a widow

13] Dumb dogs are dangerous

14] Virtue and happiness are mother and daughter

15] No, thank you’ has lost you many a good butter-cake

16] Gossiping and lying go together

17] A cat may look at a king

18] One good deed makes up for a thousand bad ones.

19] Zeal without knowledge is a runaway horse

20] The fairest silk is soonest stained

21] Common fame is a liar

22] Praise no man till he is dead.

23] Better be a fool than a knave

24] He who teaches learns

25] The remedy for injuries is not to remember them

26] A quarrelsome man has no good neighbours

27] He is a fool that kisses the maid when he may kiss the mistress

28] Variety takes away satiety

29] When things are at the worst, they begin to mend

30] When a man is happy, he does not hear the clock strike

31] His own ingenuity pricks him.

32] Cruelty is more cruel, if we defer the pain

33] What can you expect from a pig (or hog) but a grunt?

34] Self-praise is no recommendation

35] Revenge never repairs an injury

36] It is not the burden but the overburden that kills the beast

37] Credit lost is like a Venice glass broken

38] You cannot run with the hare and hunt with the hounds

39] There is no garden without its weeds

40] Had I fish’ was never good with garlic

41] Will is no skill

42] An account is an account, and a brother a brother.

43] Clothes do not make the man

44] Seeing is believing

45] The healthful man can give counsel to the sick

46] Habit is second nature

47] Soon hot, soon cold

48] Covetousness breaks the sack

49] Second thoughts are best

50] Even the grubs in the rocks manage to survive

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

52] Sadness and happiness succeed each other.

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

54] A fool’s bolt is soon shot

55] You can’t clap with one hand

56] If you pile up enough sand, you can make a pagoda

57] Ask a silly question and you’ll get a silly answer.

58] It is good sheltering under an old hedge

59] It is easy to do what one’s own self wills

60] Change brings life

61] Good broth may be made in an old pot

62] Every one thinks his own cross is heaviest

63] The pen is the tongue of the hand

64] Pride dines on vanity, sups on contempt

65] Without wisdom, wealth is worthless

66] A good heart cannot lie.

67] The falling drops hollow the stone

68] An ounce of mother is worth a ton of priest

69] As long as the old horse lives, his habits will not change

70] Who receives a gift, sells his liberty

71] An ill payer (or paymaster) never wants an excuse

72] Fair face, foul heart

73] The orange that is too hard squeezed yields a bitter juice

74] Ill news comes apace.

75] Beauty is only skin deep

76] He that may not do as he would, must do as he may

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

78] A man can do no more than he can

79] Ill weeds grow apace (or fast)

80] Debt is an evil conscience

81] Silence is also speech

82] Punishment is a cripple, but it arrives

83] Dead men don’t bite

84] Children pick up words as pigeons peas, and utter than again as god shall please

85] A fool’s mouth is his destruction

86] By his deeds we know a man

87] A child can have too much of his mother’s blessings

88] In doing we learn.

89] Fling dirt enough, and some will stick

90] Kingdoms divided soon fall

91] From word to deed is a great space

92] Do as the friar says, not as he does

93] Better be first in a village than second at Rome

94] Good luck beats early rising

95] When a friend asks, there is not tomorrow

96] Everyone is a kin to the rich man

97] He who aims at the moon may hit the top of a tree; he who aims at the top of a tree is unlikely to get off the ground

98] Charity excuseth not cheating.

99] He that cannot ask, cannot live

100] Three helping one another, bear the burthen of six.