Famous Proverbs

1] Save your breath to cool the porridge

2] You may lead (or take) a horse to water, but you cannot make him drink

3] No naked man is sought after to be rifled

4] The good intention excuses the bad action

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

6] Why keep a dog and bark yourself?

7] Hunger is the teacher of many

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

9] God heals, and the physician takes the fee

10] You must grin and bear it

11] Fools grow without watering.

12] Desert and reward seldom keep company

13] No man is indispensable

14] Gold will not buy everything

15] He who comes first, grinds first.

16] He that ventures not fails not.

17] On an open plain, the rhododendron is a tall tree

18] Advice is something the wise don’t need and fools won’t take

19] Strings high stretched either soon crack or quickly grow out of tune.

20] Neither a borrower nor a lender be.

21] Much would have more

22] A pound of care will not pay an ounce of debt.

23] In your anxiety to avoid losing a drop, you spill the whole lot

24] The cowl does not make the monk.

25] Nothing crave, nothing have

26] An ass endures his burden but not more than his burden

27] If you walk in the sun, you will know the blessedness of being in the shade

28] White there’s life there’s hope

29] Better be alone than in bad company

30] Be not too bold with your biggers or betters

31] By doing nothing, we learn to do ill

32] Good counsel has no price. Nothing is given so freely as advice.

33] A good example is the best sermon

34] The lion had need of the mouse

35] Blood will have blood

36] As is the mould, so will the cake be.

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

38] A secret fire is discovered by the smoke

39] If you deal with a fox, think of his tricks

40] He who has a mind to beat his dog will easily find a stick.

41] All cats love fish but fear to wet their paws

42] Blood is thicker than water

43] Every Jack must have his Jill

44] Faint heart never won fair lady

45] Laughter makes good blood

46] All meat pleases not all mouths

47] Don’t build the sty before the litter comes

48] When in Rome, do as the Romans do

49] Beggars must not be choosers

50] Cheats never prosper

51] A healthy man is a successful man

52] The last straw breaks the camel’s back

53] It is easier to capture a tiger in the hills than to ask for favours from a man

54] We live laws, not by examples

55] If you run after two hares, you will catch neither

56] Pouring oil on the fire is not the way to quench it

57] Don’t try to run before you walk

58] When a tiger dies, it leaves a skin; when a man dies, he leaves a name

59] No man is the worse for knowing the worst of himself

60] Ill news comes often on the back of worse

61] He that would catch fish must venture his bait

62] Never tell your enemy that your foot aches

63] Saying is one thing, and doing another

64] To be discontented is to be like a snake trying to swallow an elephant

65] Red ink gives what it touches a pink glow; black ink gives what it touches a dirty stain.

66] Hope keeps man alive

67] Don’t play with edged tools

68] Prove your friend ere you have need

69] An old man is a bed full of bones

70] He that knows little often repeats it

71] Once you have been bitten by a snake, even a piece of cord will frighten you.

72] The borrower is servant to the lender

73] Absence makes the heart grow fonder

74] Bind the sack before it be full

75] Beware of no man more than himself

76] In the country of the blind, the one-eyed man is king

77] Everyone to his taste

78] Opportunity seldom knocks twice

79] Take time by the forelock

80] Dogs that bark at a distance bite not at hand

81] He that touches pitch shall be defiled

82] No answer is also an answer

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

84] A good name is a rich heritage

85] The word is far him who has patience

86] Vice is often clothed in virtue’s habit

87] Boys will be boys

88] Good wine needs no bush

89] A mill cannot grind with water that is past

90] Good company on the road is the shortest cut

91] Worry is the interest we pay on trouble before it is due

92] The ant had wings to her hurt

93] Vast chasms can be filled, but the heart of man never

94] Death alone can kill hope

95] A fault once denied is twice committed

96] Every little helps

97] The great fish eat up the small

98] Great minds think alike

99] A little too late, is much too late

100] Jack would be a gentleman if he could speak French