American proverbs

American Proverbs

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A - B - C - D - E - F - G - H - I - J - K - L - M - N - O - P - Q - R - S - T - U - V - W - X - Y - Z

A

• A handful of gold is a heart of iron.
• A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.
• Absence makes the heart grow fonder.
• Act your age, not your shoe size. (Also, "Act your age, not your IQ")
• Actions speak louder than words, but words of action speak proudly.
• * A fool and his money are soon parted
• A friend in need, is a friend indeed!
• A horse with two heads wins no races. (Variant: Too many chiefs, and not enough Indians.)
• All hat, no cattle
• All's fair in love and war.
• Almost only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades.
• A man who acts as his own attorney has a fool for a client.
• An apple a day keeps the doctor away.
• Originated in the 1900s as a marketing slogan dreamed up by American growers concerned that the temperance movement would cut into sales of apple cider. (Michael Pollan, The Botany of Desire, Random House, 2001, ISBN 0375501290, p. 22, cf. p. 9 & 50)
• An idle mind is the devil's workshop/playground
• An ounce of prevention beats a pound of cure. - Unknown
• A penny saved is a penny earned.
• As California goes, so goes the nation.
• As the crow flies
• A broken clock's right twice a day
• As the twig is bent, so inclines the tree.
• A bad guy is another man's good guy
• A watched pot never boils.
• A wise man admits his ignorance; an ignorant man admits he's wise.
• All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.
• All that glitters, is not gold!
• A stitch in time saves nine.
• A man is known by the company he keeps.
• As the old cock grows, so does the young.

B

• Be careful what you wish for.
  • Variant: Be careful what you wish for, you might get it.
• Be the best that you can be.
• Be yourself in every situation.
• Beggars can't be choosers.
• Begin where you end.
• Better late than never.
• Better safe than sorry.
• Be useful better than beautiful.
• Back to square one.
• Butter would not melt in her mouth.

C

• Can't see it from my house
• Curiosity killed the cat
  • Variant: Curiosity killed the cat, but satisfaction brought it back.
• Close, but no cigar.
• Close is nice, but it isn't enough.
• Clothes make the man, naked people have little or no influence in society. - Mark Twain
• Close enough for government work.
• Chase two rabbits and they'll both get away.
• Character is what you are in the dark.

D

• Different strokes for different folks.
• Do as I say, not as I do.
• Don't do the crime if you can't do the time.
• Don't remove a fly from your friend's head with a hatchet.
• Don't bite the hand that feeds you.
• Don't get high on your own supply.
• Don't look a gift horse in the mouth.
• Don't take any wooden nickels
• Don't take life seriously; no one gets out alive.
• Don't count your chickens before they hatch.
• Don't say it, do it.
• Do unto others as you would have them do unto

you.

• Don't be sorry, be different!
• Don't ever let school get in the way of your education. [Mark Twain]
• Speak of the Devil, & the Devil shall appear.

E

• Early to bed, early to rise, keeps a man healthy, wealthy, and wise.
• Early to rise, early to bed, keeps a man healthy, but socially dead.

• Even a blind squirrel finds an occasional nut.

• Experience is what you get when you don't get what you want.

F

• Failing to prepare is preparing to fail. - John Wooden
• Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. Fool me thrice, shame on both of us.
• Fortune favors the bold.
• Fly by the seat of your pants.
• Failing to plan is planning to fail.
• Failure to plan on your part does not constitute an emergency on mine.

G

• Good fences make good neighbors. - "Mending Wall", Robert Frost
• Good enough for Government work.
• Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people. - Eleanor Roosevelt

H

* Haste makes waste. - Ben Franklin

• • He who has the gold makes the rules.
  • Variant: He who taxes the gold makes the rules. - Robert Kiyosaki, author of "Rich Dad, Poor Dad"
• He who laughs last laughs the loudest.
  • Variant: He who laughs last, thinks slowest.
• Ben Franklin said as Poor Richard, "He who teaches himself hath a fool for a teacher", but I must tell you that he who does not teach himself has no teachers at all
• Heads they win, tails you lose.
• Hesitation is a killer.
• Hindsight is 20/20.

I

• If at first you don't succeed, try, try again.
• If it ain't broke, don't fix it.
• If it seems too good to be true then it probably is.
• If it's free, it's for me!
• If three people tell you that you are drunk, you better lie down.
• If wishes were horses, then beggars would ride.
  • Variant: Yeah, and if wishes were horses, we'd all be eatin' steak. - Jayne Cobb
• If you can't beat them, join them.
• If you can't stand the heat, get out of the Kitchen.
• If you can't walk, why bother tying your shoes. - Doc Michaels
• If you wait till the last minute, it'll only take a minute.
• If you want it bad, you'll get it bad.
• Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.
• In God we trust, all others pay cash.
• It is better to say nothing and be thought a fool than to open your mouth and remove all doubt. - Abraham Lincoln
• It's always darkest before the dawn.
• It can't rain all the time - The Crow.
• It is easier said than done.
• It takes a village to raise a child.
• It takes two to tango.
• If knowledge of all is power, then knowledge of self is divine. - Carlos Lugo II
• I'd be a failure if it weren't for all the mistakes I've made.
• It's not over till the fat lady sings.
• It's never too late to be what you might have been. - George Eliot
• It's nice to be at the end of a journey but it's the journey that matters in the end.
• It's nice to be important, but it's more important to be nice.
• It's not the actions that define a person, but the reasoning behind them.
• It will all come out in the wash.

J

• Jack of all trades, Master of none.
• Just because you can, doesn't mean you should.

K

• Kill them with kindness.
• Kill two birds with one stone.
• Keep it simple, stupid (or otherwise known as "K.I.S.S.")
  • Variant: Keep it simple and stupid.
  • Variant: Keep it short and simple.
• Knowledge is like manure, it's only good when spread.

L

• Leave well enough alone
• Let sleeping dogs lie.
• Life is a bitch and then you die.
• Life is a journey, not a destination.
• Life is like a box of chocolate; it's full of surprises
  • Variant: Life is like a box of chocolates; You never know what you're gonna get. - Forest Gump

.* Like father, like son.

• Listen and silent are spelled using the same letters
• Loose lips sink ships.
• Looks like the shoe's on the other foot.

M

• Make hay while the sun shines.
• Make no little plans; they have no magic to stir men's blood. - Daniel Burnham
• Many hands make light work.
• Many roads lead to Rome.
• Misery loves company.
• Misery plus time equals humor.
• Money is like manure, it does no good until it is spread.

N

• Neither a borrower nor a lender be.
• Never approach a bull from the front, never approach a horse from the rear and never approach a fool from any direction
• Never cut towards you and you'll never cut a fool.
• Never enter a mud fight with a pig. You'll both get dirty, but the pig likes it. -- Irish proverb
• Never laugh at a live dragon.
• Never look a gift horse in the mouth.
• Never pick a fight with someone who buys ink by the barrel.
• Nice guys finish last - misattributed to Leo "the Lip" Durocher, major league baseball manager.
• No good deed goes unpunished.
• No honor among thieves.
• Nobody leaves us, we only leave others.

O

• Old habits die hard.
• One bad apple can spoil the whole barrel.
• One can only hope.
• One fly makes a summer - Mark Twain
• One never truly feels the breeze until it blows him away. - Ken Kesey
• One man's trash is another man's treasure.

P

• Practice makes perfect
  • Variant: Practice makes permanent.
  • Variant: Perfect practice makes perfect.
• "Procrastination is the key to failure."
• People who don't talk are thought to be stupid; people who do prove it.
• People in glass houses shouldn't throw stones.
• Pretty is as pretty does.
• Providence is the better part than valor

Q

• Quitters never win and winners never quit.

R

• Rome wasn't built in a day
• Rolling stone gathers no moss.

S

• Silence is golden.
• Six of one, half a dozen of the other.
• Second place just means first loser. -Kevin Costner
• Sometimes you eat the bear and sometimes the bear, well, he eats you. - The Big Lebowski
• Succeed or die trying
• Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me.
• Stupid is as stupid does.

T

• Talk is cheap.
• That's the way the cookie crumbles.
• The apple doesn't fall far from the tree.
• The best way to get someone to stop digging his heels in is to dig out the sand around him.
• The bigger they are, the harder they fall.
• The cream rises to the top.
• The early bird gets the worm.
• The early bird may get the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese.
• The fastest way to make money is to stop losing it.
• The grass is always greener on the other side.
• The hand that rocks the cradle rules the world.
• The man in the black hat always rides the fastest horse.
• The nail that sticks out gets hammered down.
• The pen is mightier than the sword.
• The pot calling the kettle black.
• The road to hell is paved with good intentions.
• The squeaky wheel gets the grease.
• The spouting whale is harpooned.
• The straw that broke the camel's back.
• The tongue is the enemy of the neck.
• The way to a man's heart is through his stomach.
• There ain't no such thing as a free lunch.
  • Variant: There's no such thing as a free lunch.
  • This proverb or its acronym "TANSTAAFL" are often attributed to the author Robert A. Heinlein who used them in his novel The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress (1966), but the expression has been dated to the late 1930s, and the acronym to at least as early as October 1949.
• There's no place like home. - Dorothy, in the 1939 movie The Wizard of Oz.
• There's more than one way to skin a cat.
• There's plenty of fish in the sea.
• Time flies when you're having fun.
• Time shall tell.
• There are no shortcuts to life's greatest achievements.
• To each his own.
  • Variant: Different strokes for different folks.
• There is nothing as powerful as truth.
• Two heads are better than one.
• Two's company, three's a crowd.

U

• Under a shadow you will never see the sun.

V

• Victory means hard work.

W

• Walk softly, but carry a big stick.
• We have nothing to fear, but fear itself. (Franklin D. Roosevelt)
• Win one for the Gipper.
• Winners find a way.
• Whether you look for happiness or disappointment, you will find it. (Travis Blinkenberg)
• Words uttered only causes confusion. Words written only causes.
• What goes around, comes around.
• What goes up, must come down.
• What you see, what you hear, when you leave, leave it here.
• When in Rome, do as the Romans do.
• When it rains, it pours.
• When you aren't ready you're scared, when you are ready you're nervous.
• Where there's a will there's a way.
• When the cat's away, the mice will play. (Naveen Kumar c.g)
• When the going gets tough, the tough get going.
• When life hands you lemons make lemonade.
  • Variant: Unless life also gives you water and sugar, your lemonade's gonna suck.
  • Variant: When life gives you lemons, wing 'em back and add some lemons of your own!
• Where there's smoke, there's fire.
• When you buy quality, you only cry once.

Y

• You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make it drink.
• You can't get there from here.
• You can't have your cake and eat it, too.
• You can't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear.
• You can't teach an old dog new tricks.
• You catch more flies with honey than vinegar.
• You catch even more flies with manure, what's your point?
• You can't make a pickle back into a cucumber.
• You made your bed, now sleep in it.
• Your brain is the greatest weapon you have; use it well and in turn, it will do you well.