English proverbs

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God is on the side of the strongest batallions.
Every man thinks his own geese swans.
He's an ill cook that cannot lick his own fingers.
First things first.
Take heed you find not what you do not seek.

Proverbs are popularly defined as short expressions of popular wisdom. Efforts to improve on the popular definition have not led to a more precise definition. The wisdom is in the form of a general observation about the world or a bit of advice, sometimes more nearly an attitude toward a situation. See also English proverbs (alphabetically by proverb)

Absent[edit]

Accident[edit]

  • Accidents will happen in the best families. (19th century)

Action[edit]

Admiration[edit]

Advance[edit]

  • He who does not advance goes backwards.
    • "He will through life be master of himself and a happy man who from day to day can have said,
      'I have lived: tomorrow the Father may fill the sky with black clouds or with cloudless sunshine.'"
    • Horace, Odes Book III, ode xxix, line 41. (c. 23 BC and 13 BC).
    • Strauss, Emanuel (1994). "495". Concise Dictionary of European Proverbs. II. Routledge. p. 445. ISBN 978-1-136-78978-6. 

Advice[edit]

All[edit]

  • All is fair in love and war. (17th century)
  • All is well that ends well. (14th century)

America[edit]

Anchor[edit]

  • Good riding at two anchors, men have told, for if the one fails, the other may hold. (Strauss, 1994 p. 879)

Anger[edit]

  • Anger makes dull men witty, but it keeps them poor. (Francis Bacon)
  • Do not let sunset find you still nursing your anger.

Apologize[edit]

  • To apologize is to lay the foundation for a further offense. (Ambrose Bierce)

Applause[edit]

Apple[edit]

  • One rotten apple will spoil the whole barrel. or One scabbed sheep mars the whole flock.
    • "Evil spreads. One attractive bad example may be readily followed by others, eventually ruining a whole community."
    • Paczolay, Gyula (1997). "X". European proverbs: in 55 languages, with equivalents in Arabic, Persian, Sanskrit, Chinese and Japanese. Veszprémi Nyomda. p. 292. ISBN 1-875943-44-7. 
    • Cf. Dan Michael of Northgate, Ayenbite of Inwyt (1340): "A rotten apple will spoil a great many sound ones." (Middle English: "A roted eppel amang þe holen: makeþ rotie þe yzounde.").
  • An apple a day keeps the doctor away.
    • Cf. Notes and Queries magazine, Feb. 24, 1866, p. 153: "Eat an apple on going to bed, // And you'll keep the doctor from earning his bread." [1].
    • Adapted to its current form in the 1900s as a marketing slogan used 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)
  • A rotten apple injures its companions.
    • Divers Proverbs, Nathan Bailey, 1721 [2]
  • An apple a day keeps the doctor away--if you have good aim.
    • A humorous version of the nutritional exortation to maintain good health by eating fruit. Original source unknown.

Art[edit]

Ass[edit]

  • When all men say you are an ass it is time to bray. (Strauss 1994, p. 1221)

Baby[edit]

  • Don't make clothes for a not yet born baby. (Strauss 1994, p. 683)
    • "One never rises so high as when one does not know where one is going."
    • Oliver Cromwell to M. Bellièvre. Found in Memoirs of Cardinal de Retz
  • Don't throw the baby out with the bathwater.
    • "* When we wish to correct with advantage, and to show another that he errs, we must notice from what side he views the matter, for on that side it is usually true, and admit that truth to him, but reveal to him the side on which it is false. He is satisfied with that, for he sees that he was not mistaken, and that he only failed to see all sides.
    • Blaise Pascal, Pensées (1669)"
    • Martin H. Manser (2007). The Facts on File Dictionary of Proverbs. Infobase Publishing. p. 66. ISBN 978-0-8160-6673-5. Retrieved on 25 August 2013. 
    • Primo dede mulieris consilio, secundo noli.
    • "Take the first advice of a woman and not the second."
    • Gilbertus Cognatus Noxeranus, Sylloge. See J. J. Grynæus, Adagio, p. 130. Langius, Polyanthea Col (1900) same sentiment. (Prends le premier conseil d'une femme et non le second. French for same). Reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 10-11.
    • Brown, James Kyle (2001). I Give God a Chance: Christian Spirituality from the Edgar Cayce Readings. Jim Brown. p. 8. ISBN 0759621705. 

Bad[edit]

  • Bad is the best choice.
  • A bad settlement is better than a good lawsuit.
    • Filipp, M. R. (2005). Covenants Not to Compete, Aspen.
  • A bad workman quarrels with his tools. (1640)
  • Good laws have sprung from bad customs.

Bait[edit]

  • Bait the hook well and the fish will bite.
    • "Would you persuade, speak of Interest, not of Reason."
    • Benjamin Franklin, Poor Richard's Almanack (1734)
    • Mieder, Wolfgang (1992). "Hook". A Dictionary of American Proverbs. p. 510. ISBN 978-0-19-505399-9. 

Bark[edit]

  • Barking dogs seldom bite. (16th century)
  • His bark is worse than his bite. (17th century)

Beauty[edit]

  • A thing of beauty is a joy for ever.
    • Laine, Jarkko (toim.): Suuri sitaattisanakirja. Otava, 1989, p. 122. ISBN 9511109618
  • Beauty is truth, truth beauty (John Keats)
    • Laine, Jarkko (toim.): Suuri sitaattisanakirja. Otava, 1989, p. 123. ISBN 9511109618

Bed[edit]

  • As you make your bed, so you will sleep on it.
    • "One has to accept the consequences of one's actions, as any result is the logical consequence of preceding actions."
    • Source for proverb and meaning: (Paczolay, 1997 p. 401)

Bear[edit]

Beat[edit]

Best[edit]

  • The best is cheapest.
  • The good is the enemy of the best.
    • "What are books but folly, and what is an education but an arrant hypocrisy, and what is art but a curse when they touch not the heart and impel it not to action?"
    • Louise Sullivan, Kindergarten Chats (1918)
    • "As with all matters of the heart, you'll know when you find it."
    • Steve Jobs, Address at Stanford University (2005)
    • Martin H. Manser (2007). "g". The Facts on File Dictionary of Proverbs. Infobase Publishing. p. 107. ISBN 978-0-8160-6673-5. 

Beggar[edit]

  • A beggar can never be bankrupt. (1639)
  • Beggars can't be choosers.
    • "We must accept with gratitude and without complaint what we are given when we do not have the means or opportunity to provide ourselves with something better."
    • Source for meaning:Martin H. Manser (2007). The Facts on File Dictionary of Proverbs. Infobase Publishing. p. 19. ISBN 978-0-8160-6673-5. Retrieved on 29 June 2013. 
  • Put a beggar on horseback and he'll ride it to death; Set a beggar on horseback, and he'll ride to the Devil.

Behavior[edit]

  • Two wrongs don't make a right.

Begin[edit]

  • A good beginning makes a good ending. (14th century)
    • "Starting properly ensures the speedy completion of a process. A beginning is often blocked by one or more obstacles (potential barriers) the removal of which may ensure the smooth course of the process."
    • Paczolay, Gyula (1997). "40". European proverbs: in 55 languages, with equivalents in Arabic, Persian, Sanskrit, Chinese and Japanese. Veszprémi Nyomda. p. 228. ISBN 1-875943-44-7. 
  • Well begun is half done.
    • "Starting properly ensures the speedy completion of a process. A beginning is often blocked by one or more obstacles (potential barriers) the removal of which may ensure the smooth course of the process."
    • Paczolay, Gyula (1997). "40". European proverbs: in 55 languages, with equivalents in Arabic, Persian, Sanskrit, Chinese and Japanese. Veszprémi Nyomda. p. 228. ISBN 1-875943-44-7. 
    • Divers Proverbs, Nathan Bailey, 1721 [3]

Bellyful[edit]

  • A bellyful is one of meat, drink, or sorrow.
    • Manser, M. (2006). The Wordsworth dictionary of proverbs, Wordsworth Editions, Limited. p. 45

Better[edit]

  • Better a lean peace than a fat victory. (17th century)
  • Better is the enemy of good.
    • Mieder, Wolfgang; Kingsbury, Stewart A.; Harder, Kelsie B. (1992). A Dictionary of American proverbs. pp. 710. , p. xcv
  • Better late than never.
  • Better safe than sorry.
  • Better underdone than overdone.

Beware[edit]

  • Beware of the false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing, and inwardly are ravening wolves. (Matthew; bible quote). (Strauss, 1998 p. 170)

Bird[edit]

  • A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.
    • John Bunyan cites this traditional proverb in The Pilgrim's Progress, (1678):
    • "So are the men of this world: They must have all their good things now; they cannot stay till the next year, that is, until the next world, for their portion of good. That proverb, 'A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush,' is of more authority with them than are all the divine testimonies of the good of the world to come."
  • Birds of a feather flock together.
    • "It is a fact worthy of remark, that when a set of men agree in any particulars, though never so trivial, they flock together, and often establish themselves into a kind of fraternity for contriving and carrying into effect their plans. According to their distinct character they club together, factious with factious, wise with wise, indolent with indolent, active with active et cetera."
    • Porter, William Henry (1845). Proverbs: Arranged in Alphabetical Order .... Munroe and Company. p. 41. 
  • Deal gently with the bird you mean to catch.
  • Fine feathers make fine birds. (Simpson , 2009)
    • "Fairest and best adorned is she
      Whose clothing is humility."
    • James Montgomery, Humility. (1841)
  • It is an ill bird that fouls its own nest.
  • It is the early bird that gets the worm.

Bite[edit]

  • Don't bark if you can't bite.
    • "I made the statement years ago which is often quoted that 80 percent of life is showing up. People used to always say to me that they wanted to write a play, they wanted to write a movie, they wanted to write a novel, and the couple of people that did it were 80 percent of the way to having something happen."
    • Woody Allen, Interview for The Collider (2008)
    • V&S EDITORIAL BOARD (2015). "D". CONCISE DICTIONARY OF PROVERBS (POCKET SIZE). p. 34. ISBN 978-93-5215-057-1. 
  • Don't bite off more than you can chew.
    • Heacock, Paul (2003). Cambridge Dictionary of American Idioms (Illustrated ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 512. ISBN 052153271X. 
  • Don't bite the hand that feeds you.

Blood[edit]

  • Blood is thicker than water.
    • "The bonds between soldiers of a battle is stronger than family ties"
      • "The blood of the covenant is thicker than the water of the womb"
    • "Family before Friendship"
    • Paczolay, Gyula (1997). "X". European proverbs: in 55 languages, with equivalents in Arabic, Persian, Sanskrit, Chinese and Japanese. Veszprémi Nyomda. p. 233. ISBN 1-875943-44-7. 
  • Good blood always shows itself.
    • Mawr, E.B. (1885). Analogous Proverbs in Ten Languages. p. 34. 

Book[edit]

  • A book is a friend.
  • A great book is a great evil.
    • H. Manser, Martin (2007). "G". The Facts on File Dictionary of Proverbs. p. 110. ISBN 978-0-8160-6673-5. 
    • "Why don't you judge for yourselves what is right?"
    • The Bible, the Gospel of Luke (~65 A.D)
  • Books must follow sciences, and not sciences books. (Francis Bacon)
  • Books think for me. (Charles Lamb)
    • Laine, Jarkko (toim.): Suuri sitaattisanakirja. Otava, 1989, p. 13. ISBN 9511109618
  • Classic, a book which people praise and don't read. (Mark Twain)
    • Laine, Jarkko (toim.): Suuri sitaattisanakirja. Otava, 1989, p. 148. ISBN 9511109618
  • Don't judge a book by its cover.
    • "Do not form an opinion about something or somebody based solely on outward appearance."
    • Martin H. Manser (2007). The Facts on File Dictionary of Proverbs. Infobase Publishing. p. 61. ISBN 978-0-8160-6673-5. 
    • Mieder, Wolfgang; Kingsbury, Stewart A.; Harder, Kelsie B. (1992). A Dictionary of American proverbs. pp. 710. , p. 311
  • Fear the man of one book. (Strauss 1994, p. 851)
    • "Religious ideas, supposedly private matters between man and god, are in practice always political ideas."
    • Christopher Hitchens, The Monarchy: A Critique of Britain's Favourite Fetish (1990), Chatto Counterblasts
  • Like author, like book. (John Ray)
    • Laine, Jarkko (toim.): Suuri sitaattisanakirja. Otava, 1989, p. 137. ISBN 9511109618
  • No book was so bad, but some good might be got out of it.
    • "From one learn all."
    • Virgil, Æneid (29-19 BC)
    • (Strauss 1994, p. 1104)
  • Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested. (Francis Bacon)
    • "that is, some books are to be read only in parts, others to be read, but not curiously, and some few to be read wholly, and with diligence and attention."
    • Francis Bacon, Essays (1625)
    • Citatboken, Bokförlaget Natur och Kultur, Stockholm, 1967, p. 57, ISBN 91-27-01681-1

Boat[edit]

Boot[edit]

  • Don't judge a man until you have walked a mile in his boots.

Bore[edit]

Bough[edit]

  • The boughs that bear most hang lowest.
    • "Well, looks like you've got lots of stuff to do, before you do any stuff."
    • John Wren, Mac, Get a Mac Ad Campaign (2006).
    • J. Russell Smith (1869). "T". English Proverbs and Proverbial Phrases Collected from the Most Authentic Sources Alphabetically Arranged and Annotated by W. Carew Hazlitt. p. 360. 

Bow[edit]

Bran[edit]

  • Much bran and little meal.

Brave[edit]

Bread[edit]

Bridge[edit]

Broke[edit]

  • A broken watch is right two times a day.
    • "If you make a great number of predictions, the ones that were wrong will soon be forgotten, and the ones that turn out to be true will make you famous."
    • Malcolm Gladwell, Dangerous Minds: Criminal profiling made easy (2007)
    • Honthaner, Eve Light (2010). I Hollywood drive: what it takes to break in, hang in & make it in the entertainment industry. Elsevier. p. 341. ISBN 0240806689. 
  • If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

Broom[edit]

  • A new broome sweepeth cleane.
    • "We should never use an old tool when the extra labor in consequence costs more than a new one. Thousands wear out their lives and waste their time merely by the use of dull and unsuitable instruments."
    • "We often apply it to exchanges among servants, clerks, or any persons employed, whose service, at first, in any new place, is very good, both efficient and faithful; but very soon, when all the new circumstances have lost their novelty, and all their curiosity has ceased, they naturally fall into their former and habitual slackness."
    • Porter, William Henry (1845). Proverbs: Arranged in Alphabetical Order .... Munroe and Company. p. 38. 
    • John Lyly, Euphues. Arber's Reprint, p. 89; reported as a proverb in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 639.

Brother[edit]

  • The younger brother the better gentleman.
    • "The Elder Brother of a Houfe depending on his Efiate, is either indulged by Parents, or gives up himfelf to an indolent Humour, that his Soul in his Body, like a Sword in the Scabbard, rufis for want of life, thinking' his Efiate fuflicient to gentilize him, if he have but only the Accompliihment of a Fox-Hunter, or a Country Juftice; the Younger Brother being put to his fhifts, having no Inheritance to depend upon, by plying his Studies hard at Home, and accompliihing himfelf by Travels Abroad, oftentimes, either by Arts or Arms, raifes himfelf to a confpicuous pitch of Honour, and fo becomes much the better Gentleman."
    • Divers Proverbs, Nathan Bailey, 1721 [4]

Bull[edit]

  • You can't milk a bull.
  • A bully is always a coward.
    • "If there is no enemy within, the enemy outside can do us no harm."
    • "Fearless" Motivation
    • Mieder, Wolfgang (1992). "coward". A Dictionary of American Proverbs. p. 155. ISBN 978-0-19-505399-9. 

Burn[edit]

  • To burn the candle at both ends. (1678)

Business[edit]

Buying[edit]

  • Buy cheap, sell dearǃ (Thomas Lodge)
    • Laine, Jarkko (toim.): Suuri sitaattisanakirja. Otava, 1989, p. 124. ISBN 9511109618
  • If you buy cheaply, you pay dearly.
    • Herrero Ruiz, Javier (2009). Understanding Tropes: At the Crossroads Between Pragmatics and Cognition. Peter Lang. p. 101. 3631592620. 
  • If you buy quality, you only cry once.
    • Burch, Geoff (2010). Irresistible Persuasion: The Secret Way to Get to Yes Every Time. John Wiley and Sons. p. 138. 190731248X. 

Cake[edit]

Candle[edit]

  • A candle loses nothing by lighting another candle.
    • Groft, Jan (2010). As We Grieve: Discoveries of Grace in Sorrow. Greenleaf Book Group. p. 19. 0984230602. 
  • Don't burn the candle at both ends.
    • Mieder, Wolfgang; Kingsbury, Stewart A.; Harder, Kelsie B. (1992). A Dictionary of American proverbs. pp. 710. , p. 70
  • He that is worst may still hold the candle.
    • "A man can fail many times, but he isn't a failure until he begins to blame somebody else."
    • John Burroughs
    • Henry George Bohn, A Hand-book of Proverbs (1875) p. 390

Canoe[edit]

  • Paddle your own canoe.
    • Mieder, Wolfgang; Kingsbury, Stewart A.; Harder, Kelsie B. (1992). A Dictionary of American proverbs. pp. 710. , p. 71

Cat[edit]

  • A cat may look at a king.
    • "I am firmly convinced, as I have already said, that to effect any great social improvement, it is sympathy rather than self-interest, the sense of duty rather than the desire for self-advancement, that must be appealed to. Envy is akin to admiration, and it is the admiration that the rich and powerful excite which secures the perpetuation of aristocracies."
    • Henry George, Social Problems, Chapter 21: Conclusion (1883).
    • Carew Hazlitt, William (1869). English Proverbs and Proverbial Phrases: Collected from the Most Authentic Sources. p. 5. 
  • All cats love fish but hate to get their paws wet.
  • Curiosity killed the cat.
    • "Inquisitiveness – or a desire to find about something – can lead you into trouble."
    • Martin H. Manser (2007). The Facts on File Dictionary of Proverbs. Infobase Publishing. p. 49. ISBN 978-0-8160-6673-5. Retrieved on 9 August 2013. 
    • Mieder, Wolfgang; Kingsbury, Stewart A.; Harder, Kelsie B. (1992). A Dictionary of American proverbs. pp. 710. , p. 81
  • There's more than one way to skin a cat.
  • The more you stroke the cat's tail, the more he raises his back. (Strauss, 1994 p. 1184)
  • When the cat is away, the mice will play. (16th century) (Citatboken)
    • "In the absence of the person in authority those under his control will often neglect the duties/rules imposed on them." (Paczolay, 1997 p. 114)

Censure[edit]

Chain[edit]

  • A chain is only as strong as its weakest link. Or, a chain is no stronger than its weakest link
    • "A weak part or member will affect the success or effectiveness of the whole."
    • Martin H. Manser (2007). The Facts on File Dictionary of Proverbs. Infobase Publishing. p. 38. ISBN 978-0-8160-6673-5. Retrieved on 31 July 2013. 
    • Cf. Thomas Reid Essays on the Intellectual Powers of Man, 1786, Vol. II, p.377, Essay VII, Of Reasoning, and of Demonstration, ch. 1: "In every chain of reasoning, the evidence of the last conclusion can be no greater than that of the weakest link of this chain, whatever may be the strength of the rest." [5]

Charity[edit]

  • Charity begins at home. (14th century)
  • Cold as charity. (14th century)

Cheating[edit]

Chicken[edit]

  • Don't count your chickens before they're hatched.
    • Mieder, Wolfgang; Kingsbury, Stewart A.; Harder, Kelsie B. (1992). A Dictionary of American proverbs. pp. 710. , p. 97

Child[edit]

  • The child is father to the man.
  • Children are uncertain comforts but certain cares.
    • "Children are bound to cause their parents anxiety, and may or may not also bring them joy."
    • Martin H. Manser (2007). The Facts on File Dictionary of Proverbs. Infobase Publishing. p. 40. ISBN 978-0-8160-6673-5. Retrieved on 2 August 2013. 
    • Belfour, John (1812). "C". A Complete Collection of English Proverbs: Also, the Most Celebrated Proverbs of the Scotch, Italian, French, Spanish, and Other Languages, the Whole Methodically Digested and Illustrated with Annotations, and Proper Explications. G. Cowie. p. 4. 
  • Spare the rod, spoil the child.
  • "Never count your children twice." An old saying from the Anglo-Welsh border, where it was believed to be unlucky to do so. This saying arises from old superstition, which may have been contributed to in part by the terrain, which is rugged, hilly and sparsely populated; the region is also often subject to dense fog and disappearances under mysterious circumstance were not uncommon. Hence, the unlucky nature as on the second count, it was believed one child would most likely have disappeared; lost forever to the hills.

Christian[edit]

  • Onward, Christian soldiers! (S. Baring-Gould)
    • Laine, Jarkko (toim.): Suuri sitaattisanakirja. Otava, 1989, p. 161. ISBN 9511109618

Church[edit]

Circumstance[edit]

  • Circumstances alter cases.

City[edit]

Clothes[edit]

Coal[edit]

Coast[edit]

  • The coast is clear. (17th century)

Cobbler/Shoemaker[edit]

  • Cobblers children are worst shod.
    • "Working hard for others one may neglect one's own needs or the needs of those closest to him." (Paczolay, 1997 p. 65).
  • Shoemaker, stick to your last.
    • "How vain it is to sit down to write when you have not stood up to live."
    • Henry David Thoreau Journals (1838-1859)
    • Mieder, Wolfgang; Kingsbury, Stewart A.; Harder, Kelsie B. (1992). A Dictionary of American proverbs. pp. 710. , p. 723

Cock[edit]

  • As the old cock crows, so crows the young.
    • "Children generally follow the example of their parents, but imitate their faults more surely than their virtues."
    • Proverbs of All Nations. W. Kent & Company (late D. Bogue). 1859. p. 27. 

Colour[edit]

Command[edit]

  • Counsel is no command. (Strauss, 1994 p. 675)
  • Who has not served cannot command. (Strauss, 1994 p. 758)

Common[edit]

  • Common sense is not so common.
    • From Voltaire's Dictionnaire philosophique portatif (1765)
    • Paraphrased by graphic designers as 'Comic Sans is not so comic'.
    • Res est ingeniosa dare.
    • "Giving requires good sense."
    • Ovid, Amorum (16 BC), I. 8. 62.

Company[edit]

  • A man is known by the company he keeps.
    • Mieder, Wolfgang; Kingsbury, Stewart A.; Harder, Kelsie B. (1992). A Dictionary of American proverbs. pp. 710. , p. 125
  • Better to be alone than in bad company. (Strauss, 1998 p. 162)
  • Misery loves company.
    • Mieder, Wolfgang; Kingsbury, Stewart A.; Harder, Kelsie B. (1992). A Dictionary of American proverbs. pp. 710. , p. 125
  • Two is a company; three is a crowd.
    • "A Platonic friendship is perhaps only possible when one or other of the Platonists is in love with a third person."
    • Evelyn Beatrice Hall, The Friends of Voltaire (1906)
    • William Ickes, P. D., & Ickes, W. K. (2004). Two's Company; Three's a Crowd: Booksurge Llc.
  • Two is company, three is none. (19th century)

Comparison[edit]

  • Comparisons are odious. (15th century)
    • "If you compare yourdelf with others,
      you may become vain or bitter;
      for always there will be greater
      and lesser persons than yourself."
    • Max Ehrmann, Desiderata (1927)
    • Citatboken, Bokförlaget Natur och Kultur, Stockholm, 1967, p. 188, ISBN 91-27-01681-1

Confidence[edit]

  • Confidence begets confidence. (Strauss 1994, p. 187)
    • "As is our confidence, so is our capacity."
    • William Hazlitt, Characteristics (1823).

Conscience[edit]

Cook[edit]

Corn[edit]

  • Plough deep while sluggards sleep, and you will have corn to sell and keep. (Strauss 1994, p. 1001)

Counsel[edit]

Country[edit]

  • Ask not what your country can do for you - ask what you can do for your country. (John F. Kennedy)
    • Laine, Jarkko (toim.): Suuri sitaattisanakirja. Otava, 1989, p. 92. ISBN 9511109618
  • I only regret that I have but one life to lose for my country. (Nathan Hale)
    • Laine, Jarkko (toim.): Suuri sitaattisanakirja. Otava, 1989, p. 93. ISBN 9511109618
  • Our country, right or wrongǃ (Stephen Decatur)
    • Laine, Jarkko (toim.): Suuri sitaattisanakirja. Otava, 1989, p. 91. ISBN 9511109618

Courage[edit]

  • Courage lost, all lost. (Strauss 1994, p. 675)

Coward[edit]

Credit[edit]

Crocodile[edit]

  • To shed crocodile tears.
    • "The Thief is sorry he is to be hanged, but not that he is a Thief."
    • Thomas Fuller, Gnomologia (1732)
    • Bryan, George B.; Mieder, Wolfgang (2005). "crocodile". A Dictionary of Anglo-American Proverbs & Proverbial Phrases, Found in Literary Sources of the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries. p. 183. 

Crow[edit]

  • Crows will not pick out crows eyes.
    • "One belonging to a group having common interests is not likely to act against or find fault with another member of the same group. Solidarity may prevail over law, justice or truth."
    • Paczolay, Gyula (1997). "13". European proverbs: in 55 languages, with equivalents in Arabic, Persian, Sanskrit, Chinese and Japanese. Veszprémi Nyomda. p. 96. ISBN 1-875943-44-7. 

Cup[edit]

  • There's many a slip 'twixt cup and lip.

Cure[edit]

  • What can't be cured must be endured. (14th century)

Custom[edit]

  • Other times, other customs.
    • "Custom without Reason, is but an ancient Error."
    • Thomas Fuller

Customers[edit]

Cynic[edit]

  • Cynic: a blackguard whose faulty vision sees things as they are, not as they ought to be. (Ambrose Bierce)

Day[edit]

  • Praise the day at sunset.
    • "Make sure a matter is really over before relaxing about it. Unforeseen unfavourable developments may intervene and change the expected final result."
    • Paczolay, Gyula (1997). "X". European proverbs: in 55 languages, with equivalents in Arabic, Persian, Sanskrit, Chinese and Japanese. Veszprémi Nyomda. p. 323. ISBN 1-875943-44-7. 
  • Enjoy the present day, trusting little to what tomorrow may bring.
    • "God made all pleasures innocent."
    • Mrs. Norton, Lady of La Garaye, Part I.
    • Strauss, Emanuel (1994). "910". Dictionary of European proverbs. II. Routledge. p. 765. ISBN 978-0-415-10381-7. Retrieved on 28 December 2013. 
  • The day is short and the work is long. (15th century)
  • Today is the first day of the rest of your life.

Death[edit]

  • In the long run we are all dead.
    • Originally stated by John Manyard Keynes in his book from 1922.
    • Doyle, Charles Clay; Mieder, Wolfgang; Shapiro, Fred R. (2012). "R". Dictionary of Modern Proverbs. p. 214. ISBN 0300136021. 

Deep[edit]

  • Deep calls to deep. (Strauss 1994, p. 695)
    • "The more of the context of a problem that a scientist can comprehend, the greater are his chances of finding a truly adequate solution."
    • Russell L. Ackoff, The development of operations research as a science (1956)
  • In the deepest water is the best fishing. (1616)

Defence[edit]

  • The best defence is a good offence. (Strauss, 1994 p. 518)

Delay[edit]

  • Delays are dangerous. (14th century)
    • "To live every day as if it had been stolen from death, that is how I would like to live."
    • Garth Stein, The Art of Racing in the Rain (2008)
    • Citatboken, Bokförlaget Natur och Kultur, Stockholm, 1967, p. 188, ISBN 91-27-01681-1
  • There is danger in delay. (Strauss, 1998 p. 695)

Demagogue[edit]

  • A parish demagogue. (P. B. Shelley)
    • Laine, Jarkko (toim.): Suuri sitaattisanakirja. Otava, 1989, p. 102. ISBN 9511109618

Desire[edit]

Devil[edit]

  • Away goes the devil if he finds the door shut against him.
  • Better the devil you know (than the one you don't).
  • Give the devil his due.
  • Idle hands are the devil's playthings.
    • Lowry, Lois (1980). Autumn street. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. p. 59. ISBN 0395278120. 
  • If you sup with the devil, use a long spoon.
    • von Düringsfeld, Ida (1875). "440 Teufel" (in German). Sprichwörter der germanishcen und romanischen Sprachen Vergleichend. II. p. 245. 
  • Talk of the devil and he's sure to appear.
  • Where God has a church the devil will have his chapel.
    • "Very seldom does any good thing arise but there comes an ugly phantom of a caricature of it."
    • Proverbs of All Nations. W. Kent & Company (late D. Bogue). 1859. p. 130. 

Dig[edit]

  • Who digs a trap for others ends up in it himself.
    • "He who intends to harm others will himself suffer from his action. - As anger is blind, some aspects of an action - harmful for the doer - may be overlooked in the process."(Paczolay, 1997 p. 77)

Discretion[edit]

Discussion[edit]

Disease[edit]

Ditch[edit]

Do[edit]

  • Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.
    • "Judges ought to be more learned than witty, more reverend than plausible, and more advised than confident. Above all things, integrity is their portion and proper virtue."
    • Francis Bacon, Essays (1825), Of Judicature.
    • Based on the Bible (Matthew 7:12; Luke 6:31). "Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them: for this is the law and the prophets" in the King James version; "So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets." in the New International Version
  • If you want a thing done right, do it yourself.
    • Manser, M. (2006). The Wordsworth dictionary of proverbs, Wordsworth Editions, Limited. p. 139
  • "Well done" is better than "well said".

Doctor[edit]

Dog[edit]

  • A dog will not howl if you beat him with a bone. (1659)
  • A staff is quickly found to beat a dog. (Strauss, 1998 p. 103)
  • Barking dogs seldom bite.
    • "Threatening does not always lead to action: Harsh words may disguise a different feeling, intention or ability." (Paczolay, 1997 p. 44)
  • Brag is a good dog, but holdfast is better.
  • ̈*̈ "If your gonna impress someone it should be yourself."
    • Cameron Jibril "Wiz Khalifa" Thomaz, Twitter (08 may 2019)
    • Divers Proverbs, Nathan Bailey, 1721. 4
  • The dogs bark but the caravan passes on. (Strauss, 1998 p. 340)
  • Dogs wags their tails, not as much to you as to your bread. (Strauss, 1994 p. 710)
  • Every dog has his day. (1546)
  • Give a dog a bad name and he'll live up to it.
    • Clarke, Nick (1865). Alistair Cooke: a biography. Routledge. p. 174. 1420931989. 
  • If you lie down with dogs, you'll get up with fleas.
  • Variant: A man is known by the company he keeps.
  • It's not the size of the dog in the fight; it's the size of the fight in the dog.
    • Anonymous American proverb; this has often been attributed to Mark Twain since at least 1998 on the internet, but no contemporary evidence of Twain ever using it has been located.
    • Variants:
    • It is not the size of the dog in the fight that counts, but the fight in the dog that matters.
      • "Stub Ends of Thoughts" by Arthur G. Lewis, a collection of sayings, in Book of the Royal Blue Vol. 14, No. 7 (April 1911), as cited in The Dictionary of Modern Proverbs, edited by Charles Clay Doyle, Wolfgang Mieder, and Fred R. Shapiro, p. 232
    • It is not the size of the dog in the fight that counts, but the fight in the dog that wins.
      • Anonymous quote in the evening edition of the East Oregonian (20 April 1911)
    • What counts is not necessarily the size of the dog in the fight — it's the size of the fight in the dog.
  • Let sleeping dogs lie. (14th century)
  • Love me, love my dog.
    • Bernard of Clairvaux attests in the 12th century this was a common proverb, In Festo Sancti Michaelis, Sermo 1, sect. 3; translation from Richard Chevenix Trench, Archbishop of Dublin, On the Lessons in Proverbs ([1853] 1856) p. 148
    • Also reported in English by John Heywood, Proverbs (1546), Part II, chapter 9; and by Thomas Fuller, Gnomologia (1732), No. 3292
  • The guilty dog barks the loudest.

Dog food[edit]

  • Eat your own dog food.
    • Iles, Greg (2007). Third Degree. Simon and Schuster. p. 159. 0743292502. 

Door[edit]

  • The door swings both ways.
    • Borcherdt, Bill (1996). Making families work and what to do when they don't: thirty guides for imperfect parents of imperfect children. Routledge. p. 65. 0789000733. 
  • When one door closes, another door opens. or God never closes one door without opening another.
    • "When baffled in one direct a man of energy will not despair, but will find another way to his object."
    • Proverbs of All Nations. W. Kent & Company (late D. Bogue). 1859. p. 67. 

Doubt[edit]

Dream[edit]

  • Dreams go by contraries.
    • "It was queer. All over England young men were eating their hearts out for lack of jobs, and here was he, Gordon, to whom the very word 'job' was faintly nauseous, having jobs thrust unwanted upon him. It was an example of the fact that you can get anything in this world if you genuinely don't want."
    • George Orwell, Keep the Aspidistra Flying (1936)
    • Mieder, Wolfgang (1992). "dream 5.". A Dictionary of American Proverbs. Oxford University Press. p. 238. ISBN 978-0-19-505399-9. 
  • We are such stuff / As dreams are made of.
    • Laine, Jarkko (toim.): Suuri sitaattisanakirja. Otava, 1989, p. 83. ISBN 9511109618

Drinking[edit]

  • What's drinking? / A mere pause from thinking. (Lord Byron)
    • Laine, Jarkko (toim.): Suuri sitaattisanakirja. Otava, 1989, p. 110. ISBN 9511109618

Dropping[edit]

Drunkard[edit]

  • Once a drunkard always a drunkard. (Strauss, 1994 p. 771)

Duck[edit]

  • If it looks like a duck, swims like a duck, and quacks like a duck, then it probably is a duck.
    • "It is usually safe to identify somebody as a particular type of person when his or her appearance, behavior, and words all point to the same conclusion."
    • Martin H. Manser (2007). The Facts on File Dictionary of Proverbs. Infobase Publishing. ISBN 978-0-8160-6673-5. 
    • Reportedly coined by James Whitcombe Riley, sometime before his demise 1916. He wrote: When I see a bird that walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, I call that bird a duck.
    • Made famous by the then Governor Ronald Reagan's use of the expression 1967, in an interview with a journalist. (Cryer 2011, p. 163)

Dwarf[edit]

  • Dwarf on a giant's shoulder sees farther of the two.
    • Manser, M. (2006). The Wordsworth dictionary of proverbs, Wordsworth Editions, Limited. p. 163

Ear[edit]

  • In at one ear and out at the other. (14th century)
  • Take heed what you say. Walls have ears. (James Shirley)
    • Laine, Jarkko (toim.): Suuri sitaattisanakirja. Otava, 1989, p. 156. ISBN 9511109618

Early[edit]

East[edit]

  • Oh, East is East, and West is West, and never the twain shall meet... (Rudyard Kipling)
    • Laine, Jarkko (toim.): Suuri sitaattisanakirja. Otava, 1989, p. 101. ISBN 9511109618

Easy[edit]

Eat[edit]

Eavesdropper[edit]

Education[edit]

Egg[edit]

  • Better an egg today than a hen tomorrow.
    • "It is said, that the thing you possess is worth more than two you may have in the future. The one is sure and the other is not."
    • Jean de La Fontaine, Fables, V. 3.
    • (Strauss, 1998 p. 75)
  • Don't put all your eggs in one basket.
    • "Spread your risks or investments so that if one enterprise fails you will not lose everything."
    • Martin H. Manser (2007). The Facts on File Dictionary of Proverbs. Infobase Publishing. p. 63. ISBN 978-0-8160-6673-5. Retrieved on 18 August 2013. 
    • First recorded 1662, G. Toriano, Italian proverbial phrases ("To put all one's eggs in a paniard"); 1710, Samuel Palmer, Moral essays on proverbs ("Don't venture all your eggs in one basket").
    • Apperson, GL (2006). Dictionary of proverbs. Wordsworth. p. 170. ISBN 978-1840223118. 
  • Eggs and oaths are soon broken. (Strauss, 1998 p. 765)
  • He that steals an egg will steal an ox. (Strauss, 1994 p. 962)
  • You can't have an omelette unless you break the egg.
    • "Sacrifices have to be made in order to achieve a goal; often used to justify an act that causes loss, harm, or distress to others."
    • Martin H. Manser (2007). The Facts on File Dictionary of Proverbs. Infobase Publishing. p. 313. ISBN 978-0-8160-6673-5. 
    • Mieder, Wolfgang; Kingsbury, Stewart A.; Harder, Kelsie B. (1992). A Dictionary of American proverbs. pp. 710. , p. 259

Egotist[edit]

  • Egotist: a person of low taste, more interested in himself than in me. (Ambrose Bierce)

Empty[edit]

  • Empty vessels make the greatest sound.
    • Belfour, John (1812). "E". A Complete Collection of English Proverbs: Also, the Most Celebrated Proverbs of the Scotch, Italian, French, Spanish, and Other Languages, the Whole Methodically Digested and Illustrated with Annotations, and Proper Explications. p. 104. 

End[edit]

  • All's well that ends well.
    • Divers Proverbs, Nathan Bailey, 1721 [3]
  • Whatever you do, act wisely, and consider the end. (Strauss, 1994 p. 600)
    • "Never tell people how to do things. Tell them what to do, and they will surprise you with their ingenuity."
    • George S. Patton War As I Knew It (1947)

Enemy[edit]

  • Do not think that one enemy is insignificant, or that a thousand friends are too many. (Strauss 1994, p. 71)
  • The enemy of my enemy is my friend.
  • If you have no enemies it is a sign that fortune has forgotten you.
    • "Envy is a kind of praise."
    • John Gay, The Hound and the Huntsman
    • Emanuel Strauss (1994). "1292". Dictionary of European Proverbs. Taylor & Francis. p. 1008. ISBN 978-0-415-10381-7. 
    • Ambrose Bierce THE DEVIL'S DICTIONARY (1991)
  • There is no little enemy. (Strauss 1994, p. 718)
  • We carry our greatest enemies within us.
    • "Every man knows there are evils in this world which need setting right. Every man has pretty definite ideas as what these evils are. But to most men one in particular stands out vividly. To some, in fact, this stands out with such startling vividness that they lose sight of other evils, or look upon them as the natural consequence of their own particular evil-in-chief."
    • Henry Hazlitt, Thinking As A Science (1916).
    • Specified as a proverb in "73". Proverbs, Maxims and Phrases of All Ages: Classified Subjectively and Arranged Alphabetically. G. P. Putnam's sons. 1887. p. 300. 

Energy[edit]

Englishman[edit]

  • An Englishman's house (home) is his castle. (17th century)

Eternity[edit]

Every[edit]

  • Every cloud has a silver lining.
    • Mieder, Wolfgang; Kingsbury, Stewart A.; Harder, Kelsie B. (1992). A Dictionary of American proverbs. pp. 710. , p. 115
  • Every maybe hath a may not be.
  • Every rose has its thorn.
    • Bradley, E. and H. Bradley, Every Rose Has Its Thorn: The Rock 'n' Roll Field Guide to Guys, Penguin Group USA.

Everyone/Everybody[edit]

  • Everyone talks about the weather, but nobody does anything about it.
    • Die Philosophen haben die Welt nur verschieden interpretirt; es kommt aber darauf an, sie zu verändern.[6]
    • "The philosophers have only interpreted the world, in various ways. The point, however, is to change it."
    • Karl Marx "Theses on Feuerbach" (1845), Thesis 11, Marx Engels Selected Works,(MESW), Volume I, p. 15; these words are also engraved upon his grave.
    • First published as an appendix to the pamphlet Ludwig Feuerbach and the End of Classical German Philosophy by Friedrich Engels (1886)
    • Mieder, Wolfgang; Kingsbury, Stewart A.; Harder, Kelsie B. (1992). A Dictionary of American proverbs. pp. 710. 
  • What everybody says must be true. (Strauss 1994, p. 77)

Evil[edit]

  • Avoid evil and it will avoid thee. (Strauss, 1994 p. 520)
  • Evil begets evil.
    • John Deane, John Deane (1891). Proverbs. p. 207. 
  • Of two evils choose the least.
  • Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.

Example[edit]

  • Example is better than correction.
    • (Ward, 1842 p. 31)

Exception[edit]

Experience[edit]

  • All experience is an arch, to build upon. (Henry Adams)
  • Experience is a revelation in the light of which we renounce our errors of youth for those of age. (Ambrose Bierce)
  • Experience is the best teacher.
    • "I've never set out to teach anyone anything. It's been more of an expression of my views and feelings than sitting down and deciding "What is today's message?" And I do think that, although I never, again, sat down consciously and thought about this, I do think judging, even for my own daughter, that children respond to that than to 'thought for the day'."
    • J.K Rowling, Interview by Lizo Mzimba (February 2003) [specific citation needed]
    • Speake, Jennifer (2015). Oxford Dictionary of Proverbs. p. 101. ISBN 978-0-19-105959-9. 

Eye[edit]

  • The eye looks but it is the mind that sees. (Strauss, 1994 p. 1175)

Face[edit]

  • Don't cut off your nose to spite your face. (Strauss 1998, p. 713)

Fairness[edit]

Fame[edit]

  • Common fame is seldom to blame. (Strauss 1998, p. 662)

Fall[edit]

  • Don't fall before you're pushed.
    • Mason, John (2000). Know Your Limits- Then Ignore Them. Insight International, Inc. pp. 206. ISBN 1890900125. 
  • Our greatest glory is not in never falling but in rising every time we fall.
    • Confucius
    • Mieder, Wolfgang; Kingsbury, Stewart A.; Harder, Kelsie B. (1992). A Dictionary of American proverbs. pp. 710. , p. 153

Family[edit]

  • Accidents will happen in the best families. (19th century)

Far[edit]

  • Far from eye, far from heart. (14th century)

Fashion[edit]

Fat[edit]

  • The fat is in the fire.

Fault[edit]

  • Faults are thick where love is thin. (1659)

Fear[edit]

  • We have nothing to fear but fear itself.
    • Originally Francis Bacon Nil terribile nisi ipse timor.
    • Nothing is terrible except fear itself.
    • De Augmentis Scientiarum, Book II, Fortitudo (1623)
    • Became famous with the words being uttered at Franklin D. Roosevelt's inauguration speech 1933.
    • If you see what is right and fail to act on it, you lack courage.
    • Confucius, The Analects
    • H. Manser, Martin (2007). "only". The Facts on File Dictionary of Proverbs. p. 216. ISBN 978-0-8160-6673-5. 

Feet[edit]

Fence[edit]

  • Good fences make good neighbors.

First[edit]

Find[edit]

  • Love is not finding someone to live with; it's finding someone whom you can't live without.
    • Lipper, D. and E. Sagehorn (2008). The Everything Wedding Vows Book: How to Personalize the Most Important Promise You'll Ever Make, Adams Media.
  • Seek and ye shall find.
  • You always find something in the last place you look.
    • Mass, W. (2008). Jeremy Fink and the meaning of life, Scholastic.

Fire[edit]

  • A burnt child dreads the fire.
    • "Somebody who has had an unpleasant experience thereafter shrinks from the cause of that experience."
    • Martin H. Manser (2007). The Facts on File Dictionary of Proverbs. Infobase Publishing. p. 33. ISBN 978-0-8160-6673-5. Retrieved on 30 July 2013. 
    • "This Proverb intimates, That it is natural for all living Creatures, whether rational or irrational,
      to consult their own Security, and Self-Preservation; and whether they act by Instinct or Reason, it still
      tends to some care of avoiding those things that have already done them an Injury." - Divers Proverbs, Nathan Bailey, 1721 [7]
  • Do not add oil to the fire.
    • "One should not make a bad situation even worse by an improper remark." (Paczolay, 1997 p. 338)
  • Fight fire with fire.
    • "Let him fry in his own Grease."
    • Thomas Fuller, Gnomologia (1732)

(Strauss 1994, p. 688)

  • No fire without some smoke. (1546)
  • There is no smoke without fire. (15th century, Citatboken)
    • "There is no effect without some cause. also It is supposed that if there is a rumour, there must be some truth behind it."
    • Paczolay, Gyula (1997). "1". European proverbs: in 55 languages, with equivalents in Arabic, Persian, Sanskrit, Chinese and Japanese. Veszprémi Nyomda. p. 33. ISBN 1-875943-44-7. 

Fish[edit]

  • All is fish that comes to the net.
    • "Look round the habitable world: how few Know their own good, or knowing it, pursue."
    • John Dryden, Juvenal, Satire X (1693).
    • Mawr, E.B. (1885). Analogous Proverbs in Ten Languages. p. 4. 
  • Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.
    • The earliest known version is from Anne Isabella Thackeray Ritchie, Mrs. Dymond (1885 novel): "I don't suppose even Caron could tell you the difference between material and spiritual,[...] but I suppose the Patron meant that if you give a man a fish he is hungry again in an hour. If you teach him to catch a fish you do him a good turn. But these very elementary principles are apt to clash with the leisure of the cultivated classes."
    • "The best teachers are those who show you where to look, but don't tell you what to see."
    • Linda Star, Are You the Result of Your Past?: Be Careful with What Seeds You Allow to Take Root in the Garden of Your Heart (2017)
    • Gregory Graham (14 January 2016). A Conservative's Book of Proverbs, Parables, and Prophecies. p. 83. ISBN 978-1-68213-972-1. 
  • There are as good fish in the sea as ever were caught.
    • "Many are accustomed to envy others for their rare acquisitions, while they themselves have equal opportunity of obtaining the same. They ought to be satisfied that as good advantages are equally accessible to them as others, and remember the significant saying, that 'Man is the architect of his own fortune.'"
    • Porter, William Henry (1845). Proverbs: Arranged in Alphabetical Order .... Munroe and Company. p. 192. 

Flaunt[edit]

  • If you got it, flaunt it.
    • Jenkins-Sanders, Marsha (2007). The Other Side of Through. Simon and Schuster. p. 21. ISBN 159309115X. 

Flow[edit]

Flower[edit]

  • Say it with flowers. (Patrick O'Keefe)
    • Laine, Jarkko (toim.): Suuri sitaattisanakirja. Otava, 1989, p. 163. ISBN 9511109618

Fly[edit]

  • You can catch more flies with a drop of honey than with a barrel of vinegar.
    • Mawr, E.B. (1885). Analogous Proverbs in Ten Languages. p. 100. 

Fools[edit]

Forewarned[edit]

  • Forewarned, forearmed.

Forgiveness[edit]

  • Forgive and forget.
    • Meaning: "Do not bear grudges—forgive those who have wronged you and forget the wrong."
    • Martin H. Manser (2007). The Facts on File Dictionary of Proverbs. Infobase Publishing. p. 94. ISBN 978-0-8160-6673-5. 
    • Mieder, Wolfgang; Kingsbury, Stewart A.; Harder, Kelsie B. (1992). A Dictionary of American proverbs. pp. 710. , p. 357
  • To err is human, to forgive divine. (Alexander Pope)
    • Laine, Jarkko (toim.): Suuri sitaattisanakirja. Otava, 1989, p. 20. ISBN 9511109618

Fortune[edit]

  • If fortune favours, beware of being exalted; if fortune thunders, beware of being overwhelmed.

Fox[edit]

Friend[edit]

  • A friend cannot be known in prosperity nor an enemy be hidden in adversity.
    • Specified as a proverb in "13". Proverbs, Maxims and Phrases of All Ages: Classified Subjectively and Arranged Alphabetically. G. P. Putnam's sons. 1887. p. 402. 
  • A friend is best found in adversity.
    • "I never knew any man in my life, who could not bear another's misfortunes perfectly like a Christian."
    • Alexander Pope. See Jonathan Swift's Thoughts on Various Subjects.
    • Specified as a proverb in "16". Proverbs, Maxims and Phrases of All Ages: Classified Subjectively and Arranged Alphabetically. G. P. Putnam's sons. 1887. p. 402. 
  • A friend in need is a friend indeed.
    • A Dialogue Conteynyng Prouerbes and Epigrammes (1562) has Prove thy friend ere thou have need; but, in-deed. A friend is never known till a man have need.
  • A good friend never offends.
    • "You can always tell a real friend: when you've made a fool of yourself, he doesn't feel you've done a permanent job."
    • Esar, Evan (1995). "Friend". 20,000 Quips & Quotes. p. 330. ISBN 978-1-56619-529-4. 
    • Specified as a proverb in "36". Proverbs, Maxims and Phrases of All Ages: Classified Subjectively and Arranged Alphabetically. G. P. Putnam's sons. 1887. p. 403. 
  • A true friend does sometime venture to be offensive.
    • "48". Proverbs, Maxims and Phrases of All Ages: Classified Subjectively and Arranged Alphabetically. G. P. Putnam's sons. 1887. p. 404. 
  • A reconciled friend is a double enemy.
    • "42". Proverbs, Maxims and Phrases of All Ages: Classified Subjectively and Arranged Alphabetically. G. P. Putnam's sons. 1887. p. 403. 
  • All are not friends who speak one fair.
    • "In one hand he is carrying a stone, while he shows the bread with the other."
    • Plautus, Aulularia (c. 2nd-3rd century BC), Act II, sc. 2, l. 18
    • "But if he does not love me and also praises me falsely, he must certainly be either flattering or deriding me."
    • Erasmus, Desiderius (1974). "To Johannes Sixtinius 1499". Collected Works of Erasmus: Correspondence. p. 223. ISBN 978-0-8020-1981-3. 
    • "Be silent and safe—silence never betrays you;
      Be true to your word and your work and your friend
      Put least trust in him who is foremost to praise you,
      Nor judge of a road till it draw to the end."
    • John Boille O'Reilly Rules of the Road (1878)
    • "57". Proverbs, Maxims and Phrases of All Ages: Classified Subjectively and Arranged Alphabetically. G. P. Putnam's sons. 1887. p. 404. 
  • Be a friend to thyself, and others will befriend thee.
    • "Mens friends commonly bear a proportion to their circumstances iu the world. And therefore if we be such friends to as to make our circumstances easy and plentiful we will not want friends."
    • James Kelly (1818). "B". A Complete Collection of Scottish Proverbs Explained and Made Intelligible to the English Reader.  and quotes (1995)
  • Bought friends are not friends indeed.
    • "When you lose a friend by lending him some money, you get the best of the bargain."
    • Evan Essar, 20. 000 Quips and Quotes (1995)
    • Specified as a proverb in "73". Proverbs, Maxims and Phrases of All Ages: Classified Subjectively and Arranged Alphabetically. G. P. Putnam's sons. 1887. p. 402. 
  • Do not think that one enemy is insignificant, or that a thousand friends are too many. (Strauss 1994, p. 718)
  • Do not use a hatchet to remove a fly from your friend’s forehead.
    • "ADMONITION ~n. "Gentle reproof, as with a meat-axe. Friendly warning.
      Consigned by way of admonition,
      His soul forever to perdition."
    • Ambrose Bierce, The Devil's Dictionary (1906)
    • Mieder, Wolfgang (1992). "hatchet". A Dictionary of American Proverbs. p. 465. ISBN 978-0-19-505399-9. 
  • False friends are worse than open enemies.
    • Specified as a proverb in "87". Proverbs, Maxims and Phrases of All Ages: Classified Subjectively and Arranged Alphabetically. G. P. Putnam's sons. 1887. p. 406. 
  • Friends are lost by calling often and calling seldom.
  • Friends are thieves of time. (17th century)
  • Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears! (William Shakespeare)
    • Laine, Jarkko (toim.): Suuri sitaattisanakirja. Otava, 1989, p. 156. ISBN 9511109618
  • He is my friend who grinds at my mill.
    • "Those who love their neighbor as themselves possess nothing more than their neighbor."
    • Basil of Caesarea, Homily to the Rich (c. 368), in Saint Basil on Social Justice, edited and translated by C. P. Schroeder (2009), p. 43
    • Kelly, Walter Keating (1859). Proverbs of all nations. W. Kent & co. (late D. Bogue). pp. 238. , p. 42
  • He is my friend that succoreth me, not he that pitieth me.
    • "The friend in my adversity I shall always cherish most. I can better trust those who helped to relieve the gloom of my dark hours than those who are so ready to enjoy with me the sunshine of my prosperity."
    • Attributed to Ulysses S. Grant
    • Specified as a proverb in "112". Proverbs, Maxims and Phrases of All Ages: Classified Subjectively and Arranged Alphabetically. G. P. Putnam's sons. 1887. p. 407. 
  • If you want enemies excel others, if you want friends let others excel you.
    • Specified as a proverb in "140". Proverbs, Maxims and Phrases of All Ages: Classified Subjectively and Arranged Alphabetically. G. P. Putnam's sons. 1887. p. 409. 
  • It is a good friend that is always giving, though it be never so little.
  • It is good to have some friends both in heaven and hell. (1640)
  • No longer foster, no longer friend.
    • Specified as a proverb in "169". Proverbs, Maxims and Phrases of All Ages: Classified Subjectively and Arranged Alphabetically. G. P. Putnam's sons. 1887. p. 411. 
  • Our friends are our mirrors and show us ourselves.
    • James Kelly (1818). "B". A Complete Collection of Scottish Proverbs Explained and Made Intelligible to the English Reader. 
  • Perfect friendship cannot be without equality.
    • "It is something that grows over time... a true friendship. A feeling in the heart that becomes even stronger through time...The passion of friendship will soon blossom into a righteous power and through it, you'll know which way to go..."
    • Shigeru Miyamoto, "Shiek", The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (1998)
  • When thy friend asks, let there be no to-morrow.
  • With friends like that, who needs enemies?
    • Der Mensch der Erkenntniss muss nicht nur seine Feinde lieben, er muss auch seine Freunde hassen können.
    • "The knight of knowledge must be able not only to love his enemies, but also to hate his friends."
    • Friedrich Nietzsche, Thus Spoke Zarathustra: A Book for All and None (1885)
    • "A man is morally free when... he judges the world, and judges other men, with uncompromising sincerity. This is not just an aim but an obligation."
    • Nassim Nicholas Taleb, Antifragile: Things That Gain from Disorder (2012)
    • Martin H. Manser (2007). The Facts on File Dictionary of Proverbs. Infobase Publishing. p. 304. ISBN 978-0-8160-6673-5. 

Fruit[edit]

  • Stolen fruit is the sweetest. (Strauss, 1994 p. 835)
  • You know the tree by its fruit.
    • Note: A reversal of the proverb "The apple does not fall far from the tree." The meaning is that you can estimate how children's parents are based on children's behavior, because children take after their parents and are of the same nature as them. (Paczolay, 1997 p. X)
    • Manser, M. (2006). The Wordsworth dictionary of proverbs, Wordsworth Editions, Limited. p. 590)

Garbage[edit]

Garden[edit]

Genius[edit]

Gentleman[edit]

  • It takes three generations to make a gentleman. (Robert Peel)
    • Laine, Jarkko (toim.): Suuri sitaattisanakirja. Otava, 1989, p. 61. ISBN 9511109618
  • Once a gentleman, always a gentleman. (Charles Dickens)
    • Laine, Jarkko (toim.): Suuri sitaattisanakirja. Otava, 1989, p. 60. ISBN 9511109618

Give[edit]

  • From those to whom much is given, much is expected. (Luke 12:48
  • Give and take is fair play.
    • "Exchanging like for like – wether it be a blow, an insult, a favor, or a pardon is a fair and legitimate way to proceed".
    • "Just as being nice to the arrogant is no better than being arrogant toward the nice; being accommodating toward anyone committing a nefarious action condones it."
    • Nassim Nicholas Taleb, Antifragile: Things That Gain from Disorder (2012)
    • Manser, Martin H (2007). The Facts on File dictionary of proverbs. Infobase Publishing. 0816066736. , p. 133
  • Give, and ye shall receive.
    • From Luke 6:38
  • Give credit where credit is due.
    • Derived from Romans 13:7
  • Give him an inch and he'll take a yard.
    • "Give way slightly and he'll press home his advantage. Yielding a little to bad influence (or to a greedy perrson/group), one will be taken entirely or he/it will be encouraged to take much more." (Paczolay, 1997 p. 208)
    • Derived from Romans 13:7
      • Variant: Give a nigger an inch and he'll take an ell.
        • Twain, Mark (1885). Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Charles L. Webster and Company. p. 222 (EBook). 
      • Variant: Give him an inch and he'll take a mile.
        • (Strauss 1998, p. 240)
  • He gives twice who gives in a trice.
    • "Immediate aid is of more value. - A process of derogation can best be stopped in its initial stages, or a process of development can best be helped in the beginning." (Paczolay, 1997 p. 452)

Glory[edit]

  • Follow glory and it will flee, flee glory and it will follow thee. (Strauss 1994, p. 832)

Going[edit]

  • Don't go between the tree and the bark. (Strauss, 1998 p. 204)
    • "When Theodore Roosevelt was in the White House, he confessed that if he could be right 75 percent of the time, he would reach the highest measure of his expectation. If that was the highest rating that one of the most distinguished men of the twentieth century could hope to obtain, what about you and me? If you can be sure of being right only 55 percent of the time, you can go down to Wall Street and make a million dollars a day. If you can't be sure of being right even 55 percent of the time, why should you tell other people they are wrong?"
    • Dale Carnegie, How to make friends and influence people (1936)
    • "It is better to decide a difference between enemies than friends, for one of our friends will certainly become an enemy and one of our enemies a friend."
    • Bias
  • What goes around comes around.
  • What goes up must come down.
  • When the going gets tough, the tough get going.

God[edit]

  • God heals, and the doctor takes the fee. (1640)
  • God helps the rich, the poor can beg. (1659)
  • God is, and all is well.
    • Laine, Jarkko (toim.): Suuri sitaattisanakirja. Otava, 1989, p. 106. ISBN 9511109618
  • God is on the side of the strongest battalions. (Kin 1955, p. 255)
    • "You can have the other words— chance, luck, coincidence,serendipity. I'll take grace."
    • Mary Oliver, Winter Hours (1999)
  • God sends fortune to fools. (1546)
  • God works in mysterious ways.
    • "Sometimes, you need a door slammed in your face before you can hear opportunity knock."
    • James Geary, My Aphorisms, (2009)
    • Select Proverbs. Mustafa Akkus. 23 December 2013. pp. 15–. GGKEY:UBW9H94680W. 
    • Mary Oliver, Winter Hours (1999)
  • God's a good man. (William Shakespeare)
    • Laine, Jarkko (toim.): Suuri sitaattisanakirja. Otava, 1989, p. 108. ISBN 9511109618
  • Whom God will destroy, he first make mad. (Strauss 1994, p. 841)
    • "Someone can conquer kingdoms and countries without being a hero; someone else can prove himself a hero by controlling his temper. Someone can display courage by doing the out-of-the-ordinary, another by doing the ordinary. The question is always-how does he do it?"
    • Soren Kierkegaard Either/Or Part II, (1843)

Gold[edit]

  • All that glisters is not gold. or All that glitters is not gold.
    • "An attractive appearance may be deceptive. It may cover or hide a much less favourable content."
    • Paczolay, Gyula (1997). "19". European proverbs: in 55 languages, with equivalents in Arabic, Persian, Sanskrit, Chinese and Japanese. Veszprémi Nyomda. p. 125. ISBN 1-875943-44-7. 
    • Ward, Caroline (1842). National proverbs in the principal languages of Europe. J.W. Parker. p. 114. 
    • William Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice, act II, scene 7.

Good[edit]

Goods[edit]

  • The best goods are cheapest in the end. (Kelly, 1859 p, 95)
    • It is often the expensive product which ultimately costs the least, because of the pleasure and usefulness it brings us.

Goose[edit]

  • Don't kill the goose that lays the golden eggs.
  • Every man thinks his own geese swans.
    • "This proverb imitates that an inbred Philauty runs through the whole Race of Flefh and Blood. It blinds the Underftanding, perverts the Judgment, depraves the Reafon of the Diftinguishers of Truth and Falfity."
    • Divers Proverbs, Nathan Bailey, 1721 [8]
  • Goose, gander and gosling are three sounds but one thing. (Strauss, 1994 p. 104)
    • "It's funny how people get mad when you treat them the same way they treat you."
    • Bill Murray, Twitter (2015)
  • What's good for the goose is good for the gander.
    • "What is appropriate for one person is equally appropriate for their counterpart or their critic."
    • Mieder, Wolfgang; Kingsbury, Stewart A.; Harder, Kelsie B. (1992). A Dictionary of American proverbs. pp. 710. 

Gossip[edit]

  • Gossip is vice enjoyed vicariously.
    • "It is not death that a man should fear, but never beginning to live."
    • Marcus Aurelius, Meditations (150 BC)
    • "One of the principal functions of a friend is to suffer (in a milder and more symbolic form) the punishments that we should like, but are unable, to inflict upon our enemies"
    • Aldous Huxley, Brave New World (1932).
    • Mieder, Wolfgang (1992). "gossip 3". A Dictionary of American Proverbs. p. 424. ISBN 978-0-19-505399-9. 
  • Whoever gossips to you will gossip of you.

Government[edit]

  • That government is best which governs least.
    • "Dictators ride to and fro on tigers from which they dare not dismount. And the tigers are getting hungry."
    • Winston Churchill, Armistice - or Peace (1937)
    • Wolfgang Mieder (1992). A Dictionary of American Proverbs. Oxford University Press, USA. p. 425. ISBN 978-0-19-505399-9. 


Grass[edit]

  • The grass is always greener on the other side.
    • Manser, Martin H (2007). The Facts on File dictionary of proverbs. Infobase Publishing. 0816066736. , p. 105

Grasp[edit]

  • Grasp all, lose all. (Strauss, 1994 p. 884)

Great[edit]

  • Great events cast their shadows before them.
    • The Edinburgh review, Volym 132. A. and C. Black. 1870. p. 231. 
  • Great minds agree. (Strauss, 1994 p. 882)
  • Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds.
    • Albert Einstein. Buziak, Cari (2011). Calligraphy Magic: How to Create Lettering, Knotwork, Coloring and More. North Light Books. p. 79. 
  • A guilty conscience needs no accuser.
    • Manser, Martin H (2007). The Facts on File dictionary of proverbs. Infobase Publishing. 0816066736. , p. 112

Greeks[edit]

  • Beware of Greeks bearing gifts.
    • Note: "This advice has its root in the story of the Trojan Horse, the treacherous subterfuge by which the Greeks finally overcame their trojan adversaries at the end of the Trojan War."
    • From Virgil's Aeneid Book II, line 48: timeo Danaos et dona ferentes. Translation: I fear the Grecians even when they offer gifts.
    • Wolfgang Mieder (1992). "beware". A Dictionary of American Proverbs. p. 8. ISBN 978-0-19-505399-9. 

Habit[edit]

Hair[edit]

  • Fretting cares make grey hairs. (Strauss, 1994 p. 631

Halvation[edit]

Hand[edit]

  • Never let the right hand know what the left hand is doing.
    • Mieder, Wolfgang; Kingsbury, Stewart A.; Harder, Kelsie B. (1992). A Dictionary of American proverbs. pp. 710. , p. 447
  • One hand washes the other.
    • Bartlett Jere Whiting (1977). "H46". Early American Proverbs and Proverbial Phrases. Harvard University Press. p. 194. ISBN 978-0-674-21981-6. 

Handsome[edit]

  • Handsome is that handsome does. (1670) (Strauss, 1994 p. 879)

Hard[edit]

  • Hard words break no bones. (Strauss, 1998 p. 17)
    • "I hold the maxim no less applicable to public than to private affairs, that honesty is always the best policy."
    • George Washington, Farewell Address (1796)

Hare[edit]

  • Drumming is not the way to catch a hare. (Strauss, 1994 p. 753)
  • You must not run after two hares at the same time.
    • "Concentrate on one thing at a time or you will achieve nothing. - Trying to do two or more things at a time, when even one on its own needs full effort, means that none of them will be accomplished properly."
    • Paczolay, Gyula (1997). "X". European proverbs: in 55 languages, with equivalents in Arabic, Persian, Sanskrit, Chinese and Japanese. Veszprémi Nyomda. p. X. ISBN 1-875943-44-7. 
    • Mawr, E.B. (1885). Analogous Proverbs in Ten Languages. p. 102. 

Haste[edit]

  • Make haste slowly.
    • "Progress with discretion. Acting hastily one is likely to forget/overlook something important, leading to grave errors or failure." (Paczolay, 1997 p. 241)
  • Haste makes waste.

Hawk[edit]

Have[edit]

  • He that can have patience can have what he will. (Strauss, 1994 p. 87)

Head[edit]

  • He that hath a head of wax must not walk in the sun. (Ward, 1842 p. 54)
  • Two heads are better than one.'
    • Ray, John (1737). "T". A Compleat Collection of English Proverbs;: Also the Most Celebrated Proverbs of the Scotch, Italian, French, Spanish, and Other Languages. : The Whole Methodically Digested and Illustrated with Annotations, and Proper Explications. p. 164. 
  • We should not expect to find old heads on young shoulders. (Strauss, 1994 p. 77)
    • Variant: You can't put an old head on young shoulders.
    • "The day the child realizes that all adults are imperfect, he becomes an adolescent; the day he forgives them, he becomes an adult; the day he forgives himself, he becomes wise."
    • Alden Nowlan, Between Tears and Laughter by (1971) (Source provided by the Quote Investigator)
  • When the head is sick, the whole body is sick. (Strauss, 1994 p. 1117)
  • Who falls short in the head must be long in the heels.

Health[edit]

  • Health is better than wealth. (16th century)
    • Ray, John (1812). "14, Haste". A Complete Collection of English Proverbs: Also the Most Celebrated Proverbs of the Scotch, Italian, French, Spanish, and Other Languages. The Whole Methodically Digested and Illustrated with Annotations, and Proper Explanations. p. 120. 
  • Health is wealth.
    • Manser, M. (2006). The Wordsworth dictionary of proverbs, Wordsworth Editions, Limited. p. 273
  • A man too busy to take care of his health is like a mechanic too busy to take care of his tools.
    • "We gotta make a change
      It's time for us as a people to start makin' some changes
      Let's change the way we eat
      Let's change the way we live
      And let's change the way we treat each other
      You see the old way wasn't workin'
      So it's on us to do what we gotta do to survive"
    • Tupac "2Pac" Shakur, Changes (1992)
    • Proverbs, Maxims and Phrases of All Ages. 1888. p. 489. 

Heart[edit]

  • The heart sees farther than the head.
    • "The thing you are most afraid of may be the best thing that ever happen to you."
    • Neil Strauss, Twitter (2019)
    • Strauss, Emanuel (1994). "1675". Dictionary of European Proverbs. II. Taylor & Francis. p. 1181. ISBN 978-0-415-10381-7. 

Heaven[edit]

  • We are as near to heaven by sea as by land! (Humphrey Gilbert)
    • Dying words as his frigate Squirrel sank in the Atlantic Ocean near the Azores, 5 August 1583. Quoted in Richard Hakluyt Third and Last Volume of the Voyages of the English Nation, 1600. Dictionary of Quotations, p. 353

Hedge[edit]

  • A hedge between keeps friends green.
  • Men leap over where the hedge is lower.
    • "This is slavery, not to speak one's thought."
    • Line 392 (Jocasta); translated by Elizabeth Wyckoff; as found in Euripides IV: Helen, The Phoenician Women, Orestes, ed. Griffith, Most, Grene & Lattimore, University of Chicago Press (2013), p. 114
    • Proverbs of All Nations. W. Kent & Company (late D. Bogue). 1859. p. 59. 

Heed[edit]

  • Take heed you find not what you do not seek.
    • "But these are foolish things to all the wise,
      And I love wisdom more than she loves me;
      My tendency is to philosophise
      On most things, from a tyrant to a tree;
      But still the spouseless virgin Knowledge flies,
      What are we? and whence come we? what shall be
      Our ultimate existence? What's our present?
      Are questions answerless, and yet incessant."
    • Lord Byron, Don Juan (1818-24), Canto VI, Stanza 63
    • Goldsmith, W. (1794). "Book IV, Narratives, Dialogues &c". Elegant Extracts: OR Useful and Entertaining PASSAGES in PROSE.: Book Third & Fourth. II. p. 415. 

Hell[edit]

  • And thou unfit for any place but hell. (William Shakespeare)
    • Laine, Jarkko (toim.): Suuri sitaattisanakirja. Otava, 1989, p. 60. ISBN 9511109618
  • Come hell or high water.
    • "The truth is that our finest moments are most likely to occur when we are feeling deeply uncomfortable, unhappy, or unfulfilled. For it is only in such moments, propelled by our discomfort, that we are likely to step out of our ruts and start searching for different ways or truer answers.”
    • Attributed to M. Scott Peck
    • Suomi-englanti-suomi-sanakirja, Sanoma Pro Oy, Helsinki, 2000, p. 786, ISBN 978-952-63-0663-6
  • Hell is empty and all the devils are here. (William Shakespeare)
    • Laine, Jarkko (toim.): Suuri sitaattisanakirja. Otava, 1989, p. 60. ISBN 9511109618
  • The road to hell is paved with good intentions.
    • Jamais on ne fait le mal si pleinement et si gaiement que quand on le fait par conscience.
    • "Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do it conscientiously."
    • Blaise Pascal, Pensées (1669) (# 894 or 895, depending on differing editions)
    • Earlier variants of this proverb are recorded as Hell is paved with good intentions. recorded as early as 1670, and an even earlier variant by Saint Bernard of Clairvaux Hell is full of good intentions or desires.
    • Similar from Latin: "The gates of hell are open night and day; Smooth the descent, and easy is the way" — Virgil, the Aeneid Book VI line 126

Help[edit]

  • Every little helps.
    • "Adam Ewing: We're moving back east to work with the abolitionists.
      Haskell Moore: That poison has rotten your brain! There is a natural order to this world, and those who try to upbend it do not fare well. This movement will never survive; if you join them you and your entire family will be shunned. At best, you will exist a pariah to be spat and beaten; at worst be lynched or crucified. And for what? No matter what you do it will never amount to anything than more than a single drop in a limitless ocean.
      Adam Ewing: What is an ocean but a multitude of drops?"
    • Cloud Atlas (2012) Directed by Lana & Lilly Wachowski and Tom Tykwer
    • Martin H. Manser (2007). The Facts on File Dictionary of Proverbs. Infobase Publishing. p. 77. ISBN 978-0-8160-6673-5. Retrieved on 20 September 2013. 

Hesitation[edit]

  • He who hesitates is lost.
    • "The opportunity is often lost by deliberating."
    • Syrus, Maxims.
    • Mieder, Wolfgang; Kingsbury, Stewart A.; Harder, Kelsie B. (1992). A Dictionary of American proverbs. pp. 710. , p. 492

Hill[edit]

  • If the hill will not come to Mahomet, Mahomet will go to the hill. (Francis Bacon)

Hindsight[edit]

  • Hindsight is always twenty-twenty.
    • Note: 20-20 refers to perfect vision.
    • Brenner, Gail Abel (2003). Concise dictionary of European proverbs. Wiley. p. 284. 0764524771. 

History[edit]

  • History repeats itself.
    • "Lack of foresight, unwillingness to act when action would be simple and effective, lack of clear thinking, confusion of counsel until the emergency comes, until self-preservation strikes its jarring gong—these are the features which constitute the endless repetition of history."
    • Winston Churchill, speech, House of Commons (1935)
    • Speake, Jennifer (2008). A Dictionary of Proverbs. OUP Oxford. p. 345. ISBN 978-0-19-158001-7. 

Hole[edit]

  • If you're in a hole, stop digging.
    • "When you have landed yourself in trouble, such as through a foolish remark or action, do not say or do anything to make it worse."
    • As "If you are in a hole, stop digging." Moore, Merton (December 4, 1920). "Stop Digging—Climb". Holstein-Friesian World XVII (49): 34. Retrieved on 2018-11-11.
    • Variant: Stew it and it will only stink more.
    • Speake, Jennifer (2008). A Dictionary of Proverbs. p. 346. ISBN 978-0-19-158001-7. 

Home[edit]

Honor[edit]

Hope[edit]

Horse[edit]

  • A horseǃ a horseǃ My kingdom for a horseǃ (William Shakespeare)
    • Laine, Jarkko (toim.): Suuri sitaattisanakirja. Otava, 1989, p. 62. ISBN 9511109618
  • A nod's as good as a wink to a blind horse.
    • "Usually suggesting that a person understands very well what another person is getting at as any kind of hint or gesture will suffice to communicate it."
    • Source for proverb and meaning: George Latimer Apperson (May 2006). Dictionary of Proverbs. Wordsworth Editions. p. 413. ISBN 978-1-84022-311-8. Retrieved on 16 September 2013. 
  • Don't change horses in midstream.
  • Don't put the cart before the horse.
    • "It is important to do the things in the right or natural order."
    • Martin H. Manser (2007). The Facts on File Dictionary of Proverbs. Infobase Publishing. p. 63. ISBN 978-0-8160-6673-5. Retrieved on 18 August 2013. 
    • Cf. Dan Michael of Northgate, Ayenbite of Inwyt (1340): "Many religious folk set the plough before the oxen." (Middle English: "Moche uolk of religion зetteþ þe зuolз be-uore þe oksen.")
  • If wishes were horses, beggars would ride.
  • I'll hear it from the horse's mouth.
    • "I will hear it from an authoritative or dependable source."
    • Ammer, Christine (1997). The American Heritage Dictionary of Idioms. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. p. 640. ISBN 039572774X. 
  • It's a good horse that never stumbles.
    • Manser, M. (2006). The Wordsworth dictionary of proverbs, Wordsworth Editions, Limited. p. 290
  • Look not a gift horse in the mouth.
    • "A present should not be criticized. It is an expression of respect and appreciation and any criticism would offend the donor. (The teeth of a horse reveal its age, i.e its real value.)"
    • (Paczolay, 1997 p. 54)
  • Never look a gift horse in the mouth.
    • Goudreau, Colleen Patric (2011). Vegan's Daily Companion: 365 Days of Inspiration for Cooking, Eating, and Living Compassionately. Quarry Books. p. 133. 1592536794. 
  • A golden bit does not make the horse any better. (Strauss, 1998 p. 52)
  • You can lead a horse to water but you can't make it drink.
    • Tom Robbins, Jitterbug Perfume (1984)
    • "It is so amusing the way that mortals misunderstand the shape, or shapes, of time. ... In the realms of the ultimate, each person must figure out things for themselves. ... Teachers who offer you the ultimate answers do not possess the ultimate answers, for if they did, they would know that the ultimate answers cannot be given, they can only be received."
    • Martin H. Manser (2007). The Facts on File Dictionary of Proverbs. Infobase Publishing. p. 304. ISBN 978-0-8160-6673-5. 
    • Medlin, Carl (2008). Second Great Reformation: Man Shall Not Live by Faith Only. Xulon Press. p. 74. 1606476459. 
  • Zeal without knowledge is a runaway horse.
    • "Try not to change the world. You will fail. Try to love the world. Lo, the world is changed. Changed forever."
    • Sri Chinmoy, Meditations: Food For The Soul (1970), August 31
    • Strauss, Emanuel (1994). "703". Dictionary of European Proverbs. II. Routledge. p. X. ISBN 978-1-134-86460-7. 

Hospitality[edit]

  • Hospitality: the virtue which induces us to feed and lodge certain persons who are not in need of food and lodging. (Ambrose Bierce)

House[edit]

  • All things are soon prepared in a well ordered house.
    • Ray, John (1812). "Proverbial Sentences H.". A Complete Collection of English Proverbs: Also the Most Celebrated Proverbs of the Scotch, Italian, French, Spanish, and Other Languages. The Whole Methodically Digested and Illustrated with Annotations, and Proper Explanations. p. 12. 
  • My house is my castle. (Edward Coke)
    • Laine, Jarkko (toim.): Suuri sitaattisanakirja. Otava, 1989, p. 157. ISBN 9511109618
  • People who live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones.
    • Variation: Whose house is of glass, must not throw stones at another.
    • George Herbert, Outlandish Proverbs, 1640; cited in "Proverbs 120". The Yale Book of Quotations. 2006. pp. p. 613. ISBN 0-300-10798-6. 
    • George Herbert, Jacula Prudentum, 1651, number 196

Ignorance[edit]

Imitation[edit]

  • Imiation is the highest form of flattery.
    • "There is no Man so bad, but he secretly respects the Good."
    • Benjamin Franklin, Poor Richard's Almanack (1747)
    • Mieder, Wolfgang (1992). "imitation". A Dictionary of American Proverbs. p. 544. ISBN 978-0-19-505399-9. 

Insanity[edit]

  • Insanity is doing the same thing over and over, expecting different results.
    • Mieder, Wolfgang (2012). The Dictionary of Modern Proverbs. Yale University Press. pp. 312. ISBN 0300136021. 

Iron[edit]

  • Don't have too many irons in the fire. (16th century) (Citatboken)
    • Mieder, Wolfgang; Kingsbury, Stewart A.; Harder, Kelsie B. (1992). A Dictionary of American proverbs. pp. 710. , p. 588
  • Iron sharpens iron. (Whiting, 1997 p. 235)
  • It is always good when a man has two irons in the fire. (Francis Beaumont and John Fletcher)
  • Strike while the iron is hot. or Make hay while the sun shines.
    • "Take advantage of an opportunity when it presents itself, before it passes away. A good opportunity is usually a rare coincidence of various factors, unlikely to be repeated." (Paczolay, 1997 p. 109)
    • George Farquhar, The Beaux' Stratagem, Act IV, scene 2; reported as a proverb in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 642. Walter Scott, The Fair Maid of Perth, Chapter V. Webster, Westward Ho, III. 2. Geoffrey Chaucer, Troylus and Cresseyde, Book II, Stanza 178.

Islands[edit]

  • No man is an island.

Job[edit]

  • If a job is worth doing, it is worth doing well.
    • Manser, M. (2006). The Wordsworth dictionary of proverbs, Wordsworth Editions, Limited. p. 133

Joy[edit]

  • Joy shared, joy doubled: sorrow shared, sorrow halved. (Strauss, 1994 p. 249)

Judgment[edit]

  • Hasty judgment leads to repentance. (Strauss, 1994 p. 196)

Justice[edit]

  • Justice delayed is justice denied.
    • Odia in longum jaciens, quæ reconderet, auctaque promeret.
    • "Laying aside his resentment, he stores it up to bring it forward with increased bitterness."
    • Tacitus, Annales (109) , I, 69
    • Mieder, Wolfgang (1992). "justice, 3". A Dictionary of American Proverbs. p. 571. ISBN 978-0-19-505399-9. 
  • Justice pleaseth few in their own house.
    • "If we neglect objects of charity at home, or within the circle of our immediate acquintance, to extend our good deeds to those abroad, our sincerity, our motives, and our character, are suspected, and there is ground of suspicioun. For it is in the order of nature first to relieve, first, by our liberality, and benefactions, those connected with us - our families, and immediate neighborhood. But true charity does not end at home. The circle of its contributions, beginning at home, is ever enlarging, and if ability and means allow, even until it circumscribes the remotest bounds of earth."
    • Porter, William Henry (1845). "Charity begins at home". Proverbs: Arranged in Alphabetical Order .... p. 51. 
    • Carew Hazlitt, William (1882). English Proverbs and Proverbial Phrases: Collected from the Most Authentic Sources, Alphabetically Arranged, and Annotated. p. 259. 
  • Without justice, courage is weak.

Kindness[edit]

  • Kindness, like grain, increases by sowing.
    • Bohn, Henry George; Ray, John (1860). "K". A Hand-book of Proverbs: Comprising an Entire Republication of Ray's Collection of English Proverbs, with His Additions from Foreign Languages : and an Alphabetical Index, in which are Introduced Large Additions, as Well of Proverbs as of Sayings, Sentences, Maxims, and Phrases. H.G. Bohn. p. 437. 

Keeping[edit]

  • Keep your friends close, but your enemies closer.
    • "He that would live in peace & at ease,
      Must not speak all he knows, nor judge all he sees.      "
    • Benjamin Franklin, Poor Richard's Almanack (1736)
    • Tan, Christine; Christopher, Rita (2015). "118". The English Edge Series: Proverbs & Sayings. Pelangi ePublishing Sdn Bhd. p. 43. ISBN 978-967-431-475-0. 

King[edit]

  • The king can do no wrong. (17th century)

Knowledge[edit]

  • Know thyself.
  • Learning is the eye of the mind.
    • "A discerning man keeps wisdom in view, but a fool's eyes wander to the ends of the earth."
    • Proverbs 17:24, (New International Version)
    • Emanuel Strauss (12 November 2012). "590". Dictionary of European Proverbs. Routledge. ISBN 978-1-134-86460-7. 

Kingdom[edit]

  • A good mind possesses a kingdom. (Strauss, 1998 p. 58)

Kitchen[edit]

  • 'If you can't take the heat, get out of the kitchen.
    • "If you cannot cope with the pace or stress, as in a competitive industry or in a position of high office, then you should leave or resign."
    • Manser, Martin H. (2007). The Facts on File Dictionary of Proverbs. Infobase Publishing. p. 138. ISBN 978-0-8160-6673-5. 
    • Ammer, Christine (1997). The American Heritage Dictionary of Idioms. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. p. 640. ISBN 039572774X. 

Lady[edit]

Knowledge[edit]

Land[edit]

Lane[edit]

  • It's a long lane that has no turning.
    • Belfour, John (1812). "Long". A Complete Collection of English Proverbs: Also, the Most Celebrated Proverbs of the Scotch, Italian, French, Spanish, and Other Languages, the Whole Methodically Digested and Illustrated with Annotations, and Proper Explications. p. 135. 

Language[edit]

Laugh[edit]

  • He laughs best who laughs last.
    • "Do not celebrate prematurely while something is not yet achieved finally. - Unforeseen developments often lead to a less favourable final result." (Paczolay, 1997 p. 395)
  • Laugh and the world laughs with you, cry and you cry alone.
    • Manser, M. (2006). The Wordsworth dictionary of proverbs, Wordsworth Editions, Limited. p. 325

Law[edit]

  • Laws catch flies, but lets hornets go free.
    • "He complained in no way of the evil reputation under which he lived, indeed, all over the world, and he assured me that he himself was of all living beings the most interested in the destruction of Superstition, and he avowed to me that he had been afraid, relatively as to his proper power, once only, and that was on the day when he had heard a preacher, more subtle than the rest of the human herd, cry in his pulpit: "My dear brethren, do not ever forget, when you hear the progress of lights praised, that the loveliest trick of the Devil is to persuade you that he does not exist!"
    • Charles Baudelaire, "The Generous Gambler" (Feb. 1864).
    • Caroline Ward (1842). National Proverbs in the Principal Languages of Europe. J.W. Parker. p. 75. 

Legs[edit]

  • To be on one's last legs. (16th century)

Less[edit]

  • Less is more.
    • "Good writers indulge their audience; great writers know better."
    • Tom Heehler, The Well-Spoken Thesaurus (2011)
    • Il semble que la perfection soit atteinte non quand il n'y a plus rien à ajouter, mais quand il n'y a plus rien à retrancher.
    • "It seems that perfection is attained not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing more to remove."
    • Antoine de Saint Exupéry, L'Avion[specific citation needed]
    • Variant translations:
    • "Perfection is finally attained not when there is no longer anything to add, but when there is no longer anything to take away."
      • As translated by Lewis Galantière"
    • "Perfection is attained not when no more can be added, but when no more can be removed."
    • Martin H. Manser (2007). The Facts on File Dictionary of Proverbs. Infobase Publishing. p. 165. ISBN 978-0-8160-6673-5. 

Liberty[edit]

Lie[edit]

  • A lie can go halfway around the world and back again while the truth is lacing up its boots.

Life[edit]

  • Life begins at forty.
  • Life imitates art.
  • Life is what you make of it.
    • "You got a dream... You gotta protect it. People can't do something' themselves, they wanna tell you you can't do it. If you want something', go get it. Period."
    • Said by the character Chris Gardner in The Pursuit of Happiness (2006) directed by Gabriele Muccino
  • Life's battles don't always go to the stronger or faster man, but sooner or later the man who wins is the one who thinks he can.
    • Lucier, T. J. (2005). How to make money with real estate options: low-cost, low-risk, high-profit strategies for controlling undervalued property-- without the burdens of ownership!, Wiley.
  • Look on the sunny side of life.
  • The best things in life are free.

Lightning[edit]

  • Lightning never strikes twice in the same place.
    • "A moment's insight is sometimes worth a life's experience."
    • Thomas Fuller, The Holy State and the Profane State (1642), Book III, Of Fancy.
    • Mieder, Wolfgang; Kingsbury, Stewart A.; Harder, Kelsie B. (1992). A Dictionary of American proverbs. pp. 710. , p. 634

Like[edit]

Linen[edit]

  • Don't wash your dirty linen in public. (Strauss, 1994 p. 702) (19th century, Citatboken, Bokförlaget Natur och Kultur, Stockholm, 1967, p. 189, ISBN 91-27-01681-1)

Literature[edit]

Little[edit]

Living[edit]

London[edit]

Look[edit]

Loose[edit]

  • Loose lips sink ships.
    • Eugene, D. (2002). 20 Good Reasons to Stay Sober, Booksurge Llc.

Lose/Lost[edit]

  • All is not lost that is in danger.
    • Ward, Caroline (1842). "A". National Proverbs in the Principal Languages of Europe. p. 11. 
  • Use it or lose it.

Love[edit]

Lunch[edit]

Madness[edit]

Make[edit]

  • Make the best of a bad bargain.
    • Mieder, Wolfgang; Kingsbury, Stewart A.; Harder, Kelsie B. (1992). A Dictionary of American proverbs. pp. 710. 

Man[edit]

  • A man's folly ought to be his greatest secret.
  • A man's home is his castle.
    • Variant: An englishman's home is his castle.
    • William Blackstone refers to this traditional proverb in Commentaries on the Laws of England (1765–1769), Book 4, Chapter 16:
      And the law of England has so particular and tender a regard to the immunity of a man's house, that it stiles it his castle, and will never suffer it to be violated with immunity: agreeing herein with the sentiments of ancient Rome, as expressed in the works of Tully; quid enim sanctius, quid omni religione munitius, quam domus unusquisque civium?
      Translation: What more sacred, what more strongly guarded by every holy feeling, than a man's own home?
  • A man's worst enemies are often those of his own house. (Strauss, 1994 p. 52)
  • Do a man a good turn and he'll never forgive you.
    • Il n'est pas si dangereux de faire du mal à la plupart des hommes que de leur faire trop de bien.
    • "It is less dangerous to treat most men badly than to treat them too well."
    • François de La Rochefoucauld, Reflections on Various Subjects (1665–1678) Maxim 238."
    • Strauss, Emanuel (1994). "824". Dictionary of European Proverbs. II. Routledge. p. 198. ISBN 978-1-134-86460-7. 
  • Good men are hard to find.
    • "It is often difficult to find a talented or suitably qualified person when you need one."
    • H. Manser, Martin (2007). "good". The Facts on File Dictionary of Proverbs. p. 107. ISBN 978-0-8160-6673-5. 
  • Man is a noble animal, splendid in ashes, and pompous in the grave. (Thomas Browne)
    • Laine, Jarkko (toim.): Suuri sitaattisanakirja. Otava, 1989, p. 80. ISBN 9511109618
  • Manners maketh the man.
  • The way to a man's heart is through his stomach.
    • Manser, M. (2006). The Wordsworth dictionary of proverbs, Wordsworth Editions, Limited. p. 272
  • Thou wilt scarce be a man before thy mother. (Francis Beaumont and John Fletcher)
  • Wise men learn by other men's harms, fools by their own.
    • von Düringsfield, Ida; von Düringsfield, Otto (1875). "286, Schaden" (in German). Sprichwörter der germanishcen und romanischen Sprachen Vergleichend. II. pp. 162. 

May[edit]

  • Ne'er cast a clout till May be out.

Many[edit]

  • Many a mickle makes a muckle.
    • Mieder, Wolfgang; Kingsbury, Stewart A.; Harder, Kelsie B. (1992). A Dictionary of American proverbs. pp. 710. , p. 698
  • Many things are lost for want of asking.

Marriage[edit]

  • A young man married is a young man marred.
  • Marry in haste, and repent at leisure.
    • Mieder, Wolfgang; Kingsbury, Stewart A.; Harder, Kelsie B. (1992). A Dictionary of American proverbs. pp. 710. , p. 463

Measure[edit]

  • Measure twice, cut once.
    • Mieder, Wolfgang; Kingsbury, Stewart A.; Harder, Kelsie B. (1992). A Dictionary of American proverbs. pp. 710. , p. 171

Mend[edit]

  • It's never too late to mend.
    • Mieder, Wolfgang; Kingsbury, Stewart A.; Harder, Kelsie B. (1992). A Dictionary of American proverbs. pp. 710. , p. 602

Might[edit]

  • Might is right. (14th century)

Mind[edit]

  • Men talk only to conceal the mind. (Strauss 1994, p. 1088)
  • Mind your own business. (Strauss, 1998 p. 719)
  • Mind your P's and Q's. or British: Mind your manners.
    • [2]
    • Makhene, E. R. W. (2008). Mind Your Ps and Qs, Lulu.com.
  • Out of sight, out of mind. (13th century)

Mile[edit]

  • The longest mile is the last mile home.

Milk[edit]

  • It's no use crying over spilt milk. (Strauss, 1994 p. 631)

Mirrors[edit]

  • The best place for criticism is in front of your mirror.
    • [Richter Belmont arrives in Dracula's chamber]
    • "Richter Belmont: Die, monster! You don't belong in this world!
    • Dracula: It was not by my hand that I'm once again given flesh. I was called here by humans who wish to pay me tribute.
    • Richter Belmont: "Tribute"?! You steal men's souls, and make them your slaves!
    • Dracula: Perhaps the same could be said of all religions.
    • Richter Belmont: Your words are as empty as your soul! Mankind ill needs a savior such as you!
    • Dracula: What is a man? [flings his wine glass aside] A miserable little pile of secrets! But enough talk! Have at you!"
    • Toru Hagihara, Castlevania: Symphony of the Night (1997)
    • Martin H. Manser (2007), The Facts on File Dictionary of Proverbs, Infobase Publishing, p. 22, ISBN 978-0-8160-6673-5, retrieved on 14 July 2013 

Misfortune[edit]

  • Misfortunes never come singly. (14th century, Citatboken)
    • One misfortune is often followed by another. - A mishap may weaken/frighten a person/group/relationship, making him/it more liable to fell victim to subsequent minor dangers too.
    • Mieder, Wolfgang; Kingsbury, Stewart A.; Harder, Kelsie B. (1992). A Dictionary of American proverbs. pp. 710. , p. 704
    • (Paczolay, 1997 p. 60)

Miss[edit]

  • A miss by an inch is a miss by a mile.
    • Cf. Scottish Proverbs Collected and Arranged by Andrew Henderson, 1832, p.103: "An inch o' a miss is as gude as a span." [9]

Mistake[edit]

Mob[edit]

Money[edit]

  • For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil.
    • "Did you get your money by fraud? By pandering to men's vices or men's stupidity? By catering to fools, in the hope of getting more than your ability deserves? By lowering your standards? By doing work you despise for purchasers you scorn? If so, then your money will not give you a moment's or a penny's worth of joy. Then all the things you buy will become, not a tribute to you, but a reproach; not an achievement, but a reminder of shame. Then you'll scream that money is evil."
    • Ayn Rand, Francisco d'Anconia in Atlas Shrugged (1957)
  • I'm tired of Love: I'm still more tired of Rhyme. But Money gives me pleasure all the time. (Hilaire Belloc)
  • Money is a good servant, but a bad master. (17th century)
  • Money is like muck, not good except it be spread. (Francis Bacon)
  • Money makes the mare go.
    • Kelly, James (1721). "M". Complete Collection of Scottish Proverbs. p. 243. 
  • Money speaks sense in a language all nations understand. (Aphra Behn)
    • "The great virtue of a free market system is that it does not care what color people are; it does not care what their religion is; it only cares whether they can produce something you want to buy. It is the most effective system we have discovered to enable people who hate one another to deal with one another and help one another."
    • Milton Friedman, "Why Government Is the Problem" (February 1, 1993), p. 19
    • Citatboken, Bokförlaget Natur och Kultur, Stockholm, 1967, p. 60, ISBN 91-27-01681-1
  • Money talks.
    • "Money, which represents the prose of life, and which is hardly spoken of in parlors without an apology, is, in its effects and laws, as beautiful as roses."
    • Ralph Waldo Emerson, Essays: Second Series (1844)
    • H. Manser, Martin (2007). "M". The Facts on File Dictionary of Proverbs. pp. 190–. ISBN 978-0-8160-6673-5. 
  • Put your money where your mouth is.
    • "If you do not take risk for your opinion you are nothing. Don' t tell me what you think, tell me what you have in your portfolio."
    • Nassim Nicholas Taleb, Skin in the game (2018)
    • Mieder, Wolfgang; Kingsbury, Stewart A.; Harder, Kelsie B. (1992). A Dictionary of American proverbs. pp. 710. , p. 714
  • Time is money.
    • Leonard, F. (1995). Time is money: a million dollar investment plan for today's twenty- and thirty-somethings, Perseus Books Group.

More[edit]

  • More haste, less speed. (Strauss, 1994 p. 1095)
  • The more the merrier. (Strauss, 1994 p. 1094)
  • The more things change, the more they stay the same.

Mountain[edit]

  • Don't make a mountain out of a molehill.
    • "Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself."
    • The Bible
    • Mieder, Wolfgang; Kingsbury, Stewart A.; Harder, Kelsie B. (1992). A Dictionary of American proverbs. pp. 710. , p. 708

Mouse[edit]

  • Burn not your house to rid it of the mouse. (Strauss, 1994 p. 568)
    • "Take the first advice of a woman and not the second."
    • Gilbertus Cognatus Noxeranus, Sylloge. See J. J. Grynæus, Adagio, p. 130. Langius, Polyanthea Col (1900) same sentiment. (Prends le premier conseil d'une femme et non le second. French for same). Reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 10-11.

Mouth[edit]

Much[edit]

  • Much is expected where much is given. (Strauss, 1994 p. 1095)
    • "More is expected of those who have received more - that is, those who had good fortune, are naturally gifted, or have been shown special favour."
    • Source for meaning and proverb: Martin H. Manser (2007). The Facts on File Dictionary of Proverbs. Infobase Publishing. p. 75. ISBN 978-0-8160-6673-5. Retrieved on 8 September 2013. 

Muck[edit]

Nail[edit]

  • For want of a nail the shoe is lost, for want of a shoe the horse is lost, for want of a horse the rider is lost.
    • Proverb reported by George Herbert, Jacula Prudentum (1651), #495
  • The nail that sticks up will be hammered down. (Whatling, 2009) From the Japanese, "deru kugi wa utareru."

Nature[edit]

Necessity[edit]

Never[edit]

  • Never lie to your doctor.
    • Huler, Scott (1999). From Worst to First: Behind the Scenes of Continental's Remarkable Comeback. John Wiley & Sons. p. 200. 0471356522. 
  • Never lie to your lawyer.
    • Huler, Scott (1999). From Worst to First: Behind the Scenes of Continental's Remarkable Comeback. John Wiley & Sons. p. 200. 0471356522. 
  • Never put off till (until) tomorrow what you can do today.
    • Mieder, Wolfgang; Kingsbury, Stewart A.; Harder, Kelsie B. (1992). A Dictionary of American proverbs. pp. 710. , p. 264
  • Never say die.
    • "Fight on and fly on to the last drop of blood and the last drop of fuel, to the last beat of the heart."
    • Attributed to Manfred "the Red Baron" von Richthofen
    • Mieder, Wolfgang; Kingsbury, Stewart A.; Harder, Kelsie B. (1992). A Dictionary of American proverbs. pp. 710. , p. 203
  • Never say never.
  • It's never too late to mend.
    • Mieder, Wolfgang; Kingsbury, Stewart A.; Harder, Kelsie B. (1992). A Dictionary of American proverbs. pp. 710. , p.602

Nice[edit]

  • If you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all.
    • Morem, Susan (2005). One hundred one tips for graduates. Infobase Publishing. p. 69. 0816056765. 

No[edit]

  • No man can serve two masters.
  • No man is an island.
    • Manser, M. (2006). The Wordsworth dictionary of proverbs, Wordsworth Editions, Limited. p. 419 e
  • No man is indispensable. (Strauss, 1998 p. 319)
  • No means no.
    • Dictionary of Modern Proverbs (2012)
  • No news is good news.
    • Mieder, Wolfgang; Kingsbury, Stewart A.; Harder, Kelsie B. (1992). A Dictionary of American proverbs. pp. 710. , p. 734 e
  • No pain, no gain.
    • Manser, M. (2006). The Wordsworth dictionary of proverbs, Wordsworth Editions, Limited. 2006

Nothing[edit]

  • Lose nothing for want of asking. (Mawr, 1885 p. 116)
  • Nothing for nothing. (Strauss, 1994 p. 1111)
  • Nothing happens, nobody comes, nobody goes, it's awful! (Samuel Beckett)
  • Nothing ventured, nothing gained. (Manser, 2007 p. 207)
    • Variant: Nothing venture, nothing have. (Divers Proverbs, Nathan Bailey, 1721 [3])
  • You don't get nothing for nothing.

Number[edit]

  • There is luck in odd numbers.
    • James Allan Mair (1873). "T". A handbook of proverbs: English, Scottish, Irish, American, Shakesperean, and scriptural; and family mottoes, ed. by J.A. Mair. p. 70. 

Nut[edit]

Oak[edit]

  • Little strokes fell great oaks.
    • A difficult task, e. g. removing a person/group from a strong position, or changing established ideas cannot be done quickly. It can be achieved gradually, by small steps, a little at a time. (Paczolay, 1997 p. 252)

Old[edit]

One[edit]

  • Take care of number one.
    • "Put your own interests before those of everybody else."
    • H. Manser (2007). "T". The Facts on File Dictionary of Proverbs. p. 257. ISBN 978-0-8160-6673-5. 

Only[edit]

  • The only free cheese is in the mouse trap.
  • The only stupid question is the one that is not asked.
    • Hull, E., K. Jackson, et al. (2005). Requirements engineering, Springer.

Opportunity[edit]

  • Opportunity makes the thief. (13th century)

Out[edit]

  • Out of sight... Out of mind. (13th century)
    • (Citatboken, Bokförlaget Natur och Kultur, Stockholm, 1967, p. 189, ISBN 91-27-01681-1)
    • "Those who leave us are soon forgotten. - Seeing somebody reinforces the memory while a long abscence and the appearance of new impressions may result in a gradual fading of it."
    • Cf. Fulke Greville's sonnet "And out of minds as soons as out of sight"
  • From big oaks little acorns grow.

Over[edit]

Oyster[edit]

Package[edit]

Pain[edit]

  • No pain, no gain.
    • "Nothing can be achieved without effort, suffering, or hardship." (Manser, 2007 p. 205)

Pay[edit]

  • You get what you pay for.

Paradise[edit]

  • There is no greater torment than to be alone in paradise. (Strauss, 1994 p. 1106)

Pardon[edit]

  • Never ask pardon before you are accused.
    • Ward, Caroline (1842). "N". National Proverbs in the Principal Languages of Europe. p. 87. 

Parties[edit]

Peace[edit]

  • If you want peace, prepare for war.
    • "But peace was not peace without honor; peace was not peace purchased by the degration of England; peace was not peace, if we did not hold the commanding station we ought to hold, should it be necessary to go to war."
    • Great Britain. Parliament (1821). The Parliamentary Debates. p. 887. 
    • Speake, Jennifer (2008). "peace". A Dictionary of Proverbs. p. 536. ISBN 978-0-19-158001-7. 
  • Peace: in international affairs, a period of cheating between two periods of fighting. (Ambrose Bierce)
  • There's no peace for the wicked.
  • Those who wish to live in peace, must hear, see, and say nothing.
    • Latin equivalent: Hear, see, be silent, if you wish to live (in peace).
    • "People often claim to hunger for truth, but seldom like the taste when it's served up."
    • George R.R. Martin, A Clash of Kings (1998)
    • Mawr, E.B. (1885). Analogous Proverbs in Ten Languages. p. 82. 

Pen[edit]

Penny[edit]

People[edit]

  • The voice of the people is the voice of god. (Strauss, 1994 p. 1164)

Pestilence[edit]

Pig[edit]

Pill[edit]

  • Bitter pills may have blessed effects.
    • "The ignorant are not blissful; they are the butt of a joke they're not even aware of."
    • Neil Strauss, Rules of the Game: The Style Diaries (2007)
    • Mieder, Wolfgang; Kingsbury, Stewart A.; Harder, Kelsie B. (1992). A Dictionary of American proverbs. pp. 710. , p. 128

Picture[edit]

Pitcher[edit]

  • It's a cracked pitcher that goes oftenest to the well.
  • Little pitchers have big ears. (Strauss 1994, p. 653)

Place[edit]

Playing[edit]

  • Better play a small game than to stand out.
    • "Beware how you take away hope from any human being."
    • Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr., in his valedictory address to medical graduates at Harvard University (10 March 1858), published in The Boston Medical and Surgical Journal, Vol. LVIII, No. 8 (25 March 1858), p. 158; this has also been paraphrased "Beware how you take away hope from another human being"
    • Nathan Bailey, Divers Proverbs (1721)

Please[edit]

Poet[edit]

  • Poets are born, but orators are trained. (Strauss, 1998 p. 331)

Politeness[edit]

Politics[edit]

Pot[edit]

  • A little pot is easily hot.
  • Shit or get off the pot. ( W., 1975)
    • "Decide what you're going to do this week, and not this year. Make decisions right before you do something, not far in advance."
    • Jason Fried and David Heinemeir Hansson, Rework (2009)
  • A watched pot never boils.
    • If you are actively waiting for something to happen, it seldom does.
    • Manser, M. (2006). The Wordsworth dictionary of proverbs, Wordsworth Editions, Limited. p. 611

Poverty[edit]

  • Come away; poverty's catching. (Aphra Behn)
  • Poverty is the reward of idleness.

Power[edit]

  • Power tends to corrupt; absolute power corrupts absolutely.
    • Attributed to Lord Acton
    • H. Manser, Martin (2007). "P". The Facts on File Dictionary of Proverbs. p. 225. ISBN 978-0-8160-6673-5. 

Practice[edit]

  • Practice makes perfect.
  • Practice what you preach.
    • Manser, M. (2006). The Wordsworth dictionary of proverbs, Wordsworth Editions, Limited. p. 469

Precept[edit]

  • Precepts teach, examples move.
    • "A good Example is the best Sermon."
    • Thomas Fuller, Gnomologia (1732)
    • "Don't worry that children never listen to you; worry that they are always watching you."
    • Robert Fulghum, As quoted in Reflections for Tending the Sacred Garden (2003) by Bonita Jean Zimmer, p. 182
    • William Henry Porter (1845). Proverbs: Arranged in Alphabetical Order .... Munroe and Company. p. 156. 

Pregnancy[edit]

  • You can't be a little pregnant.
    • Doyle, Charles Clay; Mieder, Wolfgang; Shapiro, Fred R. (2012). "T, "Thing"". Dictionary of Modern Proverbs. p. 253. ISBN 0300136021. 

Prejudice[edit]

Prepare[edit]

  • Hope for the best, but prepare for the worst.
    • Mieder, Wolfgang; Kingsbury, Stewart A.; Harder, Kelsie B. (1992). A Dictionary of American proverbs. pp. 710. , p. 512

Prevention[edit]

Price[edit]

  • All those men have their price. (Robert Walpole)
    • Laine, Jarkko (toim.): Suuri sitaattisanakirja. Otava, 1989, p. 64. ISBN 9511109618
  • Every man has his price.
    • "'Tis a hard task not to surrender morality for riches."
    • Martial, XI, 5, reported in Harbottle's Dictionary of Quotations (Classical) (1958), p. 15.
    • Wolfgang Mieder; Stewart A. Kingsbury; Kelsie B. Harder (1992). A Dictionary of American Proverbs. 
  • Everything is worth its price. (Strauss, 1994 p. 800)
  • I know my price. (William Shakespeare)
    • Laine, Jarkko (toim.): Suuri sitaattisanakirja. Otava, 1989, p. 64. ISBN 9511109618

Pride[edit]

  • Pride comes before the fall. (Strauss, 1994 p. 1148)

Prison[edit]

Problem[edit]

  • If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the problem. (Adam, 2010 p. 25)
  • A problem shared is a problem halved. (Strauss, 1994 p. 351)

Promise[edit]

Prophet[edit]

Prosperity[edit]

Proud[edit]

  • As proud as a peacock. (14th century)
  • As proud as Lucifer. (14th century)

Proverb[edit]

  • Proverbs run in pairs.
    • "Proverbs depend for their truth entirely on the occasion they are applied to. Almost every wise saying has an opposite one, no less wise, to balance it."
    • George Santayana, The Life of Reason, Vol. 5: Reason in Science (1906), Ch. 8: "Prerational Morality".
    • Sir Richard Francis Burton (1863). Abeokuta and the Camaroons Mountains: An Exploration. p. 309. 

Publisher[edit]

  • Now Barabbas was a publisher. (Lord Byron)
    • Laine, Jarkko (toim.): Suuri sitaattisanakirja. Otava, 1989, p. 171. ISBN 9511109618

Pudding[edit]

Punishment[edit]

  • Punishment is lame but it comes. (Strauss, 1994 p. 682)

Question[edit]

Race[edit]

  • Slow and steady wins the race. (Strauss, 1994 p. 1155)

Rag[edit]

  • A rag and a bone and a hank of hair.
    • Laine, Jarkko (toim.): Suuri sitaattisanakirja. Otava, 1989, p. 234. ISBN 9511109618
  • Like a red rag to a bull.

Rat[edit]

  • Rats desert a sinking ship. (Strauss, 1994 p. 1150)

Reality[edit]

  • Reality is not only stranger than we imagine, it is stranger than we can imagine.
    • Caper, R. (1999). A mind of one's own: a Kleinian view of self and object, Routledge

Reap[edit]

  • What you sow is what you reap.
    • Goodwin, F. A. (2005). You Reap What You Sow. R.A.N. Pub id = 1411643550. pp. 203. 

Reason[edit]

  • Reason does not come before years. (Strauss, 1994 p. 1150)

Remedy[edit]

  • The remedy is worse than the disease. (Francis Bacon) (Citatboken, Bokförlaget Natur och Kultur, Stockholm, 1967, p. 56, ISBN 91-27-01681-1)
    • Manser, M. (2006). The Wordsworth dictionary of proverbs, Wordsworth Editions, Limited. p. 486

Revenge[edit]

  • Revenge is a dish best served cold.
  • There is small revenge in words, but words may be greatly revenged.
    • "If you believe you're a success, crikey, I should think it will come up and get you by the...tail."
    • Dame Judy Dench, British actress. From her interview with Martyn Lewis, in his book, Reflections on Success (1997)
    • "Revenge. 30". Proverbs, Maxims and Phrases of All Ages. 1888. p. 208. 
  • To forget wrong is the best revenge.
    • "The best revenge is massive success."
    • Attributed to Frank Sinatra
    • "Revenge. 33". Proverbs, Maxims and Phrases of All Ages. 1888. p. 208. 

Revolution[edit]

Riches[edit]

  • If you're so smart, why aren't you rich?
    • Doyle, Charles Clay; Mieder, Wolfgang; Shapiro, Fred R. (2012). "S, Slip". Dictionary of Modern Proverbs. p. 234. ISBN 0300136021. 
  • Riches are for spending. (Francis Bacon)

Road[edit]

Rod[edit]

  • He makes a rod for his own back. (14th century)

Rome[edit]

Rope[edit]

Rules[edit]

  • Rules were meant to be broken.
    • "It's easier to ask forgiveness than it is to get permission."
    • Grace Hopper, in "Only the Limits of Our Imagination", interview by Diane Hamblen in U.S. Navy's Chips Ahoy magazine (July 1986).
    • Speake, Jennifer (2015). "broken". Oxford Dictionary of Proverbs. p. 38. ISBN 978-0-19-105959-9. 

Say[edit]

  • Least said, soonest mended.
    • "In private animosities and verbal contentions, where angry passions are apt to rise, and irritating, if not profane expressions are often made use of, as we sometimes see to be the case, not only among neighbors, but in families, between husbands and wives, or parents and children, or the children themselves and other members of the household, - the least said, the better in general. By multiplying words, cases often grow worse instead of better."
    • Porter, William Henry (1845). Proverbs: Arranged in Alphabetical Order .... Munroe and Company. pp. 125. 
  • "Well done" is better than "well said".

Sea[edit]

  • He complains wrongfully at the sea that suffer shipwreck twice. (Strauss, 1994 p. 898)

See[edit]

  • Monkey see, monkey do.
    • Mieder, Wolfgang; Kingsbury, Stewart A.; Harder, Kelsie B. (1992). A Dictionary of American proverbs. pp. 710. , p. 709
  • There are none so blind as they who do not want to see. (Strauss, 1998 p. 320)
  • What you see is what you get.
    • "People tell you who they are, but we ignore it - because we want them to be who we want them to be."
    • Said by the fictional character Don Draper in Mad Men (2010), created by Matthew Weiner.
    • McLenighan, Valjean (1981). What you see is what you get. Follett Pub. Co.. p. 4. 0695313703. 

Service[edit]

  • Proffer'd service stinks. (Strauss, 1994 p. 1149)

Shadow[edit]

  • Catch not at the shadow and lose the substance. (Strauss, 1998)

Shame[edit]

  • Shame take him that shame thinketh. (Strauss, 1994 p. 806)

Sheep[edit]

  • He that makes himself a sheep shall be eaten by the wolf.
    • Carew Hazlitt, William (1869). "H". English Proverbs and Proverbial Phrases: Collected from the Most Authentic Sources. p. 185. 
  • One might as well be hanged for a sheep as a lamb.

Shoe[edit]

  • If the shoe fits, wear it.
  • No one knows where the shoe pinches, but he who wears it.
  • To know where the shoe pinches. (14th century)

Shoemaker/Cobbler[edit]

  • Cobblers children are worst shod.
    • "Working hard for others one may neglect one's own needs or the needs of those closest to him." (Paczolay, 1997 p. 65).
  • Shoemaker, stick to your last.
    • Mieder, Wolfgang; Kingsbury, Stewart A.; Harder, Kelsie B. (1992). A Dictionary of American proverbs. pp. 710. , p. 723

Show[edit]

  • Eighty percent of life is showing up.
    • "I made the statement years ago which is often quoted that 80 percent of life is showing up. People used to always say to me that they wanted to write a play, they wanted to write a movie, they wanted to write a novel, and the couple of people that did it were 80 percent of the way to having something happen. All the other people struck out without ever getting that pack. They couldn't do it, that's why they don't accomplish a thing, they don't do the thing, so once you do it, if you actually write your film script, or write your novel, you are more than half way towards something good happening. So that I was say [sic] my biggest life lesson that has worked. All others have failed me."
    • Woody Allen, Interview for The Collider (2008).
    • "The pain of letting yourself down is much greater than anything someone else can say."
    • Neil Strauss, Rules of the Game (2007)
    • Mieder, Wolfgang; Shapiro, Fred R.; Clay Doyle, Charles (2012). "E". The Dictionary of Modern Proverbs. ISBN 978-0-300-18335-1. 
  • The show must go on.

Sight[edit]

  • Out of sight, out of mind. (13th century)

Silence[edit]

Simplicity[edit]

Sin[edit]

  • There's a sin of omission as well as commision.

Sky[edit]

  • The sky's the limit.
    • "Why then, can one desire too much of a good thing?"
    • William Shakespeare, As You Like It (1623, posthumously)
    • Manser, Martin H (2007). "S". The Facts on File dictionary of proverbs. p. 245. ISBN 9780816066735. 

Slippery[edit]

  • As slippery as an eel. (15th century)

Smile[edit]

  • There's daggers in men's smiles. (William Shakespeare)
    • Laine, Jarkko (toim.): Suuri sitaattisanakirja. Otava, 1989, p. 73. ISBN 9511109618
  • When you call me that, smileǃ (Owen Wister)
    • Laine, Jarkko (toim.): Suuri sitaattisanakirja. Otava, 1989, p. 73. ISBN 9511109618

Snail[edit]

  • By perseverance the snail reached the arc.
    • (Strauss, 1994 p. 127)

Snooze[edit]

Son[edit]

  • A son is a son 'till he gets him a wife; a daughter's a daughter all her life.

Soul[edit]

  • O, God, if there be a God, save my soul if I have a soulǃ (A soldier before the battle of Blenheim in 1704)

Sowing[edit]

  • As you sow, so you reap.
    • "The consequences are directly related to one's actions." (Paczolay, 1997 p. 38).
    • "It seems that every life form on this planet strives toward its maximum potential...except human beings. A tree does not row to half its potential size and then say, 'l guess that will do."
    • Jim Rohn, Five Major Pieces To the Life Puzzle (1991)
  • Sow thin, shear thin. (Strauss, 1998 p. 1158)
    • "He that sows bountifully, also reaps bountifully. Raise high your standard of excellence, if you would make worthy attainments."
    • Porter, William Henry (1845). Proverbs: Arranged in Alphabetical Order .... Munroe and Company. p. 163. 
  • To sow one's wild oats. (16th century)

Spade[edit]

Speech[edit]

Spice[edit]

Spirit[edit]

  • The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak.
    • H. Bechtel, John (1910). Proverbs. p. 176. 

Steed[edit]

  • While the grass grows the steed starves. (Strauss, 1994 p. 1228)
    • Dreams or expectations may be realized too late.

Stitch[edit]

  • A stitch in time saves nine.
    • Cf. Gnomologia: Adagies and Proverbs Collected by Thomas Fuller, 1732, Vol. II, p. 283, Nr. 6291 : "A Stitch in Time // May save nine." [10]
    • "No one needs to be told that a vast deal of labor is expended unnecessarily. This is occasioned, to a great extent, by the neglect of seasonable repairs."
    • Source for meaning:Porter, William Henry (1845). Proverbs: Arranged in Alphabetical Order .... Munroe and Company. p. 13. 

Stone[edit]

  • Leave no stone unturned.
    • "Do not go upon what has been acquired by repeated hearing (anussava),
    • nor upon tradition (paramparā),
    • nor upon rumor (itikirā),
    • nor upon what is in a scripture (piṭaka-sampadāna)
    • nor upon surmise (takka-hetu),
    • nor upon an axiom (naya-hetu),
    • nor upon specious reasoning (ākāra-parivitakka),
    • nor upon a bias towards a notion that has been pondered over (diṭṭhi-nijjhān-akkh-antiyā),
    • nor upon another's seeming ability (bhabba-rūpatāya),
    • nor upon the consideration, The monk is our teacher (samaṇo no garū)
    • 'Kalamas, when you yourselves know: "These things are good; these things are not blamable; these things are praised by the wise; undertaken and observed, these things lead to benefit and happiness," enter on and abide in them.' "
    • Gautama Buddha, Kalama Sutta - Angutarra Nikaya 3.65 (~ O B.C)
    • William George Smith; Paul Harvey (1960). The Oxford Dictionary of English Proverbs. p. 359. 
  • Sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me.
  • A rolling stone gathers no moss.

Straw[edit]

  • A drowning man will clutch at a straw.
    • "A man in extreme difficulty will try anything which seems to offer even the slightest help to extricate himself." (Paczolay, 1997 p. 384)

Stream[edit]

Street[edit]

  • Old streets a glamour hold. (K. W. Baker)
    • Laine, Jarkko (toim.): Suuri sitaattisanakirja. Otava, 1989, p. 121. ISBN 9511109618

Strike[edit]

  • Strike when the iron is hot. (14th century)

Storage[edit]

Success[edit]

  • Confidence is the companion of success.
    • Specified as a proverb in "5". Proverbs, Maxims and Phrases of All Ages: Classified Subjectively and Arranged Alphabetically. G. P. Putnam's sons. 1887. p. 168. d
  • Failure is the stepping stone for success.
    • Mieder, Wolfgang; Kingsbury, Stewart A.; Harder, Kelsie B. (1992). A Dictionary of American proverbs. pp. 710. 
  • Nothing succeeds like success.
    • Knowledge is indivisible. "When people grow wise in one direction, they are sure to make it easier for themselves to grow wise in other directions as well. On the other hand, when they split up knowledge, concentrate on their own field, and scorn and ignore other fields, they grow less wise — even in their own field."
    • Isaac Asimov, The Roving Mind (1983), Ch. 25
    • Manser, M. (2006). The Wordsworth dictionary of proverbs, Wordsworth Editions, Limited.
  • One secret of success is to know how to deny yourself and other people.
  • Success is a journey not a destination.
    • "We are told from childhood onward that everything we want to do is impossible. We grow up with this idea, and as the years accumulate, so too do the layers of prejudice, fear and guilt. There comes a time when our personal calling is so deeply buried in our soul as to be invisible. But it's still there."
    • Paulo Coelho, The Alchemist (1988)
    • K. Singh, Anup (2017). "S". Dictionary of Proverbs. p. 94. GGKEY:3DUS38CW7YC. 

Sun[edit]

  • There is nothing new under the sun.
    • "It turns out very often that something 'never seen/experienced before' especially in human relationships - has, in fact, in some way or another, happened before. - Human nature and the basic human aspirations did not change." (Paczolay, 1997 p. 461)

Sunday[edit]

Superstition[edit]

Surgeon[edit]

Suspicion[edit]

Swallow[edit]

  • One swallow does not make a summer.
    • "Just because there is evidence does not mean there is truth"(Paczolay, 1997 p. 44)
    • Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics (c. 325 BC), I.1098a18

Swimmer[edit]

  • Good swimmers are often drowned. (Strauss, 1994 p. 879)

Sword[edit]

  • A blow with a word strikes deeper than a blow with a sword.
  • Live by the sword, die by the sword.
  • The pen is mightier than the sword.
    • Mazer, Anna (2009). The Pen Is Mightier Than the Sword. Baker & Taylor. 1442012889. 

Take[edit]

  • Take things as you find them. (Strauss 1994, p. 722)
    • "Wing it"
    • Kim Kardashian, 73 Questions With Kim Kardashian West (ft. Kanye West) | Vogue (2019)

Talk[edit]

  • He that talketh what he knoweth, will also talk what he knoweth not. (Francis Bacon)
  • He that talks to himself, speaks to a fool. (1721)

Tango[edit]

  • It takes two to tango. (Oshry, 1996 p. 59)
    • "The reason that there are so few good conversationalists is that most people are thinking about what they are going to say and not about what the others are saying."
    • François de La Rochefoucauld, Réflexions diverses, IV: De la conversation. (1731)

Tat[edit]

Temptation[edit]

  • Without temptation there is no victory.

Thief[edit]

  • Once a thief always a thief. (Strauss, 1994 p. 771)
  • Set a thief to catch a thief.
    • George Bohn, Henry; Ray, John (1855). "T". A Hand-book of Proverbs: Comprising Ray's Collection of English Proverbs, with His Additions from Foreign Languages. And a Complete Alphabetical Index. p. 136. 

Thing[edit]

Think[edit]

Thought[edit]

  • First thoughts are best.
    • "It is often said that second thoughts are best. So they are in matters of judgment, but not in matters of conscience. In matters of duty, first thoughts are commonly best. They have more in them of the voice of God."
    • John Henry Newman, Parochial and Plain Sermons: Volume IV (1838), 8 2
    • Jennifer Speake, A Dictionary of Proverbs Jennifer Speake p. 40
  • Second thoughts are the best.
    • Mawr, E.B. (1885). Analogous Proverbs in Ten Languages. p. 73. 
  • Thought is freeǃ (William Shakespeare)

Time[edit]

  • Footprints on the sands of time are not made by sitting down.
    • "People who idle their lives away will not make a lasting impression on history or be remembered for their great achievements."
    • Manser, Martin H (2007). The Facts on File dictionary of proverbs. Infobase Publishing. 0816066736. 
  • Nature, time, and patience are three great physicians.
    • Manser, M. (2006). The Wordsworth dictionary of proverbs, Wordsworth Editions, Limited.
  • Procrastination is the thief of time.
  • Time and tide wait for no man.
    • "Time and Tide wait for no man". Proverbs in Verse, Or Moral Instruction Conveyed in Pictures, on the Plan of Hogarth Moralized. to which are Prefixed Rules for Reading Verse. 1811. p. 107. 
  • Time flies.
  • Time flies when you're having fun.
  • Time himself is bald. (William Shakespeare)
    • Laine, Jarkko (toim.): Suuri sitaattisanakirja. Otava, 1989, p. 118. ISBN 9511109618
  • Time is money.
  • Time is precious. (Paczolay, 1997 p. 428)
  • Time will tell.
    • "Talking nonsense is the sole privilege mankind possesses over the other organisms. It's by talking nonsense that one gets to the truth! I talk nonsense, therefore I'm human"
    • Fyodor Dostoevsky, Notes from Underground, White Nights, The Dream of a Ridiculous Man, and Selections from The House of the Dead
  • There is no time like the present. (18th century) (Citatboken)
    • "Okay, listen to that little voice that comments, speculates, judges, compares, complains, likes, dislikes, and don't judge it, okay? 'Cause if you judge it, what happens? Your mind got in the back door. So, simply watch it impartially. Let it be."
    • Julien Blanc, The Power Of Now: The Secret To Becoming Present & Breaking The Habit Of Excessive Thinking (2016)
    • Elkin, A. (1999). Stress management for dummies, John Wiley & Sons.
  • There is nothing more precious than time and nothing more prodigally wasted. (Strauss 1994, p. 722)
  • To choose time is to save time. (Francis Bacon)

Tomorrow[edit]

  • Avoid the pleasure which will bite tomorrow.
    • Ward, Caroline (1842). "A". National Proverbs in the Principal Languages of Europe. p. 11. 
  • Never put off till tomorrow what can be done today.
    • "It may be more difficult or sometimes even impossible to do something later, which can be easily done now." or "One can have time later for something else if a job is done now." (Paczolay, 1997 p. 87)
  • Tomorrow is another day.

Tongue[edit]

Tools[edit]

  • A bad workman blames his tools.
    • George Herbert reports early English variants in Jacula Prudentum; or, Outlandish Proverbs, Sentences, Etc. (1640):
    • Compare the older French proverb:
    • Galen explains clearly, if less succinctly, in De Causis Procatarcticis (2nd c. A.D.), VI. 63–65:
      • They blame their tools: why did the carpenter make the bed so badly, if he was any good? He will reply: "Because I used a poor axe and a thick gimlet, because I did not have a rule, I lost my hammer, and the hatchet was blunt", and other things of this kind. [...] And who does not know that artisans make themselves responsible for the deficiencies in their work too, when they cannot pin the blame on material and tools?
    • "A common mistake that people make when trying to design something completely foolproof is to underestimate the ingenuity of complete fools."
    • Douglas Adams in Mostly Harmless (1992)
  • Do not play with edged tools. (Strauss, 1994 p. 716)

Trade[edit]

  • Jack of all trades and master of none.
    • George Bohn, Henry; Ray, John (1860). "J". A Hand-book of Proverbs: Comprising an Entire Republication of Ray's Collection of English Proverbs, with His Additions from Foreign Languages : and an Alphabetical Index, in which are Introduced Large Additions, as Well of Proverbs as of Sayings, Sentences, Maxims, and Phrases. p. 436. 

Treasure[edit]

  • A good name is the best of all treasures. (Strauss, 1998 p. 20)

Tree[edit]

  • People only throw stones at trees with fruit on them.
    • "Censure is the tax a man pays to the public for being eminent."
    • Jonathan Swift, Thoughts on Various Subjects from Miscellanies (1711-1726).
    • Emanuel Strauss (1994). "1292". Dictionary of European Proverbs. Taylor & Francis. p. 1008. ISBN 978-0-415-10381-7. 
  • The apple never falls far from the tree.
    • "Children observe daily and — in their behaviour — often follow the example of their parents." (Paczolay, 1997 p. 259).
  • There is no tree but bears some fruit. (Mawr, 1885 p. 131)

Trencher[edit]

Trouble[edit]

  • Never trouble trouble 'til trouble troubles you.
    • “The positive Warrior energy destroys only what needs to be destroyed in order for something new and fresh, more alive and more virtuous to appear.”
    • Robert L. Moore, King, Warrior, Magician, Lover: Rediscovering the Archetypes of the Mature Masculine (1991)
    • Anand Prahlad, Sw.; Prahlad, S. W. (1996). African-American Proverbs in Context. p. 254. ISBN 978-0-87805-890-7. 
  • So pack up your troubles in your old kit-bag. And smile, smile, smile. (George Asaf)

Trust[edit]

  • If you trust before you try, you may repent before you die.
    • "LECTURER ~n. One with his hand in your pocket, his tongue in your ear and his faith in your patience."
    • Ambrose Bierce, The Devil's Dictionary (1906)
  • Divers Proverbs, Nathan Bailey, 1721 p.b72

Truth[edit]

Trying[edit]

  • Don't try to be someone you're not.
    • "What you would seem to be, be really."
    • Benjamin Franklin, Poor Richard's Almanack (1744)
    • Doyle, Charles Clay; Mieder, Wolfgang; Shapiro, Fred R. (2012). "T, try". The Dictionary of Modern Proverbs. p. 265. ISBN 0300136021. 
  • You never know what you can do until you try.
    • "People are often surprised to discover what they are capable of when they make an effort." (Manser, 2007 p. 316)

Turn[edit]

  • One good turn deserves another.
    • Kelly, James (1721). "O". Complete Collection of Scottish Proverbs. p. 269. 

Two[edit]

Valley[edit]

Variety[edit]

Vat[edit]

  • Let every vat stand upon its own bottom. (William Bullein)
    • Laine, Jarkko (toim.): Suuri sitaattisanakirja. Otava, 1989, p. 98. ISBN 9511109618

Vessel[edit]

  • Empty vessels make the most sound.
    • "Stupid, 'empty headed' people - lacking due consideration - are often verbose." (Paczolay, 1997 p. 146)

Vicar[edit]

  • The vicar of Bray will be vicar of Bray. (Manser, 2007 p. 286)

Vice[edit]

  • Where vice goes before, vengeance follows after.

Village[edit]

Virtue[edit]

  • Virtue which parleys is near a surrender.
    • Divers Proverbs, Nathan Bailey, 1721 [3]

Wagon[edit]

Wait[edit]

Walk[edit]

  • Don't talk the talk if you can't walk the walk.
  • Learn to walk before you run.
  • Walk softly, carry a big stick.
    • Mieder, Wolfgang; Kingsbury, Stewart A.; Harder, Kelsie B. (1992). A Dictionary of American proverbs. pp. 710. , p. 752
  • Walk the talk. (Manser, 2007)
    • "I always pass on good advice. It is the only thing to do with it. It is never of any use to oneself."
    • Oscar Wilde, An Ideal Husband (1895), Act I.

War[edit]

  • War is too important to be left to the generals.
    • "Therefore my tax-payer, resign yourself to this: that we may fight bravely, fight hard, fight long, fight cunningly, fight recklessly, fight in a hundred and fifty ways, but we cannot fight cheaply."
    • George Bernard Shaw, The Technique of War (1917)
    • Source for proverb and meaning: Martin H. Manser (2007). The Facts on File Dictionary of Proverbs. Infobase Publishing. p. 287. ISBN 978-0-8160-6673-5. Retrieved on 19 June 2013. 

Waste[edit]

Water[edit]

  • Still water runs deep.
    • "Slow but steady work can achieve much." or "That a man says little does not mean that he does not think profoundly."
    • Paczolay, Gyula (1997). "78". European proverbs: in 55 languages, with equivalents in Arabic, Persian, Sanskrit, Chinese and Japanese. Veszprémi Nyomda. p. 373. ISBN 1-875943-44-7. 
  • Wade not in unknown waters.
    • "Never esteem anything as of advantage to you that will make you break your word or lose your self-respect."
    • Marcus Aurelius Meditations (c. 161–180 CE)
    • George Latimer Apperson (1 January 2005). Dictionary of Proverbs. Wordsworth Editions. p. 608. ISBN 978-1-84022-311-8. 

Web[edit]

  • What a tangled web we weave, when first we practice to deceive.

Wealth[edit]

  • All the wealth I had ran in my veins; I was a gentleman. (William Shakespeare)
    • Laine, Jarkko (toim.): Suuri sitaattisanakirja. Otava, 1989, p. 61. ISBN 9511109618
  • Wealth rarely brings happiness. (Strauss, 1994 p. 670)

West[edit]

  • Go West, young man, go West! (John Soule)
    • Laine, Jarkko (toim.): Suuri sitaattisanakirja. Otava, 1989, p. 202. ISBN 9511109618

Whale[edit]

  • Set a herring to catch a whale. (Strauss, 1994 p. 1134)

Wheel[edit]

  • Don't try to reinvent the wheel.
    • The things you are doing, no matter how seemingly unique, has been done before. Take advantage of, and perhaps expand upon, your predecessors work.
    • Heacock, Paul (2003). Cambridge Dictionary of American Idioms (Illustrated ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 512. ISBN 052153271X. 
  • The squeaky wheel gets the grease.

Wife[edit]

  • A cheerful wife is the spice of life. (Strauss, 1998 p. 20)
  • A man's best fortune or his worst is a wife. (Strauss, 1994 p. 65)
  • Choose a wife rather by your ear than your eye. (Strauss, 1994 p. 655)
  • He that will thrive must first ask his wife.
  • The cobbler's wife is the worst shod.
  • There are only two kinds of women, the plain and the coloured.
    • Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray (1890), Chapter III. Same in Woman of No Importance, Act III.
  • Two things prolong your life: A quiet heart and a loving wife.
    • Manser, M. (2006). The Wordsworth dictionary of proverbs, Wordsworth Editions, Limited.
  • Wives are young men's mistresses; companions for middle age; and old men's nurses. (Francis Bacon)

Will[edit]

  • He that will not when he may, when he will he may have nay.
    • "Take advantage of an opportunity when it presents itself, even if you do not want or need it at the time, because it may no longer be available when you do."
    • Martin H. Manser (2007). The Facts on File Dictionary of Proverbs. Infobase Publishing. p. 120. ISBN 978-0-8160-6673-5. 
    • Kelly, Walter Keating (1859). Proverbs of all nations. W. Kent & co. (late D. Bogue). pp. 41. 
  • Take the will for the deed. (Strauss, 1994 p. 881)
    • Judge by the well intentioned effort, and not it's effects.
  • Where there is a will, there is a way.
    • Manser, M. (2006). The Wordsworth dictionary of proverbs, Wordsworth Editions, Limited. p. 627

Win[edit]

  • Slow and steady wins the race.
    • Mieder, Wolfgang; Kingsbury, Stewart A.; Harder, Kelsie B. (1992). A Dictionary of American proverbs. pp. 710. , p. 734

Wind[edit]

  • He that sows the wind shall reap the whirlwind.
    • "Trouble once started can spark off a chain reaction, often resulting in a great trouble out of control."
    • Source for meaning:Paczolay, Gyula (1997). "103". European proverbs: in 55 languages, with equivalents in Arabic, Persian, Sanskrit, Chinese and Japanese. Veszprémi Nyomda. p. 459. ISBN 1-875943-44-7. 

Wine[edit]

  • For when the wine is in the wit is out. (Thomas Becon)
  • Life is too short (to drink bad wine).
    • Hoggart, S. (2009). Life's Too Short to Drink Bad Wine: 100 Wines for the Discerning Drinker, Quapuba.
  • Good wine needs no bush.
    • It was customary since early times to hang a grapevine, ivy or other greenery over the door of a tavern or way stop to advertise the availability of drink within.
    • Martin (2010). Good Wine Needs No Bush. Arthur Bruce Martin. pp. 200. ISBN 0646539477. 
  • Wine in , truth out. (16th century)

Winning[edit]

Wisdom[edit]

Wise[edit]

  • Some are wise and some are otherwise. (1659)

Wish[edit]

  • Be careful what you wish for, you just might get it.
  • The wish is father to the thought.
    • "With how much ease believe we what we wish!"
    • John Dryden, All for Love. (1678)
    • Mieder, Wolfgang; Kingsbury, Stewart A.; Harder, Kelsie B. (1992). A Dictionary of American proverbs. pp. 710. , p. 303

With[edit]

  • He who is not with me is against me.
    • "Don't be reckless with other people's hearts. Don't put up with people who are reckless with yours."
    • Mary Schmich, Advice, like youth, probably just wasted on the young (1997)
    • Originally from the Bible, Luke 11:23 and Matthew 12:30. Specificed as a proverb in (Strauss, 1994 p. 974)

Woeful[edit]

  • Willful waste makes woeful want. (Wolfgang, 1992 p. 925)

Wolf[edit]

  • The wolf finds a reason for taking the lamb. (Strauss, 1994, p. 68)
    • "When people behave badly they always invent a philosophy of life which represents their bad actions to be not bad actions at all, but merely results of unalterable laws beyond their control."
    • Leo Tolstoy, The Slavery of Our Times (1890)

Woman[edit]

  • Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned.
  • There is no other purgatory but a woman. (Francis Beaumont and John Fletcher)
  • Well behaved women seldom make history.
    • "Don’t mistake being fearful and weak-minded for being nice."
    • Neil Staruss, Rules of the Game: The Style Diaries (2007)
    • Doyle, Charles Clay; Mieder, Wolfgang; Shapiro, Fred R. (2012). "W, Woman". Dictionary of Modern Proverbs. p. 473. ISBN 0300136021. 

Wood[edit]

  • Touch wood. (20th century)
  • You cannot see the wood for trees. (1546)

Word[edit]

Work[edit]

  • A woman's work is never done.
  • All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.
    • "The NET is a waste of time, and that's exactly what's right about it."
    • William Gibson Title of an article for New York Times Magazine (14 July 1996).
    • Mieder, Wolfgang; Kingsbury, Stewart A.; Harder, Kelsie B. (1992). A Dictionary of American proverbs. pp. 710. , p. xxiv
  • Many hands make light work. (Speak, 2009)
  • No man is born into this world, whose work is not born with him. (Strauss, 1994 p. 1107)
  • Quick at meat, quick at work. (Strauss, 1994 p. 1150)

Worm[edit]

World[edit]

Worth[edit]

  • He is worth his weight in gold. (16th century)

Wrong[edit]

Wound[edit]

  • It is not wise to open old wounds.
    • Mawr, E.B. (1885). Analogous Proverbs in Ten Languages. p. 45. 

Youth[edit]

  • Diligent youth makes easy age.
  • Reckless youth makes rueful age.
  • They who would be young when they are old must be old when they are young.
    • "I rather regret something I've done than something I had wish I have done."
    • AvFumio Sasaki, Goodbye, Things: On Minimalist Living (2017)
    • Strauss, Emanuel (1994). "1605". Dictionary of European proverbs. II. Routledge. p. 1151. ISBN 0415096243. 
  • Young men may die, old men must. (16th century)
  • Young men think old men fools, and old men know young men to be so. (16th century)
  • Young saint, old devil. (15th century)
  • Youth and age will never agree. (16th century)

References[edit]

  1. ↑ Notes and Queries - Google Books. Books.google.com. Retrieved on 2019-06-16.
  2. ↑ One scabbed Sheep marrs a whole Flock; Tread on a Worm and it will turn. Fromoldbooks.org. Retrieved on 2019-06-16.
  3. ↑ a b c d Nothing venture, nothing have; Virtue which parleys is near a Surrender. Fromoldbooks.org. Retrieved on 2019-06-16.
  4. ↑ Many Words will not fill a Bushel; The younger Brother the better Gentleman. Fromoldbooks.org. Retrieved on 2019-06-16.
  5. ↑ Full text of "Essays on the intellectual powers of man". Archive.org (2016-10-23). Retrieved on 2019-06-16.
  6. ↑ Ludwig Feuerbach und der Ausgang der klassischen deutschen Philosophie: Mit ... - Friedrich Engels - Google Books. Books.google.com. Retrieved on 2019-06-16.
  7. ↑ A Burnt Child dreads the Fire. Fromoldbooks.org. Retrieved on 2019-06-16.
  8. ↑ Good Wine needs no Bush; Kissing goes by Favour; A Lark is better than a Kite [image 1205x770 pixels]. Web.archive.org. Retrieved on 2019-06-16.
  9. ↑ Full text of "Scottish proverbs. With an introductory essay". Archive.org (2016-10-23). Retrieved on 2019-06-16.
  10. ↑ http://ia600306.us.archive.org/14/items/gnomologiaadagi00conggoog/gnomologiaadagi00conggoog_desc.html
    • Strauss, Emmanuel (1998). Dictionary of European Proverbs. Routledge. p. 103. ISBN 0415160502. 

See also[edit]

External links[edit]

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