The Proverbs is a collection of
ancient wisdom, still recognized today as practical advice. It contains
the sayings not only of Solomon, but other sages of ancient Israel as well.
The teachings of this book can be applied by everyone from children to young
men and women to the leaders of business empires and nations.
A bad vase doesn't break. (Lat., Nalum vas
non frangitur.)
Proverb, (Latin)
A bad wife wishes her husband's heel turned homewards, and not his toe.
Proverb, (Danish)
A bad word whispered will echo a hundred miles.
Proverb, (Chinese)
A bad worker quarrels with his tools.
Proverb
A bad workman blames his tools.
Proverb
A bad workman never finds a good tool.
Proverb, (French)
A bad workman quarrels with his tools.
Proverb, (Romanian)
A bad wound heals but a bad word doesn't.
Proverb, (Persian)
A bad wound may be cured, bad repute kills.
Proverb, (Spanish)
A baker's wife may bite of a bun, A brewer's wife may drink of a tun, A
fishmonger's wife may feed of a conger, But a servingman's wife may starve
for hunger.
Proverb
A bald head is soon shaven.
Proverb
A baptised Jew is a circumcised Christian.
Proverb, (German)
A bar of iron continually ground becomes a needle.
Proverb, (Chinese)
A barber does not shave himself.
Proverb, (African)
A barber learns to shave by shaving fools.
Proverb, (Romanian)
A bargain is a bargain.
Proverb, (German)
A barking cur does not bite.
Proverb, (Italian)
A barking dog never bites.
Proverb
A barking dog was never a good biter.
Proverb, (Spanish)
A barking dog was never a good hunter.
Proverb, (Portuguese)
A barley corn is better than a diamond to a cock.
Proverb
A barren sow is never kind to pigs.
Proverb, (Danish)
A bashful dog never fattens.
Proverb, (German)
A beard lathered is half shaved.
Proverb, (Portuguese)
A beard once washed is half shaven.
Proverb
A beard well lathered is half shaved.
Proverb, (Italian, Spanish)
A beardless boy would teach old men!
Proverb, (Latin)
A beaten track is a safe one.
Proverb, (Latin)
A beautiful bird is the only kind we cage.
Proverb, (Chinese)
A beautiful thing is never perfect.
Proverb, (Egyptian)
A beautiful woman smiling, bespeaks a purse weeping.
Proverb, (Italian)
A beetle is a beauty in the eyes of his mother.
Proverb
A beggar can never be bankrupt.
Proverb
A beggar is never out of his road.
Proverb, (French)
A beggar's estate lies in all lands.
Proverb, (Dutch)
A beggar's hand is a bottomless basket.
Proverb, (Dutch)
A beggar's purse is bottomless.
Proverb
A beggar's wallet is never full.
Proverb, (Portuguese)
A bellowing cow soon forgets her calf.
Proverb
A belly full of gluttony will never study willingly.
Proverb
A bellyful is a bellyful.
Proverb, (French)
A bespattered hog tries to bespatter another.
Proverb, (Spanish)
A better seldom comes after.
Proverb, (German)
A big nose never spoiled a handsome face.
Proverb, (French)
A bird can roost but on one branch, a mouse can drink not more than its fill
from a river.
Proverb, (Chinese)
A bird does not sing because it has an answer. It sings because it has a
song.
Proverb, (Chinese)
A bird in the cage is worth a hundred at large.
Proverb, (Italian)
A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.
Proverb
A bird is distinguished by its note.
Proverb, (Latin)
A bird may be ever so small, it always seeks a nest of its own.
Proverb, (Danish)
A bird never flew on one wing.
Proverb
A bird which eats berries can be caught, but not a bird that eats wood.
Proverb, (Maaori)
A bit in the morning is better than nothing all day.
Proverb
A bit of fragrance always clings to the hand that gives you roses.
Proverb, (Chinese)
A biting cur wears a torn skin.
Proverb, (Latin)
A black hen lays a white egg.
Proverb, (English, French)
A black man is a jewel in a fair woman's eye.
Proverb
A black plum is as sweet as a white.
Proverb, (English)
A blackbird always sits close to a blackbird.
[Lat., Semper graculus assidet graculo.]
Proverb, (Latin)
A blade won't cut another blade; a cheat won't cheat another cheat.
Proverb, (Ethiopian)
A blate cat make a proud mouse.
[A shy cat make a proud mouse.]
Proverb
A bleating sheep loses a bite.
Proverb
A blind hen can sometimes find her corn.
Proverb, (French)
A blind horse goes straightforward.
Proverb, (German)
A blind leader of the blind.
Proverb
A blind man can see his mouth.
Proverb, (Irish)
A blind man is not judge of colours.
Proverb, (Italian)
A blind man may sometimes shoot a crow.
Proverb, (Dutch)
A blind man swallows many a fly.
Proverb, (German)
A blind man will not thank you for a looking-glass.
Proverb, (English)
A blind man's stroke, which raises a dust from beneath water.
Proverb, (Spanish)
A blind man's wife needs no paint.
Proverb
A blind person who sees is better than a seeing person who is blind.
Proverb, (Iranian)
A blind pigeon may sometimes find a grain of wheat.
Proverb, (Danish)
A blockhead, a dolt, a donkey, a leaden-headed fellow.
Proverb, (Latin)
A blow from a frying-pan blacks, though it may not hurt.
Proverb
A blow from a frying-pan, if it does not hurt, smuts.
Proverb, (Spanish)
A blow with a reed makes a noise but hurts not.
Proverb
A boaster and a liar are all one.
Proverb
A boaster and a liar are cousins.
Proverb
A bold attempt is half success.
Proverb, (Danish)
A bold does not always fall when it thunders.
Proverb, (German)
A bold man has luck in his train.
Proverb, (Danish)
A bold onset is half the battle.
Proverb, (German)
A bolt does not always fall when it thunders.
Proverb
A bonny bride is soon buskit.
[A bonny bride is soon dressed.]
Proverb
A book holds a house of gold.
Proverb, (Chinese)
A book is a garden carried in the pocket.
Proverb, (Arabian)
A book is like a garden carried in the pocket.
Proverb, (Arab)
A book that is shut is but a block.
Proverb
A book that remains shut, is but a block.
Proverb
A book whose sale's forbidden all men rush to see, and prohibition turns one
reader into three.
Proverb, (Italian)
A boor remains a boor, though he sleep on silken bolsters.
Proverb, (Danish)
A borrowed horse and your own spurs make short miles.
Proverb, (Danish)
A borrowed loan should come laughing home.
Proverb
A bow long bent at length waxeth weak.
Proverb
A bow long bent grows weak.
Proverb
A bow too much bent is broken.
Proverb, (Latin)
A boy's love is water in a sieve.
Proverb, (Spanish)
A brain is worth little without a tongue.
Proverb, (French)
A brave man who climbs trees is food for their roots.
Proverb, (Maaori)
A braying ass eats little hay.
Proverb, (Italian)
A bribe will enter without knocking.
Proverb
A bride received into the home is like a horse that you have just bought;
you break her in by constantly mounting her and continually beating her.
Proverb, (Chinese)
A bridle for the tongue is a necessary piece of furniture.
Proverb
A brilliant daughter make a brittle wife.
Proverb, (Dutch)
A broken friendship may be soldered, but will never be sound.
Proverb
A broken hand works, but not a broken heart.
Proverb, (Persian)
A broken sleeve holdeth the arm back.
Proverb
A buckle is a great addition to an old shoe.
Proverb, (Irish)
A buffeting threatened is never well given.
Proverb, (Spanish)
A bully is always a coward.
Proverb
A burned child is afraid of a puff of smoke.
Proverb
A burnt child dreads the fire.
Proverb, (Dutch, German)
A burnt child fears the fire, and a bitten child fears a dog.
Proverb, (Danish)
A bushel of March dust is worth a king's ransom.
Proverb
A bustling mother makes a slothful daughter.
Proverb, (Portuguese)
A busybody is always malevolent.
Proverb, (Latin)
A buxom widow must be either married, buried, or shut up in a convent.
Proverb
A buxom widow must be married, buried, or cloistered.
Proverb, (Spanish)
A cabin with plenty of food is better than a hungry castle.
Proverb, (Irish)
A cake and a bad custom ought to be broken.
Proverb, (French)
A cake eaten in peace, is worth two in trouble.
Proverb
A calm portends a storm.
Proverb, (Italian)
A candle loses nothing by lighting another candle.
Proverb
A canoe does not know who is king. When it turns over, everyone gets wet.
Proverb, (Madagasy)
A capon eight months old is fit for a king's table.
Proverb, (Portuguese, Spanish)
A captive they insult with impunity.
Proverb, (Latin)
A carpenter is known by his chips.
Proverb
A carrion kite will never be a good hawk.
Proverb
A cat always knows whose meat it eats.
Proverb, (Russian)
A cat goes to a monastery, but she still remains a cat.
Proverb, (Congolese)
A cat has nine lives, as the onion seven skins.
Proverb, (German)
A cat has nine lives.
Proverb
A cat in gloves catches no mice.
Proverb, (English)
A cat is a lion to mouse.
Proverb
A cat may go to a monastery, but she still remains a cat.
Proverb, (Ethiopian)
A cat may look at a king.
Proverb,
(Dutch, German), also the title of a 1652 pamphlet
A cat pent up becomes a lion.
Proverb, (Italian)
A cat that catches mice does not meow.
Proverb, (Chinese)
A cat that licks the spit is not to be trusted with roast meat.
Proverb, (Italian)
A cat that meweth much catcheth but few mice.
Proverb, (Dutch)
A cat's walk: a little way and back.
Proverb
A cautious man will observe the indications of character which nature
reveals in others.
Proverb, (Latin)
A chain is no stronger than its weakest link.
Proverb
A chain is only as strong as its weakest link.
Proverb
A chair unsound
Soon finds the ground.
Proverb
A chameleon does not leave one tree until he is sure of another.
Proverb, (Arabic)
A change is as good as a rest.
Proverb
A chattering bird builds no nest.
Proverb, (Cameroonian)
A cherry year, a merry year; a plum year, a dumb year.
Proverb
A chick that will grow into a cock can be spotted the very day it hatches.
Proverb, (African)
A chicken is hatched even from such a well-sealed thing as an egg.
Proverb, (Chinese)
A child may have too much of his mother's blessing.
Proverb, (Latin)
A child must creep until it learns to walk.
Proverb, (Danish)
A child of a year old sucks milk from the heel.
Proverb, (Spanish)
A child's back must be bent early.
Proverb, (Danish)
A child's fingers are not scalded by a piece of hot yam which his mother
puts into his palm.
Proverb, (African)
A child's life is like a piece of paper on which every passerby leaves a
mark.
Proverb, (Chinese)
A child's sorrow is short-lived.
Proverb, (Danish)
A child's tear rends the heavens.
Proverb, (Yiddish)
A chip on the shoulder indicates wood higher up.
Proverb
A church stone drops gold.
Proverb, (Galician)
A churl knows not the work of spurs (i.e., honour).
Proverb, (French)
A churl never liked a gentleman.
Proverb, (French)
A civil denial is better than a rude grant.
Proverb
A civil question deserves a civil answer.
Proverb
A clean hand moves freely through the land.
Proverb, (Danish)
A clean mouth and honest hand, will take a man through any land.
Proverb, (German)
A clear bargain, a dear friend.
Proverb, (Italian)
A clear conscience is a good pillow.
Proverb, (French)
A clear conscience is a wall of brass.
Proverb, (Latin)
A clever man's inheritance is found in every country.
Proverb, (Danish)
A clever person turns great troubles into little ones and little ones into
none at all.
Proverb, (Chinese)
A client twixt his attorney and counselor is like a goose twixt two foxes.
Proverb
A cloak is not made for a single shower of rain.
Proverb, (Italian)
A close mouth and open eyes never did any one harm.
Proverb, (German)
A close mouth catcheth no flies.
[A close mouth cathches no flies.]
Proverb
A closed mind is like a closed book; just a block of wood.
Proverb, (Chinese)
A closed mouth catches no flies.
Proverb, (Italian)
A cloth is not woven from a single thread.
Proverb, (Chinese)
A clown enriched knows neither relation nor friend.
Proverb, (French)
A cock is bold on his own dunghill.
Proverb
A cock is crouse on his ain midden.
Proverb
A cock is valiant on his own dunghill.
Proverb, (Dutch)
A cold April the barn will fill.
Proverb, (English)
A cold May and a windy
Makes a full barn and a findy.
Proverb
A collier's cow and an alewife's sow are always well fed.
Proverb
A colt is good for nothing if it does not break its halter.
Proverb, (French)
A colt you may break, but an old horse you never can.
Proverb
A comb becomes bad when it hurts you.
Proverb, (African)
A combined defence is the safest.
Proverb, (Latin)
A common blot is held no stain.
Proverb
A common shipwreck is a consolation to all.
Proverb, (Latin)
A constant guest is never welcome.
Proverb
A contented ass enjoys a long life.
Proverb, (Portuguese)
A contented man is always rich.
Proverb, (Latin)
A contented mind is a continual feast.
Proverb
A coral reef hardens into land.
Proverb, (Hawaiian)
A cough assists a musician when he hesitates.
Proverb, (Latin)
A cough will stick longer by a horse than a peck of oats.
Proverb
A country can be judged by the quality of its proverbs.
Proverb, (German)
A country where flowers are priced so as to make them a luxury has yet to
learn the first principles of civilization.
Proverb, (Chinese)
A courageous foe is better than a cowardly friend.
Proverb
A courtesy much entreated is half recompensed.
Proverb
A courtier should be without feeling and without honour.
Proverb, (French)
A covetous abbot for one offering loses a hundred.
Proverb, (Spanish)
A covetous man does nothing that he should till he dies.
Proverb, (Latin)
A covetous man is good to none, but worst to himself.
Proverb
A covetous woman deserves a swindling gallant.
Proverb, (French)
A cow does not know what her tail is worth until she has lost it.
Proverb, (French)
A cow from afar gives plenty of milk.
Proverb, (French)
A cow is not called dappled unless she has a spot.
Proverb, (Danish)
A cow-year, a sad year; a bull-year, a glad year.
Proverb, (Dutch)
A coward has no scar.
Proverb, (Zimbabwean)
A coward often deals a mortal blow to the brave.
Proverb, (French)
A coward's fear may make a coward valiant.
Proverb
A crab does not beget a bird.
Proverb, (Ghanaian)
A crab of the wood is sauce very good For a crab of the sea. The wood of a
crab is good for a drab hat will not her husband obey.
Proverb
A cracked bell can never sound well.
Proverb
A cracked bell will never be sound.
Proverb, (Spanish)
A cracked pot never fell off the hook.
Proverb, (Italian)
A crazy vessel never falls from the hand.
Proverb, (Spanish)
A creaking door hangs long on its hinges.
Proverb, (Romanian)
A creaking door hangs longest.
Proverb
A creaking gate hangs long.
Proverb
A crisis is an opportunity riding the dangerous wind.
Proverb, (Chinese)
A crooked log is not to be straightened.
Proverb, (Latin)
A crooked log makes a good fire.
Proverb, (French)
A crooked stick will have a crooked shadow.
Proverb
A cross-grained woman and a snappish dog take care of the house.
Proverb, (Danish)
A crow is never the whiter for often washing.
Proverb, (Danish)
A crow thinks her own bird fairest.
Proverb
A crowd is not company.
Proverb
A crown is no cure for the headache.
Proverb, (Dutch, German, Italian)
A cry, a sniff, and all comes to naught.
Proverb, (Maltese)
A cup in the pate is a mile in the gate.
Proverb
A cup must be bitter that a smile will not sweeten.
Proverb
A cur's tail grows fast.
Proverb, (Italian)
A curse will not strike out an eye, unless the fist go with it.
Proverb, (Danish)
A cursed cur should be short tied.
Proverb
A customary railer is the devil's bagpipe, which the world danceth after.
Proverb
A cutting word is worse than a bowstring, a cut may heal, but the cut of the
tongue does not.
Proverb, (African)
A daily guest is a great thief in the kitchen.
Proverb, (Dutch)
A daily guest is a thief in the kitchen.
Proverb, (Spanish)
A dainty stomach beggars the purse.
Proverb, (German)
A danger foreseen is half avoided.
Proverb
A day after the fair.
Proverb
A day of sorrow is longer than a month of joy.
Proverb, (Chinese)
A day's work - getting started.
Proverb, (Gaelic)
A dead man does not make war.
Proverb, (Italian)
A dead man does not speak.
Proverb, (Portuguese)
A dead man has neither relations nor friends.
Proverb, (French)
A dead mouse feels no cold.
Proverb
A deaf auditor makes a crazy answerer.
Proverb, (Danish)
A deaf husband and a blind wife are always a happy couple.
Proverb, (French)
A dealer in onions is a good judge of scallions.
Proverb, (French)
A dealer in rubbish sounds the praises of rubbish.
Proverb, (Latin)
A dear ship stands long in the haven.
Proverb
A defeated wrestler is not tired of wrestling.
Proverb, (Turkish)
A delightful hallucination.
Proverb, (Latin)
A depraved mind never comes to good.
Proverb
A determined heart will not be counselled.
Proverb, (Spanish)
A devil with fine manners can still carry you only to hell.
Proverb, (Darkovan)
A devotee's face, and a cat's claws.
Proverb, (Spanish)
A different man, a different taste.
Proverb, (Greek)
A diligent man ever finds that something remains to be done.
Proverb, (Latin)
A dimple in the chin; a devil within.
Proverb, (Irish)
A disease known is half cured.
Proverb
A dissimilarity of pursuits dissolves friendship.
Proverb, (Latin)
A doctor and a boor know more than a doctor alone.
Proverb, (German)
A dog as he sleeps barks as if on the track of the hare.
Proverb, (Latin)
A dog in a kennel barks at his fleas; a dog hunting does not notice them.
Proverb
A dog in desperation will leap over a wall.
Proverb, (Chinese)
A dog in the manger, that neither eats nor lets others eat.
Proverb, (Portuguese)
A dog is a dog whatever his colour.
Proverb, (Danish)
A dog is a man's best friend.
Proverb, (American)
A dog is never offended at being pelted with bones.
Proverb, (Italian)
A dog is worthy of his food.
Proverb, (Latin)
A dog may look at a bishop.
Proverb, (French)
A dog never bit me but I had some of his hair.
Proverb, (Italian)
A dog that bites silently. [An insidious tradcuer. He would kill you with an
air-gun.]
Proverb
A dog that has once tasted the flesh cannot be kept from the skin.
Proverb, (Latin)
A dog that will fetch a bone will carry a bone.
Proverb
A dog which has been beaten with a stick is afraid of its shadow.
Proverb
A dog will not howl if you beat him with a bone.
Proverb
A dog with a bone is always in danger.
Proverb, (African)
A dog with a bone knows no friends.
Proverb, (Dutch)
A dog with two homes is never any good.
Proverb, (Irish)
A dog without teeth will also attack a bone.
Proverb, (Yiddish)
A dog won't forsake his master because of poverty; a son never deserts his
mother because of her homely appearance.
Proverb, (Chinese)
A dog's nose and a maid's knees are always cold.
Proverb
A donkey always says thank you with a kick.
Proverb, (Kenyan)
A donkey is known by his ears.
Proverb, (Latin)
A door must be either shut or open.
Proverb
A door must either be open or shut.
Proverb, (French)
A dose of adversity is often as needful as a dose of medicine.
Proverb, (American)
A dram of discretion is worth a pound of wisdom.
Proverb, (German)
A drink is shorter than a tale.
Proverb
A dripping June sets all in tune.
Proverb
A drop hollows out a stone.
Proverb, (Russian)
A drop of honey catches more flies than a hogshead of vinegar.
Proverb, (German)
A drop of luck is worth a cask of wisdom.
Proverb, (Latin)
A drop of water breaks a stone.
Proverb, (Italian)
A drowning man clings to a blade of grass.
Proverb, (French)
A drowning man will catch at a straw.
Proverb
A drowning man will clutch at a straw.
Proverb
A drowning man would catch at razors.
Proverb, (Italian)
A drunk man's words are a sober man's thoughts.
Proverb
A drunken man, when asleep, is better left alone. [Let a slumbering evil
rest where it is.]
Proverb, (Latin)
A drunken may soon be made to dance.
Proverb, (Danish)
A drunken night makes a cloudy morning.
Proverb
A dry May and a dripping June
Bring all things into tune.
Proverb
A duck will not always dabble in the same gutter.
Proverb
A dull ass near home trots without the stick.
Proverb, (Portuguese)
A fair booty makes a fair thief.
Proverb, (English)
A fair bride is soon busked.
Proverb
A fair exchange brings no quarrel.
Proverb, (Danish)
A fair exchange is no robbery.
Proverb
A fair face may hide a foul heart.
Proverb
A fair face may make a foul bargain.
Proverb
A fair face will get its praise, though the owner keep silent.
Proverb, (Danish)
A fair promise binds a fool.
Proverb, (French)
A fair skin often covers a crooked mind.
Proverb, (Danish)
A fair-weather friend changes with the wind.
Proverb, (Portuguese, Spanish)
A faithless wife is shipwreck to a house.
Proverb, (Latin)
A fall into a ditch makes you wiser.
Proverb, (Chinese)
A fallen lighthouse is more dangerous than a reef.
Proverb
A false report rides post.
Proverb
A famine in England begins at the horsemanger.
Proverb
A famine in England begins when oats are dear.
Proverb
A farthing saved is twice earned.
Proverb, (Italian)
A fast day is the eve of a feast day.
Proverb, (Spanish)
A fast horse does not want the spur.
Proverb, (Portuguese)
A fast is better than a bad meal.
Proverb, (Irish)
A fat kitchen is next door to poverty.
Proverb, (Italian)
A fat kitchen makes a lean will.
Proverb, (French, German)
A fat kitchen, a lean testament.
Proverb, (Italian)
A father deserted by a wise son is like being caught in a shower without a
felt.
Proverb, (Tibetan)
A father is a banker provided by nature.
Proverb, (French)
A father maintains ten children better than ten children one father.
Proverb, (German)
A father's love, for all other is air.
Proverb, (Spanish)
A fault confessed is half forgiven.
Proverb, (Portuguese)
A fault confessed is half redressed.
Proverb
A fault denied is twice committed.
Proverb, (French)
A fault once denied, is twice committed.
Proverb
A favour ill placed is great waste.
Proverb
A fence between makes love more keen.
Proverb
A fence lasts three years, a dog lasts three fences, a horse three dogs, and
a man three horses.
Proverb, (German)
A fence makes love more keen.
Proverb, (German)
A few things gained by fraud destroy a fortune otherwise honestly won.
Proverb, (Latin)
A fifth wheel to a cart is but an encumbrance.
Proverb, (Spanish)
A fine cage won't feed the bird.
Proverb, (French)
A fine girl and a tattered gown always find something to hook the them.
Proverb, (French)
A fine quotation is a diamond on the finger of a man of wit, and a pebble in
the hand of a fool.
Proverb, (French)
A fine shot never killed a bird.
Proverb, (Italian)
A finger's length in a sword, and a palm in a lance, are a great advantage.
Proverb, (Portuguese)
A fire is nourished by its own ashes. [Difficulties embolden rather than
impede the brave.]
Proverb, (Latin)
A fish should swim thrice: in water, in sauce, and in wine.
Proverb, (German)
A fisherman once stung will be wiser.
Proverb, (Latin)
A flatterer has water in one hand and fire in the other.
Proverb, (German)
A flatterer is a secret enemy.
Proverb, (Hungarian)
A flea on top of a bald head.
Proverb, (Chinese)
A flower cannot blossom without sunshine nor a garden without love.
Proverb
A fly before his own eye is bigger than an elephant in the next field.
Proverb
A fly cannot enter a closed mouth.
Proverb, (Russian)
A flying crow always catches something.
Proverb, (Dutch)
A fog cannot be dispelled by a fan.
Proverb, (Japanese)
A fool and his money are soon parted.
Proverb, (Dutch)
A fool and water will go the way they are diverted.
Proverb, (Ethiopian)
A fool at forty is a fool indeed.
Proverb
A fool bolts a door with a boiled carrot.
Proverb
A fool can ask more questions than seven wise men can answer.
Proverb, (Italian)
A fool carveth a piece of his heart to every one that sits near him.
Proverb
A fool finds no pleasure in understanding but delights in airing his own
opinions.
Proverb
A fool finds pleasure in evil conduct, but a man of understanding delights
in wisdom.
Proverb
A fool gives full vent to his anger, but a wise man keeps himself under
control.
Proverb
A fool is always beginning.
Proverb, (French)
A fool is his own informer.
Proverb, (Yiddish)
A fool is like all other men as long as he remains silent.
Proverb, (Danish)
A fool is like other men as long as he is silent.
Proverb, (Danish)
A fool is like the big drum that beats fast but does not realize its
hollowness.
Proverb, (Malay)
A fool is thirsty in the midst of water.
Proverb, (Ethiopian)
A fool knows more in his own house than a wise man in another's.
Proverb
A fool laughs when others laugh.
Proverb, (Danish)
A fool looks for dung where the cow never browsed.
Proverb, (African)
A fool may ask more questions in an hour than a wise man can answer in seven
years.
Proverb
A fool may chance to put something into a wise man's head.
Proverb
A fool may chance to say a wise thing.
Proverb, (Dutch)
A fool may give a wise man counsel.
Proverb
A fool may meet with good fortune, but the wise only profits by it.
Proverb
A fool only wins the first game.
Proverb, (Danish)
A fool repays a salve by a stab, and a stab by a salve. [He mistakes friends
for foes and foes for friends.]
Proverb, (Latin)
A fool says what he knows, and a wise man knows what he says.
Proverb, (Yiddish)
A fool shows his annoyance at once, but a prudent man overlooks an insult.
Proverb
A fool sometimes gives good counsel.
Proverb, (Spanish)
A fool talks of folly.
Proverb, (Latin)
A fool throws a stone into a well, and it requires a hundred wise men to get
it out again.
Proverb, (Italian)
A fool who can keep silent is counted among the wise.
Proverb, (Yiddish)
A fool will not give his bauble for the Tower of London.
Proverb
A fool's head never whitens.
Proverb, (French)
A fool's heart dances on his lips.
Proverb
A fool's speech is a bubble of air.
Proverb
A fool's tongue is long enough to cut his own throat.
Proverb
A fool's voice is known by a multitude of words.
Proverb
A fool, if he holds his tongue, passes for wise.
Proverb, (Spanish)
A fool, unless he know Latin, is never a great fool.
Proverb, (Spanish)
A foolish fox is caught by one leg, but a wise one by all four.
Proverb, (Serbian)
A foolish judge passes brief sentence.
Proverb, (French)
A foolish man may be known by six things: Anger without cause, speech
without profit, change without progress, inquiry without object, putting
trust in a stranger, and mistaking foes for friends.
Proverb, (Arabic)
A foolish woman is known by her finery.
Proverb, (French)
A fools knows his own business better than a wise man knows that of others.
Proverb, (Italian)
A forced kindness deserves no thanks.
Proverb
A fortress on its guard is not surprised.
Proverb, (Spanish)
A fortunate man may be anywhere.
Proverb
A foul morn may turn to a fair day.
Proverb
A foul mouth must be provided with a strong back.
Proverb, (Danish)
A fox is known by this tail.
Proverb, (Latin)
A fox is not caught twice in the same trap.
Proverb, (Latin)
A fox is not taken twice in the same snare.
Proverb
A friend advises in his interest, not yours.
Proverb, (Arabic)
A friend at one's back is a safe bridge.
Proverb, (Dutch)
A friend by thee is better than a brother far off.
Proverb, (Gaelic)
A friend in court is better than a penny in purse.
Proverb
A friend is better than money in the purse.
Proverb, (Dutch)
A friend is known in time of need.
Proverb, (French)
A friend is never known till needed.
Proverb
A friend is not known till he is lost.
Proverb, (Italian)
A friend is to be taken with his faults.
Proverb, (Portuguese)
A friend that will go to the scaffold with you.
Proverb, (Latin)
A friend that you buy with presents, will be bought from you.
Proverb
A friend to all is a friend to none.
Proverb
A friend to everybody is a friend to nobody.
Proverb, (Spanish)
A friend to my table and wine, is no good neighbour.
Proverb, (French)
A friend's dinner is soon dressed.
Proverb, (Dutch)
A friend's fault should be known but not abhorred.
Proverb, (Portuguese)
A friend's faults may be notices, but not blamed.
Proverb, (Danish)
A friend's frown is better than a fool's smile.
Proverb
A friend's meat is soon ready.
Proverb, (French)
A friend, and look to thyself.
Proverb, (Italian)
A fu purse never lacks freends.
Proverb
A fu' sack will tak a clout o' the side.
Proverb
A full belly counsels well.
Proverb, (French)
A full belly dances better than a fine coat.
Proverb, (Danish)
A full belly is neither good for flight, nor for fighting.
Proverb, (Spanish)
A full belly sets a man jigging.
Proverb, (French)
A full cup must be carried steadily.
Proverb, (English)
A full man is no eater.
Proverb, (Portuguese)
A full sack pricks up its ear.
Proverb, (Italian)
A full stomach praises Lent.
Proverb, (Danish)
A full vessel must be carried carefully.
Proverb, (Danish)
A gadding girl is rarely coy.
Proverb, (Latin)
A galled horse does not care to be curried.
Proverb, (French)
A galled horse will not endure the comb.
Proverb
A ganging fit is aye getting.
[A going foot is always getting.]
Proverb
A gaunt brute bites sore.
Proverb, (French)
A gem is not polished without rubbing, nor a man made perfect without trials.
Proverb, (Chinese)
A gentle hand may lead even an elephant by a hair.
Proverb, (Iranian)
A gentle word opens an iron gate.
Proverb, (Bulgarian)
A gentlemen of Beauce who stays in bed till his breeches are mended.
Proverb, (French)
A giant among the pigmies.
Proverb
A gift delayed, and long expected, is not given, but sold dear.
Proverb, (Italian)
A gift long expected is sold, not given.
Proverb, (Italian)
A gift long waited for is sold, not given.
Proverb
A gift with a kind countenance is a double present.
Proverb
A gift, though small, is welcome.
Proverb, (Greek)
A gilt bridle for an old mule.
Proverb, (French)
A girl draws more than a rope.
Proverb, (Spanish)
A girl unemployed is thinking of mischief.
Proverb, (French)
A girl with cotton stockings never sees a mouse.
Proverb, (American)
A girl, a vineyard, an orchard, and a bean-field, are hard to watch.
Proverb, (Portuguese)
A glad heart seldom sighs, but a sorrowful mouth often laughs.
Proverb, (Danish)
A glaring sunny morning, a woman that talks Latin, and a child reared on
wine, never come to a good end.
Proverb, (French)
A glutton young, a beggar old.
Proverb, (German)
A goaded ass must trot.
Proverb, (French, Italian)
A gold key opens every door.
Proverb, (Italian)
A gold ring does not cure a felon.
Proverb
A golden bit makes none the better horse.
Proverb, (German, Italian)
A golden hammer breaks an iron gate.
Proverb, (German)
A golden key can open any door.
Proverb
A golden key opens every door except that of heaven.
Proverb, (Danish)
A golden key will open every lock.
Proverb, (Yiddish)
A good advice is as good as an eye in the hand.
Proverb, (French)
A good anvil does not fear the hammer.
Proverb, (Italian)
A good appetite does not want sauce.
Proverb, (Italian)
A good appetite needs no sauce.
Proverb, (Polish)
A good beast heats with eating.
Proverb, (French)
A good beginning ensures a good ending.
Proverb, (Latin)
A good beginning makes a good ending.
Proverb, (English, Italian)
A good bone does not always come to a good dog.
Proverb, (French)
A good cause needs help.
Proverb, (French)
A good cavalier never lacks a lance.
Proverb, (Italian)
A good citizen owes his life to his country.
Proverb, (Russian)
A good cock was never fat.
Proverb, (Portuguese)
A good conscience is a continual feast.
Proverb
A good conscience is a soft pillow.
Proverb, (German)
A good deed is never lost.
Proverb
A good dinner helps deliberation.
Proverb, (Latin)
A good dog deserves a good bone.
Proverb
A good dog does not block the road.
Proverb, (Chinese)
A good dog hunts by instinct.
Proverb, (French)
A good dog never barks at fault.
Proverb, (French)
A good dog never gets a good bone.
Proverb, (French)
A good driver turns in a small space.
Proverb, (French)
A good example is the best sermon.
Proverb
A good face is a letter of recommendation.
Proverb
A good face needs no band, and a pretty wench no land.
Proverb
A good fire makes a quick cook.
Proverb, (Dutch)
A good fox does not eat his neighbour's fowls.
Proverb, (French)
A good friend is better than silver and gold.
Proverb, (Dutch)
A good gaper makes two gapers.
Proverb, (French)
A good handicraft has a golden foundation.
Proverb, (Danish)
A good hater,a good lover.
Proverb, (French)
A good head does not want for hats.
Proverb, (French)
A good heart breaks bad fortune.
Proverb, (Spanish)
A good hope is better than a bad possession.
Proverb
A good horse and a bad horse need the spur; a good woman and a bad woman
need the stick.
Proverb, (Italian)
A good horse cannot be of a bad color.
Proverb
A good horse is worth his fodder.
Proverb, (Dutch)
A good horse never lacks a saddle.
Proverb, (Italian)
A good husband is healthy and absent.
Proverb, (Japanese)
A good Jack makes a good Jill.
Proverb
A good king is better than an old law.
Proverb, (Danish)
A good lather is half the shave.
Proverb
A good laugh and a long sleep are the best cures in the doctor's book.
Proverb, (Irish)
A good lawyer is a bad neighbour.
Proverb, (French, Spanish)
A good leader makes a good follower.
Proverb, (Latin)
A good life defers wrinkles.
Proverb, (Spanish)
A good listener is a silent flatterer.
Proverb
A good man can no more harm that a sheep.
Proverb
A good man is a man of goods.
Proverb, (French)
A good meal is worth hanging for.
Proverb, (German)
A good meal ought to begin with hunger.
Proverb, (French)
A good name covers theft.
Proverb, (Spanish)
A good name is a rich inheritance.
Proverb, (German)
A good name is better than a girdle of gold.
Proverb, (French)
A good name is better than oil (i.e. riches).
Proverb, (Dutch)
A good name is like sweet smelling ointment.
Proverb, (Latin)
A good name keeps its luster in the dark.
Proverb
A good neighbor is a found treasure.
Proverb, (Chinese)
A good neighbor, a good morrow.
Proverb
A good neighbour is better than a brother far off.
Proverb, (Danish)
A good orator, but a very bad man.
Proverb, (Latin)
A good painter need not give a name to his picture, a bad one must.
Proverb, (Polish)
A good paymaster does not hesitate to give good security.
Proverb, (Italian)
A good paymaster is keeper of other men's purses.
Proverb, (Spanish)
A good paymaster needs no security.
Proverb, (Spanish)
A good paymaster never wants workmen.
Proverb
A good pilot is not known when the sea is calm and the weather fair.
Proverb, (Danish)
A good plan today is better than a perfect plan tomorrow.
Proverb
A good repast ought to begin with hunger.
Proverb, (French)
A good rest is half the work.
Proverb, (Yugoslavian)
A good retreat is better than a bad stand.
Proverb, (Irish)
A good servant makes a good master.
Proverb
A good shift may serve long, but it will not serve ever.
Proverb
A good speaker makes a good liar.
Proverb, (German)
A good surgeon must have an eagle's eye, a lion's heart, and a lady's hand.
Proverb
A good swimmer is not safe against drowning.
Proverb, (French)
A good sword is the one left in its scabbard.
Proverb, (Japanese)
A good swordsman is never quarrelsome.
Proverb, (French)
A good tale ill told is married in the telling.
Proverb
A good tale is none the worse for being twice told.
Proverb
A good thing can be twice, nay, even thrice spoken.
Proverb
A good thing is esteemed more in its absence than in its enjoyment.
Proverb, (Latin)
A good thing is known when it is lost.
Proverb, (Portuguese)
A good thing is soon caught up.
Proverb
A good thing is soon snatched up.
Proverb
A good thing lost is a good thing valued.
Proverb, (Spanish)
A good thing lost is valued.
Proverb, (Italian)
A good trade will carry farther than a thousand florins.
Proverb, (German)
A good wife and health is a man's best wealth.
Proverb
A good wife makes a good husband.
Proverb
A good word extinguishes more than a pailful of water.
Proverb, (Spanish)
A good word quenches more than a cauldron of water.
Proverb, (Portuguese)
A good year is determined by its spring.
Proverb
A goose cannot graze after him.
Proverb
A goose drinks as much as a gander.
Proverb, (Danish)
A goose quill is more dangerous than a lion's claw.
Proverb, (English)
A goose, a woman, and a goat, are bad things lean.
Proverb, (Portuguese)
A gosling flew over the Rhine, and came home a goose.
Proverb, (German)
A gossip's mouth is the devil's postbag.
Proverb, (Gaelic)
A gossiping woman talks of everybody, and everybody of her.
Proverb, (Portuguese)
A grain does not fill a sieve, but it helps its fellow.
Proverb, (Spanish)
A grand eloquence, little conscience.
Proverb
A greased mouth cannot say no.
Proverb, (Italian)
A great affair covers up a small matter.
Proverb, (Yoruban)
A great anvil fears not noise.
Proverb, (Latin)
A great book is a great evil.
Proverb, (Dutch)
A great church and little devotion.
Proverb, (Italian)
A great city, a great solitude.
Proverb
A great city. a great desert.
Proverb, (Latin)
A great dowry, a bed full of brambles.
Proverb
A great estate is not gotten in a few hours.
Proverb, (French)
A great fortune in the hands of a fool is a great misfortune.
Proverb
A great fortune is a great slavery.
Proverb
A great lance-thrust to a dead Moor.
Proverb, (Spanish)
A great leap gives a great shake.
Proverb, (Spanish)
A great liar has need of good memory.
Proverb, (Italian)
A great man will not trample on a worm, nor sneak to an emperor.
Proverb
A great man's entreaty is a command.
Proverb, (Spanish)
A great position entails great responsibility.
Proverb
A great talker is a great liar.
Proverb, (French)
A great thrust of a lance at a dead Moor.
Proverb, (Portuguese)
A greedy father has thieves for children.
Proverb, (Serbian)
A greedy man God hates.
Proverb
A greedy mill grinds all kinds of corn.
Proverb, (Danish)
A green Christmas makes a fat churchyard.
Proverb, (Danish)
A green winter makes a fat churchyard.
Proverb
A green wound is soon healed.
Proverb
A green Yule makes a fat churchyard.
Proverb
A gross belly does not produce a refined mind.
Proverb
A growing youth has a wolf in his belly.
Proverb
A grunting house and a groaning wife seldom fail their master.
Proverb
A guest and a fish after three days are poison.
Proverb, (French)
A guest and a fish stink in three days.
Proverb, (Italian, Portuguese, Spanish)
A guest has not to thank the host, but the host the guest.
Proverb, (Russian)
A guest sees more in an hour than the host in a year.
Proverb, (Polish)
A guest should not remain for ever a guest.
Proverb, (Latin)
A guest, like a fish, stinks the third day.
Proverb, (Dutch)
A guilty conscience needs no accuser.
Proverb
A hair casts its shadow on the ground.
Proverb, (Spanish)
A hair of the dog cures the bite.
Proverb, (Italian)
A half truth is a whole lie.
Proverb, (Yiddish)
A half-truth is a whole lie.
Proverb, (Jewish)
A handful of good life is better than a bushel of learning.
Proverb
A handful of good life is better than seven barrels of learning.
Proverb, (French)
A handful of might is better than a sack full of right.
Proverb, (German)
A handful of motherwit is worth a bushel of learning.
Proverb, (Spanish)
A handful of patience is worth more than a bushel of brains.
Proverb, (Dutch)
A handful of trade, a handful of gold.
Proverb
A handfull of patience is worth a bushel of brains.
Proverb, (Dutch)
A handsome hostess is bad for the purse.
Proverb, (French, Portuguese, Spanish)
A handsome man is not quite poor.
Proverb, (Spanish)
A handsome shoe often pinches the feet.
Proverb, (French)
A handsome woman is either silly or vain.
Proverb, (Spanish)
A hangman is a good trade, he doth his work by daylight.
Proverb
A happy heart is better than a full purse.
Proverb, (Italian)
A happy man is rarer than a white crow.
[Lat., Felix ille tamen corvo rarior albo.]
Proverb, (Latin)
A hard beginning maketh a good ending.
Proverb
A hard bit does not make the better horse.
Proverb, (Danish)
A hard knot requires a hard wedge.
Proverb, (Latin)
A hard life but a healthy one.
Proverb, (Latin)
A hare is like an ass in the length of its ears, yet it is not its son.
Proverb, (West African)
A hasty man drinks his tea with a fork.
Proverb, (Chinese)
A hasty man never wants woe.
Proverb
A hawk kills because it is his nature; a man because it is his pleasure.
Proverb, (Darkovan)
A hawk's marriage: the hen is the better bird.
Proverb, (French)
A head is not to be cut off because it is scabby.
Proverb, (Danish)
A head like a snake,
A neck like a drake,
A back like a beam,
A belly like a bream,
A foot like a cat,
A tail like a rat.
Proverb, points of a good greyhound
A headless army fights badly.
Proverb, (Danish)
A headstrong man and a fool may wear the same cap.
Proverb
A healthy man is a successful man.
Proverb, (French)
A heart in love with beauty never grows old.
Proverb, (Turkish)
A hearth of your own is worth gold.
Proverb, (Danish)
A heavy purse makes a light heart.
Proverb
A heavy shower is soon over.
Proverb, (Italian)
A hedge between keeps friendship green.
Proverb
A high building, a low foundation.
Proverb
A hired horse and one's own spurs make short miles.
Proverb, (Dutch, German)
A hog in armor is still a hog.
Proverb
A honey tongue, a heart of gall.
Proverb
A honey-comb in the mouth of a lion!
Proverb, (Latin)
A honeyed tongue with a heart of gall.
Proverb, (French)
A hook's well lost to catch a salmon.
Proverb
A horse deprived of his food won't work.
Proverb, (Latin)
A horse falls though he has four legs.
Proverb, (Italian)
A horse grown fat kicks.
Proverb, (Italian)
A horse may stumble, though he has four feet.
Proverb, (Dutch)
A horse of good breed is not dishonored by his saddle.
Proverb, (Arabic)
A horse that will not carry a saddle must have no oats.
Proverb
A house divided cannot stand.
Proverb
A house filled with guests is eaten up and ill spoken of.
Proverb, (Spanish)
A house full of daughters is a cellar full of sour beer.
Proverb, (Dutch)
A house ready built and a vineyard ready planted.
Proverb, (Spanish)
A house ready made and a wife to make.
Proverb, (French)
A house without either a cat or a dog is the house of a scoundrel.
Proverb, (Portuguese)
A huckster who cannot pass off mouse-turd for pepper, has not learned his
trade.
Proverb, (German)
A hug a day keeps the demons at bay.
Proverb
A hundred bakers, a hundred millers, and a hundred tailors are three hundred
thieves.
Proverb, (Dutch)
A hundred men can make an encampment, but it requires a woman to make a
home.
Proverb
A hundred men may make an encampment, but it takes a woman to make a home.
Proverb, (Chinese)
A hundred tailors, a hundred millers, and a hundred weavers, are three
hundred thieves.
Proverb, (Spanish)
A hundred waggonsful of sorrow will not pay a handful of debt.
Proverb, (Danish)
A hundred years a banner, a hundred years a barrow. [Signifying the
changeful fortunes of great feudal families.]
Proverb, (French)
A hundred years cannot repair a moment's loss of honour.
Proverb, (Italian)
A hundred years hence we shall all be bald.
Proverb, (Spanish)
A hundred years is not much, but never is a long while.
Proverb, (French)
A hundred years of fretting will not pay a halfpenny of debt.
Proverb, (French)
A hundred years of regret pay not a farthing of debt.
Proverb, (German)
A hundred years of wrong do not make an hour of right.
Proverb, (German)
A hungry ass eats any straw.
Proverb, (Italian)
A hungry ass needs not a blow.
Proverb, (Latin)
A hungry belly has no ears.
Proverb, (Dutch, French, German, Italian)
A hungry belly hears nobody.
Proverb, (Portuguese)
A hungry belly listens to no one.
Proverb, (Spanish)
A hungry clown is half mad.
Proverb, (French)
A hungry dog and a thirsty horse take no heed of blows.
Proverb, (Danish)
A hungry dog does not fear the stick.
Proverb, (Italian)
A hungry dog is not afraid of a cudgelling.
Proverb, (French)
A hungry dog will eat dirty pudding.
Proverb
A hungry horse maketh a clean manger.
Proverb
A hungry man discovers more than a hundred lawyers.
Proverb, (Spanish)
A hungry man is an angry man.
Proverb
A hungry man will listen to nothing.
Proverb, (Latin)
A hungry man, an angry man.
Proverb
A hungry wolf is not at rest.
Proverb, (Portuguese)
A husband with one eye rather than with a son.
Proverb, (Spanish)
A hut is a palace to the poor man.
Proverb, (Irish)
A jackdaw among the muses.
Proverb, (Latin)
A jackfish does more than a letter of recommendation.
Proverb, (French)
A jade eats as much as a good horse.
Proverb, (Italian)
A jade stone is useless before it is processed; a man is good-for-nothing
until he is educated.
Proverb, (Chinese)
A jealous woman will set a whole house on fire.
Proverb, (Latin)
A jest is half a truth.
Proverb, (Yiddish)
A joke driven too far brings home hate.
Proverb
A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.
Proverb, (Chinese)
A joy that's shared is a joy made double.
Proverb, (English)
A joyful evening may follow a sorrowful morning.
Proverb
A joyous evening often leads to a sorrowful morning.
Proverb, (Danish)
A kick from a mare never hurt a horse.
Proverb, (French)
A kind word can attract even the snake from his nest.
Proverb, (Arabian)
A kind word is like a Spring day.
Proverb, (Russian)
A kind word never broke any body's mouth.
Proverb, (Irish)
A kindness bestowed on the good is never thrown away.
Proverb, (Latin)
A king or a slave.
Proverb, (Latin)
A king without learning is but a crowned ass.
Proverb
A king's castle is his home.
Proverb
A king's chaff is worth more than other men's corn.
Proverb
A king, a master, a parent, a judge, may fail to frighten us; but sickness
coming brings with it successful reproof.
Proverb
A kiss without a beard is like an egg without salt.
Proverb, (Dutch)
A kiss without a hug is like a flower without the fragrance.
Proverb, (Maltese)
A kitchen dog never was good for the chase.
Proverb, (Italian)
A kitchen knife cannot carve its own handle.
Proverb, (Korean)
A kitchen-dog is never a good rabbit-hunter.
Proverb, (Spanish)
A knife wound heals; a wound caused by words does not.
Proverb, (Turkish)
A known mistake is better than an unknown truth.
Proverb, (Arabic)
A lame crab walks straight.
Proverb, (Afghan)
A lame goat will not sleep by day.
Proverb, (Spanish)
A lame man won't walk with one who is lamer.
Proverb, (French)
A lame traveller should get out betimes.
Proverb
A landmark is very well placed between the fields of two brothers.
Proverb, (French)
A large fire often comes from a small spark.
Proverb, (Danish)
A lass that has many wooers often fares the worst.
Proverb
A lawsuit for a maravedi consumes a real's worth of paper.
Proverb, (Spanish)
A lawyer and a cart-wheel must be greased.
Proverb, (German)
A lawyer and a wagon-wheel must be well greased.
Proverb, (German)
A lawyer never goes to law himself.
Proverb, (Italian)
A lazy boy and a warm bed are difficult to part.
Proverb, (Danish)
A lazy ox is little the better for the goad.
Proverb, (Spanish)
A lazy sheep thinks its wool heavy.
Proverb
A lazy youth, a lousy age.
Proverb
A lean agreement is better than a fat lawsuit.
Proverb, (German)
A lean calf forgets to skip.
Proverb, (Danish)
A lean compromise is better than a fat lawsuit.
Proverb, (Dutch, German)
A lean horse does not kick.
Proverb, (Italian)
A leap year is never a good sheep year.
Proverb, (English)
A learned man has always wealth in himself.
Proverb, (Latin)
A leg of a lark is better than the body of a kite.
Proverb
A lengthy sermon is intolerable.
Proverb, (Latin)
A leopard cannot change his spots.
Proverb
A leopard does not change his spots.
Proverb, (Latin)
A letter once written cannot be recalled.
Proverb, (Latin)
A liar is not believed when he speaks the truth.
Proverb, fable of boy and wolf
A liar is sooner caught than a cripple.
Proverb, (Italian, Portuguese)
A liar must have a good memory.
Proverb, (Dutch)
A liar ought to have a good memory.
Proverb
A liar should have a good memory.
Proverb
A library is a repository of medicine for the mind.
Proverb, (Greek)
A lie begets a lie.
Proverb
A lie has short legs.
Proverb, (English, Portuguese)
A life of leisure, and a life of laziness, are two things.
Proverb
A light belly, heavy heart.
Proverb, (German)
A light purse makes a heavy heart.
Proverb
A light supper is beneficial.
Proverb, (Latin)
A light-heeled mother makes a heavy-healed daughter.
Proverb
A lion may be beholden to a mouse.
Proverb
A lion's skin is never cheap.
Proverb
A lisping lass is good to kiss.
Proverb
A litigious man, a liar.
Proverb, (French)
A little absence does much good.
Proverb, (French)
A little and a little, collected together, becomes a great deal; the heap in
the barn consists of single grains, and drop and drop makes an inundation.
Proverb, (Arabian)
A little bird wants but a little nest.
Proverb
A little body doth often harbour a great soul.
Proverb
A little debt makes a debtor, a great one an enemy.
Proverb
A little dinner, long expected and cold, is by no means given, but dearly
sold.
Proverb, (French)
A little dog, a cow without horns, and a short man, are generally proud.
Proverb, (Danish)
A little fire burns up a great deal of corn.
Proverb, (Hebrew)
A little gall embitters much honey.
Proverb, (Spanish)
A little gall make a great deal of honey bitter.
Proverb, (Italian)
A little gall spoils a great deal of honey.
Proverb, (French)
A little gall spoils much honey.
Proverb, (Portuguese)
A little good is soon spent.
Proverb
A little help does a great deal.
Proverb, (French)
A little house well filled,
A little land well tilled,
And a little wife well willed.
Proverb
A little injury dismays, and a great one stills.
Proverb, (Portuguese)
A little knowledge is a dangerous thing.
Proverb
A little leak will sink a great ship.
Proverb
A little leaven leavens a great mass.
Proverb, (French)
A little loss frightens, a great one tames.
Proverb, (Spanish)
A little makes a debtor and much an enemy.
Proverb, (Portuguese)
A little man fells a great oak.
Proverb, (French)
A little man often casts a long shadow.
Proverb, (Italian)
A little man sometimes casts a long shadow.
Proverb, (French)
A little of everything is nothing in the main.
Proverb
A little pack serves a little pedlar.
Proverb, (French)
A little pot boils easily.
Proverb, (Dutch)
A little pot is soon hot.
Proverb, (Dutch)
A little rain stills a great wind.
Proverb, (French)
A little sheep always seems young.
Proverb, (French)
A little spark kindles a great fire.
Proverb, (German, Italian, Spanish)
A little spark shines in the dark.
Proverb, (French)
A little stone may upset a large cart.
Proverb, (Danish)
A little stone overturns a great cart.
Proverb, (Italian)
A little stream drives a great mill.
Proverb
A little thing often helps.
Proverb, (French)
A little too late is much too late.
Proverb, (Dutch, German)
A little truth makes the whole lie pass.
Proverb, (Italian)
A little water is a sea to an ant.
Proverb, (Afghan)
A live dog is better than a dead lion.
Proverb
A living ass is better than a dead doctor.
Proverb, (Italian)
A load of March dust is worth a ducat.
Proverb, (German)
A loaded wagon creaks; an empty one rattles.
Proverb, (German)
A lock is better than suspicion.
Proverb, (Irish)
A lonely person is at home everywhere.
Proverb, (Russian)
A long pull and a strong pull and a pull altogether.
Proverb
A long tongue betokens a short hand.
Proverb, (Portuguese, Spanish)
A looker on sees more of the game than a player.
Proverb
A lord of straw devours a vassal of steel.
Proverb, (French)
A lord without land, is like a cask without wine.
Proverb, (Danish)
A lordly taste make a beggar's purse.
Proverb, (German)
A lovelorn cook oversalts the porridge.
Proverb, (German)
A lover should be regarded as a person
demented.
Proverb, (Latin)
A lover's anger is short-lived.
Proverb, (Italian)
A loving man, a jealous man.
Proverb, (Italian)
A low hedge is easily leaped over.
Proverb
A lucky person is someone who plants pebbles and harvests potatoes.
Proverb, (Greek)
A mackerel sky and mare's tails
Make lofty ships carry low sails.
Proverb
A mackerel sky is never long dry.
Proverb
A mad bull is not to be tied up with a packthread.
Proverb
A mad dog cannot live long.
Proverb, (French)
A mad parish, a mad priest.
Proverb, (Italian)
A maid oft seen and a gown oft worn,
Are disesteemed and held in scorn.
Proverb
A maid that laughs is half taken.
Proverb
A maid who laughs is half taken.
Proverb, (English)
A maiden with many wooers often chooses the worst.
Proverb
A maker of idols is never an idolater.
Proverb, (Chinese)
A malignant sore throat is a danger; a malignant throat not sore is worse.
Proverb, (American)
A man among children will be long a child, a child among men will be soon a
man.
Proverb
A man as he manages himself may die old at thirty, or young at eighty.
Proverb, (Latin)
A man assailed is half overcome.
Proverb, (French)
A man at five may be a fool at fifteen.
Proverb
A man at sixteen will prove a child at sixty.
Proverb
A man can die just once.
Proverb, (American)
A man can do no more than he can.
Proverb
A man can't do more than he can do.
What says Don Ferdinando?
Proverb
A man can't get rich if he takes proper care of his family.
Proverb, (Navaho)
A man cannot carry all his kin on his back.
Proverb, (Danish)
A man cannot jump over his own shadow.
Proverb, (Yiddish)
A man cannot spin and reel at the same time.
Proverb
A man cannot whistle and drink at the same time.
Proverb
A man comes from the dust and in the dust he will end--and in the meantime
it is good to drink a sip of vodka.
Proverb, (Yiddish)
A man conducts himself abroad as he has been taught at home.
Proverb, (Danish)
A man dances all the same, though he may dance against his will.
Proverb, (Danish)
A man devoid of religion is like a horse without a bridle.
Proverb, (Latin)
A man does not always aim at what he means to hit.
Proverb, (Danish)
A man does not look behind the door unless he has stood there himself.
Proverb, (Danish)
A man does not seek his luck, luck seeks its man.
Proverb, (Turkish)
A man does not wander far from where his corn is roasting.
Proverb, (Nigerian)
A man forewarned is as good as two.
Proverb, (Spanish)
A man gains nothing by vain glory but contempt and hatred.
Proverb
A man has learned much who has learned how to die.
Proverb, (German)
A man has two ears and one mouth that he hear much and speak little.
Proverb, (German)
A man if he lives alone is either a god or a demon.
Proverb, (Latin)
A man in a passion rides a horse that runs away with him.
Proverb
A man in love mistakes a pimple for a dimple.
Proverb, (Japanese)
A man in not known till he cometh to honour.
Proverb, (Dutch)
A man in this world without learning is as a beast of the field.
Proverb, (Hindu)
A man is a king in his own house.
Proverb, (Latin)
A man is a lion in his own cause.
Proverb, (Scottish)
A man is as big as the things that made him mad.
Proverb, (American)
A man is as old as he feels himself to be.
Proverb, (English)
A man is as old as he feels, and a woman as old as she looks.
Proverb
A man is bound by his word, an ox with a hempen cord.
Proverb, (Danish)
A man is judged by his clothes.
Proverb, (Latin)
A man is judged by his deeds, not by his words.
Proverb, (Russian)
A man is judged of by his companions.
Proverb, (Latin)
A man is known by the company he keeps.
Proverb, (Gaelic)
A man is known by the eye, and the face discovers wisdom.
Proverb
A man is not a lord because he feeds off fine dishes.
Proverb, (Danish)
A man is not honest simply because he never had a chance to steal.
Proverb, (Yiddish)
A man is not old until his regrets take the place of his dreams.
Proverb
A man is not where he lives, but where he loves.
Proverb, (Latin)
A man is often a bad adviser to himself and a good adviser to another.
Proverb, (Irish)
A man is valued according to his own estimate of himself.
Proverb, (French)
A man is weal or woe as he thinks himself so.
Proverb
A man know's no more to any purpose than he practises.
Proverb
A man knows his companion in a long journey and a little inn.
Proverb
A man may bear till his back break.
Proverb
A man may bear till his back breaks.
Proverb
A man may cause his own dog to bite him.
Proverb
A man may hap to bring home with him what makes him weep.
Proverb, (Spanish)
A man may lose his goods for want of demanding them.
Proverb
A man may lose what are his clearest rights by not demanding them.
Proverb, (Latin)
A man may love his house well, though he ride not on the ridge.
Proverb
A man may threaten yet be afraid.
Proverb, (French)
A man may woo where he will, but he will wed where his hap is.
Proverb
A man must despise himself before others will.
Proverb, (Chinese)
A man must eat, though every tree were a gallows.
Proverb, (Dutch)
A man must keep his mouth open a long while before a roast pigeon files into
it.
Proverb, (Danish)
A man must make himself despicable before he is despised by others.
Proverb, (Chinese)
A man must plough with such oxen as he hath.
Proverb
A man must put grain in the ground before he can cut the harvest.
Proverb, (Gypsy)
A man need never revenge himself; the body of his enemy will be brought to
his own door.
Proverb, (Chinese)
A man never becomes an orator if he has something to say.
Proverb, (American)
A man of few words but learned withal.
Proverb, (Latin)
A man of gladness seldom falls into madness.
Proverb
A man of good natural plain common sense.
Proverb, (Latin)
A man of many trades begs his bread on Sundays.
Proverb
A man of straw is better than a woman of gold.
Proverb, (Portuguese)
A man of straw is worth a woman of gold.
Proverb, (French)
A man of straw needs a woman of gold.
Proverb, (Italian)
A man of words and not of deeds
Is like a garden full of weeds.
Proverb
A man of words and not of deeds is like a garden full of weeds.
Proverb
A man often kisses the hand he would like to see cut off.
Proverb, (Danish)
A man overboard, a mouth the less.
Proverb, (Dutch)
A man profits more by the sight of an idiot than by the orations of the
learned.
Proverb, (Arabian)
A man should learn to sail in all winds.
Proverb, (Italian)
A man should live if only to satisfy his curiosity.
Proverb, (Yiddish)
A man shows his character by what he laughs at.
Proverb, (German)
A man surprised is half beaten.
Proverb
A man takes his own wherever he finds it.
Proverb, (French)
A man that has had his fill is no eater.
Proverb, (Spanish)
A man that is lean, not from hunger, is harder than brass.
Proverb, (Spanish)
A man that is warned is half armed.
Proverb
A man that keeps riches and enjoys them not, is like an ass that carries
gold and eats thistles.
Proverb
A man too busy to take care of his health is like a mechanic too bus to take
care of his tools.
Proverb
A man travels as far in a day as a snail in a hundred years.
Proverb, (French)
A man warned is as good as two.
Proverb, (French, Italian)
A man warned is half saved.
Proverb, (German)
A man well mounted is always proud.
Proverb, (French)
A man who has but one eye must take good care of it.
Proverb, (French)
A man who is his own lawyer has a fool for a client.
Proverb
A man who is not spoken of is not abused.
Proverb, (Danish)
A man who prides himself on his ancestry is like the potato plant, the best
part of which is underground.
Proverb, (Spanish)
A man who wants bread is ready for anything.
Proverb, (French)
A man who wants to drown his dog says he is mad.
Proverb, (French)
A man with a watch knows what time it is. A man with two watches is never
sure.
Proverb
A man without a smiling face must not open shop.
Proverb, (Chinese)
A man without money is like a ship without sails.
Proverb, (Dutch)
A man's best fortune, or his worst, is a wife.
Proverb
A man's character reaches town before his person.
Proverb, (Danish)
A man's conversation is the mirror of his thoughts.
Proverb, (Chinese)
A man's discontent is his worst evil.
Proverb
A man's face is a lion's.
Proverb, (German)
A man's house is his castle.
Proverb
A man's own opinion is never wrong.
Proverb, (Italian)
A man's ruin lies in his tongue.
Proverb, (Egyptian)
A man's will is his heaven.
Proverb, (Danish)
A man's word is his honour.
Proverb, (Danish)
A man, a horse, and a dog are never weary of each other's company.
Proverb
A man, a word; a word, a man.
Proverb, (German)
A mansion pulled down is half built up again.
Proverb, (French)
A market is three women and a goose.
Proverb, (Italian)
A married man is a caged bird.
Proverb, (Italian)
A May flood never did good.
Proverb
A meagre compromise is better than a fat lawsuit.
Proverb, (Danish)
A meal without wine is like a day without sunshine.
Proverb, (Italian)
A measly hog infects the whole sty.
Proverb, (Spanish)
A melon and a woman are hard to know.
Proverb, (Spanish)
A mended lid to a cracked pan.
Proverb, (Japanese)
A merchants happiness hangs upon chance, winds, and waves.
Proverb
A merry companion on the road is as good as a nag.
Proverb
A merry host makes merry guests.
Proverb, (Dutch)
A merry life forgets father and mother.
Proverb, (French)
A mewing cat is never a good mouser.
Proverb, (Spanish)
A middle course is the safest.
Proverb, (Latin)
A mild sheep is suck by every lamb.
Proverb, (Italian)
A mile walk with a friend has only one hundred steps.
Proverb, (Russian)
A mill and a wife are always in want of something.
Proverb, (Italian)
A mill cannot grind with the water that is past.
Proverb
A millstone gathers no moss.
Proverb, (German)
A mind conscious of guilt is its own accuser.
Proverb, (Latin)
A mind conscious of innocence laughs at the lies of rumor.
Proverb, (Latin)
A mischievous dog must be tied short.
Proverb, (Italian)
A miser and a liar bargain quickly.
Proverb, (Greek)
A miser is ever in want.
Proverb, (Greek)
A miser's son is generally a spendthrift.
Proverb, (Latin)
A miserly father makes a prodigal man.
Proverb, (French)
A misfortune and a friar seldom go alone.
Proverb, (Italian)
A miss is as good as a mile.
Proverb, (American)
A mistake is no fraud.
Proverb, (German)
A mistake is no reckoning.
Proverb, (French)
A modest dog seldom grows fat.
Proverb, (Danish)
A moneyless man goes fast through the market.
Proverb
A monk in his cloister, a fish in the water, a thief in the gallows.
Proverb, (German)
A monkey is not to be caught in a trap.
Proverb, (Latin)
A monkey remains a monkey, though dressed in silk.
Proverb, (Spanish)
A Montgomery division: all on one side, nothing on the other.
Proverb, (French)
A morsel eaten gains no friend.
Proverb, (Portuguese)
A morsel eaten selfishly does not gain a friend.
Proverb, (Spanish)
A mouse in pitch. [A man engaged in useless and perplexing inquiries.]
Proverb, (Latin)
A mouse in time may bite in two a cable.
Proverb
A mouse may help a lion.
Proverb
A mouse will put the finishing stroke to a castle wall.
Proverb
A mouse will scare a thief.
Proverb, (Italian)
A mouth that praises and a hand that kills.
Proverb, (Arabic)
A muffled cat is no good mouser.
Proverb, (Italian)
A muffled cat never caught a mouse.
Proverb, (French)
A mule and a woman do what is expected of them.
Proverb, (Spanish)
A mute bird makes no omen.
Proverb, (Spanish)
A nail secures the horse-shoe, the shoe the horse, the horse the man, the
man the castle, and the castle the whole land.
Proverb, (German)
A narrow neck keeps the bottle from being emptied in one swig.
Proverb, (Irish)
A nation's treasure: scholars.
Proverb, (Chinese)
A naughty child must be roughly rocked.
Proverb, (Danish)
A near neighbour is better than a distant cousin.
Proverb, (Italian)
A necessary lie is harmless.
Proverb, (German)
A neighbour's eye is full of jealousy.
Proverb, (Danish)
A net will catch more than a pole.
Proverb, (Russian)
A new broom is good for three days.
Proverb, (Italian)
A new broom sweeps clean, but an old broom knows the corners.
Proverb, (Irish)
A new net won't catch an old bird.
Proverb, (Italian)
A nice wife and a back door
Do often make a rich man poor.
Proverb
A noble prince or king never has a coin to bless himself.
Proverb, (French)
A nobleman's calf does not know how a butcher kills.
Proverb, (Korean)
A nobody to-day, a prince to-morrow. [The reverse of "To-day a man,
to-morrow a mouse."]
Proverb, (Latin)
A nod for a wise man, and a rod for a fool.
Proverb
A nod from a lord is a breakfast for a fool.
Proverb
A nod is as good as a wink to a blind horse.
Proverb, (Irish)
A nod's as good as a wink to a blind horse.
Proverb
A noisy cow gives little milk.
Proverb, (Polish)
A north wind has no corn, and a poor man no friend.
Proverb, (Spanish)
A pack of cards is the devil's prayer-book.
Proverb, (German)
A pair of light shoes is not all that is needed for dancing.
Proverb, (Danish)
A parasite cannot live alone.
Proverb, (African Ovambo)
A patient that can swallow food makes the nurse doubtful.
Proverb, (Malagasy)
A peacock has too little in its head, too much in its tail.
Proverb, (Swedish)
A peasant between two lawyers is like a fish between two cats.
Proverb, (Spanish)
A peasant will stand on the top of a hill for a very long time with his
mouth open before a roast duck will fly in.
Proverb
A peck of March dust is worth a king's ransom.
Proverb
A peg for every hole.
Proverb, (French)
A penny for your thoughts.
Proverb
A penny in time is as good as a dollar.
Proverb, (Danish)
A penny is a lot of money--if you haven't got a penny.
Proverb, (Yiddish)
A penny is sometimes better spent than spared.
Proverb
A penny saved is a penny earned.
Proverb,
often attributed to Benjamin Franklin
A penny saved is a penny gained.
Proverb, (German)
A penny saved is a penny got.
Proverb
A penny saved is two-pence got.
Proverb, (German)
A penny spared is a penny saved.
Proverb, (Spanish)
A penny spared is better than a florin gained.
Proverb, (Dutch)
A pennyweight of love is worth a pound of law.
Proverb
A pennyworth of mirth is worth a pound of sorrow.
Proverb
A people without history is like wind on the buffalo grass.
Proverb, (Native American Sioux)
A perfect whipping-top for changing sides.
Proverb, (Latin)
A person born to be a flower pot will not go beyond the porch.
Proverb, (Mexican)
A person changing his clothing always hides while changing.
Proverb, (Kenyan)
A person does not seek luck; luck seeks the person.
Proverb, (Turkish)
A person eating must make crumbs.
Proverb, (Sicilian)
A person is unlucky who falls on his back and breaks his nose.
Proverb, (French)
A person who misses a chance and the monkey who misses its branch can't be
saved.
Proverb, (India)
A person who say it cannot be done should not interrupt the man doing it.
Proverb, (Chinese)
A person whose heart is not content is like a snake which tries to swallow
an elephant.
Proverb, (Chinese)
A person with a bad name is already half-hanged.
Proverb
A pestilence follows a famine.
Proverb, (Latin)
A pet child has many names.
Proverb, (Danish)
A picture is a poem wanting words.
Proverb, (Latin)
A piece of meat with eyes.
Proverb, (Sicilian)
A pig bought on credit grunts all the year.
Proverb, (Spanish)
A pig bought on credit is forever grunting.
Proverb, (Spanish)
A pig on credit makes a good winter and a bad spring.
Proverb, (Portuguese)
A pig teaching Minerva.
[Lat., Sus Minervam.]
Proverb
A pig used to dirt turns its nose up at rice.
Proverb, (Japanese)
A pig's life, short and sweet.
Proverb, (French)
A pig's tail will never make a good arrow.
Proverb, (Spanish)
A pitcher that goes oft to the well is broken at last.
Proverb, (Italian)
A pitiful look asks enough.
Proverb
A place for everything, and everything in its place.
Proverb
A plank in a wreck.
Proverb, (Latin)
A plaster house, a horse at grass, a friend in words, are all mere glass.
Proverb, (Dutch)
A pleasant companion on a journey is as good as a postchaise.
Proverb, (French)
A pleasant think never comes too soon.
Proverb, (Danish)
A plough that worketh, shines; but still water stinks.
Proverb, (Dutch)
A ploughman on his legs is higher than a gentleman on his knees.
Proverb,
(Latin), also found in the Preface of Franklin's "Poor Richard" (1758)
A poet is born, not made.
[Lat., Poeta nascitur, non fit.]
Proverb, (Latin)
A poor cask often holds good wine.
Proverb, (Latin)
A poor dancer will be disturbed even by the hem of her skirt.
Proverb, (Polish)
A poor man has few acquaintances.
Proverb, (Danish)
A poor man is all schemes.
Proverb, (Spanish)
A poor man is always behind.
Proverb, (American)
A poor man is hungry after eating.
Proverb, (Portuguese)
A poor man's joy has much alloy.
Proverb, (Danish)
A poor man's table is soon spread.
Proverb
A poor person isn't he who has little, but he who needs a lot.
Proverb, (German)
A porcupine speaking to its baby says, "O my child of velvet."
Proverb, (Afghan)
A Portuguese apprentice who can't sew, yet would be cutting out.
Proverb, (Spanish)
A postern door makes a thief.
Proverb
A pound of care will not pay an ounce of debt.
Proverb
A pound of idleness weighs twenty ounces.
Proverb
A precipice in front of you, and wolves behind you; that is life.
Proverb, (Latin)
A precipice is in front, a wolf behind.
Proverb, (Latin)
A pretty basket does not prevent worries.
Proverb, (Congolese)
A pretty face and fine clothes do not make character.
Proverb
A priest sees people at their best, a lawyer at their worst, but a doctor
sees them as they really are.
Proverb
A priest's belly is made up of several sheepskins.
Proverb, (Russian)
A priest's pocket is not easily filled.
Proverb, (Danish)
A princely mind will undo a private family.
Proverb
A promise is a cloud; fulfillment is rain.
Proverb, (Arab)
A promise is a debt.
Proverb, (German)
A prophet is not without honor save in his own country.
Proverb
A prospering man should remain at home.
Proverb, (Latin)
A proud heart can survive a general failure because such a failure does not
prick its pride.
Proverb, (African)
A proud man hath many crosses.
Proverb
A proud pauper and a rich miser are contemptible beings.
Proverb, (Italian)
A proverb can't be judged.
Proverb, (Russian)
A proverb is a short sentence based on long experience.
Proverb, (Spanish)
A proverb is the child of experience.
Proverb, (English)
A proverb never lies, it is only its meaning which deceives.
Proverb, (German)
A prudent man does not make the goat his gardener.
Proverb, (Hungarian)
A puff of wind and popular praise weigh alike.
Proverb
A quarrel is like buttermilk: once it's out of the churn, the more you shake
it, the more sour it grows.
Proverb, (Irish)
A quiet conscience sleeps in thunder.
Proverb
A quiet tongue shows a wise head.
Proverb
A rabbithorn cannot be a war-horse and will only become a laughingstock if
he should try.
Proverb, (Darkovan)
A ragged coat finds little credit.
Proverb, (Italian)
A ragged colt may make a good horse.
Proverb, (English, French)
A ragged colt may make a handsome horse.
Proverb, (Portuguese)
A ragged sack holds no grain, a poor man is not taken into counsel.
Proverb, (Italian)
A rainbow in the morning is the shepherd's warning;
A rainbow at night is the shepherd's delight.
Proverb
A rainy morn oft brings a pleasant day.
Proverb
A rare bird upon the earth and very like a black swan.
[Lat., Rara avis in terris, nigroque simillima cygno.]
Proverb
A rash man, a skin of good wine, and a glass vessel, do not last long.
Proverb, (Portuguese)
A rat is not born a rabbit.
Proverb, (Nigerian)
A razor may be sharper than an ax, but it cannot cut wood.
Proverb, (African Annang)
A reconciled friend is a double enemy.
Proverb, (Spanish)
A red-nosed man may be a teetotaler, but will find no one to believe it.
Proverb, (Chinese)
A reed before the wind lives on, while mighty oaks do fall.
Proverb
A resolute heart endures no counsel.
Proverb, (Portuguese)
A restive morsel needs a spur of wine.
Proverb, (French)
A rich child often sits in a poor mother's lap.
Proverb, (Danish)
A rich man has no need of character.
Proverb, (Hebrew)
A rich man is either a rogue or a rogue's heir.
Proverb, (Latin)
A rich man is either a scoundrel or the heir of a scoundrel.
Proverb, (Spanish)
A rich man is never ugly in the eyes of a girl.
Proverb, (French)
A rich man who is stingy is the worst pauper.
Proverb, (Yiddish)
A rich man's foolish sayings pass for wise ones.
Proverb
A rich mouthful, a heavy groan.
Proverb
A rich widow weeps with one eye and laughs with the other.
Proverb, (Portuguese)
A rich widow weeps with one eye and signals with the other.
Proverb, (Portuguese)
A rich wife is a source of quarrel.
Proverb, (Danish)
A rickety chair will not long serve as a seat.
Proverb, (Danish)
A ridiculous accident has often been the making of many.
Proverb, (Latin)
A right Englishman knows not when a thing is well.
Proverb
A ring of gold in a sow's nostril.
Proverb, (Latin)
A rising tide lifts all boats.
Proverb
A river is made drop by drop.
Proverb, (Afghan)
A river is not contaminated by having a dog drink from it.
Proverb, (Afghan)
A roan horse and a black can travel equally far in a day's journey.
Proverb, (Darkovan)
A rock offered by a friend is like an apple.
Proverb, (Sicilian)
A rod is better than a fox's brush.
Proverb, (Danish)
A rogue says "Yes" to what a rogue says.
Proverb, (Latin)
A rolling eye, a roving heart.
Proverb
A rolling stone is not covered with moss.
[Lat., Saxum volutum non obducitur musco.]
Proverb, (Latin)
A rose is a rose is a rose.
Proverb
A rotten egg cannot be spoiled.
Proverb
A rotting fish begins to stink at the head.
Proverb, (Italian)
A round egg can be made square according to how you cut it; words would be
harsh according to how you speak them.
Proverb, (Japanese)
A Rowland for an Oliver.
Proverb, (French)
A royal heart is often hid under a tattered cloak.
Proverb, (Danish)
A rumour goes in one ear and out many mouths.
Proverb, (Chinese)
A runaway horse punishes himself.
Proverb, (Italian)
A runaway monk never praises his convent.
Proverb, (Italian)
A runaway monk never speaks well of his convent.
Proverb, (Dutch)
A running man can slit a thousand throats in one night.
Proverb, (Klingon)
A sack full of fleas is easier to watch than a woman.
Proverb, (German)
A sack is best tied before it is full.
Proverb, (French)
A sack was never so full but that it would hold another grain.
Proverb, (French, Italian)
A sad bride makes a glad wife.
Proverb, (Dutch)
A saddle fits more backs than one.
Proverb, (Italian)
A sailor must have his eye trained to the rocks and sands as well as the
north star.
Proverb
A saint abroad and a devil at home.
Proverb
A scabby colt may make a good horse.
Proverb, (Spanish)
A scabby head fears the comb.
Proverb, (Dutch)
A scald head is soon broken.
Proverb
A scald head need strong lye.
Proverb, (Danish)
A scalded cat dreads cold water.
Proverb, (French, Portuguese)
A scalded cat fears cold water.
Proverb
A scalded cat is afraid of cold water.
Proverb, (French, Italian, Spanish)
A scalded dog thinks cold water hot.
Proverb, (Italian)
A sceptre is one thing, a ladle another.
Proverb, (Latin)
A scholar's ink lasts longer than a martyr's blood.
Proverb, (Irish)
A scorpion never stung me but I cured myself with its grease.
Proverb, (Italian)
A Scot, a rat, and a Newcastle grindstone travel all the world over.
Proverb
A Scottish man is wise behind the hand.
Proverb
A Scottish mist will wet an Englishman to the skin.
Proverb
A seat in the council is honour without profit.
Proverb, (Portuguese)
A secret between two is God's secret, a secret between three is everybody's.
Proverb, (Spanish)
A secret imparted is no longer a secret.
Proverb, (Italian)
A secret is like a dove: when it leaves my hand it takes wing.
Proverb, (Arabic)
A sense of humor is the pole that adds balance to our steps as we walk the
tightrope of life.
Proverb
A servant and a cock must be kept but one year.
Proverb, (Portuguese)
A service done to the unwilling is no service.
Proverb, (Latin)
A shady lane breeds mud.
Proverb, (English)
A sharp tooth for hard bread.
Proverb, (Portuguese, Spanish)
A sheep's bite is never more than skip deep.
Proverb, (Italian)
A ship and a woman are ever repairing.
Proverb
A ship on the beach is a lighthouse to the sea.
Proverb, (Dutch)
A shock dog is starved and nobody believes it.
Proverb, (Spanish)
A shoemaker's wife and a smith's mare are always the worst shod.
Proverb
A short cut is often a wrong cut.
Proverb, (Danish)
A short halter for a greedy horse.
Proverb, (Spanish)
A short horse is soon curried.
Proverb
A short life and a merry one.
Proverb
A short mass and a long dinner.
Proverb, (French)
A short rest is always good.
Proverb, (Danish)
A short sword for a brave man.
Proverb, (French)
A short tail won't keep off flies.
Proverb, (Italian)
A shut mouth catches no flies.
Proverb
A shut mouth keeps me out of strife.
Proverb, (Portuguese)
A sick man sleeps, but not a debtor.
Proverb, (Spanish)
A sick mind cannot endure any harshness.
Proverb, (Latin)
A silent man's words are not brought into court.
Proverb, (Danish)
A silent mouth is sweet to hear.
Proverb, (Irish)
A silent pig digs the deepest root.
Proverb, (Lithuanian)
A silent woman is always more admired than a noisy one.
Proverb, (Latin)
A silly daughter teaches her mother how to bear children.
Proverb, (Ethiopian)
A silly song may be sung in many ways.
Proverb, (Danish)
A silver hammer breaks an iron door.
Proverb, (French)
A sin concealed is half forgiven.
Proverb, (Italian)
A sin concealed is half pardoned (meaning when care is taken to conceal the
scandal).
Proverb, (French)
A sin confessed is half forgiven.
Proverb, (Italian)
A single advantage is worth a thousand sorceries.
Proverb, (Turkish)
A single arrow is easily broken, but not ten in a bundle.
Proverb, (Japanese)
A single beam cannot support a great house.
Proverb, (Chinese)
A single conversation with a wise man is better than ten years of study.
Proverb, (Chinese)
A single day grants what a whole hear denies.
Proverb, (Dutch)
A single penny fairly got, is worth a thousand that are not.
Proverb, (German)
A single stick may smoke, but it will not burn.
Proverb, (Ethiopian)
A single stroke don't fell the oak.
Proverb, (German)
A single untried popular remedy often throws the scientific doctor into
hysterics.
Proverb, (Chinese)
A slave has no choice.
Proverb, (Kenya)
A slave yesterday, to-day a freedman.
Proverb, (Latin)
A slice off a cut loaf isn't missed.
Proverb
A slight suspicion may destroy a good repute.
Proverb, (Danish)
A slip of the foot may soon be recovered; but that of the tongue perhaps
never.
Proverb
A slothful man never has time.
Proverb, (Italian)
A sly rabbit will have three openings to its den.
Proverb, (Chinese)
A sly rogue is often in good dress.
Proverb, (Irish)
A small benefit obtained is better than a great one in expectation.
Proverb
A small bolt to the house is better than none at all.
Proverb, (Danish)
A small cloud may hide both sun and moon.
Proverb, (Danish)
A small competence is best.
Proverb, (Latin)
A small family is soon provided for.
Proverb, (English)
A small fire that warms you, is better than a large one that burns you.
Proverb, (Danish)
A small gift is better than a great promise.
Proverb, (German)
A small gift, but well-timed.
Proverb, (Latin)
A small hatchet fells a great oak.
Proverb, (Portuguese)
A small leak will sink a great ship.
Proverb
A small pack becomes a small pedlar.
Proverb, (French)
A small pack becomes a small pedler.
Proverb
A small spark makes a great fire.
Proverb
A small tear relieves a great sorrow.
Proverb
A smart coat is a good letter of introduction.
Proverb, (Dutch)
A smile will gain you ten more years of life.
Proverb, (Chinese)
A smiling boy seldom proves a good servant.
Proverb
A smiling face is half the meal.
Proverb, (Latvian)
A smooth sea never made a skilled mariner.
Proverb, (English)
A smooth tongue is better than smooth locks.
Proverb, (Danish)
A snake deserves no pity.
Proverb, (Yiddish)
A snake lies concealed in the grass.
Proverb, (Latin)
A snow year, a rich year.
Proverb
A soft answer bids a Furioso to put up his sword.
Proverb
A soft-spoken compliment is honied poison.
Proverb, (Latin)
A solitary man is either a brute or an angel.
Proverb, (Italian)
A solitary man is either a God or a beast.
Proverb
A son-in-law's friendship is a winter's sun.
Proverb, (Spanish)
A sooty chimney costs many a beef-steak.
Proverb
A sow is always dreaming of bran.
Proverb, (French)
A sow may find an acorn as well as a hog.
Proverb, (Danish)
A sow may whistle, though it has an ill mouth for it.
Proverb
A sow prefers bran to roses.
Proverb, (French)
A spaniel, a wife, and a walnut tree,
The more you beat 'em the better they be.
Proverb
A spark may raise
An awful blaze.
Proverb
A sparrow in hand is worth a pheasant that flieth by.
Proverb
A sparrow in hand is worth more than a vulture flying.
Proverb
A sparrow in the hand is better than a bustard on the wing.
Proverb, (Spanish)
A sparrow in the hand is better than a crane on the wing.
Proverb, (French)
A sparrow in the hand is better than a pigeon on the roof.
Proverb, (German)
A sparrow in the hand is better than a pigeon on the wing.
Proverb, (French)
A sparrow suffers as much when it breaks its leg as does a Flanders horse.
Proverb, (Danish)
A spot shows most on the finest cloth.
Proverb, (Spanish)
A starved town is soon forced to surrender.
Proverb, (Italian)
A stepmother has a hard hand.
Proverb, (Danish)
A stern chase is a long chase.
Proverb
A stick is a peacemaker.
Proverb, (French)
A stick is quickly found to beat a dog with.
Proverb
A stick is soon found to beat a dog.
Proverb, (Italian)
A still sow eats up all the draff.
Proverb, (Dutch)
A still tongue makes a wise head.
Proverb
A still tongue maketh a wise head.
Proverb
A stingy man is always poor.
Proverb, (French)
A stitch in time saves nine.
Proverb
A stone from the hand of a friend is an apple.
Proverb, (Moroccan)
A stone thrown at the right time is better than gold given at the wrong
time.
Proverb, (Persian)
A store-house of evil is a woman if she is depraved.
Proverb, (Latin)
A stout heart breaks ill fortune.
Proverb, (Portuguese)
A stout heart overcomes ill fortune.
Proverb, (Italian)
A stout heart tempers adversity.
Proverb, (Dutch)
A straight stick is crooked in the water.
Proverb
A stranger has big eyes but sees nothing.
Proverb, (African)
A stream cannot rise about its source.
Proverb
A strong remedy for evils is ignorance of them.
Proverb, (Latin)
A stumble is not a fall.
Proverb, (Haitian)
A stumble may prevent a fall.
Proverb, (English)
A stupid act entails doing the work twice over.
Proverb, (Burmese)
A Sunday's child never dies of the plague.
Proverb, (French)
A surgeon tries his experiments on the heads of orphans.
Proverb, (Latin)
A suspicious mind sees everything on the dark side.
Proverb, (Latin)
A swarm in May is worth a load of hay; a swarm in June is worth a silver
spoon; but a swarm in July is not worth a fly.
Proverb
A swarm of bees is Many is worth a load of hay,
But a swarm in July is not worth a fly.
Proverb
A sword anointed with honey.
Proverb, (Latin)
A sword of lead in a scabbard of ivory.
Proverb, (Latin)
A table friend is changeable.
Proverb, (French)
A table is not blessed if it has fed no scholars.
Proverb, (Yiddish)
A tale never loses in the telling.
Proverb, (Scottish)
A tale twice told is cabbage twice sold.
Proverb
A talkative bird will not build a nest.
Proverb, (West African)
A tattler is war than a thief.
Proverb
A teacher is better than two books.
Proverb, (German)
A tear bedews my Delia's eye, From morn till dewy eve; But if you ask the
reason why, She can't tell, I believe.
Proverb
A tender-hearted mother makes a scabby daughter.
Proverb, (French, Italian)
A termite can do nothing to a stone but lick it.
Proverb, (Sudanese)
A thankless man never does a thankful deed.
Proverb, (Danish)
A thief does not willingly see another carry a basket.
Proverb
A thief is a king till he's caught.
Proverb, (Persian)
A thief knows a thief as a wolf knows a wolf.
Proverb
A thief makes opportunity.
Proverb, (Dutch)
A thief passes for a gentleman when stealing has made him rich.
Proverb
A thief seldom grows rich by thieving.
Proverb, (German)
A thief thinks every man steals.
Proverb, (Danish)
A thing done has a head. (The exultation of an ancient sculptor on his
satisfactorily completing the head of his statue.)
Proverb, (Italian)
A thing done right today means no trouble tomorrow.
Proverb
A thing is never much talked of but there is some truth in it.
Proverb, (Italian)
A thing is not bad if well understood.
Proverb, (German)
A thing too much seen is little prized.
Proverb, (French)
A thorn comes into the world point foremost.
Proverb, (French)
A thorn defends the rose harming only those who would steal the blossom.
Proverb, (Chinese)
A thorn pierces young skin more quickly than old.
Proverb, (Serbian)
A thousand cups of wine do not suffice when true friends meet, but half a
sentence is too much when there is no meeting of minds.
Proverb, (Chinese)
A thousand pounds and a bottle of hay are all one at domesday.
Proverb
A thousand probabilities do not make one truth.
Proverb, (Italian)
A thousand regrets do not cancel one debt.
Proverb, (Turkish)
A thousand years hence the river will run as it did.
Proverb
A thread-bare coat is armour proof against highwaymen.
Proverb
A threatened buffet is never well given.
Proverb, (Italian)
A threatened man lives long, if he can get bread.
Proverb, (Danish)
A threatened man lives seven years.
Proverb, (Dutch)
A tiger does not have to proclaim its tigritude.
Proverb, (Nigerian)
A timid man has little chance.
Proverb, (Danish)
A tocherless dame sits long at hame.
Proverb
A tottering man must lean upon a staff.
Proverb, (Danish)
A trade not properly learned is an enemy.
Proverb, (Irish)
A traveler to distant places should make no enemies.
Proverb, (Nigerian)
A traveller may lie by authority.
Proverb
A tree does not move unless there is wind.
Proverb
A tree is best measured when it's down.
Proverb
A tree is known by its fruit.
Proverb
A tree never hits an automobile except in self defense.
Proverb, (American)
A tree often transplanted does not thrive.
Proverb, (Latin)
A tree often transplanted is never loaded with fruit.
Proverb, (Italian)
A tree often transplanted neither grows nor thrives.
Proverb, (Spanish)
A trifling pledge of no small friendship.
Proverb, (Latin)
A triple rope is not easily broken.
Proverb, (Latin)
A trouble shared is a trouble halved.
Proverb
A troubled heart is a worm to the bones.
Proverb, (Latin)
A trout in the pot is better than a salmon in the sea.
Proverb, (Irish)
A true friend laughs at your stories even when they're not so good, and
sympathizes with your troubles even when they're not so bad.
Proverb
A true gentleman would rather have his clothes torn than mended.
Proverb, (Spanish)
A true jest is not jest.
Proverb
A true word needs no oath.
Proverb, (Turkish)
A truth-teller finds the doors closed against him.
Proverb, (Danish)
A truth-telling woman has few friends.
Proverb, (Danish)
A turkey never voted for an early Christmas.
Proverb, (Irish)
A turn of the key is better than the conscience of a friar.
Proverb, (Spanish)
A turtle makes progress when it sticks its neck out.
Proverb
A Tyrone woman will never buy a rabbit without a head for fear it's a cat.
Proverb, (Irish)
A used plough shines, standing water stinks.
Proverb, (German)
A useless pitcher does not get broken.
Proverb, (Latin)
A usurer, a miller, a banker, and a publican, are the four evangelists of
Lucifer.
Proverb, (Dutch)
A vacant mind is open to all suggestions, as a hollow mountain returns all
sounds.
Proverb, (Chinese)
A vagabond monk never spoke well of his convent.
Proverb, (Italian)
A vicious dog must be tied short.
Proverb, (French)
A visitor comes with ten blessings, eats one, and leaves nine.
Proverb, (Kurdish)
A voice and nothing besides.
[Lat., Vox et praeterea nihil.]
Proverb, (Latin)
A voluntary burthen is no burthen.
Proverb, (Italian)
A volunteer is worth twenty pressed men.
Proverb
A waiting appetite kindles many a spite.
Proverb
A wall between increases love.
Proverb, (German)
A want of pence stops all your marketing.
Proverb, (Latin)
A warm January; a cold May.
Proverb, (Welsh)
A watched clock never tells the time.
Proverb
A watched pot never boils.
Proverb
A weak foundation destroys the work.
Proverb, (Latin)
A wealthy man can err with impunity.
Proverb, (Latin)
A weapon is an enemy even to its owner.
Proverb, (Turkish)
A weapon which you don't have in your hand won't kill a snake.
Proverb, (African)
A well which is drawn from is improved. [Art is improved by practice.]
Proverb, (Latin)
A well-beaten path does not always make the right road.
Proverb
A well-formed figure needs no cloak.
Proverb, (Portuguese)
A well-wisher sees from afar.
Proverb, (Spanish)
A wheel not greased will creak. [Those who are not properly paid will not
work without grumbling.]
Proverb, (Latin)
A whistling woman and a crowing hen are neither fit for God nor men.
Proverb
A white glove often conceals a dirty hand.
Proverb
A white wall is the fool's paper.
Proverb, (French, Italian)
A whitewashed crow soon shows black again.
Proverb, (Chinese)
A wicked book cannot repent.
Proverb
A wicked companion invites us all to hell.
Proverb
A wicked dog must be tied short.
Proverb, (French)
A wicked man's gift hath a touch of his master.
Proverb
A wife brings but two good days, her wedding day and death day.
Proverb, (Greek)
A wife is not a pot, she will not break so easily.
Proverb, (Russian)
A wife's advice is not worth much, but woe to the husband who refuses to
take it.
Proverb, (Welsh)
A wight man never wanted a weapon.
Proverb
A wild goose never laid a tame egg.
Proverb
A wilful man will have his way.
Proverb
A willful fault has no excuse, and deserves no pardon.
Proverb
A willful man must have his way.
Proverb
A willing helper does not wait until he is asked.
Proverb, (Danish)
A wise falcon hides his talons.
Proverb
A wise head hath a close mouth to it.
Proverb
A wise head makes a close mouth.
Proverb
A wise lawyer never goes to law himself.
Proverb
A wise man and a fool together, know more than a wise man alone.
Proverb, (Italian)
A wise man associating with the vicious becomes an idiot; a dog traveling
with good men becomes a rational being.
Proverb, (Arabic)
A wise man changes his mind, a fool never.
Proverb, (Spanish)
A wise man does at first what a fool must do at last.
Proverb, (Italian)
A wise man hears one word and understands two.
Proverb, (Yiddish)
A wise man makes his own decisions, an ignorant man follows public opinion.
Proverb, (Chinese)
A wise man may learn of a fool.
Proverb, (French)
A wise man should never give his wife too much rein.
Proverb, (Latin)
A wise man turns chance into good fortune.
Proverb
A wise man will make tools of what comes to hand.
Proverb
A wise man, a strong man.
Proverb, (German)
A wolf hankers after sheep even at his last gasp.
Proverb, (Dutch)
A wolf in sheep's clothing.
Proverb
A wolf often lies concealed in the skin of a lamb. ["Yours truly," is not
always true.]
Proverb, (Latin)
A wolf's head (on which a price was put). [An outlaw. A Pariah. Fair game
for anybody.]
Proverb, (Latin)
A woman and a glass are always in danger.
Proverb, (German, Spanish)
A woman and a hen are soon lost through gadding.
Proverb, (Portuguese)
A woman and a melon are hard to choose.
Proverb, (French)
A woman and a ship ever want mending.
Proverb
A woman conceals only what she does not know.
Proverb, (French)
A woman conceals what she knows not.
Proverb
A woman for a general, and the soldiers will be women.
Proverb, (Latin)
A woman hath nine lives like a cat.
Proverb
A woman is an angel at ten, a saint at fifteen, a devil at forty, and a
witch at fourscore.
Proverb
A woman is to be from her house three times: when she is christened, married
and buried.
Proverb
A woman keeps secret only what she does not know.
Proverb, (German)
A woman laughs when she can, and weeps when she pleases.
Proverb, (French)
A woman may be ever so old, if she take fire she will jump.
Proverb, (Danish)
A woman strong in flounces is weak in the head.
Proverb, (German)
A woman who accepts, sells herself; a woman who gives, surrenders.
Proverb, (French)
A woman who looks much in the glass spins but little.
Proverb, (French)
A woman who loves to be at the window is like a bunch of grapes on the
wayside.
Proverb, (Italian)
A woman who scorns you is like licking honey from a thorn.
Proverb, (Welsh)
A woman's advice is a poor thing, but he is a fool who does not take it.
Proverb, (Spanish)
A woman's answer is never to seek.
Proverb
A woman's appetite is twice that of a man's; her sexual desire, four times;
her intelligence, eight times.
Proverb, (Sanskrit)
A woman's first counsel is the best.
Proverb, (Danish)
A woman's in pain, a woman's in woe, a woman is ill, when she likes to be
so.
Proverb, (Italian)
A woman's mind and winter wind change oft.
Proverb
A woman's place is in the home.
Proverb
A woman's strength is in her tongue.
Proverb
A woman's tears and a log's limping are not real.
Proverb, (Spanish)
A woman's tongue is her sword, and she does not let it rust.
Proverb, (French)
A woman's tongue is the last thing about her that dies.
Proverb
A woman's vengeance knows no bounds.
Proverb, (German)
A woman's work is never done.
Proverb
A woman, a dog, and a walnut tree, the more you beat them the better they
be.
Proverb
A wonder lasts but nine days.
Proverb
A word and a blow.
Proverb, (Portuguese)
A word and a stone once launched cannot be recalled.
Proverb, (Spanish)
A word and a stone once let go cannot be recalled.
Proverb, (Portuguese)
A word from the mouth, a stone from a sling.
Proverb, (Spanish)
A word from the mouth, a stone from the hand.
Proverb, (Portuguese)
A word is enough to the wise.
[Lat., Verbum sat sapienti.]
Proverb, (Dutch, German)
A word is sufficient for the wise.
Proverb, (Latin)
A word of kindness is better than a fat pie.
Proverb, (Russian)
A word once out flies everywhere.
Proverb, (French)
A word spoken is past recalling.
Proverb
A word to the wise is enough.
Proverb, (Italian, Portuguese)
A word to the wise.
Proverb, (French, Portuguese)
A work ill done must be done twice.
Proverb
A wound foreseen paint the less.
Proverb, (Italian)
A wound never heals so well that the scar cannot be seen.
Proverb, (Danish)
A wreck on shore is a beacon at sea.
Proverb, (Dutch)
A young angel, an old devil.
Proverb, (French)
A young branch takes on all the bends that one gives it.
Proverb, (Chinese)
A young courtier, an old beggar.
Proverb
A young doctor makes a full graveyard.
Proverb, (Chinese)
A young doctor means a new graveyard.
Proverb, (German)
A young ewe and an old ram, every year bring forth a lamb.
Proverb, (Dutch)
A young foal and an old horse draw not well together.
Proverb, (Danish)
A young man idle, an old man needy.
Proverb
A young man married is a young man marred.
Proverb
A young man should not marry yet, an old man not at all.
Proverb, (Greek)
A young preacher, a new hell.
Proverb
A young wife is an old man's post-horse to the grave.
Proverb, (German)
Abbot of Carcuela, you eat up the pot and ask for the pipkin.
Proverb, (Spanish)
Able people can do more.
Proverb, (Chinese)
About a donkey's taste why need we fret us? To lips like his a thistle is a
lettuce.
Proverb
About everything and something else.
Proverb, (Latin)
About the King and the Inquisition, hush!
Proverb, (Spanish)
Abroad one has a hundred eyes, at home not one.
Proverb, (German)
Abroad to see wonders the traveller goes,
And neglects the fine things which lie under his nose.
Proverb
Abroad we judge the dress; at home we judge the man.
Proverb, (Chinese)
Absence is a foe to love; away from the eyes, away from the heart.
Proverb, (Italian, Spanish)
Absence is a foe to love; out of sight out of mind.
Proverb, (Italian)
Absence is a shrew.
Proverb, (English)
Absence sharpens love; presence strengthens it.
Proverb, (English)
Absence, and a friendly neighbor, washeth away love.
Proverb, (English)
Absent, none without blame; present, none without excuse.
Proverb, (French, Spanish)
Absentmindedness is searching for the horse you are riding.
Proverb, (Russian)
Abstinence and fasting cure many a complaint.
Proverb, (Danish)
Abstinence is the best medicine.
Proverb, (Tamil)
Abundance begets indifference.
Proverb, (German)
Abundance does not spread; famine does.
Proverb, (Zulu)
Abundance is from activity.
Proverb, (Turkish)
Abundance of money is a trial for a man.
Proverb, (Moroccan)
Abundance will make cotton pull a stone.
Proverb, (Hausa)
Abundance, like want, ruins many.
Proverb, (Romanian)
Abuse does not invalidate usefulness.
Proverb, (Latin)
Abuse doesn't hang on the collar.
Proverb, (Russian)
Abuse is like a god that destroys his master.
Proverb, (Hawaiian)
Abuse of hospitality breaks the bridge.
Proverb, (Bemba)
Abuses are the result of seeing one another too often.
Proverb, (Swahili)
Accidents will happen in the best-regulated families.
Proverb
Accidents will happen.
Proverb
Accomplishment of purpose is better than making a profit.
Proverb, (Hausa)
According to his pinions the bird flies.
Proverb, (Danish)
According to the arm be the bleeding.
Proverb, (French)
According to the custom of Aragon, good service, bad guerdon.
Proverb, (Spanish)
According to the nature of his sin shall a man be punished.
Proverb, (Latin)
Accusing the times is but excusing ourselves.
Proverb, (English)
Acknowledgement is half of correction.
Proverb, (Russian)
Act and you shall have dinner. Think and you shall be dinner.
Proverb, (Klingon)
Act as surety; ruin is at hand.
Proverb, (Greek)
Act honestly, and answer boldly.
Proverb, (Danish)
Act in the valley so that you need not fear those who stand on the hill.
Proverb, (Danish)
Act quickly, think slowly.
Proverb, (Greek)
Act so in the valley, that you need not fear those who stand on the hill.
Proverb, (Danish)
Acting in concert, like the oil-merchants in the Velabrum.
Proverb, (Latin)
Acting is the forte of all their race.
Proverb, (Latin)
Actions speak louder than words.
Proverb
Adam ate the apple, and our teeth still ache.
Proverb, (Hungarian)
Adam got a hoe, and Eve got a spinning-wheel, and thence come all our
nobles.
Proverb, (Danish)
Adam must have an Eve, to blame for his own faults.
Proverb, (German)
Add legs to the snake after you have finished drawing it.
Proverb, (Chinese)
Add not fire to fire.
Proverb, (Latin)
Admission by the defendant is worth a hundred witnesses.
Proverb, (Hebrew)
Advantage is a better soldier than rashness.
Proverb, (English)
Adventures are to the adventurous.
Proverb
Adversity and loss make a man wise.
Proverb, (Welsh)
Adversity brings knowledge, and knowledge wisdom.
Proverb, (Welsh)
Adversity comes with instruction in his hand.
Proverb, (Welsh)
Adversity flatters no man.
Proverb, (English)
Adversity is easier borne than prosperity forgot.
Proverb, (English)
Adversity is the foundation of virtue.
Proverb, (Japanese)
Adversity makes a man wise, not rich.
Proverb, (Romanian)
Adversity makes a man wise.
Proverb, (French)
Adversity makes strange bedfellows.
Proverb
Advice after injury is like medicine after death.
Proverb, (Danish)
Advice after the mischief is like medicine after death.
Proverb, (Danish)
Advice is least heeded when most needed.
Proverb, (English)
Advice is not compulsion.
Proverb, (German)
Advice should be viewed from behind.
Proverb, (Swedish)
Advice should precede the act.
Proverb, (German)
Advice to a fool goes in at one ear and out at the other.
Proverb, (Danish)
Advice to all, security for none.
Proverb, (English)
Advise and counsel him; if he does not listen, let adversity teach him.
Proverb, (Ethiopian)
Advisers are not givers.
Proverb, (Dutch)
Advisers are not the payers.
Proverb, (French)
Advising is easier than helping.
Proverb, (German)
Advising is often better than fighting.
Proverb, (German)
Affectation is a greater injury to the face than small-pox.
Proverb
Affinity is a mysterious thing, but it is spicy!
Proverb, (Japanese)
Afraid of his own shadow.
Proverb
After a feast a man scratches his head.
Proverb, (French)
After a storm comes a calm.
Proverb
After a thrifty father, a prodigal son.
Proverb, (Spanish)
After breaking my head you bring plaister.
Proverb, (Spanish)
After Christmas comes Lent.
Proverb, (German)
After clouds comes clear weather.
Proverb
After clouds sunshine.
Proverb, (Latin)
After dark all cats are leopards.
Proverb, (Native American Zuni)
After darkness comes light.
Proverb, (Latin)
After death, the doctor.
Proverb, (French)
After dinner rest awhile, after supper walk a mile.
Proverb
After dinner sit awhile, after supper walk a mile.
Proverb
After dinner stand a while, or walk nearly half a mile.
Proverb, (German)
After dinner, rest; after supper walk a mile.
Proverb, (Arab)
After ebb comes flood, and friends with good.
Proverb, (Dutch)
After great droughts come great rains.
Proverb, (Dutch)
After high floods come low ebbs.
Proverb, (Dutch)
After honour and state follow envy and hate.
Proverb, (Dutch)
After me the deluge.
Proverb, (French)
After meat comes mustard.
Proverb, (Dutch, German)
After meat, mustard.
Proverb
After mischance every one is wise.
Proverb, (French)
After nine months the secret comes out.
Proverb, (Yiddish)
After one loss come many.
Proverb, (French)
After one pope another is made.
Proverb, (Italian)
After one that earns one that wastes.
Proverb, (Danish)
After one vice a greater follows.
Proverb, (Spanish)
After pleasant scratching comes unpleasant smarting.
Proverb, (Danish)
After rain comes fair weather.
Proverb, (Dutch)
After rain comes sunshine.
Proverb, (Dutch, German)
After rain fine weather.
Proverb, (French)
After shaving there is nothing to shear.
Proverb, (French, Italian, Portuguese)
After stuffing pears within, drink old wine until they swim.
Proverb, (Spanish)
After the act wishing is in vain.
Proverb, (French)
After the daughter is married, then come sons-in-law in plenty.
Proverb, (French)
After the game, the king and the pawn go into the same box.
Proverb, (Italian)
After the house is finished, he deserts it.
Proverb, (Spanish)
After the manner of Mandrabulus [i.e., going from worse to worse].
Proverb, (Latin)
After the sour comes the sweet.
Proverb, (Dutch)
After the storm comes a calm.
Proverb
After the vintage, baskets.
Proverb, (Spanish)
After the war, aid.
Proverb, (Greek)
After three days without reading, talk becomes flavorless.
Proverb, (Chinese)
After victory, tighten your helmet chord.
Proverb, (Japanese)
Again and again I beg and pray of you to live merrily: should aught distress
you, dismiss it from your minds.
Proverb, (Latin)
Age and wedlock bring a man to his nightcap.
Proverb, (English)
Age and wedlock tame man and beast.
Proverb, (English)
Age is a sorry travelling companion.
Proverb, (Danish)
Age makes many a man whiter, but not better.
Proverb, (Danish)
Age may wrinkle the face, but lack of enthusiasm wrinkles the soul.
Proverb
Agree between yourselves (as to the time), quoth Arlotto, and I will make it
rain.
Proverb, (Italian)
Agree, agree, for the law is costly.
Proverb, (Dutch)
Agree, for the law is costly.
Proverb, (German)
Agreement with two people, lamentation with three.
Proverb, (Kashmiri)
Agriculture is best, enterprise is acceptable, but avoid being on a fixed
wage.
Proverb, (Indian)
Agues come on horseback, but go away on foot.
Proverb
Aim at a certain issue.
Proverb, (Latin)
Aiming isn't hitting.
Proverb, (Swahili)
Alas for the son whose father went to heaven.
Proverb, (Portuguese)
Alas for those that get the worst of it!
Proverb, (Latin)
Alas! father, another daughter is born to you.
Proverb, (Spanish)
Alas! how much smaller a thing it is to be with others, than to remember
thee!
Proverb, (Latin)
Alas! I suffer from self-inflicted wounds!
Proverb, (Latin)
Ale in, wit out.
Proverb, (English)
Alertness and courage are life's shield.
Proverb, (Philippine)
Alexander the Great was but of small stature.
Proverb, (Latin)
Alike every day makes a clout on Sunday.
Proverb
Alike every day makes a rag on Sunday.
Proverb
All ages are submissive to love.
Proverb, (Russian)
All are brave when the enemy flies.
Proverb, (Italian)
All are good lasses, but whence come the bad wives?
Proverb
All are not asleep who have their eyes shut.
Proverb, (German)
All are not cooks who carry long knives.
Proverb, (German)
All are not cooks who walk with long knives.
Proverb, (Russian)
All are not cooks who wear long knives.
Proverb, (Dutch)
All are not free who mock their chains.
Proverb, (German)
All are not friends that speak us fair.
Proverb
All are not friends who smile on you.
Proverb, (Dutch)
All are not good cooks who carry long knives.
Proverb, (Danish)
All are not harpers, who hold the harp.
Proverb, (Latin)
All are not hunters that blow the horn.
Proverb, (Danish, French, German)
All are not princes who ride with the emperor.
Proverb, (Dutch)
All are not saints that go to church.
Proverb
All are not saints who go to church.
Proverb, (Italian)
All are not soldiers who go to the wars.
Proverb, (Portuguese, Spanish)
All are not thieves that dogs bark at.
Proverb, (English, German)
All ask if a man be rich, no one if he be good.
Proverb
All be the same in a hundred years.
Proverb, (English)
All beginnings are hard, said the thief, and began by stealing an anvil.
Proverb, (Dutch)
All bite the bitten dog.
Proverb, (Portuguese)
All but saves many a man.
Proverb, (Danish)
All cassavahs have the same skins but not all taste the same.
Proverb, (Kenyan)
All cats are alike grey at night.
Proverb, (French)
All cats are gray in the dark.
Proverb, (Vietnamese)
All cats are grey in the dark.
Proverb
All cats are not to be set down for witches.
Proverb, (French)
All cats love fish but fear to wet their paws.
Proverb, (Chinese)
All claim kindred with the prosperous.
Proverb, (Latin)
All clouds are not rain clouds.
Proverb, (Latin)
All clouds do not rain.
Proverb, (Dutch)
All cocks must have a comb.
Proverb, (Dutch)
All do not beg for one saint.
Proverb, (Spanish)
All do not bite that show their teeth.
Proverb, (Dutch)
All doors open to courtesy.
Proverb
All feet tread not in one shoe.
Proverb
All fellows at football.
Proverb
All flowers are not fit for nosegays.
Proverb
All flute-players are mad; when once they begin to blow, away goes reason.
Proverb, (Latin)
All for one and one for all.
Proverb
"All freight lightens," said the skipper, when he threw his wife overboard.
Proverb, (German)
All goes down gutter lane.
Proverb
All good things come to those who wait.
Proverb, (French)
All good things must come to an end.
Proverb
All had rather it were well for themselves than for another.
Proverb
All hairy skins must not be singed.
Proverb, (Danish)
All happiness is in the mind.
Proverb, (English)
All heads are not sense-boxes.
Proverb, (French)
All his geese are swans.
Proverb
All in the way of joke the wolf goes to the ass.
Proverb, (Spanish)
All is fair in love and war.
Proverb
All is fish that comes to the net.
Proverb, (Dutch)
All is grist that comes to the mill.
Proverb
All is in vain unless Providence is with us.
Proverb, (Latin)
All is lost that is put in a riven dish.
Proverb
All is luck or ill luck in this world.
Proverb, (French)
All is not butter that comes from the cow.
Proverb, (Italian)
All is not false which is publicly reported.
Proverb, (Latin)
All is not gold that glitters.
Proverb, (Dutch, French, German, Italian, Portuguese)
All is not lost that is delayed.
Proverb, (French)
All is not lost that is in danger.
Proverb, (Spanish)
All is over but the shouting.
Proverb
All is well that ends well.
Proverb, (French)
All is well: for if the bride has not fair hair, she has a fair skin.
Proverb, (Dutch)
All keys hang not at one woman's girdle.
Proverb, (Danish)
All keys hang not on one girdle.
Proverb
All lay load on the willing horse.
Proverb, (Latin)
All lay loads on a willing horse.
Proverb, (Russian)
All Lombard Street to a China orange.
Proverb
All mankind is divided into three classes: those that are immovable, those
that are moveable, and those that move.
Proverb, (Arabian)
All married women are not wives.
Proverb, (Japanese)
All men are fools, but all fools are not men.
Proverb, (American)
All men are not cast in the same mold.
Proverb
All men can't be first.
Proverb
All men can't be masters.
Proverb
All men grieve, and if you ask them the reason why, they cannot tell it.
Proverb, (Latin)
All my eye and Betty Martin.
Proverb
All my goods are of silver and gold, even my copper kettle, says the
boaster.
Proverb, (Dutch)
All offices are greasy (i.e. open to receive what the Dutch call
smear-money, a term derived from the fee paid for greasing wheels).
Proverb, (Dutch)
All old sayings have something in them.
Proverb, (Icelandic)
All passes, all breaks, all wearies. (Fr., Tout passe, tout casse, tout
lasse.)
Proverb, (French)
All people are your relatives, therefore expect only trouble from them.
Proverb, (Chinese)
All power is impatient of a partner.
Proverb, (Latin)
All promises are either broken or kept.
Proverb
All roads do not lead to Rome.
Proverb, (Slovenian)
All roads lead to Rome.
Proverb, (Roman, Italian)
All saint without, all devil within.
Proverb
All saints do not work miracles.
Proverb, (Italian)
All ships leak: some amidships, some in the bows, some in the hold.
Proverb, (Italian)
All signs are misleading.
Proverb, (Yiddish)
All sins cast long shadows.
Proverb, (Irish)
All skill is in vain when an angel pees in the touchhole of your musket.
Proverb, (German)
All state, and nothing on the plate.
Proverb, (French)
All Stuarts are not sib to the king.
Proverb
All sunshine makes the desert.
Proverb, (Arab)
All tarred with the same brush.
Proverb
All tastes are tastes.
Proverb, (Italian)
All temptations are found either in hope or fear.
Proverb, (English)
All that meal comes not from your own sack.
Proverb, (Latin)
All that's fair must fade.
Proverb, (Italian)
All the brains are not in one head.
Proverb, (Italian)
All the fingers are not alike.
Proverb, (Italian)
All the flowers of tomorrow are in the seeds of yesterday.
Proverb
All the honey a bee gathers during its lifetime doesn't sweeten its sting.
Proverb, (Italian)
All the hours wound you, the last one kills. [Vulnerant omnia, ultima
necat.]
Proverb, (Latin)
All the keys do not hang at one girdle.
Proverb, (French, German, Italian)
All the keys hang not at one man's girdle.
Proverb
All the months in the year curse fair.
Proverb
All the sheep are not for the wolf.
Proverb, (Italian)
All the smiths . . . can't mend a broken egg.
Proverb, (Darkovan)
All the treasures of earth cannot bring back one lost moment.
Proverb, (French)
All the wool is hair, more or less.
Proverb, (Portuguese)
All the world and his wife.
Proverb
All the world loves a lover.
Proverb
All the world will beat the man whom fortune buffets.
Proverb
All things are cause for either laughter or weeping.
Proverb, (Latin)
All things are difficult before they are easy.
Proverb
All things are easy that are done willingly.
Proverb
All things are not good for all.
Proverb, (Latin)
All things are possible with God.
Proverb
All things at first appear difficult.
Proverb, (Chinese)
All things change, and we change with them.
[Lat., Omnia mutantur, nos et mutamur in illis.]
Proverb
All things come not to pass which the mind has conceived.
Proverb, (Latin)
All things come to those who wait.
Proverb
All things good to know are difficult to learn.
Proverb, (Greek)
All things of this world are nothing, unless they have reference to the
next.
Proverb, (Spanish)
All threateners don't fight.
Proverb, (Dutch)
All times are good when old.
Proverb, (Polish)
All too good is every man's fool.
Proverb, (Dutch)
All truths are not good to be uttered.
Proverb, (French)
All water runs to the sea.
Proverb, (Italian)
All we can hold in our cold dead hands is what we have given away.
Proverb, (Sanskrit)
All weapons of war cannot arm fear.
Proverb
All who snore are not asleep.
Proverb, (Danish)
All wish to live long, but none to be called old.
Proverb, (Danish)
All women are alike when the lamp is out.
Proverb, (Darkovan)
All women are good Lutherans, they would rather preach than hear mass.
Proverb, (Danish)
All women may be won.
Proverb
All wooers are rich, and all captives poor.
Proverb, (German)
All work and no play
Makes Jack a dull boy.
Proverb
All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.
Proverb
All your geese are swans.
Proverb
All's fair in love and war.
Proverb
All's fish that comes to the net.
Proverb, (Spanish)
All's for the best in the best of all possible worlds.
Proverb
All's lost that's put in a riven dish.
Proverb
All's not lost that's in danger.
Proverb
All's well that ends well.
Proverb, (Dutch, French, German, Italian)
Allah has said, "Start moving so that I may start blessing."
Proverb, (Afghan)
Almost and Very nigh saves many a lie.
Proverb
Almost is not eaten.
Proverb, (Zulu)
Almost kills no man.
Proverb, (Danish)
Almost never killed a fly.
Proverb, (German)
Almost was never hanged.
Proverb
Alms do not empty the purse, and a mass does not exhaust the day's duty.
Proverb, (Danish)
Alms given openly will be rewarded in secret.
Proverb, (Chinese)
Alms never make poor.
Proverb, (English)
Along in counsel, alone in sorrow.
Proverb, (Danish)
Although the monkey might dress in silk, monkey it still is.
Proverb, (Puerto Rican)
Always a bridesmaid, never a bride.
Proverb
Always drink upstream from the herd.
Proverb, (Cowboy)
Always in love, never married.
Proverb, (French)
Always in the saddle, never on his way.
Proverb
Always mount a scratch monkey.
Proverb, (computer)
Always say no, and you will never be married.
Proverb, (French)
Always taking out and never putting in, soon reaches the bottom.
Proverb, (Spanish)
Always taking out of the meal-tub, and never putting in, soon to the bottom.
Proverb
Always talk big and you will never be forgotten.
Proverb, (French)
Always to be sparing is always to be in want.
Proverb, (Danish)
Ambition and fleas both jump high.
Proverb, (German)
Amendment is repentance.
Proverb
Among men of honour a word is a bond.
Proverb, (Italian)
Among ten matchmakers only nine will lie.
Proverb, (Chinese)
Among the blind a one-eyed man is a king.
Proverb, (Latin)
Among the blind, the squint rules.
Proverb, (Hindu)
Among the strong, there are the strongest, and behind the able, there are
even abler.
Proverb
Among thorns grow roses.
Proverb, (Italian)
Among those who stand, do not sit; among those who sit, do not stand. Among
those who laugh, do not weep; among those who weep, do not laugh.
Proverb, (Jewish)
Among walnuts only the empty one speaks.
Proverb, (Moroccan)
An abundance of money ruins youth.
Proverb, (English)
An accomplishment sticks to a person.
Proverb, (Japanese)
An aching for wine--a wine-ache.
Proverb, (Latin)
An advantage of poverty: your relatives gain nothing by your death.
Proverb, (Hebrew)
An agreement is a kind of debt.
Proverb, (Moroccan)
An ague in the spring is physic for a king.
Proverb
An ambassador beareth no blame.
Proverb, (Italian)
An ambassador bears no blame.
Proverb, (Chinese)
An American will go to hell for a bag of coffee.
Proverb, (American)
An ancient custom, not of to-day or yesterday.
Proverb, (Latin)
An angry man heeds no counsel.
Proverb, (Portuguese)
An ape is an ape, though decked with gold.
Proverb, (Latin)
An ape's an ape, a varlet's a varlet,
Though they be clad in silk or scarlet.
Proverb
An ape's an ape, a varlet's a varlet, though they be clad in silk and
scarlet.
Proverb
An ape's an ape, a varlet's a varlet.
Though they be clad in silk or scarlet.
Proverb
An ape's an ape, though he wear a gold ring.
Proverb, (Dutch)
An ape, a priest, and a louse, are three devils in one house.
Proverb, (Dutch)
An apothecary ought not to be long a cuckold.
Proverb, (French)
An apple a day keeps the doctor away.
Proverb
An apple, an egg, and a nut,
You may eat after a slut.
Proverb
An army marches on its stomach.
Proverb
An army of sheep led by a lion would defeat an army of lions led by a sheep.
Proverb, (Arab)
An art requires a whole man.
Proverb, (French)
An artist lives everywhere.
Proverb
An ass at the lyre.
[Lat., Asinus ad lyram.]
Proverb
An ass does not appreciate fruit compote.
Proverb, (Turkish)
An ass does not stumble twice over the same stone.
Proverb, (French)
An ass is beautiful in the eyes of an ass; a sow in those of a sow; and
every race is attractive to itself.
Proverb, (Latin)
An ass is but an ass, though laden with gold.
Proverb, (Romanian)
An ass let him be who brays at an ass.
Proverb, (Spanish)
An ass loaded with gold climbs to the top of the castle.
Proverb
An ass with her colt goes not straight to the mill.
Proverb, (Spanish)
An ass's tail will not make a sieve.
Proverb, (Italian)
An ass's trot does not last long.
Proverb, (Italian)
An atheist is one point beyond the devil.
Proverb
An eagle will not catch flies.
Proverb
An easy shepherd makes the wolf void wool.
Proverb, (French)
An eel escapes from a good fisherman.
Proverb, (French)
An eel, held by the tail, is not yet caught.
Proverb, (Latin)
An egg does not fight a rock.
Proverb, (Madagasy)
An egg is an egg, said the boor, and took the goose's egg.
Proverb, (Dutch)
"An egg is an egg," said the beadle, but he took the goose-egg.
Proverb, (German)
An egg is dear on Easter day.
Proverb, (Russian)
An egg will be in three bellies in twenty-four hours.
Proverb
An elephant does not catch mice.
Proverb, (Latin)
An elephant's tusks are never too heavy for it.
Proverb, (Zimbabwean)
An ember burns where it falls.
Proverb, (Turkish)
An embroidered pillow may be stuffed with straw.
Proverb, (Chinese)
An emmet may work its heart out, but can never make honey.
Proverb
An empty barrel makes the most noise.
Proverb, (English)
An empty belly hears nobody.
Proverb
An empty cellar makes an angry butler.
Proverb, (Danish)
An empty purse and a new house make a man wise, but too late.
Proverb, (Portuguese)
An empty purse frights away friends.
Proverb
An empty purse, and a finished house, make a man wise, but too late.
Proverb, (Portuguese)
An empty sack cannot stand up.
Proverb, (Haitian)
An empty sack cannot stand upright.
Proverb
An empty sack will not stand upright.
Proverb, (German, Italian)
An empty vessel makes the most sound.
Proverb, (Latin)
An enemy does not sleep.
Proverb, (French)
An enemy may chance to give good counsel.
Proverb
An enemy will agree, but a friend will argue.
Proverb, (Russian)
An English summer, three hot days and a thunderstorm.
Proverb
An Englishman is never happy but when he becomes miserable, a Scotchman
never at home but when he is abroad, and an Irishman never at peace but when
he is fighting.
Proverb
An Englishman Italianate is a devil incarnate. (It., Inglese italianato e un
diavolo incarnato.)
Proverb, (Italian)
An Englishman will burn his bed to catch a flea.
Proverb, (Turkish)
An Englishman's home is his castle.
Proverb
An Englishman's house is his castle.
Proverb
An Englishman's word is his bond.
Proverb
An ennobled peasant does not know his own father.
Proverb, (Dutch)
An envious man waxes lean with the fatness of his neighbour.
Proverb
An estate inherited is the less valued.
Proverb, (Portuguese)
An evil comes from a neighbouring evil.
Proverb, (Latin)
An evil conscience breaks many a man's neck.
Proverb
An evil deed has a witness in the bosom.
Proverb, (Danish)
An evil doer abhors the light of day.
Proverb, (Latin)
An evil eye can see no good.
Proverb, (Danish)
An evil gain is equal to a loss.
Proverb, (Latin)
An excess of caution does no harm.
Proverb, (Latin)
An excess of courtesy is discourtesy.
Proverb, (Japanese)
An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth.
Proverb
An honest man does not make himself a dog for the sake of a bone.
Proverb, (Danish)
An honest man is not the worse because a dog barks at him.
Proverb, (Danish)
An honest man's word is as good as his bond.
Proverb
An honest man's word is as good as the king's.
Proverb, (Portuguese)
An honest man's word is his bond.
Proverb, (Dutch)
An hour in the morning is worth two at night.
Proverb
An hour in the morning is worth two in the evening.
Proverb
An hour of play discovers more than a year of conversation.
Proverb, (Portuguese)
An idle brain is the devil's workshop.
Proverb, (English, German)
An idle man is the devil's bolster.
Proverb, (Italian)
An idle man is the devil's pillow.
Proverb, (Dutch)
An idle mind is the devil's workshop.
Proverb, (English)
An idle youth becomes in age a beggar.
Proverb, (Latin)
An ignorant doctor is no better than a murderer.
Proverb, (Chinese)
An ill stake standeth longest.
Proverb
An ill-tempered dog has a scarred nose.
Proverb, (Danish)
An ill-tempered woman is the devil's door-nail.
Proverb, (Danish)
An illiterate king is a crowned ass.
Proverb, (English)
An inch in a sword, or a palm in a lance, is a great advantage.
Proverb, (Spanish)
An inch of time is an inch of gold, but you can't buy that inch of time with
an inch of gold.
Proverb, (Chinese)
An inch too short is as bad as an ell.
Proverb, (Dutch)
An indispensable thing never has much value.
Proverb, (Russian)
An indulgent mother makes a sluttish daughter.
Proverb, (Dutch)
An industrious life is the best security for food in old age.
Proverb, (Latin)
An innocent heart suspects no guile.
Proverb, (Portuguese)
An inquisitive man is always ill-natured.
Proverb, (Latin)
An insolent lord is not a gentleman.
Proverb
An intelligent enemy is worth more than a stupid friend.
Proverb, (Senegalese)
An iron hand in a velvet glove.
Proverb
An iron rod bends while it is hot.
Proverb, (Greek)
An oak is not felled at one blow.
Proverb, (Spanish)
An oak is not felled at one stroke.
Proverb, (Spanish)
An oak is not felled in one stroke.
Proverb
An oath broken by one does not thereafter bind the other.
Proverb, (Darkovan)
An object of pity even to a foe.
Proverb, (Latin)
An old ape hath an old eye.
Proverb
An old ape never made a pretty grimace.
Proverb, (French)
An old broom knows the corners of the house.
Proverb, (German)
An old broom knows the dirty corners best.
Proverb, (Irish)
An old cat laps as much as a young kitten.
Proverb
An old cat will not learn how to dance.
Proverb, (Moroccan)
An old coachman loves the crack of the whip.
Proverb, (Dutch, German)
An old dog bites sore.
Proverb
An old dog does not bark for nothing.
Proverb, (French, Italian)
An old dog does not grow used to the collar.
Proverb, (Italian)
An old dog will learn no tricks.
Proverb
An old error has more friends than a new truth.
Proverb, (Danish)
An old error is always more popular than a new truth.
Proverb, (German)
An old ewe dressed lamb-fashion.
Proverb, (Dutch)
An old flag is an honour to its captain.
Proverb, (Italian)
An old fool is worse than a young simpleton.
Proverb, (Danish)
An old fox does not run twice into the snare.
Proverb, (German)
An old fox doesn't go twice into the trap.
Proverb, (Dutch)
An old fox is not caught in a snare.
Proverb, (Latin)
An old fox is not to be caught in a trap.
Proverb, (Latin)
An old fox needs no craft.
Proverb
An old fox understands the trap.
Proverb
An old friend met in a far country is like rain after drought.
Proverb, (Chinese)
An old head on young shoulders.
Proverb
An old horse for a young soldier.
Proverb, (Italian)
An old knave is no babe.
Proverb
An old lion is better than a young ass.
Proverb, (Latin)
An old man in love is like a flower in winter.
Proverb, (Portuguese)
An old man is a bed full of bones.
Proverb
An old man is there to talk.
Proverb, (Nigerian)
An old man loved is a winter with flowers.
Proverb, (German)
An old man never wants a tale to tell.
Proverb
An old man's sayings are seldom untrue.
Proverb, (Danish)
An old mule with a golden bridle.
Proverb, (Dutch)
An old oven is easier to heat than a new one.
Proverb, (French)
An old ox makes a straight furrow.
Proverb, (French, Italian, Spanish)
An old physician and a young lawyer.
Proverb
An old poacher makes the best gamekeeper.
Proverb
An old poacher makes the best keeper.
Proverb
An old quarrel is easily renewed.
Proverb, (Italian)
An old rat easily finds a hole.
Proverb, (Dutch)
An old rat is a brave rat.
Proverb, (French)
An old rat won't go into the trap.
Proverb, (Dutch)
An old soldier, an old fool.
Proverb, (French)
An old wolf is not scared by loud cries.
Proverb, (Danish)
An old wolf is used to be shouted at.
Proverb, (Dutch)
An old woman dancing makes a great dust. [Anything out of season is
obnoxious.]
Proverb, (Latin)
An old woman would dance!
Proverb, (Latin)
An onion will not produce a rose.
Proverb, (Latin)
An open box tempts an honest man.
Proverb, (Portuguese)
An open countenance often conceals close thoughts.
Proverb
An open door may tempt a saint.
Proverb
An open door tempts a saint.
Proverb, (Spanish)
An open enemy is better than a false friend.
Proverb, (Greek)
An opportunity is found with difficulty and easily lost.
Proverb, (Latin)
An ounce of discretion is better than a pound of knowledge.
Proverb, (Italian)
An ounce of discretion is worth a pound of learning.
Proverb
An ounce of favour goes further, or is worth more, than a pound of justice.
Proverb, (French)
An ounce of fortune is worth a pound of forecast.
Proverb
An ounce of luck is worth a pound of wisdom.
Proverb, (French)
An ounce of mother is worth a pound of priests.
Proverb, (Spanish)
An ounce of mother-wit is worth a pound of clergy.
Proverb
An ounce of mother-wit is worth a pound of school-wit.
Proverb, (German)
An ounce of patience is worth a pound of brains.
Proverb, (Dutch)
An ounce of practice is worth a pound of precept.
Proverb
An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.
Proverb, (English)
An ounce of state to a pound of gold.
Proverb, (Spanish)
An ounce of wit that's bought
Is worth a pound that's taught.
Proverb
An ounce of wit that's bought is worth a pound that's taught.
Proverb
An oven whose door does not shut does not bake its loaves.
Proverb, (Maltese)
An ox and an ass don't yoke well to the same plough.
Proverb, (Dutch)
An ox is taken by the horns, and a man by the tongue.
Proverb
An ox with long horns, even if he does not butt, will be accused of butting.
Proverb, (Malay)
An unasked excuse infers transgression.
Proverb
An unasked for excuse infers transgression.
Proverb, (Italian)
An unbidden guest knows not where to sit.
Proverb
An uneducated person is like an unpolished mirror.
Proverb, (German)
An ungrateful man is a tub full of holes.
Proverb, (Latin)
An unguarded speech reveals the truth.
Proverb, (Latin)
An unpleasant guest is as welcome as salt to a sore eye.
Proverb, (Danish)
And Nathan said unto David: "Thou art the man."
Proverb
Ane's ain hearth is goud's worth.
Proverb, (Scotch)
Anger and haste hinder good counsel.
Proverb
Anger can be an expensive luxury.
Proverb, (Italian)
Anger can't stand, without a strong hand.
Proverb, (German)
Anger dies quickly with a good man.
Proverb, (English)
Anger edges valor.
Proverb, (English)
Anger ends in cruelty.
Proverb, (Indian)
Anger has no eyes.
Proverb, (Hindu)
Anger hears no counsel.
Proverb, (German)
Anger increases love.
Proverb, (Italian)
Anger is a bad counsellor.
Proverb, (French)
Anger is a short madness.
Proverb, (Dutch)
Anger is a stone cast into a wasp's nest.
Proverb, (Malabar)
Anger is a transient madness.
Proverb, (Latin)
Anger is as a stone cast into a wasp's nest.
Proverb, (Malabar)
Anger is more hurtful than the injury that caused it.
Proverb
Anger is often more hurtful than the injury that caused it.
Proverb, (English)
Anger is shortlived in a good man.
Proverb
Anger without power is folly.
Proverb, (German)
Anoint a villain and he will prick you, prick a villain and he will anoint
you.
Proverb, (French)
Another man's burden is always light.
Proverb, (Danish)
Another man's horse and your own spurs outrun the wind.
Proverb, (German)
Another man's horse and your own whip can do a great deal.
Proverb, (Danish)
Another man's trade costs money.
Proverb, (Portuguese)
Another year will bring another Christmas.
Proverb, (Danish)
Another's care hangs by a hair.
Proverb, (Spanish)
Another's misfortune does not cure my pain.
Proverb, (Portuguese)
Another's misfortune is only a dream.
Proverb, (French)
Antiquity is entitled to respect.
Proverb, (Latin)
Ants die in sugar.
Proverb, (Malay)
Anxious about the shoe, but disregarding the foot. [Careful about external
appearances, but regardless of the culture of the mind.]
Proverb, (Latin)
Any excuse is good if it hold good.
Proverb, (Italian)
Any man can be a father, but it takes a special person to be a dad.
Proverb
Any man can lose his hat in a fairy wind.
Proverb, (Irish)
Any man can steer in a calm.
Proverb, (Latin)
Any plan is bad that cannot be changed.
Proverb, (Italian)
Any port in a storm.
Proverb
Any publicity is good publicity.
Proverb
Any sandpiper is great in his own swamp.
Proverb, (Russian)
Any water puts out fire.
Proverb, (French)
Any water will put out fire.
Proverb, (Italian)
Anyone parted from his land will weep seven years. Whoever is parted from
his tribe will weep until he dies.
Proverb, (Central Asian)
Anyone who is satisfied to stand still should not complain when others pass
him.
Proverb
Anyone who sees beauty and does not look at it will soon be poor.
Proverb, (Yoruban)
Anyone who teases you loves you.
Proverb, (Jewish)
Anything will fit a naked man.
Proverb, (Irish)
Apelles was not a master painter the first day.
Proverb
Apes remain apes, though you cloth them in velvet.
Proverb, (German)
Appearances are deceitful.
Proverb, (German)
Appearances are deceptive.
Proverb
Appetite comes in eating.
Proverb, (Italian)
Appetite comes with eating.
Proverb, (French)
April showers bring forth May flowers.
Proverb
April weather, woman's love, rose-leaves, dice, and card-luck, change every
moment.
Proverb, (German)
Are there not spots on the sun?
Proverb, (French)
Argus at home, a mole abroad.
Proverb, (Italian)
Arms and money require good hands.
Proverb, (Spanish)
Arms are of little service abroad unless directed by the wisdom of
counsellors at home.
Proverb, (Latin)
Arms carry peace.
Proverb, (Italian)
Arms, women, and books should be looked at daily.
Proverb, (Dutch)
Arrange your cloak as the wind blows.
Proverb, (French)
Arrogance diminishes wisdom.
Proverb, (Arabic)
Arrogance is a weed that grows mostly on a dunghill.
Proverb
Arrogance is intolerable.
Proverb, (Latin)
Art and knowledge bring bread and honour.
Proverb, (Danish)
Art holds fast when all else is lost.
Proverb, (German)
Art is art, even though unsuccessful.
Proverb, (Danish)
Art lies in concealing art.
[Lat., Ars est celare artem.]
Proverb, (Latin)
As a man dresses so is he esteemed.
Proverb, (Danish)
As a man eats, so he works.
Proverb, (German)
As a man has lived, so will he die.
Proverb, (Latin)
As a man is friended, so the law is ended.
Proverb
As a thing is used, so it brightens.
Proverb, (German)
As a tree falls, so shall it lie.
Proverb
As are the times, so are the manners.
Proverb, (Spanish)
As ass does not hit himself twice against the same stone.
Proverb, (Dutch)
As both a good horse and a bad horse heed the spur, so both a good woman and
a bad woman need the stick.
Proverb, (Italian)
As demure as an old whore at a christening.
Proverb
As fast as laws are devised, their evasion is contrived.
Proverb, (German)
As for friars, live with them, eat with them, and walk with them; then sell
them as they do themselves.
Proverb, (Spanish)
As fortune is sought, so it is found.
Proverb, (German)
As good be an addled egg as an idle bird.
Proverb
As good eat the devil as the broth he was boiled in.
Proverb
As is the gardener, so is the garden.
Proverb
As is the king, so are his people.
Proverb, (Spanish)
As is the lover so is the beloved.
Proverb, (Italian)
As is the master, so is his dog.
Proverb, (Spanish)
As long as I was a daughter-in-law I never had a good mother-in-law, and as
long as I was a mother-in-law I never had a good daughter-in-law.
Proverb, (Spanish)
As mony heads, as mony wits.
Proverb
As numerous as the leaves of the oak, or the waves which wash the island.
Proverb, (Latin)
As princes fiddle, subjects must dance.
Proverb, (German)
As soon a man is born he begins to die.
Proverb, (German)
As soon as man is born he begins to die.
Proverb, (German)
As soon dies the calf as the cow.
Proverb, (French)
As soon goes the young sheep as the old to market.
Proverb
As soon goes the young sheep as the old to pot.
Proverb
As the abbot sings the sacristan responds.
Proverb, (Spanish)
As the best wine makes the sharpest vinegar, so the deepest love turns to
the deadliest hatred.
Proverb
As the call, so the echo.
Proverb
As the day lengthens the cold strengthens.
Proverb
As the day lengthens, so the cold strengthens.
Proverb
As the field, so the crops; as the father, so the sons.
Proverb, (German)
As the fool thinks, so the bell clinks.
Proverb
As the goodman saith, so say we;
But as the goodwife saith, so must it be.
Proverb
As the labour, so the pay.
Proverb, (German)
As the man is worth his land is worth.
Proverb, (French)
As the man is, so is his speech.
Proverb, (Danish)
As the master is, so are his men.
Proverb, (Danish)
As the master, so the work.
Proverb, (German)
As the mistress, so the maid.
Proverb, (German)
As the old birds sings, the young ones twitter.
Proverb, (German)
As the old cock crows so crows the young.
Proverb
As the old cock crows, the young cock learns.
Proverb, (Dutch, Irish)
As the old ones sing, the young ones twitter.
Proverb, (Danish)
As the saying goes.
Proverb
As the touchstone trieth gold, so gold trieth men.
Proverb
As the tree is known by its fruit, so is the wicked man by his deeds.
Proverb, (Latin)
As the tree, so the fruit.
Proverb, (German)
As the tree, so the fruit; as the mistress, so the maid.
Proverb, (German)
As the twig is bent, so is the tree inclined.
Proverb
As the virtue in the tree, such is the fruit.
Proverb, (Danish)
As the wind so the sail.
Proverb, (French)
As they brew, so let them bake.
Proverb
As they brew, so let them drink.
Proverb
As they pipe to me, I will dance.
Proverb, (Portuguese)
As to the juror or the witness, bribe both.
Proverb, (Latin)
As to what is future, even a bird with a long neck cannot see it, but God
only.
Proverb
As water runs towards the sword money towards the rich man's hand.
Proverb, (Danish)
As well be hanged for a sheep as a lamb.
Proverb
As won, so spent.
Proverb, (German)
As you bake so shall you brew.
Proverb
As you began the dance you may pay the piper.
Proverb, (Dutch)
As you brew so shall you bake.
Proverb
As you brew, so you shall bake.
Proverb
As you have arranged the thread so must you weave it.
Proverb, (Latin)
As you make your bed so you must lie on it.
Proverb, (Danish, French, German, Spanish)
As you make your bed so you must lie upon it.
Proverb
As you sow, you shall reap.
Proverb, (Dutch, German, Spanish)
As you would have a daughter so choose a wife.
Proverb, (Italian)
As your wedding-ring, wears, your cares will wear away.
Proverb
Ashes fly back into the face of him who throws them.
Proverb, (African)
Ask a kite for a feather, and she'll say, she has but just enough to fly
with.
Proverb
Ask a lot, but take what is offered.
Proverb, (Russian)
Ask a silly question and you get a silly answer.
Proverb
Ask about your neighbors, then buy the house.
Proverb, (Jewish)
Ask advice of your equals, help of your superiors.
Proverb, (Danish)
Ask but enough, and you may lower the price as you list.
Proverb
Ask much to have a little.
Proverb
Ask my chum if I am a thief.
Proverb, (Italian)
Ask my companion if I be a thief.
Proverb
Ask my comrade, who is as great a liar as myself.
Proverb, (French)
Ask my fellow if I be a thief.
Proverb
Ask no questions and hear no lies.
Proverb
Ask no questions and you will be told no lies.
Proverb
Ask not after a good man's pedigree.
Proverb, (Spanish)
Ask the experienced rather than the learned.
Proverb, (Arabic)
Ask the mother if the child be like his father.
Proverb
Ask thy purse what thou should'st buy.
Proverb
Ask too much to get enough.
Proverb, (Spanish)
Ask which was born first, the hen or the egg.
Proverb, (Italian)
Asking costs little.
Proverb, (Italian)
Assertion is no proof.
Proverb, (German)
Asses carry the oats and horses eat them.
Proverb, (Dutch)
Asses must not be tied up with horses.
Proverb, (French)
Asses sing badly, because they pitch their voices too high.
Proverb, (German)
Asses that bray most eat least.
Proverb
Assistance given when it is not required, is as bad as an injury.
Proverb, (Latin)
Associate with the good and you will be one
of them.
Proverb, (Italian, Spanish)
Assurance is two-thirds success.
Proverb
At a bridge, a plank, a river, the servant foremost, the master behind.
Proverb, (French)
At a dangerous passage yield precedence.
Proverb, (Italian)
At a good bargain pause and ponder.
Proverb, (Italian)
At a great bargain, pause.
Proverb
At a great pennyworth pause awhile.
Proverb
At a great river be the last to pass.
Proverb, (Italian)
At a little fountain one drinks at one's ease.
Proverb, (French)
At a round table there is no dispute about place.
Proverb, (Italian)
At an ambuscade of villains a man does better with his feet than his hands.
Proverb, (Spanish)
At an auction keep your mouth shut.
Proverb, (Spanish)
At an open chest the righteous sins.
Proverb, (Italian)
At borrowing cousin german, at repaying son of a whore.
Proverb, (French)
At court there are many hands, but few hearts.
Proverb, (German)
At court they sell a good deal of smoke without fire.
Proverb, (Danish)
At Easter let your clothes be new,
Or else be sure you will it rue.
Proverb
At evening the sluggard is busy.
Proverb, (German)
At every dog's bark seem not to awake.
Proverb
At last the foxes all meet at the furrier's.
Proverb, (Italian)
At latter Lammas.
Proverb
At night all cats are grey.
Proverb, (German, Portuguese, Spanish)
At once a good general and a stout soldier.
Proverb, (Latin)
At open doors dogs come in.
Proverb
At Rome do as Rome does.
Proverb, (French)
At Shrove-tide every one had need of his frying-pan.
Proverb, (French)
At table bashfulness is out of place.
Proverb, (Italian)
At the bar of one's own conscience.
Proverb, (Latin)
At the end of the game we see who wins.
Proverb, (Italian)
At the end of the game you'll see who's the winner.
Proverb
At the end of the work you may judge of the workmen.
Proverb
At the end the Gloria is chanted.
Proverb, (Spanish)
At the king's court every one for himself.
Proverb, (French)
At the narrow passage there is no brother and no friend.
Proverb, (Arabic)
At the wars as they do at the wars.
Proverb, (French)
At the wedding-feast the least eater is the bride.
Proverb, (Spanish)
Athanasius against the world.
[Lat., Athanasius contra mundum.]
Proverb, (Latin)
Attack is the best form of defence.
Proverb
Attack is the best form of defense.
Proverb
Attempt nothing beyond your strength.
Proverb, (Latin)
Avarice bursts the bag.
Proverb, (French)
Avarice increases with wealth.
Proverb
Avarice is never satisfied.
Proverb
Avoid a friend who covers you with his wings and destroys you with his beak.
Proverb, (Spanish)
Avoid bawling in conversation or in play.
Proverb, (Latin)
Avoid gambling.
Proverb, (Latin)
Avoid strife with those in power.
Proverb
Avoid suspicion: when you're walking through your neighbor's melon patch,
don't tie your shoe.
Proverb, (Chinese)
Avoid the evil, and it will avoid thee.
Proverb, (Gaelic)
Away from the battle all are soldiers.
Proverb, (German)
Away from the eye, away from the mind.
Proverb, (Palestinian)
Away goes the devil when he finds the door shut against him.
Proverb, (Italian)
Away with grieving, only fit for women.
Proverb, (Latin)
Away with thee, sickness, to where they make a good pillow for thee.
Proverb, (Spanish)
"Away with you, be a peddlar, a knave," says the hangman to his man.
Proverb, (German)
