A List of proverbs and sayings. This page contains examples of proverbs and an ever growing list of proverbs. It is a good practice to avoid use of these proverbs in poetry unless used in a completely original way.
See also: Idioms.
A proverb is a brief and popular saying that typically gives advice about how people should live or that expresses a belief that is commonly thought to be true.
A bad bush is better than the open field.
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A bad custom is like a good cake, better broken than kept.
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A bad day never hath a good night.
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A bad excuse is better than none at all.
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A bad workman quarrels with his tools.
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A bald head is soon shaven.
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A bargain is a bargain.
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A beggar can never be bankrupt.
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A bird can roost upon but one branch.
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A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.
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A bird that can sing and won't sing, must be made to sing.
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A bit in the morning is better than nothing all day.
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A black plum is as sweet as a white.
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A blind man would be glad to see it.
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A bow long bent at last waxeth weak.
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A bribe will enter without knocking.
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A broken leg is not healed by a silk stocking.
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A burden which one chooses is not felt.
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A burnt child dreads the fire.
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A bushel of March dust is worth a king's ransom.
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A cat has nine lives, yet care will kill a cat.
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A cat loves fish, but she's loth to wet her feet.
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A cat may look at a king.
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A cherry year, a merry year.
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A child may have too much of his mother's blessing.
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A chip of the old block.
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A clear conscience is a sure card.
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A close mouth catcheth no flies.
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A cold April a barn will fill.
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A contented mind is a continual feast.
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A creaking gate hangs longest on its hinges.
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A crooked tree will have a crooked shadow.
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A crow is never the whiter for washing herself often.
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A dark man's a jewel in a fair woman's eye.
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A doctor and a clown know more than a doctor alone.
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A drowning man will catch at a straw.
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A drunken night makes a cloudy morning.
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A dry cough is the trumpeter of death.
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A fair face may hide a foul heart.
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A false report rides post.
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A famine in England begins at the horse-manger.
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A fat kitchen, a lean will.
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A fat sorrow is better than a lean one.
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A fault once denied is twice committed.
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A feast is not made of mushrooms only.
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A fool and his money are soon parted.
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A fool demands much, but he's a greater that gives it.
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A fool is fulsome.
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A fool may ask more questions in half an hour than a wise man can answer in seven years.
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A fool may give a wise man counsel.
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A fool may make money, but a wise man should spend it.
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A fool's bolt is soon shot.
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A fox should not be of the jury at a goose trial.
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A friend at court is better than a penny in the purse.
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A friend in need is a friend indeed.
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A friend is not so soon gotten as lost.
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A full purse makes the mouth to speak.
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A full purse maketh the mouth to speak.
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A full purse never lacketh friends.
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A generous confession disarms slander.
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A gift with a kind countenance is a double gift.
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A good beginning makes a good ending.
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A good dog deserves a good bone.
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A good horse cannot be of a bad colour.
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A good horse often wants a good spur.
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A good lawyer, an evil neighbour.
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A good maxim is never out of season.
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A good name is better than riches.
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A good name keeps its lustre in the dark.
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A good recorder sets all in order.
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A good surgeon must have an eagle's eye, a lion's heart, and a lady's hand.
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A good wife makes a good husband.
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A good winter brings a good summer.
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A good word is as soon said as an ill one.
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A great dowry is a bed full of troubles.
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A great ship needs deep waters.
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A green winter makes a fat churchyard.
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A green wound is soon healed.
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A growing youth hath a wolf in his stomach.
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A guilty conscience needs no accuser.
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A hand-saw is a good thing, but not to shave with.
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A heavy purse makes a light heart.
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A hog in armour is still but a hog.
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A hot May makes a fat churchyard.
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A hungry horse makes a clean manger.
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A hungry man, an angry man.
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A liar should have a good memory.
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A life spent worthily should be measured by deeds—not years.
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A little good is soon spent.
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A little mischief is too much.
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A little pot is soon hot.
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A living dog is better than a dead lion.
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A low hedge is easily leapt over.
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A man at five may be a fool at fifteen.
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A man can do more than he can.
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A man cannot both wive and thrive in a year.
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A man cannot live by the air.
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A man in a passion rides a horse that runs away with him.
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A man is not so soon healed as hurt.
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A man may bear till his back breaks.
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A man may buy gold too dear.
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A man may cause his own dog to bite him.
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A man may dig his grave with his teeth.
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A man may hold his tongue in an ill time.
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A man may lead a horse to the water, but he cannot make him drink unless he will.
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A man may lose his goods for want of demanding them.
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A man must plough with such oxen as he hath.
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A man must sell his ware at the rate of the market.
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A man never surfeits of too much honesty.
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A man of gladness seldom falls into madness.
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A man's best fortune or his worst is his wife.
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A May flood never did good.
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A mere scholar a mere ass.
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A merry companion on the road is as good as a nag.
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A miss is as good as a mile.
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A mother's heart never grows old.
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A mouse, in time, may bite in two a cable.
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A new broom sweeps clean.
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A nimble ninepence is better than a slow shilling.
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A noble housekeeper needs no doors.
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A penny in my purse will bid me drink when all my friends I have will not.
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A penny in your pocket is a good companion.
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A penny saved is a penny got.
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A pennyworth of ease is worth a penny.
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A pennyworth of mirth is worth a pound of sorrow.
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A pin a day is a groat a year.
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A place for everything, and everything in its place.
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A plant often removed cannot thrive.
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A poor man's table is soon spread.
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A ragged colt may make a good horse.
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A rolling stone gathers no moss.
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A rotten apple injures its companions.
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A rugged stone grows smooth from hand to hand.
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A scalded cat fears cold water.
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A sceptre is one thing, a ladle another.
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A Scotch mist will wet an Englishman through to the skin.
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A single fact is worth a ship-load of argument.
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A small leak will sink a great ship.
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A small pack suits a small pedlar.
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A smart reproof is better than smooth deceit.
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A snow year, a rich year.
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A soft answer turneth away wrath.
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A stitch in time saves nine.
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A story never loses by re-telling.
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A thin meadow is soon mowed.
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A thousand pounds and a pottle of hay is all one thing at doomsday.
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A tradesman who gets not loseth.
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A tree is known by its fruit, and not by its leaves.
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A wager is a fool's argument.
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A watched pot never boils.
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A wet August never brings dearth.
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A whet is no let [hindrance].
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A wilful man never wants woe.
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A windy March and a rainy April make a beautiful May.
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A wink's as good as a nod to a blind horse.
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A wise man changes his mind; a fool never.
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A woman conceals what she knows not.
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A woman's mind and winter wind often change.
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A woman's strength is in her tongue.
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A woman's tongue wags like a lamb's tail.
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A woman's work is never at an end.
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A wonder lasts but nine days.
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A word is enough to the wise.
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A young man idle, an old man needy.
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Absence cools moderate passions, and inflames violent ones.
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According to the old proverb.
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Adversity flattereth no man.
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Adversity makes a man wise, not rich.
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Adversity tries friends.
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Advice comes too late when a thing is done.
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After a storm comes a calm.
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After cheese comes nothing.
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After clouds comes clear weather.
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After death the doctor.
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After dinner sit awhile, after supper walk a mile.
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After Lammas corn ripens as much by night as by day.
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After rain comes fair weather.
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Age before honesty.
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Agree, for law is costly.
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Agues come on horseback, but go away on foot.
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All are not friends that speak us fair.
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All are not hunters that blow the horn.
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All are not thieves that dogs bark at.
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All is fish that comes to his net.
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All lay load on the willing horse.
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All that glitters is not gold.
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All the keys hang not at one man's girdle.
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All things are soon prepared in a well-ordered house.
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All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.
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All's well that ends well.
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Almost was never hanged.
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An empty purse fills the face with wrinkles.
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An Englishman's house is his castle.
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An honest man's word is as good as his bond.
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An idle brain is the devil's workshop.
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An ill marriage is a spring of ill fortune.
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An ill stake standeth longest.
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An oak is not felled by one blow.
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An occasion lost cannot be redeemed.
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An old cat laps as much as a young kitten.
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An old doctor, a young lawyer.
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An old dog barks not in vain.
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An old dog will learn no tricks.
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An old fool is the worst of fools.
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An old sack wanteth much patching.
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An ounce of discretion is worth a pound of wit.
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An ounce of knowledge may be worth a pound of comfort.
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An ounce of mother-wit is worth a pound of clergy.
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An unbidden guest must bring his own stool with him.
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An unhappy lad may make a good man.
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Anger is short-lived in a good man.
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Angry men seldom want woe.
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Any flat can talk of change of weather.
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Any fool can bet.
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Anything for a quiet life.
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April and May are the keys of the year.
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April borrows three days of March, and they are ill.
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Apt to promise, apt to forget.
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Argus at home, but a mole abroad.
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As blind as a bat.
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As clear as mud.
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As dead as a door-nail.
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As easy kiss my hand.
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As good as gold.
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As good sit still as rise up and fall.
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As good to be out of the world as out of the fashion.
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As good twenty as nineteen.
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As great a pity to see a woman weep, as to see a goose go barefoot.
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As like as chalk and cheese.
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As like as two peas.
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As long lives a merry heart as a sad.
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As patient as Job.
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As poor as Job.
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As sound as a nut.
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As the fool thinks, so the bell chinks.
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As the old cock crows so crows the young.
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As the twig is bent the tree's inclined.
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As welcome as the flowers in May.
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As well be hung for a sheep as a lamb.
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As you brew, so shall you bake.
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As you make your bed so you must lie on it.
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Ask but enough, and you may lower as you list.
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Ask thy purse what thou shouldst buy.
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At a great bargain make a great pause.
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At twelfth-day the days are lengthened a cock's stride.
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