1000s English provers, sayings, idioms, list of 1000s proverbs, idioms, sayings

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Make a Friend when you don't need One (from Urim)
Make hay while the sun shines.
Making a rod for your own back.
Make the best of a bad bargain.
A man is known by the company he keeps.
Man is truly himself when he's alone.
Man wasn't born to suffer but to carry on.
A man's home is his castle.
William Blackstone refers to this traditional proverb in Commentaries on the Laws of England (1765–1769), Book 4, Chapter 16:
And the law of England has so particular and tender a regard to the immunity of a man's house, that it stiles it his castle, and will never suffer it to be violated with immunity: agreeing herein with the sentiments of ancient Rome, as expressed in the works of Tully; quid enim sanctius, quid omni religione munitius, quam domus unusquisque civium?
Translation: What more sacred, what more strongly guarded by every holy feeling, than a man's own home?
Manners maketh the man.
From 'Manners makyth man' - the motto of William of Wykeham(1320 - 1404)
Many a true word is spoken in jest
Many hands make light work
Many things are lost for want of asking.
Many words will not fill a bushel.
This Proverb is a severe Taunt upon much Talking. - Divers Proverbs, Nathan Bailey, 1721 [9]
Marriage equals hell and bankruptcy.
Marry in haste, and repent at leisure.
Meaner than a junk-yard dog.
Meaning of life is not meaningful -- Allen Zimama
Measure twice, cut once.
Mind your P's and Q's.
British: Mind your manners (origin theories)
Mirrors do everything we do, but they cannot think for themselves.
Misery loves company.
Misfortunes never come singly.
A miss by an inch is a miss by a mile.
Meaning: A miss is a miss regardless the distance
Cf. Scottish Proverbs Collected and Arranged by Andrew Henderson, 1832, p.103: "An inch o' a miss is as gude as a span." [10]
Missing the wood for the trees.
Money can't buy everything, but everything needs money
Money cannot buy happiness.
Money for old rope.
In the days of wooden-hulled sailing ships, ropes that were worn could be sold for use as caulking or as filling for fenders, and so the ship's owner was paid even for old rope.
The money is burning a hole in my pocket.
Money is the means, not the end.
(love of) Money is the root of all evil.
Money makes the mare go.
Money makes the world go around.
Money talks; mine always says, "Good-bye!"
Money talks.
Variant: Money talks, bullshit walks.
Related: Talk is cheap.
Related: Actions speak louder than words.
Monkey see, monkey do.
Morals are for others to follow.
More haste, less speed.
The more things change, the more they stay the same.
From the French: Plus ça change, c'est la même chose.
The more you know, the more you know you don't know.
The more you study, the more you know. The more you know, the more you forget. The more you forget, the less you know. The less you know the more you study.
[edit]N

The nail that sticks up will be hammered down.
Nature never did betray the heart. that loved her.
Nature, time, and patience are three great physicians.
Necessity is the mother of invention.
Necessity is the mother of all invention, but Laziness is the father. -[Benjamin Franklin]
Ne'er cast a clout till May be out.
Never change, for the sake of others. There will be no one like you if you change. (GPL)
Never judge the book by its cover.
Never leave a woman to do a man's work.
alternate version, Never let a monkey to do a man's job, Never send a woman to do a man's job
Never let a man do a woman's job.
Never let the right hand know what the left hand is doing.
Never lie to your doctor.
Never lie to your lawyer.
Never look a gift horse in the mouth.
Never put off till (until) tomorrow what you can do today.
Never say die.
Never say never.
Never smash a glass over a brick donkey.
Never trouble trouble 'til trouble troubles you.
A new broom sweeps clean.
A night with Venus and a life with mercury.
Anti-promiscuity adage, alluding to a 18th-century mercury-based folk treatment for syphilis
Cited in Bartz, Diane (30 October 2006). "Har, me hearties! Excavating Blackbeard's ship". Reuters (via Yahoo! News). Retrieved on 2006-11-01.
No man can serve two masters.
Christian New Testament
No man is an island
No man is content with his lot.
No money, no justice.
No need to cry over spilled milk.
No news is good news.
No pain, no gain.
No time like the present.
Noblesse oblige.
French expression: the nobility is obligated to care for the lower classes.
Nobody leaves us, we only leave others.
Not enough room to swing a cat
Nothing exceeds like excess.
Nothing is perfect, imperfection included.
Nothing is not for nothing.
Nothing is zero, even zero is no nothing.
Nothing to be feared in life, but understood.
Nothing ventured, nothing gained.
Variant: Nothing ventured, nothing have. - Divers Proverbs, Nathan Bailey, 1721 ..[11]
Now the shit has really hit the fan.
Now we have doors so we can hide.
[edit]O

An old dog will learn no tricks.
Divers Proverbs, Nathan Bailey, 1721[12]
Old is Gold
On your feet lose your seat.
One good turn deserves another.
Divers Proverbs, Nathan Bailey, 1721[13]
One grain of sand can tip the scale.
One hand washes the other.
From the Latin MANUS MANAM LAVAT, meaning "Hand washes hand," or "One hand washes the other"; or impliedly, "You scratch my back, and I'll scratch yours."
One man's junk is another man's treasure.
One man's meat is another man's poison.
One man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter. - Ronald Reagan
One might as well be hanged for a sheep as a lamb. - English, 17th century
One murder makes a villain, millions a hero.
One rotten apple will spoil the whole barrel.
Cf. Dan Michael of Northgate, Ayenbite of Inwyt (1340): "A rotten apple will spoil a great many sound ones." (Middle English: "A roted eppel amang þe holen: makeþ rotie þe yzounde.")
One scabbed sheep mars the whole flock.
This Proverb is apply'd to such Persons who being vicious themselves,
labour to debauch those with whom they converse. - Divers Proverbs, Nathan Bailey, 1721 [14]
One should not think, when one is not equipped for the job.
One swallow doesn't make a summer.
Once bitten, twice shy
William Caxton, the first English printer, gave the earliest version of this saying in 'Aesope' (1484), his translation of Aesop's fables: 'He that hath ben ones begyled by somme other ought to kepe hym wel fro(m) the same.' Centuries later, the English novelist Robert Surtees referred to the saying in 'Mr. Sponge's Sporting Tour' (1853) with '(He) had been bit once, and he was not going to give Mr. Sponge a second chance.' The exact wording of the saying was recorded later that century in 'Folk Phrases of Four Counties' (1894) by G.G. Northall and was repeated by, among others, the English novelist Joseph Conrad (1920, 'The Rescue'), the novelist Aldous Huxley (1928, 'Point Counter Point'), and the novelist Wyndham Lewis (1930, 'The Apes of God'). 'Once bitten, twice shy' has been a familiar saying in the twentieth century. From Wise Words and Wives' Tales by Stuart Flexner and Doris Flexner (Avon Books, New York, 1993).
A variation, once burned, twice shy, is also traced back to Mr. Sponge's Sporting Tour. Once burned was First attested in the United States in 'Dead Sure' (1949) by S. Sterling. The meaning of the saying is One who had an unpleasant experience is especially cautious. From the Random House Dictionary of Popular Proverbs and Sayings by Gregory Y. Titelman (Random House, New York, 1996).
Once in a lifetime comes often, so be prepared.
Only a coward will write an anonymous letter. -President Franklin D. Roosevelt
Only bad drivers cut corners.
The only free cheese is in the mouse trap.
Russian saying.
Only losers say "Winning isn't everything."
The only stupid question is the one that is not asked.
Only the good die young
The only thing you get from picking bottoms (ie. of the stock market) is a smelly finger.
Opinions are like assholes: everyone has them and they usually stink.
Opportunity knocks only once.
Opportunity is waiting, you need but to open the door.
An ounce of discretion is worth a pound of wit.
An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.
Our costliest expenditure is time. <Theophrastus>
Our greatest glory is not in never falling but in rising every time we fall.
Confucius
Out of sight... Out of mind
Cf. Fulke Greville's sonnet "And out of minds as soons as out of sight"
Out of small acorns grow mighty oaks.
Owt for Nowt
Northern English, Anything for nothing...
[edit]P

Paddle your own canoe.
Pain is only weakness leaving the body.
U.S. Marines proverb
The pain o the little finger is felt by the entire body.
A paragraph should be like a lady's skirt: long enough to cover the essentials but short enough to keep it interesting.
A Pasoly in the eye is worth several in the shins.
Patience is a virtue.
Peace Sells, but who's Buying? <Megadeth>
The pen is mightier than the sword.
A penny earned is a penny lost; a penny shared is a penny well-spent.
A penny saved is a penny earned.
Attributed to Benjamin Franklin, Poor Richard's Almanac, but actually 17th c. English
A penny spent is a penny earned.
Penny wise, pound foolish.
People who live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones.
Variation: Whose house is of glasse, must not throw stones at another.
George Herbert, Outlandish Proverbs, 1640; cited in "Proverbs 120". The Yale Book of Quotations. 2006. pp. p. 613. ISBN 0-300-10798-6.*** George Herbert, Jacula Prudentum, 1651, number 196
Perfect Planning Prevents Piss Poor Performance. (a.k.a The six P's)
Persistence becomes Reality.
"A person who laughs may not be happy, but he's hide the sadness in his heart". (Al Sagheer, Suhail)
A picture is worth a thousand words.
(Originally a marketing slogan, promoting magazine display ads.)
A pint of plain is yer only man.
The pitcher which goes too often to the well gets broken.
Please don’t retouch my wrinkles. It took me so long to earn them.
POETIS MENTIRI LICET.
Latin for "Poets are allowed to lie."*Politeness cost nothing and gains everything. <M.W. Montagu>
Politics makes strange bedfellows.
A poor man does not learn from his mistakes. A good man does learn from his mistakes. A wise man learns from the mistakes of others.
Bryan Strain
Power tends to corrupt; absolute power corrupts absolutely.
Attributed to Lord Acton
Practice before you preach.
Variation: Practice what you preach
Practice make man perfect.
Prevention is better than cure.
Variation: An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.
Pride comes before a fall
Prior preparation prevents poor performance.
The proof of the pudding is in the eating.
Procrastination is the thief of time.
Profit is divine but greed is evil.
Proverbs are long life experiences, told in one short sentence.
Proverbs run in pairs.
Meaning: Every proverb seems to be contradicted by another proverb with an opposed message, such as "too many cooks spoil the broth" and "many hands make light work."
Put a beggar on horseback and he'll ride it to death.
Put a beggar on horseback and he'll ride to the devil.
Put a cat amongst the pigeons.
Put it in song, put it in drink; but never, ever put it in ink!
Reportedly said by Earl K. Long, Governor of Louisiana
[edit]R

Rather be a dog in peace, than to be a man in chaos (war).
Chinese Origin-??
Reality is not only stranger than we imagine, it is stranger than we can imagine.
Reality is often stranger than fiction
Repetition is the mother of memory.
Latin: REPETITIO MATER MEMORIAE
Revenge is a dish best served cold.
A rising tide lifts all boats.
This traditional proverb is sometimes attributed to John F. Kennedy because he repeated it several times, but he disclaimed originality in his address in the Assembly Hall at the Paulskirche in Frankfurt, West Germany, 25 June 1963:
As they say on my own Cape Cod, a rising tide lifts all the boats.
The road to hell is paved with good intentions.
Earlier variants of this proverb are recorded as Hell is paved with good intentions. recorded as early as 1670, and an even earlier variant by Saint Bernard of Clairvaux Hell is full of good intentions or desires.
Similar from Latin: "The gates of hell are open night and day; Smooth the descent, and easy is the way" — Virgil, the Aeneid Book VI line 126
Robbing Peter to pay Paul
A rolling stone gathers no moss.
Early versions include:
Saxum volutum non obducitur musco
A rolling stone does not gather moss.
Publius Syrus (var. Publilius), Sententiae (c. 42 BC), Maxim 524
Musco lapis volutus haud obducitur.
A rolling stone is not covered with moss.
Desiderius Erasmus, Adagia (1500–1536), III, iv
The rollyng ?tone neuer gathereth mo??se.
The rolling stone never gathers moss.
John Heywood, Proverbs (1546), Part 1, Ch. 11
Rome wasn't built in a day
The rotten apple injures its neighbors.
Rules were meant to be broken.
[edit]S

Same meat, different gravy.
Same trouble, different day.
Say something nice or say nothing at all.
Seek and ye shall find.
Christian New Testament
Seek water in the sea.
Self trust is the first secret of success.
Sell a man a fish, he eats for a day, teach a man how to fish, you ruin a wonderful business opportunity.
Karl Marx
Set a thief to catch a thief.
Shallow graves for shallow people.
Ships happen. -Navy saying.
Shit or get off the pot
silence is golden
Simple minds think alike. (William Truong)
Alternative: Simple minds, simple pleasures.
Six of one, and half a dozen the other.
Slow and steady wins the race.
Variant: Slow but sure.
Smile, and the world smiles with you; cry, and you cry alone.
So close, yet so far.
Some days you get the bear, other days the bear gets you.
Someone who gossips to you will gossip about you.
Something is better than nothing.
Something worth doing is worth doing well.
A son is a son 'till he gets him a wife; a daughter's a daughter all her life.
Spare the rod, spoil the child.
Speak the truth, but leave immediately
The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak.
Gospel of Matthew 26:41
The squeaky wheel gets the grease.
The start of a journey should never be mistaken for success.
S tart small; T hink tall; R each over the wall; I nvest your all; V isualize the mall; E xpect you may fall; but, if you fall, that's not all; get up and STRIVE again.
Dr. Robert Schuller
Sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me.
Contrast: "A blow with a word strikes deeper than a blow with a sword."
A still tongue makes a wise head.
From Lewis the (Black) Barber; Lake Charles, LA; who always told people, "Never let the right hand know what the left hand is doing; a still tongue makes a wise head; still water runs deep."
Still waters run deep.
A stitch in time saves nine.
Cf. Gnomologia: Adagies and Proverbs Collected by Thomas Fuller, 1732, Vol. II, p. 283, Nr. 6291 : "A Stitch in Time // May save nine." [15]
Stolen fruit is the sweetest.
Straightn not the dog's tail even in the bamboo hollow.
The straw that broke the camel's back.
Strike while the iron is hot.
Success grows out of struggles to overcome difficulties.
Success is a journey not a destination.
Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.
[edit]T

Take an old dirty, hungry, mangy, sick and wet dog and feed him and wash him and nurse him back to health, and he will never turn on you and bite you. This is how man and dog differ.
(Possibly Lord Byron)
Take care of the pennies and the pounds will take care of themselves.
Take it with a grain of salt.
(See Wikipedia article.)
Taking care of business.
Talk of the devil and he's sure to appear.
Talk the hind legs off a donkey.
Talking a mile a minute.
Talking nineteen to the dozen.
That which does not kill you, makes you stronger.
Friedrich Nietzsche, The Twilight of the Idols (1888)
The worth of a thing is what it will bring.
There is luck in odd numbers.
The teacher has not taught, until the student has learned.
The more one’s possessions, the more one’s fear of losing.
There are no endings: only new beginnings.
There are no facts; only interpretations of facts.
There are no small parts, only small actors.
There are so many things to say that are better left unsaid.
There are three types of lies - lies, damned lies, and statistics.
There's a method in his madness.
There is a thin line between love and hate
There's always a calm before a storm.
or The calm before the storm.
There's many a slip 'twixt cup and lip.
This comes from a Greek legend, as follows: One of the Argonauts returned from his voyage, and went home to his winery. He called for the local soothsayer, who had predicted before his voyage that he would die before he tasted another drop of his wine, from his vinery. As he finished saying this, he raised a cup filled with wine to his lips, in toast to the soothsayer, who said something in reply. Just then, he was called away to hunt a wild boar that was approaching, and died in his attempt to kill it. The phrase that the soothsayer said is translated best as, There's many a slip 'twixt the cup and the lip.
There's money in muck.
or Where there's muck there's brass.
There's more than one way to skin a cat.
There's no accounting for taste.
From the Latin: De gustibus non est disputandum.
There's no arguing with the barrel of a gun.
There is no god except God.
There's no peace for the wicked
There's no place like home.
There is no point of knowledge or wisdom if not dotted.
There's no point in washing clean things.
There's no such thing as a free lunch.
There's no time like the present.
There is only eight years between success and failure in politics.
Jim Brown, Louisiana statesman
There is something rotten in the state of Denmark.
Shakespeare's Hamlet (Marcellus in act 1, scene 4).
A thief thinks everyone steals.
Think before you speak.
Thinking the worst always prepares you for the worst.
This, too, shall pass.
Those who live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones.
Those who run with pigs, smell like pigs.
Time and tide wait for none.
Time flies.
Latin: Tempus fugit!
Time is gold.
Ti's better to hoave loved and lost than to have never loved at all.
(Alfred Lord Tennyson's poem "In Memoriam:27")
Tit for Tat.
To burn the candle at both ends.
To each, his own.
To err is human; to forgive, divine. (Pope, Essay on Criticism)
To have the fulfilled life, you must question the unanswerable and learn nothing.
To know the road ahead ask those coming back.
To put something in a new jacket.
Tomorrow is another day.
Too many Chiefs and not enough Indians.
Too many cooks spoil the broth.
Too much of one thing, good for nothing.
Trapped between a rock and a hard place.
Tread on a worm and it will turn.
This Proverb is generally used by Persons who have received gross insults and
Injuries from others (which they have for some time bore with Patience) to excuse their
being at last transported to some Warmth of Resentment and Passion. - Divers Proverbs, Nathan Bailey, 1721 [16]
Trouble shared is trouble halved.
The truth is in the wine.
Truth is stranger than fiction.
The truth shall set you free, or The truth will set you free.
In the Bible, John 8:32.
Truth will out.
Try not to become a man of success but a man of value.
Try try but don't cry.
Two heads are better than one.
Two things prolong your life: A quiet heart and a loving wife.
Two wrongs don't make a right.
Two's company; three's a crowd.
Two sides of the same coin
[edit]U

An unasked question is the most futile thing in the world
Unprepare to prepare, be prepared to be unprepared
supposedly said by W.B.Govo in 1916
Use it or lose it
Use it up, wear it out, make do with, or do without
Great depression era proverb.
[edit]V

The value is determined by the agreement of two people.
Variety is the spice of life.
An early version is found in William Cowper, The Task (1785), Book II, "The Timepiece", lines 606–7:
Variety's the very spice of life,
That gives it all its flavour.
Vengeance is mine, thus saith the Lord.
Virtue which parleys is near a surrender. - Divers Proverbs, Nathan Bailey, 1721 [17]
Vision without action is a daydream. Action without vision is a nightmare. (Japanese proverb)
[edit]W

Walk softly, carry a big stick.
Variant of an African proverb that was made famous in the U.S. by Teddy Roosevelt, "Speak softly and carry a big stick; you will go far".
Walk the walk and talk the talk.
Waste not, want not.
A watched pot never boils.
The way to a man's heart is through his stomach.
We are all on this earth, we can't get off so get on.
We can't always build the future for our youth, but we can build our youth for the future.
By: Franklin D. Roosevelt
We deserve the govt. we elect
We have nothing to fear but fear itself.
By: Franklin D. Roosevelt
We must take the bad with the good.
Variant: We must take the bitter with the sweet.
We ourselves feel that what we are doing is just a drop in the ocean,but the ocean would be less without that drop.
We tend to be perfect. That’s why when we make mistakes we are hard on ourselves.
The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong.
Attributed to Mahatma Gandhi
Well begun is half done.
Variant: Well begun is half ended.
Divers Proverbs, Nathan Bailey, 1721 [18]
"Well done" is better than "well said".
What a tangled web we weave, when first we practice to deceive. (A lie will always spawn a bigger lie.)
What goes around comes around.
What goes up must come down.
What you see is what you get.
What you sow is what you reap.
Similar to You reap what you sow
Based on the Bible (Gal. 6:7): "for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap." [19]
What's good for the goose is good for the gander.
When a thing is done advice comes too late.
When in Rome, do as the Romans do.
When one door closes, another door opens.
When the cat is away, the mice will play.
When the going gets tough, the tough get going.
When you lie on roses while young, you'll lie on thorns while you're old.
Where ignorance is bliss, 'tis folly to be wise. [[20]]
Thomas Gray, "Ode on a Distant Prospect of Eton College"
Where there's a will, there's a way.
Where vice goes before, vengeance follows after.
Divers Proverbs, Nathan Bailey, 1721 [21]
The whole dignity of man lies in the power of thought.
B. Pascal
The whole is greater than its parts.
Those whom the gods wish to destroy they first make mad.
Anonymous ancient proverb, often wrongly attributed to Euripides. The version here is quoted as a "heathen proverb" in Daniel, a Model for Young Men (1854) by William Anderson Scott. The origin of the misattribution to Euripides is unknown. Several variants are quoted in ancient texts, as follows.
Variants and derived paraphrases:
For cunningly of old
was the celebrated saying revealed:
evil sometimes seems good
to a man whose mind
a god leads to destruction.
Sophocles, Antigone 620-3, a play pre-dating any of Euripides' surviving plays. An ancient commentary explains the passage as a paraphrase of the following, from another, earlier poet.
When a god plans harm against a man,
he first damages the mind of the man he is plotting against.
Quoted in the scholia vetera to Sophocles' Antigone 620ff., without attribution. The meter (iambic trimeter) suggests that the source of the quotation is a tragic play.
For whenever the anger of divine spirits harms someone,
it first does this: it steals away his mind
and good sense, and turns his thought to foolishness,
so that he should know nothing of his mistakes.
Attributed to "some of the old poets" by Lycurgus of Athens in his Oratio In Leocratem [Oration Against Leocrates], section 92. Again, the meter suggests that the source is a tragic play. These lines are misattributed to the much earlier semi-mythical statesman Lycurgus of Sparta in a footnote of recent editions of Bartlett's Familiar Quotations and other works.
The gods do nothing until they have blinded the minds of the wicked.
Variant in ''Dictionary of Quotations (Classical) (1906), compiled by Thomas Benfield Harbottle, p. 433.
Whom Fortune wishes to destroy she first makes mad.
Publilius Syrus, Maxim 911
The devil when he purports any evil against man, first perverts his mind.
As quoted by Athenagoras of Athens [citation needed]
quem Iuppiter vult perdere, dementat prius.
"Whom Jupiter wishes to destroy, he first sends mad"; neo-Latin version. "A maxim of obscure origin which may have been invented in Cambridge about 1640" -- Taylor, The Proverb (1931). Probably a variant of the line "He whom the gods love dies young", derived from Menander's play The Double Deceiver via Plautus (Bacchides 816-7).
quem (or quos) Deus perdere vult, dementat prius.
"Whom God wishes to destroy, he first sends mad."
Whom the gods would destroy, they first make mad.
This variant is spoken by Prometheus, in The Masque of Pandora (1875) by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Those whom the gods would destroy, they first make mad.
As quoted in George Fox Interpreted: The Religion, Revelations, Motives and Mission of George Fox (1881) by Thomas Ellwood Longshore, p. 154
Those whom God wishes to destroy, he first makes mad.
As quoted in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations 16th edition (1992)
Nor do the gods appear in warrior's armour clad
To strike them down with sword and spear
Those whom they would destroy
They first make mad.
Bhart?hari, 7th c. AD; as quoted in John Brough,Poems from the Sanskrit, (1968), p, 67
Willful waste makes woeful want.
Winners don't quit, thats why they win.
Winners make it happen, losers let it happen
Winners never quit and quitters never win.
Winning is earning. Losing is learning.
Winning isn't everything... It's the only thing.
The wish is father to the thought.
A woman is like a cup of tea; you'll never know how strong she is until she boils
A woman's work is never done.
From a folk rhyme - "A man may work from sun to sun, but woman's work is never done."
Women need men like a fish needs a bicycle.
A word spoken is past recalling.
Words uttered only causes confusion. Words written only causes history.
Working hard or hardly working?
The world is your oyster.
Worship the Creator not His creation.
The worst good day is always better than the best bad day.
The worst way to miss someone is to be sitting right beside them knowing you can't have them.
Write injuries in the sand, kindnesses in marble.

[admin]

You always admire what you really dont understand.
You can lead a horse to water but you can't make it drink.
You reap what you sow.
Similar to What you sow is what you reap
The younger brother the better gentleman.
Divers Proverbs, Nathan Bailey, 1721 [22]
You can't mend a broken egg.
 
refrence  en.wikiquote.org