| Proverb | Meaning |
| A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush | |
| A chain is as strong as its weakest link | |
| A coward dies a thousand deaths, a brave man dies but once | |
| A day late and a dollar short | |
| A fool and his money are soon parted | |
| A friend in need is a friend indeed | |
| A friend to all is a friend to none | |
| A hero ain't nothin' but a sandwich | |
| A new broom sweeps clean | |
| A penny saved is a penny earned | |
| A person is known by the company he keeps | |
| A poor excuse is better than none at all | |
| A right start in life is a career half made | |
| A rolling stone gathers no moss | Someone who does not settle in one place rarely prospers |
| A stitch in time saves nine | A timely effort will prevent more work later |
| A thing of beauty is a joy forever | |
| A watched pot never boils | |
| Absence makes the heart grow fonder | The lack of something increases the desire for it |
| Absolute power corrupts absolutely | |
| Act in haste, repent in leisure | |
| Actions speak louder than words | |
| (All) good things come to those who wait | |
| All is fair in love and war | |
| All roads lead to Rome | |
| All that glitters is not gold | A showy article may not necessarily be valuable |
| All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy | |
| An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure | |
| As a twig is bent the tree will grow | |
| As the crow flies | |
| Ashes of love are cold as ice | |
| Ask and you shall receive | |
| Bad weather gets better, a bad man never does | |
| Barking dogs seldom bite | |
| Be careful what you wish for, you just might get it | |
| Be true to your teeth and they won't be false | |
| Beauty is in the eye of the beholder | |
| Beggars should not be choosers | If you request something to be given you should not question what you are given |
| Bend like a willow or break like an oak | |
| Better a big fish in a little pond than a little fish in a big pond | |
| Better late than never | |
| Better safe than sorry | |
| Better to be your friend's nettle than his echo | |
| Better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all | |
| Better to light a candle than to curse the darkness | |
| Big fish eat little fish | |
| Bigger is better | |
| Birds of a feather flock together | Those of similar taste congregate in groups |
| Blood is thicker than water | family bonds are closer than those of outsiders |
| Business before pleasure | |
| Character secures respect | |
| Children should be seen and not heard | |
| Cleanliness is next to godliness | |
| Close only counts in horseshoes | |
| Clothes make the man | |
| Count your blessings, not your problems | |
| Cream rises to the top | |
| Cut the coat according to the cloth | |
| Dead men tell no tales | |
| Discretion is the better part of valour | |
| Distance lends enchantment to the view | |
| Do as I say, not as I do | |
| Do not be anxious for tomorrow, for tomorrow will care for itself | |
| Do unto others as you would have them do unto you | |
| Dogs that don't kill sheep don't run | |
| Don't beat a dead dog | |
| Don't bite off more than you can chew | |
| Don't bite the hand that feeds you | |
| Don't burn your bridges behind you | |
| Don't cast your pearls before swine | Items of quality offered to those who aren't cultured enough to appreciate them |
| Don't change horses in the middle of the stream | Don't change your leader or your basic position when part-way through a campaign or a project |
| Don't count your chickens before they are hatched | |
| Don't criticize a man untill you have walked a mile in his shoes | |
| Don't cross the bridge till you come to it | |
| Don't cry over spilt milk | |
| Don't cut off your nose to spite your face | |
| Don't keep a dog and bark yourself | Don't pay someone to do a task and then do it yourself |
| Don't look a gift horse in the mouth | Don't be ungrateful when you receive a gift |
| Don't play with fire and you won't get burned | |
| Don't put all your eggs in one basket | |
| Don't put the cart before the horse | |
| Don't put new wine into old bottles | |
| Don't sweat the small stuff | |
| Dynamite comes in small packages | |
| Early to bed and early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise | |
| Easy come, easy go | |
| Education is capital invested for the future | |
| Empty vessels make the most noise | |
| Enthusiasm conquers the impossible | |
| Every cloud has a silver lining | Every bad situation has some good aspect to it |
| Every dog has his day | |
| Every man has his price | |
| Every picture tells a story | |
| Every stick has two ends | |
| Everybody wants to go to heaven but nobody wants to die | |
| Evil returns to evil doers | |
| Experience is the best teacher | |
| Eyes see everything but themselves | |
| Fact is stranger than fiction | |
| Failing to plan is planning to fail | |
| Failure is the stepping stone to success | |
| Faint heart never won fair maiden | |
| Faith can move mountains | |
| Familiarity breeds contempt | |
| Fear can hold you prisoner, hope can set you free | |
| Feed a cold and starve a fever | |
| Fight fire with fire | |
| Fish and guests smell after three days, or company and fish stink after three days | |
| Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me | |
| Fool's names and fools faces always show up in public places | |
| Fools rush in where angel's fear to tread | |
| Forewarned is forearmed | Advance warning provides an advantage |
| Forgive and you will be forgiven | |
| Fortune favours the brave | |
| From the sublime to the ridiculous is only one step | |
| Genius is one percent inspiration and ninety-nine percent perspiration | |
| Give a man rope enough and he will hang himself | |
| Give credit where credit is due | |
| God helps those who help themselves | |
| God moves in mysterious ways | |
| Good beginnings make for good endings | |
| Good fences make good neighbours | |
| Good luck comes to the man that earns it | |
| Grass doesn't grow on a busy street | |
| Great minds think alike | |
| Happiness is a state of mind | |
| Haste makes waste | |
| He who can does, he who cannot doesn't | |
| He who fights and runs away, may live to fight another day | |
| He who gets angry gets old fast | |
| He who hesitates is lost | |
| He who laughs last laughs longest | |
| He who lives by the sword shall die by the sword | |
| He who pays the piper calls the tune | |
| He who sups with the Devil should have a long spoon | |
| Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned | |
| Hindsight is always twenty-twenty | |
| Home is where the heart is | |
| Home is where you hang your hat | |
| Honesty is the best policy | |
| Hope is a waking dream | |
| Hope is hearing the melody of the future, faith is to dance it | |
| Hope is like the sun which as we walk toward it, cast a shadow of our burdens behind us | |
| Hope springs eternal | |
| How sharper than a serpent's tooth it is to have a thankless child | |
| Idle hands are the Devil's workshop | |
| Idle mind is the Devil's playground | |
| If a job is worth doing it is worth doing well | |
| If a man tells you he can grow corn look in his crib | |
| If a wolf came to my house to eat he would have to bring a sack lunch | |
| If at first you don't succeed try, try and try again | |
| If ifs and ands were pots and pans there'd be no work for tinkers' hands | Used as a humorous retort to an over-optimistic conditional expression |
| If it ain't broke, don't fix it | |
| If it looks like a duck, walks like a duck, and quacks like a duck, it's a duck | |
| If life deals you lemons, make lemonade | |
| If pigs had wings they'd fly | |
| If the shoe fits, wear it | |
| If wishes were fishes, we'd all have a fry | |
| If wishes were for certain we would all be rich | |
| If wishes were horses beggars would ride | |
| If you are not part of the solution, you are part of the problem | |
| If you can't be good, be careful | |
| If you can't beat em, join em | |
| If you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all | |
| If you can't stand the heat get out of the kitchen | Don't persist with a task if the pressure of it is too much for you |
| If you cast your net too wide beware that you don't get snared in your own webbing | |
| If you don't bend you are going to break | |
| If you don't milk everyday, the cow will dry up | |
| If you have seen one you have seen them all | |
| If you pay peanuts, you get monkeys | |
| If you play with trash it will get in your eyes | |
| If you want to dance you must pay the fiddler | |
| Ignorance is bliss | |
| Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery | |
| In for a penny, in for a pound | |
| In the kingdom of the blind the one eyed man is king | |
| In the midst of life we are in death | |
| Into every life a little rain must fall | |
| It is better to give than to receive | |
| It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of God | |
| It is easy to be wise after the event | |
| It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye | |
| It is not whether you win or lose, it is how you play the game | |
| It isn't over until the fat lady sings | |
| It takes one to know one | |
| It takes two to tango | |
| It's a dog eat dog world | |
| It's a long worm that never turns | |
| It's a sorry dog that won't wag his own tail | |
| It's all grist to the mill | |
| It's an ill wind that blows no one any good | |
| It's no use crying over spilt milk | |
| It's no use locking the stable door after the horse has bolted | |
| It's the empty can that makes the most noise | |
| It's the squeaky wheel that gets the grease | |
| Jack of all trades, master of none | |
| Judge not, that ye be not judged | |
| Keep your eyes wide open before marriage and half shut afterwards | |
| Know which side your bread is buttered on | |
| Laugh and the world laughs with you, weep and you weep alone | |
| Lead by example | |
| Least said, soonest mended | |
| Less is more | |
| Let bygones be bygones | |
| Let not the sun go down on your wrath | Do not hold on to your anger for more than one day |
| Let sleeping dogs lie | |
| Let the dead bury the dead | |
| Let the punishment fit the crime | |
| Let your light shine before men that they may see your good works | |
| Like father, like son | |
| Little pitchers have big ears | |
| Little strokes fell great oaks | |
| Little things please little minds | |
| Live for today for tomorrow never comes | |
| Loose lips sink ships | |
| Love is blind | |
| Love thy neighbour as thy self | |
| Lying is like being pregnant, sooner or later everyone will know | |
| Make hay while the sun shines | Make the most of one's opportunities while you have the chance |
| Man does not live by bread alone | Physical nourishment is not sufficient for a healthy life; man also has spiritual needs |
| Many a little makes a mickle | Many small amounts accumulate to make a large amount |
| Many a mickle makes a muckle | Many small amounts accumulate to make a large amount |
| Many a slip from the cup to the lip | |
| Many hands make light work | |
| Men's evil manners live in brass; their virtues we write in water | |
| Mighty oaks from little acorns grow | Great things may come from small beginnings |
| Misery loves company | |
| Money can't buy happiness | |
| Money doesn't grow on trees | |
| Money follows money | |
| Money is the root of all evil | |
| Money talks | |
| Monkey see, monkey do | |
| Necessity is the mother of invention | Difficult situations inspire ingenious solutions |
| Never a borrower or a lender be | |
| Never give a sucker an even break | |
| Never go to bed on an argument | |
| Never judge a book by its cover | |
| Never mix business with pleasure | |
| Never put off until tomorrow what you can do today | |
| Never say die | |
| Never say never | |
| Never speak ill of the dead | |
| No man can lounge into success | |
| No man can serve two masters | |
| No man is an island | Human beings do not thrive when isolated from others |
| no matter how far you go, there you are | |
| No news is good news | |
| No one can make you feel inferior without your consent | |
| No one is so blind as those that don't want to see | |
| No pain, no gain | |
| No rest for the wicked | the wicked shall be tormented |
| No use beating a dead horse | |
| Not the ill wind which blows no man to good | |
| Nothing is certain but death and taxes | It draws on the actual inevitability of death to highlight the difficulty in avoiding the burden of taxes |
| Nothing succeeds like success | |
| Nothing ventured, nothing gained | |
| Oil and water don't mix | |
| Old habits die hard | |
| Old soldiers never die, they just fade away | |
| Once a thief, always a thief | |
| Once bitten twice shy | |
| One hand washes the other | |
| One man's meat is another man's poison | |
| One man's trash is another man's treasure | |
| One might as well be hanged for a sheep as a lamb | |
| One law for the rich and another for the poor | |
| One swallow does not make a summer | |
| One volunteer is worth ten pressed men | |
| One year's seeding makes seven years weeding | |
| Only fools and horses work | |
| Out of sight, out of mind | The idea that something is easily forgotten or dismissed as unimportant if it is not in our direct view |
| Out of the mouths of babes come all wise sayings | |
| Patience is a virtue | |
| Penny wise and pound (or dollar) foolish | |
| People are dying today that have never died before | |
| People in hell want ice water too | |
| Perseverence moves mountains or tunnels them | |
| Pigs get fat, hogs get slaughtered | |
| Practice makes perfect | |
| Practise what you preach | |
| Prevention is better than cure | |
| Pride goeth before a fall | |
| Principles are useless, unless embodied in action | |
| Procrastination is the thief of time | |
| Put your best foot forward | Embark on a journey or task with purpose and gusto |
| Red skies at night, sailor's delight; red skies at morning, sailor's take warning | |
| Revenge is a dish best served cold | |
| Ring around the moon, storm coming soon | |
| Rome wasn't built in a day | |
| Rules are meant to be broken | |
| Running after a shadow is a wearisome race | |
| Say what you mean and mean what you say | |
| Seeing is believing | |
| Seek and you shall find | |
| Shrouds have no pockets | |
| Silence is golden | |
| Skill, not luck leads to fortune | |
| Spare the rod and spoil the child | |
| Speak of the devil and he will appear | |
| Speak softly and carry a big stick | A proverb advising the tactic of caution and non-aggression, backed up by the ability to do violence if required |
| Step on a crack, break your mama's back | |
| Still waters run deep | |
| Strike while the iron is hot | |
| Stupid is as stupid does | |
| Success comes through a clear, strong purpose | |
| Take care of the pence and the pounds will take care of themselves | |
| Talk is cheap | |
| That which does not kill us makes us stronger | |
| The apple never falls far from the tree | |
| The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched, They must be felt by the heart | |
| The best defence is a good offence | |
| The best things come in small packages | |
| The best things in life are free | |
| The bigger the better | |
| The bigger they are, the harder they fall | |
| The boss isn't always right, but he's always the boss | |
| The bread never falls but on its buttered side | |
| The building that need props is sure to fall | |
| The course of true love never runs smooth | |
| The difference between men and boys is the size of their toys | |
| The early bird gets the worm | |
| The end justifies the means | |
| The first hen to cackle is the one that laid the egg | |
| The good die young | |
| The grass is always greener on the other side of the fence | |
| The hand that rocks the cradle rules the world | |
| The hurrier I go the behinder I get | |
| The leopard does not change his spots | |
| The longest journey starts with a single step | |
| The more things change, the more they stay the same | |
| The only thing we have to fear is fear itself | |
| The only way to have a friend is to be one | |
| The palest ink is stronger than the strongest memory | |
| The path of darkness may not reach the light | |
| The path of light is easiest found by looking up | |
| The pen is mightier than sword | |
| The perfect age is somewhere between old enough to know better and young enough not to care | |
| The price of liberty is eternal vigilance | |
| The proof is in the pudding | |
| The proof of the pudding is in the eating | To fully test something you need to experience it yourself |
| The road to hell is paved with good intentions | |
| The secret of success is constancy of purpose | |
| The shoemaker's son always goes barefoot | |
| The way to a man's heart is through his stomach | |
| There are more ways of killing a cat than choking it with cream | |
| There are none so blind as those, that will not see | |
| There but for the grace of God, go I | I too, like someone seen to have suffered misfortune, might have suffered a similar fate, but for God's mercy |
| There is no failure for the good and the wise | |
| There is no place like home | |
| There is only one happiness in life, to love and be loved | |
| There's a time and a place for everything | |
| There's an exception to every rule | |
| There's always more fish in the sea | |
| There's honour among thieves | |
| There's many a good tune played on an old fiddle | |
| There's more than one way to skin a cat | |
| There's no fool like an old fool | |
| There's no smoke without fire | |
| There's no such thing as a free lunch | |
| There's no time like the present | |
| There's none so blind as those who will not see | |
| There's none so deaf as those who will not hear | |
| They that sow the wind, shall reap the whirlwind | |
| Things started on Friday are never finished | |
| Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it | |
| Those who live in glass houses have to answer the door | |
| Those who live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones | |
| Those who sleep with dogs, will rise with fleas | |
| Those we travel the world over to find the beautiful, we must carry it with us, or we find it not | |
| Those who laugh a lot live longer | |
| Thought is the oil of the mind - worry is the acid that destroys it | |
| Time and tide wait for no man | No one is so powerful that they can stop the march of time |
| Time fly's when you are having fun | |
| Time heals all wounds and wounds all heels | |
| Time is money | |
| Time is the enemy of men | |
| To err is human, to forgive divine | |
| To everything there is a season | |
| To get over a man get under another | |
| To live without loving is not really to live | |
| To the victor go the spoils | |
| Too many cooks spoil the broth | |
| Truth is stranger than fiction | |
| Turn away the weary trader and your heart will turn to stone | |
| Two heads are better then one | Two people may be able to solve a problem that an individual cannot |
| Two wrongs don't make a right | |
| Uneasy lies the head that wears the crown | |
| Unless you’re the lead dog, the view stays the same | |
| Variety is the spice of life | |
| Virtue is its own reward | |
| Walk the shadows is to leave the light | |
| Walk the walk and talk the talk | |
| Walls have ears | |
| Walnuts and pears you plant for your heirs | |
| Want what you have and you will have what you want | |
| Waste not want not | |
| Watch the pennies, the dollars will take care of themselves | |
| We are all in the same boat | |
| We must accept finite disappointment, but never lose infinite hope | |
| Wear your heart on your sleeve | |
| What a tangled web we weave, when we practice to deceive | |
| What can't be cured must be endured | |
| What goes around comes around | |
| What goes up must come down | |
| What you don't know can't hurt you | |
| What's good for the goose is good for the gander | |
| When in Rome, do as the Romans do | It is polite, and possibly also advantageous, to abide by the customs of a society when one is a visitor |
| When it rains it pours | When troubles come they come together |
| When sorrows come, they come not single spies, but in battalions | |
| When the cat is away the mice will play | |
| When the fox preaches watch your geese | |
| When the going gets tough, the tough get going | |
| When you assume you make an ass out of u and me | |
| When you chase a shadow you run from the light | |
| When you got it, flaunt it | |
| Where there is no vision, the people perish | |
| Where there is smoke, there is fire | |
| Where there's a will there's a way | |
| Where there's muck there's brass | |
| Whether you think you can or think you can't - You are right | |
| Whom the Gods love die young | |
| While there's life there's hope | |
| While you live, tell truth and shame the devil | |
| Whistling children and cackling hen leave no room for gentlemen | |
| Whistling woman and crowing hen never come to a good end | |
| With age comes wisdom | |
| Winners never quit and quitters never win | |
| Work and thou shalt have | |
| Worrying never did anyone any good | |
| You are never too old to learn | |
| You are only as good as your word | |
| You are what you eat | |
| You can catch more flies with honey than with vinegar | |
| You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make it drink | People, like horses, will only do what they have a mind to do |
| You can tell a tree by the fruit it bears | |
| You can't get blood out of a stone | You cannot extract what isn't there to begin with |
| You can't help anyone till you help yourself | |
| You can't judge a book by its cover | |
| You can't make a silk purse from a sow's ear | |
| You can't make an omelette without breaking eggs | |
| You can't mend a broken heart with a silver thread | |
| You can't run with the hare and hunt with the hounds | |
| You can't teach an old dog new tricks | |
| You catch more flies with honey than with vinegar | |
| You have to give before you can get | |
| You reap what you sow | |
| Youth is wasted on the young | |
| Youth looks ahead, old age looks back and middle age looks tired | |
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