Famous British Proverbs Sayings
Daily British Proverb in English
It is no time to stoop when the head is off.
Truth will come to light. |
Never lend that thing you most need. |
It is not work that kills, but worry. |
Poison is poison though it comes in a golden cup. |
The cow that's first up gets the first of the dew. |
Birds of a feather flock together. |
Arthur could not tame woman's tongue. |
What's in your wame's not in your testament. |
He who wants a mule without fault, must walk on foot. |
Absence is the mother of disillusion. |
Love is full of fear. |
Never refuse a good offer. |
Fortune is weary to carry one and the same man always. |
He who wills the end, wills the means. |
Understand is better than stare. |
When a ewie's drowned she's dead. |
Policy goes beyond strength. |
A penny-weight of love is worth a pound of law. |
When a snake gets warm on ice, then a German will wish well to a Czech. |
The cowl does not make the monk. |
Authority shows the man. |
It is profound ignorance that inspires the dogmatic tone. |
Biting and scratching is Scots folk's wooing. |
Love is the true reward of love. |
Unprofitable is a fever of the world. |
When a thing is done, advice comes too late. |
A man is known to be mortal by two things, sleep and lust. |
He who works begins well; he who economises ends better. |
The crutch of time does more than the club of Hercules. |
Adversity is the touchstone of virtue. |
It is too late to call back yesterday. |
Poor men go to heaven as soon as rich. |
Vice is often clothed in virtue's habit. |
When all fruits fails, welcome haws. |
Never too late to learn. |
From a choleric man withdraw a little; from him that says nothing for ever. |
A word to the wise is enough. |
Health and gaiety foster beauty. |
Weel kens the mouse when pussie's in. |
The customer is always right. |
A heavy purse makes a light heart. |
When children stand quiet, they have done some ill. |
Love lasts as long as money endures. |
It should be better to blame friends at a distance. |
The descent to hell is easy. |
Bad news travels fast. |
Weigh justly and sell dearly. |
Health is not valued till sickness comes. |
Give credit where credit is due. |
A poor man's table is soon spread. |
It takes two to tango. |
The face is no index to the heart. |
Possession is nine points of the law. |
When drink's in wit's out. |
Blue are the faraway hills. |
New meat begets a new appetite. |
Love laughs at locksmiths. |
Weil worth aw, that gars the plough draw. |
After a typhoon there are pears to gather up. |
Hear twice before you speak once. |
The fewer the words, the better the prayer. |
No garden without its weeds. |
A bad shearer never had a good sickle. |
When it thunders in March, it brings sorrow. |
Gluttony kills more than the sword. |
Poverty is an enemy to good manners. |
Welcome is the best dish. |
A woman's advice is no great thing, but he who won't take it is a fool. |
The grass is always greener on the other side. |
Hell has no fury like a woman scorned. |
A horn spoon holds no poison. |
No living man all things can. |
Well goes the case when wisdom counsels. |
Heresy is the school of pride. |
Love me little, love me long. |
Bashfulness is an enemy to poverty. |
The greatest step is that out of doors. |
Gold dust blinds all eyes. |
Poverty is no disgrace, but it is a great inconvenience. |
Wha canna gie will little get. |
After-wit is dear bought. |
Heresy may be easier kept out than shook off. |
A beggar can never be bankrupt. |
No man better knows what good is than he who has endured evil. |
When love cools fauts are seen. |
The grey mare is the better horse. |
Maidens should be meek till they be married. |
What canna be cured maun be endured. |
Gold is part of a plot. |
Bob's your uncle. |
When money speaks the world is silent. |
Poverty wants many things, and avarice all. |
High places have their precipices. |
Burn not your house to fright the mouse away. |
The guest who outstays his fellow-guests loses his overcoat. |
What greater crime than loss of time? |
Good fame is better than a good face. |
Make hay while the sun shines. |
Present to the eye, present to the mind. |
No man can make his own good luck. |
When people have but little property, they take good care of it. |
A pound of care will not pay an ounce of debt. |
Debts remain from day to day. |
What may be done at ony time will be done at nae time. |
Hoist your sail when the wind is fair. |
A man may say too much, even upon the best subjects. |
The healthful man can give counsel to the sick. |
Good fences make good neighbours. |
Make not your sail too big for the ballast. |
When the cat's away the mice will play. |
Delays are not denials. |
Hope for the best and prepare for the worst. |
Beauty and folly go often in company. |
Good men suffer much. |
The joy of the heart makes the face fair. |
What the church doesn't take, the exchequer carries away. |
No man can play the fool so well as the wise man. |
A woman and a cherry are painted for their own harm. |
Put new wine into old bottles.. |
Man learns little from success, but much from failure. |
Good wine needs no bush. |
What the eye doesn't see, the heart doesn't grieve over. |
All is not lost that is in danger. |
The little cannot be great unless he devour many. |
Do no business with a kinsman. |
British Proverbs List |
The best things in life are free. |
He who peeps through a hole, may see what will vex him. |
Fortune is blind. |
When the cow has been sold with firmness you may relax for a while and go for a better one. |
Hope is a good breakfast but a bad supper. |
A black plum is as sweet as a white. |
Burning the candle at both ends. |
No man has a worse friend than he brings from home. |
Put not fire to flax. |
The longer we live, the more wonders we see. |
What we first learn we best ken. |
Man, woman, and devil, are the three degrees of comparison. |
A cat has nine lives. |
Hope is grief's best music. |
When the cup is full, carry it even. |
Don't cross the bridge till you get to it. |
Beauty is eloquent even when silent. |
No man is indispensable. |
Hope often deludes the foolish man. |
The longest at the fire soonest finds cold. |
Manners make often fortunes. |
A house is a fine house when good folks are within. |
No man so wise but he may be deceived. |
Don't cross your bridges before you come to them. |
When troubles are few, dreams are few. |
Quarrelsome dogs get dirty coats. |
How can the foal amble if the horse and mare trot? |
Ambition makes people diligent. |
Many a cloud has a silver lining. |
The love of money and the love of learning rarely meet. |
Good words cost nought. |
Don't eat the calf in the cow's belly. |
A wise man is a great wonder. |
When war begins, then hell opens. |
No mischief but a woman or a priest is at the bottom of it. |
Idle folks have the least leisure. |
Raise no more devils than you can lay. |
The love of the wicked is more dangerous than their hatred. |
Where coin is not common, provisions can be scant. |
Grace will last, beauty will blast. |
Many a good cow has an evil calf. |
A problem shared is a problem halved. |
If fools went not to market, bad wares would not be sold. |
No one ought to be judge in his own cause. |
Religion, credit, and the eye are not to be touched. |
A chain is no stronger than its weakest link. |
Where drums beat, laws are dumb. |
Grass grows not upon the highway. |
If the dog is not at home, he barks not. |
The man who is ready to lend is the beggar's brother. |
Beauty's sister is vanity, and its daughter lust. |
Many a one blames his wife for his own unthrift. |
Remorse is lust's dessert. |
It was the last straw that broke the camel's back. |
Where old age is evil, youth can learn no good. |
No pleasure without pain. |
Don't look a gift horse in the mouth. |
Ambition makes people scorn rustic living. |
The married man has many cares, the unmarried one many more. |
Many a one for land takes a fool by the hand. |
Great birth is a very poor dish at table. |
Where there is no trust there is no love. |
Business is business. |
The money you refuse will never do you good. |
No root, no fruit. |
If wishes were horses, beggars would ride. |
A cheerful wife is a joy of life. |
Handsome is as handsome does. |
A man may woo where he will, but he will wed where his luck lies. |
Where there's a will there's a way. |
Repentance is good, but innocence is better. |
Keep good men company, and you shall be of the number. |
The more cost, the more honour. |
No rose without a thorn. |
If you always say "No', you'll never be married. |
Many a one says well that thinks ill. |
Don't meet troubles half-way. |
A child's service is little, yet he is no little fool that despises it. |
If you sell your purse to your wife, give your trousers into the bargain. |
Where there's marriage without love, there will be love without marriage. |
Many a true word is spoken in jest. |
The old should not be overfed. |
Drive your business, do not let it drive you. |
Keep something for a rainy day. |
No summer, but has its winter. |
Rich folk have many friends. |
He is an ill husband who is not missed. |
Where your will is ready, your feet are light. |
Bees that have honey in their mouths have stings in their tails. |
If you will learn news, you must go to the oven or the mill. |
Who comes uncalled, sits unserved. |
Keep something for the sore foot. |
The opera isn't over till the fat lady sings. |
An army of stags led by a lion would be more formidable than one of lions led by a stag. |
Many dogs may easily worry one hare. |
If you would know the value of a ducat, try to borrow one. |
No wrong without a remedy. |
A ragged colt may make a good horse. |
Kill not the goose that lays the golden egg. |
Riches take away more pleasures than they give. |
Don't teach your grandmother to suck eggs. |
The owl thinks her own young fairest. |
Who goes a beast to Rome, a beast returns. |
He is lifeless that is faultless. |
None so deaf as those who will not hear. |
The peacock has fair feathers, but foul feet. |
By continually striving for the best, one may waste good opportunities. |
Many lords, many laws. |
If you yourself can do it, attend no other's help or hand. |
Salt water and absence wash away love. |
A wise man cares not for what he cannot have. |
Who goes softly goes safely, and he that goes safely goes far. |
Kings have many ears and many eyes. |
The Peerage is the Englishman's Bible. |
Not a few proverbs are dear children of experience. |
Dying men speak true. |
He is the best general who makes the fewest mistakes. |
Many women, many words; many geese, many turds. |
An atheist is one point beyond the devil. |
Seek and you shall find. |
The proof of the pudding is in the eating. |
Nothing enters into a close hand. |
If youth knew what age would crave, it would both get and save. |
Better cut the shoe than pinch the foot. |
He is wise that has wit enough for his own affairs. |
Easter so longed for is gone in a day. |
Ill comes often on the back of worse. |
Who has a woman has an eel by the tail. |
A house well-furnished makes a woman wise. |
He is wise that is honest. |
Marriage halves our griefs, doubles our joys, and quadruples our expenses. |
The remembrance of past sorrows is joyful. |
Seek much, and get something; seek little, and get nothing. |
Wife and children are bills of charges. |
A crown is no cure for the headache. |
Nothing ventured nothing gained. |
Ell and tell is good merchandise. |
He is wise that is ware in time. |
With customs we live well, but laws undo us. |
Children are certain cares, but uncertain comforts. |
Knowledge without practice makes but half an artist. |
Marry in haste, and repent at leisure. |
The rich knows not who is his friend. |
Seek that which may be found. |
A rich man's joke is not always funny. |
Nurture and good manners makes man. |
Ill words are bellows to a slackening fire. |
Better go to heaven in rags than to hell in embroidery. |
With great learning, a horse, and money, you may travel the world. |
Seldom seen, soon forgotten. |
He keeps his road well enough who gets rid of bad company. |
The rich man has his ice in the summer and the poor man gets his in the winter. |
Marry your like. |
An eel by his tail, an Irishman at his word. |
Labour is light where love pays. |
Obedience is much more seen in little things than in great. |
In many words, the truth goes by. |
With Latin, a horse, and money, you may travel the world. |
Children learn to creep before they can go. |
The rich man may dine when he will, the poor man when he may. |
He must have leave to speak who cannot hold his tongue. |
Law is a lickpenny. |
Every cloud has a silver lining. |
With patience the mulberry leaf becomes a silk gown. |
Of a thorn springs not a fig. |
Marry your son when you will, your daughter when you can. |
A deaf husband and a blind wife are always a happy couple. |
Set a beggar on horseback, and he'll ride to the devil. |
He plays best that wins. |
Wives must be had, be they good or bad. |
Meat is much, but manners is better. |
A man of great memory without learning. has a distaff and a spindle, and no stuff to spin. |
Of soup and love, the first is the best. |
The rich man spends his money, the poor man his strength. |
In the eyes of the lover, pock-marks are dimples. |
Sin is the root of much sorrow. |
Wonder at your auld shoon when ye hae gotten your new. |
Every man will have his own turn served. |
He that brings good news, knocks hard. |
Meddle not with another man's matter. |
A vain belief, unprofitable. |
The riches of the mind may make a man rich and happy. |
It early pricks that will be a thorn. |
Words and feathers the wind carries away. |
Better hand loose than in an ill tethering. |
Old age doesn't protect from folly. |
Small birds must have meat. |
Lawyers' gowns are lined with the wilfulness of their clients. |
Command your man, and do it yourself. |
He that cannot do better, must be a monk. |
The skilfullest wanting money is scorned. |
Medicines are not meat to live by. |
A rich man's money often hangs him. |
Words are but wind, but blows unkind. |
It is a great point of wisdom to find out one's own folly. |
Laziness goes so slowly that poverty overtakes it. |
Every one thinks his sack heaviest. |
The strong man and the waterfall channel their own path. |
An honest man's word is as good as his bond. |
Old age is a hospital that takes in all diseases. |
Soft fire makes sweet malt. |
He that complies against his will, is of his own opinion still. |
A fair wife and a frontier castle breed quarrels. |
Work for nought makes folks dead lazy. |
Men are best loved furthest off. |
The way to a man's heart is through his stomach. |
It is a proud horse that will not bear his own provender. |
Better keep now than seek anon. |
It is a poor wood that has never a withered bough in it. |
The wind in one's face makes one wise. |
Lead a pig to the Rhine, it remains a pig. |
Old be, or young die. |
Counsel must be followed, not praised. |
He that enquires all opinions, comes ill speed. |
Wrath often consumes what goodness husbands. |
Men are not angels. |
Let every sheep hang by his own shank. |
Every tub must stand on its own bottom. |
The world still he keeps at his staff's end that needs not to borrow and never will lend. |
It is a sorry flock where the ewe bears the bell. |
Sometimes clemency is cruelty, and cruelty clemency. |
Ye ca' hardest at the nail that drives fastest. |
A man that breaks his word, bids others be false to him. |
He that gapes until he be fed, well may he gape till he be dead. |
Men get wealth and women keep it. |
Old love will not be forgotten. |
There comes nothing out of the sack but what was there. |
Ye hae been smelling the bung. |
A gentleman ought to travel abroad, but dwell at home. |
It is an ill bird that fouls its own nest. |
Better late than never. |
Soon learnt, soon forgotten. |
Ye hae the best end a' the string. |
Let him that pays the reckoning choose the lodging. |
Men make houses, women make homes. |
There is a remedy for everything, could men find it. |
Every why has a wherefore. |
Sound advice had better be welcome. |
Ye learn your father to get bairns. |
He that has no children brings them up well. |
Old men, when they marry young women, make much of death. |
An ill tongue may do much. |
It is best to be off with the old love before you are on with the new. |
Ye may be heard where ye're no seen. |
There is no blindness like ignorance. |
Mettle is dangerous in a blind horse. |
Spare to speak and spare to speed. |
A truly great man never puts away the simplicity of a child. |
Let my lamp at midnight hour be seen in some high lonely tower. |
He that has no good trade, it is to his loss. |
A hungry man is glad to get boiled wheat. |
Ye should be a king of your word. |
There's always room at the top. |
Old saws speak truth. |
It is best to be on the safe side. |
Mind other men, but most yourself. |
Such beginning, such end. |
Craft must have clothes, but truth loves to go naked. |
On painting and fighting look aloof. |
Ye'll be hang'd and I'll be harried. |
A rolling stone gathers no moss. |
He that has the spice, may season as he list. |
A good archer is not known by his arrows, but his aim. |
They that are bound must obey. |
Let the bait hide the hook. |
It is better to be a beggar than a fool. |
Sweet are the uses of adversity. |
Ye'll neither dee for your wit nor be drowned for a warlock. |
Everything is good in its season. |
An inch of gold will not buy an inch of time. |
On the day of victory no fatigue is felt. |
Misery loves company. |
They think a calf a large beast that never saw a cow. |
Better spare to have of your own, than ask of other men. |
He that is ill to himself will be good to nobody. |
Ye'll no sell your hen in a rainy day. |
Misfortunes come of themselves. |
A good lawyer, an evil neighbour. |
Take heed is a fair thing. |
It is easy to bear the misfortunes of others. |
Thinking is very far from knowing. |
Once a use and ever a custom. |
You can lead a horse to water but you cannot make it drink. |
Life is not all beer and skittles. |
Misfortune is not that which can be avoided, but that which cannot. |
Experience is the mother of wisdom. |
He that lives in hope dances to an ill tune. |
Tell not all you know, all you have, or all you can do. |
A surgeon experiments on the heads of orphans. |
Those far, far away are seldom seen for what they really are. |
You can't tell a book by its cover. |
It is good grafting on a good stock. |
Crowns have cares. |
One acre of performance, is worth twenty of the land of promise. |
A man without reason is a beast in season |
Life is short and time is swift. |
You cannot catch old birds with chaff. |
It is good sheltering under an old hedge. |
Eyes are bigger than your belly. |
A lean fee is a fit reward for a lazy clerk. |
That fish will soon be caught that nibbles at every bait. |
One can love and be wise. |
You cannot run with the hare and hunt with the hounds. |
Fair words will not make the pot boil. |
Better to ask the way than go astray. |
Though old and wise, yet still advise. |
Lightning never strikes twice in the same place. |
An old cart well used may outlast a new one abused. |
You may break a horse's back, be he never so strong. |
Fair exchange is no robbery. |
One good turn deserves another. |
It is good to have a hatch before the door. |
Custom without reason is but ancient error. |
He that lives well is learned enough. |
That sick man is not to be pitied who has his cure in his sleeve. |
A sharp stomach makes short devotion. |
Misfortunes hasten age. |
You win some, you lose some. |
He that makes a good war, makes a good peace. |
Better to have than wish. |
Times change and we with them. |
One kindness is the price of another. |
Like counsellor, like counsel. |
Yourself first, others afterward. |
A good paymaster never wants workmen. |
He that marries ere he be wise, will die ere he thrive. |
Money makes the pot boil. |
Far from court, far from care. |
That's the last straw. |
A straight stick looks crooked in the water. |
Youth never casts for peril. |
It is good to marry late or never. |
One man's meat is another man's poison. |
Better to pay and have little than have much and be in debt. |
The absent are always in the wrong. |
An ounce of luck is worth a pound of wisdom. |
He that nothing questions, nothing learns. |
To be good tends to give absence later on. |
Much coin, much care. |
Zeal without knowledge is a runaway horse. |
Literature is a good staff but a bad crutch. |
Few lawyers die well, few physicians live well. |
One swallow does not make a summer. |
A man's studies pass into his character. |
The absent party is always to blame. |
It is hard to sail over the sea in an egg-shell. |
He that pities another remembers himself. |
To bow the body is easy, to bow the will is hard. |
A small leak will sink a great ship. |
Much science, much sorrow. |
One thief will not rob another. |
It is height makes Grantham steeple stand awry. |
Finders keepers, losers seekers. |
Little and often fills the purse. |
To dead men and absent there are no friends left. |
He that puts on a public gown must put off a private person. |
Better untaught than ill taught. |
It is ill sitting at Rome and striving against the Pope. |
The absent saint gets no candle. |
Little intermeddling makes good friends. |
One's own fire is pleasant. |
Much travel is needed to ripen a man's rawness. |
An ounce of mother is worth a ton of priest. |
Today is the scholar of yesterday. |
He that rises late, must trot all day. |
Opportunity makes the thief. |
The air of a window is as the stroke of a cross-bow. |
A little body often harbours a great soul. |
He that seeks a horse or a wife without fault, has neither steed in his stable nor angel in his bed. |
Live and let live. |
A solitary man is either a beast or an angel. |
Too many cooks spoil the broth. |
First things first. |
It is no sin to sell dear, but a sin to give ill measure. |
Out of debt, out of danger. |
The ant had wings to her hurt. |
Near is my shirt, but nearer is my skin. |
Too much hope deceives. |
Anger begins with folly, and ends with repentance. |
He that speaks ill of the mare would buy her. |
Better wit than wealth. |
Long absence and guilt can change a friend. |
Out of sight, out of mind. |
Too much money makes one mad. |
He that stays in the valley, shall never get over the hill. |
The bait hides the hook. |
A good paymaster never wants workmen. |
Too much of ought is good for nought. |
First try and then trust. |
Necessity is the mother of invention. |
He that tells his wife news, is but newly married. |
Out of the frying pan into the fire. |
Long visits bring short compliments. |
Train up a child in the way he should go. |
A handful of good life, is better than a bushel of learning. |
It is no time to stoop when the head is off. * |
The best advice is found on the pillow. |
Beware of "Had I known". |
He that will be rich before night, may be hanged before noon. |
Anger is a short madness. |
Pay what you owe and you'll know what you're worth. |
He that will not be counselled, cannot be helped. |
Truth fears no trial |
Never be boastful; someone may pass who knew you as a child. |
Fly that pleasure which pains afterward. |
Truth has a scratched face. |
Look to yourself when your neighbour's house is on fire. |
It is not the beard that makes the philosopher. |
A mother's love never ages. |
The best payment is on the peck bottom. |
He that woos a widow must woo her day and night. |
Peace makes plenty. |
A stitch in time saves nine. |
Truth has always a sure bottom. |
He that would be old long, must be old betimes. |
Love begets love. |
Fools build houses, and wise men buy them. |
He that would have eggs must endure the cackling of hens. |
Pleasures shorten tedious nights. |
Truth is a spectre that scares many. |
Appear in your own colours, that folk may know you. |
He who lives by the sword dies by the sword. |
Love covers many infirmities. |
Truth needs not the ornament of many words. |
Birds in their little nests agree. |
Plenty breeds pride. |
It is not what is he, but what has he. |
Truth often hides in an ugly pool. |
Love is as strong as death. |
Never lay sorrow to your heart when others lay it to their heels. |
The best remedy against an ill man, is much ground between. |
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