Bulgarian Proverbs in English Sayings
He, who gives much, will soon start begging.
If you can't be good, then be careful. |
Unfenced garden - fenced in desert. |
If you cannot serve, you cannot rule. |
Thirsty men make good prophets. |
Blessed wine, cursed drinking. |
A song belongs to no one. |
Wait horse for green grass. |
He who believes in dreams feeds on wind. |
Every tree has its worm to eat it. |
The Bad tax-collector will sell one of your oxen, the good one - both. |
The Blind hen, when it sees again, wants even to mount the cock. |
If you go to sleep with the blind, you'll wake up squinting. |
A crow a crow's eyes doesn't peck. |
Three hundred ravens are scattered by one stone. |
He who breaks his word shall through his word be broken. |
Every frog must know its sole-leather. |
If you have no enemies think then that your own mother might have produced one. |
Watch your step when you walk: you may find nothing but you will not stumble. |
The Chicken teaches the hen to lay eggs. |
Blood is thicker than water. |
He who digs someone else's grave shall fall in it himself. |
A tree falls the way it leans. |
If you let everyone walk over you, then you become a carpet. |
The Dog barks to keep itself, not the village. |
Eyes see everything but themselves. |
If you light one candle for God, then you must light two for the devil. |
To the donkey thorns taste better than hay. |
Water washes up everything but shame. |
If you can't be good, be careful. |
A crow will never be a dove. |
The Donkey, though it may go to the Holy Land, will still come back a donkey. |
He who does not work, must not eat. |
Burning the poor man's candles, counting the rich man's money. |
If you want apples, you have to shake the trees. |
The droplet is always at its largest just before it drops. |
A word about to be spoken is like a stone that is ready to be thrown. |
We had a dog, it helped the wolf. |
Too many barbers would be ready to shave the beard of a beardless man. |
If you want to annoy the devil stay silent. |
Feed a dog to bark at you. |
The Drum is large but empty. |
If you want to drown yourself, don't torture yourself with shallow water. |
What the devil is unable to do, he asks a woman to do? |
A fortress surrenders from within. |
When given a kingdom, the gypsy asks: what about bread? |
Two happy days are seldom brothers. |
If you wish to drown, do not torture yourself with shallow water. |
Flies plough the ox' horns. |
The earth is man's only friend. |
When the sea turned into honey, the poor man lost his spoon. |
He who has been at the mill has flour on his hat. |
Burning the quilt because of the fleas. |
The eye that sees all things else, sees not itself. |
When the sea turned to honey, the poor man lost his spoon. |
A gentle word opens an iron gate. |
If you would live long, open your heart. |
When the Turk becomes richer he takes another wife. |
For the blind sellers there are blind buyers. |
He who keeps his old clothes, gains new ones too. |
The First glass is for health, the second - for joy, the third - for fun, the fourth - for madness. |
A Word makes no hole, a pinch tears no underskirt. |
If your neighbor's house is on fire, make haste to put out the fire in your own house. |
Where shepherds are lots, sheep are lost. |
From the promise to the deed is a day's journey. |
It is easier to fondle lassies, than to cut timbers. |
Whip the saddle and give the mule something to think about it. |
A good cock can never have too many hens. |
The fox falls into the trap only once. |
It is easy to be the father of children already born. |
Dead horses can't kick. |
He who laughs last, laughs best. |
The horse went into the river. |
A good friend is recognized in times of trouble. |
Give me, mother, luck at my birth, then throw me if you will on the rubbish heap. |
Why didn't the midwife, who cut your naval string, cut your head instead? |
A Good son needs no inheritance, the bad needs none. |
He who lies, hangs from a gallows - he who does not, hangs twice. |
Go hunting for rabbits - be eaten by wolves. |
The Hump is straightened only by the grave. |
Why should I shave when God doesn't? |
An axe without a shaft is no threat to the forest. |
Let the man who has suffered ask it -- not the man who has travelled. |
Give me money to buy myself a purse to put my money in. |
The Meek lamb sucks from two mothers. |
With a king it is the same as with fire - stay neither close by, nor too far away. |
He who lives by the sword shall die by the sword. |
God does not pay every Saturday. |
With one bullet - two rabbits. |
The neighbor's chicken is a duck. |
Death is closer than the shirt. |
A Haughty person will not even reach down to take his own nose if it had fallen to the ground. |
Hungry bear doesn't dance. |
Life is a ladder - some will climb up it, others down. |
A house without a woman is like a fire without a bucket. |
Wriggling hands like young bride's legs. |
The nice apples are always eaten by nasty pigs. |
I Gave Up smoking, smoking would not give me up. |
God gives but does not lock the gate. |
Life is a stairway - some are going up, others are going down. |
He who steals the minaret shall find a case to hide it. |
As you sow, so shall you reap. |
Hunger is a bigger master than the king. |
The Old man is not asked where he aches, but why he does not ache there. |
Man is harder than a stone and more brittle than an egg. |
Do not put all eggs in one basket. |
You can take a horse to water, but you can't make him drink. |
He who undertakes too many jobs does none. |
Many people wash their hands to have dinner with the bishop, only a few sit down to his table. |
You are permitted in times of great danger to walk with the devil until you have crossed the bridge. |
The Older one marries, the longer the nights. |
God is not without sins: He created the world. |
Measure twice, cut once. |
If God should listen to rooks, he should send a plague to horses. |
You can't find stupidity in the forest. |
The pear does not fall far from the tree. |
A Joke may have children born. |
Money tempts women, women tempt men. |
Hell is also made for people. |
The Sea has decided to drown itself in the river. |
God promises a safe landing but not a smooth passage. |
You monk, do you want us to give you in marriage? |
If Only youth had knowledge and old age ability. |
Mother Nature, time and patience are the three best doctors. |
You will sell more sheepskins at the market than wolfskins. |
Bad weather gets better, a bad man never does. |
If the Priest is used to get drunk, the people do not sober at all. |
The Sluggard works twice, the niggard pays twice. |
He, who buys what he does not need, sells what he needs. |
No hero without a wound. |
Grapes do not grow in a willow tree. |
If you are going to drown, do not try it in shallow water. |
A lie has no legs. |
The Sparrows quarrel over somebody else's millet. |
He, who gets angry, grows old fast. |
Not Every nun becomes Mother Superior. |
He that wills not to feed a cat feeds the mice. |
Every frog has his own pond. |
Tell the blind he is eyeless, and he will get mad at you. |
Bandage up your finger and take a walk in the village to see how many medical people you will meet. |
If you break the fast, better eat pork, not curds. |
Gravediggers have their own gravediggers too. |
The Stronghold is taken from within. |
One does not get crucified, one crucifies oneself. |
A lie's legs are short. |
He, who gives much, will soon start begging. * |
The Sun shines on mud, but does not get muddy. |
Don't cry at somebody else's grave. |
One gentle word opens a gate of iron. |
The village feeds the town. |
If you call one wolf, you invite the pack. |
Because of John hating St. John. |
The Wealthy man has even his crow laying him eggs. |
Hasty work - shame for its creator. |
Drop by drop - a whole lake becomes. |
One learns as long as one lives and still dies a fool. |
Have your cake and eat it too. |
The wife carries the husband on her face; the husband carries the wife on his clothes. |
A lion lurks in everyone's heart; awake him not. |
He that believes in dreams pastures the winds. |
Either the camel, or the camel man. |
The wolf has a thick neck, because he does his job on his own. |
One swallow doesn't make a spring. |
He that feels sorry for the shoe, loses the horse. |
There is no boneless fish. |
Draw water from the new well, but do not spit in the old one. |
Out of sight, out of mind. |
He that flies high falls low down. |
There's no flock without carrion. |
A person is known by the company he keeps. |
Ravens do not peck each other's eyes out. |
He that has a hawk has three hundred partridges. |
Embrace the snake and it will bite you. |
They do not want him in the village, he asks for the priest's house. |
Seize the opportunity by the beard, for it is bald behind. |
He that sleeps with a dog, should bear its fleas. |
Take a big bite, but don't say a big word. |
Better the grave than a slave. |
They said to the fox, the fox said to its tail. |
If you can kiss the mistress, never kiss the maid. |
Talk of the devil - and the devil appears. |
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