Irish Proverbs Friends Love Sayings
It is often that a cow does not take after its breed.
The longest road out is the shortest road home. |
Keep a thing for seven years and you'll find a use for it. |
The road to hell is paved with good intentions. |
Never burn a penny candle looking for a halfpenny. |
Two thirds of help is to give courage. |
If you get a reputation as an early riser, you can sleep till noon. |
Fear is a fine spur, so is rage. |
Good care takes the head off bad luck. |
The youngest thorns are the sharpest. |
Soft words butter no parsnips, but they won't harden the heart of the cabbage either. |
The apple falls on the head that's under it. |
Sow early and mow early. |
The bird that can sing and won't sing should be made to sing. |
Wisdom is what makes a poor man a king, a weak person powerful, a good generation of a bad one, a foolish man reasonable. |
The road to Heaven is well signposted, but it is badly lit at night. |
God likes help when helping people. |
May the saddest day of your future be no worse than the happiest day of your past. |
Two Sir Positives can scarce meet without a skirmish. |
You will find enough of brushna in every wood to burn it. |
He who lives with hope dies happy. |
The well fed does not understand the lean. |
You can keep away from the rogue, but you cannot keep yourself safe from the liar. |
What is in the marrow is hard to take out of the bone. |
There are three creatures beyond ruling - a mule, a pig and a woman. |
Man to the hills, woman to the shore. |
Don't go to law with the devil in the court of hell. |
Where the tongue slips, it speaks the truth. |
Never burn your fingers to snuff another man's candle. |
Keep the bone and the dog will follow. |
Whiskey when you're sick makes you well; whiskey makes you sick when you're well. |
Death is in front of the old person and at the back of the young person. |
Keep your tongue in your jaw and your tow in your pump. |
Every patient is a doctor after his cure. |
Never call a Kerry man a fool until you're sure he's not a rogue. |
Speak to the devil and you'll hear the clatter of his hooves. |
You've got to do your own growing, not matter how tall your grandfather was. |
Irish Sayings in English |
A live dog is better than a dead lion. |
Let your anger set with the sun and not rise again. |
There is no smoke without fire. |
Don't go putting wool on a sheep's back. |
Any man who owns a cow can always find a woman to milk her. |
If it's got badly, it'll go badly. |
No matter how tall your grandfather was, you have to do your own growing. |
God fits the back for the burden. |
From the king to the beggar, they all depend on the farm. |
A trout in the pot is better than a salmon in the sea. |
Lions believe that everyone shares their state of mind. |
It is not the most beautiful woman who has the most sense. |
Bricks and mortar make a house, but the laughter of children makes a home. |
There is not a tree in Heaven that is higher than the tree of patience. |
Take gifts with a sigh; most men give to be paid. |
No stopping the force of a going wheel by hand. |
A rainy day is not a day for children. |
If you put a silk dress on a goat, he is a goat still. |
If there is a way into the wood there is also a way out of it. |
Don't outstay your welcome like a neighbor's goat. |
There never was an old slipper but there was an old stocking to match it. |
Live in my heart and pay no rent. |
A new broom sweeps clean, but the old brush knows all the corners. |
That which is nearest a woman's heart is the first to come out. |
If God sends you down a stony path, may he give you strong shoes. |
Hope is the physician of each misery. |
There's as many good horses in carts as in coaches. |
Beware of the anger of a patient man. |
It is the deaf people that create the lies. |
The beginning and end of one's life is to draw closer to the fire. |
Go to a man who is in difficulty and you'll get a bargain. |
Noiseless is the approach of the avenging deities. |
There's never a wise man without fault. |
As sluttish and slatternly as an Irishwoman bred in France. |
The best looking-glass is the eyes of a friend. |
If you don't know the way, walk slowly. |
Don't tell secrets to the children of your relatives. |
A welcome is a debtor's face. |
Often have the likely failed and the unlikely prospered. |
The cat is always dignified, until the dog comes by. |
There's no wise man without a fault. |
Make hay while the sun shines. |
Cleaning the house will not pay the rent. |
It is to please herself that the cat purrs. |
God's help is nearer than the door. |
Though wisdom is good in the beginning it is better at the end. |
One beetle recognizes another. |
If you go to court leave your soul at home. |
The doorstep of a great house is slippery. |
A shamefaced man seldom acquires wealth. |
Many a defect is seen in the poor man. |
If God shuts one door, He opens another. |
Help is always welcome, except at the table. |
Time and Patience would bring the snail to Jerusalem. |
A goose never voted for an early Christmas. |
It's a bad hen that won't scratch herself. |
The eye should be blind in the home of another. |
Drink is the curse of the land. It makes you fight with your neighbour. It makes you shoot at your landlord and it makes you miss him. |
A barrel that contains the wine will retain the drop in its staves. |
Good luck beats early rising. |
Only a fool would prefer food to a woman. |
To every cow its calf; to every book its copy. |
The full person can not understand the needs of the hungry. |
Many a white collar covers a dirty neck. |
If you lend your coat, don't cut off the buttons. |
A hound's food is in its legs. |
It's bad manners to talk about ropes in the house of a man whose father was hanged. |
Even a tin knocker shines on a dirty door. |
True strength lies in gentleness. |
A man may be his own ruin. |
Patience can conquer destiny. |
The herb that can't be got is the one that heals. |
Marriages are all happy its having breakfast together that causes all the trouble. |
There was never a scabby sheep in a flock that didn't like to have a comrade. |
If you put a silk suit on a goat it is still a goat. |
As you slide down the banister of life, may the splinters never point the wrong way. |
Continual cheerfulness is a sign of wisdom. |
Patience is a virtue that causes no shame. |
It's better to return from the centre of the ford than drown in the flood. |
The man of courage never lost it. |
A person's heart is in his feet. |
Two thirds of the work is the semblance. |
Great mansions have slippery doors. |
A cabin with plenty of food is better than a hungry castle. |
It's easy to knead when meal is at hand. |
It was not on one foot that st. patrick came to ireland. |
Pity the man who does wrong and is poor as well. |
Be there with the day and be gone with the day. |
Long loneliness is better than bad company. |
The miller's pigs are fat but it wasn't all mouter they ate. |
Watching is a part of good play. |
Marry a mountain woman and you will marry the mountain. |
Even the longest day has its end. |
Irish sayings about Friends |
No war is more bitter than the war of friends, but it does not last long. |
One may live without one's friends but not without one's pipe. |
A boys best friend is his mother and there's no spancel stronger than her apron string. |
There is more friendship in a half pint of whiskey than in a churn of buttermilk. |
There is no need like the lack of a friend. |
May the hinges of our friendship never grow rusty. |
Both your friend and your enemy think that you will never die. |
Don't be hard and don't be soft and don't desert your friend for your own share. |
A secret is a weapon and a friend. |
True friendship is like one soul living in two bodies. |
He who has a good neighbor has a good friend. |
Your pocket is your friend. |
Better the coldness of a friend than the sweetness of an enemy. |
Law is costly; shake hands and be friends. |
Friends are like fiddle-strings and they must not be screwed too tightly. |
A true friend laughs at your stories even when they're not so good, and sympathizes with your troubles even when they're not so bad. |
Irish Saying about Love |
Love is blind to blemishes and faults. |
Love is blind. |
It's easy to halve the potato where there's love. |
The only cure for love is marriage. |
Money swore an oath that nobody that did not love it should ever have it. |
It is easy to halve the potato where there is love. |
Love conceals ugliness, and hate sees many faults. |
A man loves his sweetheart the most, his wife the best, but his mother the longest. |
The day of the storm is not the time for thatching your roof. |
Great talk and little action. |
Marry a mountain girl and you marry the whole mountain. |
Even black hens lay white eggs. |
Better sit beside him than in his place. |
Strife is better than loneliness. Irish Proverbs Download or Share Images |
Never put off tomorrow what you can do today. |
There is no fool who has not his own kind of sense. |
Least said soonest mended. |
If a man fools me once, shame on him; if he fools me twice, shame on me. |
Take gifts with a sigh because most men give in order to be paid. |
For what cannot be cured, patience is best. |
Better own a trifle than want a great deal. |
It is not easy to steal where the landlord is a thief. |
Take heed is a good reed. |
Never trust a spiteful man. |
It is often that a cow does not take after its breed. * |
Irishwomen have a dispensation from the pope to wear the thick ends of their legs downwards. |
Better fifty enemies outside the house than one within. |
A woman like a goose, a sharp pecking woman. |
Poor men take to the sea; the rich to the mountains. |
Handfuls make a load. |
May you never forget what is worth remembering, or remember what is best forgotten. |
What butter or whiskey will not cure is incurable. |
The nearer the church, the further from god. |
A lie travels farther than the truth. |
Keep your house and your house will keep you. |
What is seldom is wonderful. |
If the knitter is weary, the baby will have no new bonnet. |
Even the truth may be bitter. |
Poverty creates sadness. |
He dotes on his midden and thinks it the moon. |
A dishonest woman can't be kept in and an honest woman won't. |
What won't choke will fatten and clean dirt is no poison. |
The person of the greatest talk is the person of the least work. |
It's hard to make a choice between two blind dogs. |
Death and marriages make changes. |
Praise the ripe field, not the green corn. |
It is a hard task to comfort the proud. |
What's all the world to a man when his wife is a widow. |
A woman told me that a woman told her. |
Show the fatted calf but not the thing that fattened him. |
The pride of women and the pride of priests. |
Men are like bagpipes no sound comes from them until they're full. |
Every invalid is a doctor. |
When a twig grows hard it is difficult to twist it. Every beginning is weak. |
A man has often cut a rod to beat himself. |
It's no delay to stop to edge the tool. |
Praise the youth and they will come. |
Discord is less painful than loneliness. |
Many a sudden change takes place on a spring day. |
When the cat is out the mouse can dance. |
Bend with the tree that will bend with you. |
The right time to dine is: for the rich man, when he is hungry; and for the poor, when he has something to eat. |
Men are more prone to revenge injuries than to requite kindnesses. |
A sly rogue is often in good dress. |
When the hand ceases to scatter, the heart ceases to pray. |
It is a poor village that has neither smoke nor fire. |
Pride comes before a fall. |
Do not show your teeth until you can bite. |
He knows the price of everything and the value of nothing. |
The seeking for one thing will find another. |
When the sky falls we'll all catch larks. |
A friend's eye is a good mirror. |
Put a coward to his metal an' he'll fight the de'il. |
It is better to have part of a man than no man at all. |
Everyone is nice till the cow gets into the garden. |
Where comes a cow the wiseman lay down, there follows a woman, and where comes a woman follows trouble. |
Better be quarrelling than lonesome. |
It's not a matter of upper and lower class but of being up a while and down a while. |
The slow horse reaches the mill. |
Everyone is nice until the cow gets into the garden. |
Whoever the cap fits, takes it. |
Nature breaks through the eyes of the cat. |
Put the priest in the middle of the parish. |
A good denial, the best point in law. |
Youth will have its fling. |
He who can follow his own will is a king. |
Wisdom is a comb given to a man once he is bald. |
Age is honorable and youth is noble. |
The steed does not retain its speed forever. |
Don't bid the devil good day till you meet him. |
Youth sheds many a skin. The steed does not retain its speed forever. |
Necessity knows no law. |
Red sky at night is a shepherds delight, red sky in the morning is a shepherds warning. |
A little of anything isn't worth a pin; but a wee bit of sense is worth a lot. |
The day will come when the cow will have use for her tail. |
Nobody ever bought peace but the man who hadn't got it. |
Everyone lays a burden on the willing horse. |
The three faults of drinking are: a sorrowful morning, a dirty coat, and an empty pocket. |
Women are stronger than men, they do not die of wisdom. |
It's often a man's mouth broke his nose. |
Say but little, and say it well. |
Praise youth and it will prosper. |
Neighbours bring comfort in adversity but only envy in success. |
The wise bird flies lowest. |
A spender gets the property of the hoarder. |
It is in the shelter of each other that the people live. |
You can kill a dog more way than by choking it with butter. |
Don't bring all your eggs to one market. |
The wearer best knows where the shoe pinches. |
Sending the goose on a message to the fox's den. |
Better is an ass that carries you than a horse that throws you. |
Money makes the horse gallop whether he has shoes or not. |
Everything troubles you and the cat breaks your heart. |
You cannot sup soup with a fork. |
Neither gives cherries to pigs nor advice to a fool. |
Good as drink is, it ends in thirst. |
The silent are often guilty. |
Your son is your son until he marries, but your daughter is your daughter until you die. |
He who gets a name for early rising can stay in bed until midday. |
The wood will renew the foliage it sheds. |
An eye is blind in another man's corner. |
She would drink the cream and say the cat she had was an old rogue. |
It is not a fish until it is on the bank. |
You must crack the nuts before you can eat the kernel. |
Pulling the devil by the leg is a bad grip. |
Talk doesn't fill the stomach. |
Don't cut your cactus in a neighbor's garden. |
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