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ENGLISH PROVERB • All frills and no knickers.

o Possible interpretation:
All style and no
A substance.
• All fur coat and no knickers.
o Meaning: A person
• Ability can take you to the top,
concerned with displays
but it takes character to keep you
of ostentation, that fool
there.
no one regarding their
• Absence makes the heart grow
actual situation or
fonder.
character.
o From Isle of Beauty by
• All good things must come to an
Thomas Haynes Bayly
end.
o Interpretation: We miss
• All hat and no cattle.
people when we are
• All's fair in love and war.
separated from them.
o Interpretation: Love and
• Absence makes the heart grow
War are arenas of
fonder but makes the mind
complete passion that
forget.
often obfuscate reason.
• The acorn (apple) never falls far
• All's well that ends well.
from the tree.
o A play by William
o Meaning: People are
Shakespeare
similar to their
o Variant: All is well that
parents/their roots.
ends well. - Divers
• Act today only, tomorrow is too
Proverbs, Nathan Bailey,
late
1721 [1]
• Action is the proper fruit of
• All roads lead to Rome.
knowledge.
o Possible interpretation:
o Meaning: Only by doing
However you try to go
can you really know.
about things all will lead
• Actions speak louder than words.
to the same conclusions
o meaning: What you do is
o Possible interpretation:
more important than what
Power draws all things to
you say
itself.
• Advice most needed is least
o Interpretation: The
heeded.
heartland/metropolis (for
• After dinner sit a while, after
better or worse) yields
supper walk a mile.
considerable power.
• All cats love fish but hate to get
• All sizzle and no steak.
their paws wet.
o Possible interpretation:
o sometimes you have to do
All style and no substance
bad things to get good
• All that glisters is not gold.
ones
o William Shakespeare,
• All flowers are not in one garden.
• All for one and one for all. The Merchant of Venice,
o Alexandre Dumas, The
act II, scene 7.
Three Musketeers
o Often corrupted to: All • As soon as a man is born, he
that glitters is not gold. begins to die.
o Possible interpretation: • As you make your bed, so you
Not everything is what it must lie in it.
appears to be. o Similar to You reap what
• All the world is your country, to you sow
do good is your religion. • Ask me no questions, I'll tell you
o Possible interpretation: no lies.
All talk and appearance o Interpretation: There are
and little or no substance. some things I'd rather not
• All things come to those who say, so don't ask me!
wait. o Cf. Oliver Goldsmith's
• All work and no play makes Jack She Stoops to Conquer
a dull boy. All play and no work (1773): "Ask me no
makes Jack a mere toy. questions, and I’ll tell you
• Always care about your flowers no fibs"
and your friends. Otherwise • Aught for naught, and a penny
they'll fade, and soon your house change.
will be empty. o Interpretation: you can't
get something for nothing
• An apple a day keeps the doctor -- you might as well
away. expect to get paid to take
o Originated in the 1900s as it.
a marketing slogan
dreamt up by American [edit] B
growers concerned that
the temperance
• Bad news travels fast.
movement would cut into
• A bad penny always turns up.
sales of apple cider.
o Meaning: Your mistakes
(Michael Pollan, The
will come back to haunt
Botany of Desire,
you. Or Bad people will
Random House, 2001,
always return.
ISBN 0375501290, p. 22, cf.
• A bad settlement is better than a
p. 9 & 50)
good lawsuit.
• April showers bring May
• A bad workman blames his tools.
flowers.
o George Herbert reports
o Meaning: Something
early English variants in
seeming bad or boring
Jacula Prudentum; or,
now brings good things in
Outlandish Proverbs,
the future.
Sentences, Etc. (1640):
• As fit as a fiddle.
 Never hand an ill
o Meaning: very fit and
workman good
well
tools.
• As iron sharpens iron, so one
 An ill labourer
man sharpens another
quarrels with his
tools.
 The Works my hammer, and
of George the hatchet was
Herbert in blunt", and other
Prose and things of this
Verse; kind. And the
1881, New scribe, asked why
York: John he wrote so badly,
Wurtele will say that the
Lovell, paper was rough,
Pub.; pp. the ink too fluid,
440 & 454 the pen blunt, that
o Compare the older French he did not have a
proverb: smoother, so that
 Outil: ... he could not write
Meſchant ouvrier any better. Once
ne trouvera ia again, this man
bons outils: Prov. holds his material
A bungler cannot responsible, and
find (or fit himself blames his tools
with) with good as well, in
tools. mentioning the
 Randle pen and smoother.
Cotgrave, And who does not
A know that artisans
Dictionari make themselves
e of the responsible for the
French deficiencies in
and their work too,
English when they cannot
Tongues pin the blame on
(1611) material and
o Galen explains clearly, if tools?
less succinctly, in De  Galen On
Causis Procatarcticis Anteceden
(2nd c. A.D.), VI. 63–65: t Causes,
 They blame their Tr. R. J.
tools: why did the Hankinson
carpenter make ,
the bed so badly, Cambridge
if he was any University
good? He will Press,
reply: "Because I 1998,
used a poor axe ISBN
and a thick gimlet, 05216225
because I did not 06, p. 90–
have a rule, I lost 93
• The ball is in your court. • A bellyful is one of meat, drink,
o Meaning: It's up to you to or sorrow.
decide. • A bellyful of food is a good one.
• Barking dogs seldom bite. • The best is yet to come.
o Meaning: People who are • The best of friends need not
busy complaining rarely speak face to face.
take more concrete • The best things come in small
hostile action. packages.
o Alternate meaning: Those • The best things in life are free.
who cast threats will • Better is the enemy of good.
seldom follow through • Better late than never.
with them o Meaning: It's better to
• Barking up the wrong tree. make an effort to keep an
• Be careful before every step. appointment than to give
• Be careful what you wish for, up altogether when you
you just might get it. discover you will be late.
• A bean in liberty is better than a • Better safe than sorry.
comfit in prison. o Meaning: It is better to
• Before criticizing a man, walk a take precautions when it's
mile in his shoes. possible that something
o Meaning: One should not can go amiss than to
criticize a person without regret doing nothing later
understanding their if something should
situation. indeed go wrong.
• Beggars can't be choosers. • Better the devil you know (than
o Meaning: Those who are the one you don't).
in need of help can't • Better to have it and not need it
afford to be too than to need it and not have it.
demanding. • Better to remain silent and be
• Beginning is half done. thought a fool, than to open your
o Quoted by Dr. Robert mouth and remove all doubt.
Schuller, West Coast o Variant: Better to remain
clergyman. silent and thought a fool,
• The belly has no ears. than to speak and remove
o This Proverb intimates, all doubt. (often attributed
that there is no arguing to Abraham Lincoln but
the Matter with Hunger, taken from Solomon's
the Mother of Impatience Proverbs)
and Anger. - Divers • Beware of Greeks bearing gifts.
Proverbs, Nathan Bailey, o A reference to the Trojan
1721 [2] Horse
o I don't argue with the • Beware of the Bear when he
body Jerry. It's an tucks in his shirt.
argument you can't win. - • Beware of the false prophets,
Kramer who come to you in sheep's
clothing, and inwardly are
ravening wolves. (Matthew; bible • Bitter pills may have blessed
quote) effects.
• A big tree attracts the o Meaning: Things that
woodsman's axe. seem hard to take or
o Meaning: Great people handle at first may have
will attract great positive and beneficial
criticism. outcomes.
o Possible interpretation: • Blood is thicker than water.
The rich make good o Meaning: Bonds between
targets for thieves and family members are
burglars. stronger than other
• A bird in the hand is worth two relationships.
in the bush. • Blood will out.
o John Bunyan cites this o Meaning: A person's
traditional proverb in The ancestry or upbringing
Pilgrim's Progress, will eventually show.
(1678): • Bloom where you are planted.
 So are the men of o Meaning: Excel and
this world: They flourish where you grow
must have all their up, or where you fit in; be
good things now; good at what you do.
they cannot stay • A blow with a word strikes
till the next year, deeper than a blow with a sword.
that is, until the o Robert Burton cites this
next world, for traditional proverb in The
their portion of Anatomy of Melancholy
good. That (1621):
proverb, "A bird  It is an old saying,
in the hand is "A blow with a
worth two in the word strikes
bush," is of more deeper than a
authority with blow with a
them than are all sword:" and many
the divine men are as much
testimonies of the galled with a
good of the world calumny, a
to come. scurrilous and
• Birds of a feather flock together. bitter jest, a libel,
o Variant: Birds of the a pasquil, satire,
same feather flock apologue,
together. epigram, stage-
 Meaning: People play or the like, as
who are similar to with any
one another tend misfortune
to stay together. whatsoever.
 Part I, decade.一朝被蛇咬,十
Section II, 年怕井绳
Member o Indian Version: The one
IV, burnt by hot milk drinks
Subsection even cold buttermilk with
IV precaution.
o Compare: "The pen is Transliteration: Doodh ka
mightier than the sword." jala chhanchh ko bhi
o Contrast: "Sticks and phoonk phoonk ke peeta
stones may break my hai.
bones but words will o Meaning: Similar to
never hurt me." "Once bitten, twice shy"
o This Proverb intimates,
• Born with a silver spoon in That it is natural for all
his/her mouth. living Creatures, whether
o Meaning: Born in a rich rational or irrational,
family. to consult their own
• Boys will be boys. Security, and Self-
o Meaning: Boys are Preservation; and
traditionally expected to whether they act by
misbehave, while girls are Instinct or Reason, it still
not. tends to some care of
• Brag is a good Dog, but Holdfast avoiding those things that
is a better have already done them
o This Proverb is a Taunt an Injury. - Divers
upon Braggadoccio's, Proverbs, Nathan Bailey,
who talk big, boast, and 1721 [4]
rattle: • Buy the best and you only cry
It is also a Memento for once.
such who make plentiful
promises to do well for
the
[edit] C
future but are suspected
• The calm (comes) before the
to want Constancy and
storm.
Resolution to make
• A camel is a horse designed by
them good. - Divers
committee.
Proverbs, Nathan Bailey,
o Meaning: a vision is more
1721 [3]
perfect from the
• Brain is better than brawn.
individual rather than a
• Bread is the stuff of life.
group of people where it
• Break the Law as the Law should
becomes anodyne.
be beaten.
• A candle loses nothing by
• A burnt child dreads the fire.
lighting another candle.
o Chinese Version: One
o Attributed to Mevlana
bitten by a snake for a
Celaleddin-i Rumi
snap dreads a rope for a
• A cat may look at a king.
o Meaning: If a cat may • The cure is worse than the
look at the king - then I disease.
have a right to look where • The customer is always right.
I please.
• A chain is no stronger than its [edit] D
weakest link.
o Meaning: The strength of
• Damned if you do, damned if
any group depends on the
you don't.
individual strength of
o Lorenzo Dow (d. 1834).[3]
each of its members.
o Meaning: Refers to a
• The child is father to the man.
situation where both
o Meaning: What is true of
possibilities will lead to
a child will still be true
harm or blame.
when it grows up; or,
• Desperate times call for
early experiences shape
desperate measures.
future character.
• The difference between a man
• A closed mouth catches no flies.
and a cat or a dog is that only a
o Meaning: You cannot say
man can write the names of the
a bad thing if you don't
cat and the dog.
speak at all.
• Different strokes for different
• The coat makes the man.
folks.
• A coin of gold is delighting in a
o Meaning: Someone
bag of silver coins
prefers one thing; others,
o Alternative meaning: One
something different.
who is unique is often
• Discretion is the better part of
praised or receives more
valour.
pleasure.
o Derived from "The better
• Cometh the hour cometh the
part of valour is
man.
discretion, in the which
o (Some information about
better part I have saved
the phrase and about its
my life." Falstaff in
use by a 1940's cricketer)
Shakespeare's Henry IV
• A constant guest is never
Part One.
welcome.
o Meaning: Caution is
• A coward dies a thousand times
preferable to rash
before his death. The valiant
bravery.
never taste of death but once.
• Does a One Legged Duck swim
o From William
in circles?
Shakespeare's Julius
Caesar[1]
--alternate saying for "Does a bear shit in
o Meaning: The valiant (the
the woods" and a common response to
brave) take no account of
an obvious answer yes to a silly
possible danger, whereas
question.
cowards are constantly
fearing the worst. [2]
• Do it today, tomorrow it may be
against the law.
• Don't ask God to guide your o Meaning: Don't do
footsteps if you're not willing to something to yourself
move your feet. which causes your own
• Don't bark if you can't bite. downfall.
o meaning - Don't complain • Don't enter your nose in the
if you can't enforce your affairs of others.
point of view. o Meaning: Do not mix
o meaning - if you won't do yourself in others
it, don't say you will problems.
• Don't bite off more than you can • Don't fall before you're pushed.
chew. • Don't have too many irons in the
o Meaning: Do not take on fire.
more responsibility than o Possible interpretation:
you can handle at any one Do not take on more
time. responsibility than you
• Don't bite the hand that feeds can handle.
you. • Don't judge a book by its cover.
o Meaning: Behave o Meaning: Do not judge
respectfully or by appearances.
deferentially to those who • Don't judge a man by the size of
provide for you. his hat, but by the angle of his
• Don't bring a knife to a gun fight. tilt.
• Don't burn your bridges. • Don't let procrastination eat your
o Meaning: Do not act in own clock.
such a way as to leave o Meaning: Don't
yourself no alternative or procrastinate most of the
no opportunity to time as your chances and
"retreat." opportunities are wasted
• Don't count your chickens before away.
they're hatched. • Don't look a gift horse in the
• Don't cross a bridge before you mouth.
come to it. o Possible interpretation:
o Meaning: Don't fret Do not look for faults in a
unnecessarily about gift.
future problems. • Don't make a mountain out of a
• Don't cry over spilt milk. molehill.
o Meaning: Don't worry o Don't exaggerate small
about things that have things / Don't make a big
already happened. deal out of something
• Don't cut off your nose to spite minor.
your face. • Don't mend what ain't broken.
o Interpretation: Do not act o Alternatively, If it ain't
to spite someone else if it broke, don't fix it.
is damaging to yourself. o Alternatively, Leave well
• Don't dig your grave with your enough alone.
own knife and fork.
• Don't put all your eggs in one haypeth) is a
basket. halfpenny-worth,
o Meaning: Do not rest all i.e. a very small
your hopes on one amount.
eventuality; plan for • Don't take life too seriously;
several cases. you'll never get out of it alive.
• Don't put the cart before the • Don't throw the baby out with the
horse. bathwater.
o Meaning: Do things in the o Possible interpretation:
correct order. Do not, in an attempt to
o Cf. Dan Michael of remove something
Northgate, Ayenbite of undesirable, lose things
Inwyt (1340): "Many that are valuable.
religious folk set the • Don't try to teach a pig to sing. It
plough before the oxen." doesn't work, and you'll annoy
(Middle English: "Moche the pig.
uolk of religion зetteþ þe o Meaning: Don't go into a
зuolз be-uore þe oksen.") relationship expecting to
• Don't raise more Demons than change your partner, it
you can lay down. doesn't work.
o Meaning: Do not do more • Don't worry, God has a plan.
wrongs than you can deal
with, or put right. - Jiv
• Don't shut the barn door after the
horse is gone. •
o Possible interpretation: o
Prepare for things to go  Distance makes
wrong rather than the heart grow
worrying about them after fonder.
the fact. • Do unto others as you would
• Don't spit into the wind. have them do unto you.
o Or, Don't piss into the o Based on the Bible
wind. (Matthew 7:12; Luke
o Meaning, don't take 6:31).[4]; a statement of
actions which you know the ethic of reciprocity
will harm yourself or be • Doctors make the worst patients.
futile. • The dog is nude though the
• Don't spoil the ship for a clothing cost a penny.
ha'p'orth of tar. • Doubt is the beginning, not the
o Meaning: Don't end, of wisdom.
jeopardize a project - • Dreams are not the ones which
especially a large one - by come when you sleep, but they
being miserly or cutting are the ones which will not let
corners. you sleep.
 A ha'p'orth
(pronounced
o Meaning: Dreams in your o Ovid, Heroides (c. 10
sleep are different from BC): Exitus acta probat.
the dreams of your future. See also: Means and
• A drop of knowledge is greater ends.
than an ocean of strength. • The enemy of my enemy is my
• A dull pencil is greater than the friend.
sharpest memory. • The English are a nation of
shopkeepers
o (Attributed to Napoleon)
[edit] E • An Englishman's home is his
castle.
• Each to his own taste
o Variant of "A man's home
o French: Chacun à son
is his castle."
goût
• Enjoy what you don't know.
o Alternatively: à chacun
• Even a broken/stopped clock is
son goût - "To each his
right twice a day.
own".
• Even a dog can distinguish
• The early bird catches the worm.
between being stumbled over and
But the second mouse gets the
being kicked.
cheese.
• Even a dog can make it to the top
• The early bird gets (or catches)
when there's a flood.
the worm.
• Even an old dog likes to be
• Early to bed and early to rise,
patted on the head and told,
makes a man healthy, wealthy
"Good boy!" -Justice Holmes
and wise. (attibuted to Benjamin
• Even angels have teeth.
Franklin, Poor Richard's
o Nathaniel Wenger
Almanac)
"Poetry to Grow a Tree"
• Education is a progressive
• Even the best perfumes of the
discovering of our own
world lose their fragrance when
ignorance. <W. Durrant>
you are not around me.
• Education makes machines
• Every cloud has a silver lining.
which act like men and produces
o Meaning: When
men who act like machines
something bad happens
• Effort is important, but knowing
there is always some
where to make an effort makes
good that comes of it.
all the difference!
• Every dog has its day.
• An empty vessel makes the most
o Variation on a quote from
noise
Hamlet: "...whatever
o Meaning: Those who lack
Hercules says, the cat will
intelligence speak the
mew and dog will have
most/loudest.
its day."
o Those with the least
• Every rose has its thorn.
understanding often
o Meaning: Every good
complain about things the
thing has its downside
most.
• Everyday living is life lessons.
• The ends justify the means.
by Allen Zimama.
o Meaning: Every negative that "an eye for an eye"
thing has positive aspects. will only perpetuate a
• Everyone wants to go to heaven, potentially endless cycle
but no one wants to die. of violence.
• Everything can be justified until
it happens to you. [edit] F
• Everything changes; everything
stays the same.
• Failure is not falling down, you
• Everything good in life is either
fail when you don't get back up.
illegal, immoral, or fattening.
• Failure is the first step to success.
• Everything in its own time.
• Failure is the stepping stone for
• Everything with time
success.
• The exception proves the rule.
o Failing will make you
o Often mistakenly referred
more determined to
to as a misquote. In
succeed the next time you
reality, the Latin probate
try, or make you put in
may mean either to probe
more effort to get
or to prove. The key is
something right with
that prove in this case
successive attempts.
carries the older meaning
• Faint heart ne'er won fair lady.
of to test, as in the
o Meaning: Not speaking
phrases proving (testing)
up or taking action to
ground or the proof (test)
achieve things (in this
of the pudding is in the
case, fall in love) will
eating.
never get you anywhere
• An eye for an eye and a tooth for
(or, help you fall in love).
a tooth.
• Fall down seven times, stand up
o Translation: If you kill a
eight.
neighbor's ox you must
o Definition: Fail seven
buy him a new one. (In
times, and succeed the
biblical times.)
eighth. (Keep trying and
o Possible interpretation:
you will succeed.)
retribution should be
o Translation of the
equitable, proportionate
Japanese proverb "Nana
and "fit the crime".
korobi ya oki", often
Biblical reference,
associated with Daruma
modern usage often
figurines.
connotes support for
• Falling down does not signify
capital punishment.
failure but staying there does.
o A common response,
o Letting failing/falling is
often attributed to
not failure in itself, but
Mahatma Gandhi, is "An
letting it get you down or
eye for an eye will make
stop trying is.
the whole world blind," is
• Familiarity breeds contempt.
often used as a criticism
o Long experience of
for this concept, implying
someone or something
can make one so aware of happened, other
the faults as to be consequences, etc. Can
scornful. lead to knowledge about
• Fifty percent of something is not repeating the same
better than one hundred percent mistake.
of nothing. • Fortune favours the brave.
• Fine feathers make fine birds. • A fox smells its own lair first.
• Fine words butter no parsnips. Or: A fox smells its own stink
o Alternative: Actions first.
speak louder than words. o Meaning: One knows
• Fingers were invented before where they belong, and
knives and forks. knows when they make a
• First come, first served. mistake.
• First deserve, then desire. • Fretting cares make grey hairs.
• The first step to health is to know • A friend in need is a friend
that we are sick. indeed.
• First things first. o Meaning: A genuine
o Meaning: Do more friend is with you even in
important things before times of trouble.
other things. • From those to whom much is
• A fool and his money are soon given, much is expected.
parted. o Biblical quote Luke 12:48
• Fool me once, shame on you.
Fool me twice, shame on me.
o Meaning: To make the
[edit] G
same mistake over again
• Garbage in, Garbage out.
is your own fault.
o Sometimes abbreviated
• Fools rush in where angels fear
GIGO.
to tread.
• Get four Episcopalians together
o Alexander Pope, "An
and a fifth will always appear.
Essay on Criticism"
(Humor intended!)
• For want of a nail the shoe is
• Give a dog a bad name and hang
lost, for want of a shoe the horse
him.
is lost, for want of a horse the
• Give a dog a bad name and he'll
rider is lost.
live up to it. (or repay you for it)
o Proverb reported by
o Implying that people live
George Herbert, Jacula
up to stereotypes given to
Prudentum (1651), #495
them or that individuals
• Forewarned is forearmed.
are corrupted by the
o If one is told about an
illtreatment that goes with
event beforehand, they
being given a bad name
can (adequately) prepare.
• Give a man a fish and you feed
• Forgive, but don't forget.
him for a day; teach a man to fish
o Let things/issues go or
and you feed him for a lifetime.
pass, but don't forget
o Knowledge is the best
what they were, why they
charity.
o To learn a lesson is a far • Good eating deserves good
better reward than to drinking.
receive a gift. • A good enemy is a better person
o It is better to know how than a false friend.
to help yourself than to • Good fences make good
beg from others. neighbors.
• Give a man a match, he shall be o Robert Frost, "Mending
warm for a moment. Light a man Wall"
on fire and he shall be warm for • A good man in an evil society
the rest of his life. seems the greatest villain of all.
• Give and take is fair play. • Good men are hard to find.
• Give, and ye shall receive. • A good surgeon has an eagle's
• Give credit where credit is due. eye, a lion's heart, and a lady's
o Variant: Give the Devil hand.
his due. • Good wine needs no bush.
• Give him an inch and he'll take a o Meaning: Something
yard. desirable of quality and
o meaning: Once substance need not be
concessions have been embellished. It was
made to someone they customary since early
will demand a great deal times to hang a
more grapevine, ivy or other
o Variant: Give the Camel greenery over the door of
and inch and it will take a tavern or way stop to
an ell. advertise the availability
o Variant: Give him an inch of drink within, once
and he'll take a mile. something establishes a
• Give people a common enemy good reputation for
and hopefully they will work quality the advertisement
together is rendered superfluous.
• Give respect, take respect. • The grass is always greener on
• Go with the flow the other side...
• God cures and the physician o Meaning: You will
takes the fee. always want what you
• God don't like ugly and he ain't don't (or can't) have.
stuck on pretty. • Great cry little wool.
• God takes care of drunks. • Great events cast their shadows
• A good beginning makes (for) a before them.
good ending. • Great minds think alike, but fools
o Chinese Version: A good seldom differ.
beginning is half a o Great minds think alike,
succession-好的开始是 as do lesser ones.
成功的一半 • Great oaks from little acorns
o Meaning: Planning is the grow.
key to success.
o meaning: Wonderful • The head and feet keep warm,
things come from tiny the rest will take no harm.
things. • He doesn't boast who does the
• Great spirits have always most
encountered violent opposition
from mediocre minds. • He laughs best who laughs last
o Albert Einstein • Health is wealth
• The greatest pleasure in life is • Hell hath no fury like a woman
doing what people say you scorned
cannot do.. • Heritage is invaluable
• The greatest thing that could • Hindsight is always twenty-
happen in my lifetime is for all twenty
my ideas to be stolen. o Interpretation: 20-20
• Green leaves and brown leaves refers to perfect vision.
fall from the same tree. The best choice is
o Many possible obvious when you can see
interpretations- Things how events played out.
change over time- If you • Home is where the heart is
are good at one aspect of • Haste makes waste.
a skill, you should be
skilled at the other
aspects, such as a painter
[edit] I
who says he can't draw,
• I came, I saw, I conquered
yet both painting and
o Said by Julius Caesar,
drawing are aspects of
spoken as Veni, Vidi,
art.- No matter of the
Vici during a message to
outside, we are all the
the Roman senate
same inside.
• I complained I had no shoes until
• Grow where you are planted.
I met a man who had no feet.
• A guilty conscience needs no
• I have the whole world against
accuser.
me, I show my back and the
• Guns for show, knives for a pro.
whole world is following me.
• I know I know nothing
[edit] H o From Socrates defence
speech
• A half truth is a whole lie. • I think, therefore I am
• (You can't) Have your cake and o Descartes' most famous
eat it too statement (Cogito Ergo
o Interpretation: Said to Sum in Latin)
someone that needs to • I wants, don't gets.
compromise between two o An alternative used in the
ends. black British community
o Cf. George Herbert The is: "Ask it, Ask it don't
Sizz "Wouldst thou both get... Get it, get it don't
eat thy cake and have it" want."
• I was born on a Friday, but not • If the mountain won't come to
last Friday. Muhammad, Muhammad must
o Alternative: I wasn't born go to the mountain.
yesterday. o "If the mountain won't
• Idle hands are the devil's come to Muhammad,
playthings. 'Alt.' The devil makes Muhammad must go to
work for idle hands. the mountain",
Answers.com
• If a job is worth doing, it is worth • If the shoe fits, wear it.
doing well. • If wishes were fishes, we'd all
• If a thing's worth doing, it's cast nets.
worth doing badly. • If wishes were horses, beggars
• If all else fails, try the obvious. would ride.
• If at first you don't succeed, try, • If you believe that dreams can
try again. come true be prepared for the
o Cf. William Edward occasional nightmare.
Hickson's Try and Try • If you buy cheaply, you pay
again dearly.
"Tis a lesson you should o Alternatively: You get
heed: what you pay for
Try, try, try again. • If you buy quality, you only cry
If at first you don't once.
succeed, • If you can't be good, be careful.
Try, try, try again" • If you can't be good, be good at
• If God had wanted man to fly, he it.
would have given him wings. • If you can't beat them, arrange to
• If in doubt go left. have them beaten.
• If in doubt, pick "C" • If you can't beat them, join them.
• If it ain't broke, don't fix it. • If you can't take the heat, get out
o Variation: If it isn't of the kitchen.
broken, don't fix it. • If you cross your bridges before
• If it can't be cured, it must be you come to them, you will have
endured. to pay the toll twice.
o From Midnight's • If you don't buy a ticket, you
Children by Salman can't win the raffle.
Rushdie • If you don't have anything nice to
• If it's too good to be true, then it say, don't say anything at all
probably is. • If you don't know where you're
• If it's worth doing, it's worth going, any train will get you
over-doing. there.
• If life gives you lemons, make • If you fake it, you can't make it.
lemonade. • If you fall off a cliff, you might
• If something can go wrong, it as well try to fly. After all, you
will. got nothing to lose.
o Murphy's Law • If you keep your mouth shut, you
won't put your foot in it.
• If you love somebody, let them • In order to get where you want to
go, for if they return, they were go, you first have to leave where
always yours. And if they don't, you are.
they never were. o From Sandy Elsberg's
• If you snooze you lose Bread Winner, Bread
• If you trust before you try, you Baker; Upline Press,
may repent before you die. - Charlottesville, VA;
Divers Proverbs, Nathan Bailey, 1977, p. 80
1721 [5] • In the end, a man's motives are
• If you want a thing done right, do second to his accomplishments.
it yourself. • In the land of the blind, the one-
• If you want breakfast in bed, eyed man is king.
sleep in the kitchen. • In the law there are no small
• If you want to judge a man's cases, only small lawyers.
character, give him power. o Ben Harlow
• If you were born to be shot, • In the middle of difficulty lies
you'll never be hanged. opportunity
• If you're in a hole, stop digging. o Emerson
• If you're not part of the solution, • In the mind of thieves the moon
you're part of the problem. is always shining.
• If you're prepared to be confused, o Marathi proverb,
be prepared for a sore bum meaning: dishonest
• Ignorance is bliss. persons have to be always
o Common mal-shortening on the alert to avoid
of "Where ignorance is getting caught.
bliss, 'tis folly to be wise. • Infatuations are a plenty. Love is
o Thomas Gray, "Ode on a rare. - Pashi
Distant Prospect of Eton • Insanity is doing the same thing
College" [[6]] over and over, expecting
o The more you know, you different results.
more you want to know / o Alternatively "Stupidity
The more you learn about is doing the same thing
things, the more you learn over and over, and
about your ignorance of expecting different
things results"
• Impossible itself says I'm • Is the Pope a Catholic?
Possible o Do bears shit in the
woods?
• In for a penny, in for a pound. o Used in response to what
o Alternate version: In for a is considered to be a
dime, in for a dollar. question with an
• In one ear and out the other. extremely obvious
o Cf. Geoffrey Chaucer's answer.
The Canterbury Tales: • It ain't over till the fat lady sings.
"One eare it heard, at the
other out it went"
o Variation: Church ain't o Attributed to Grace
over until the fat lady Hopper
sings. • It's easy to be wise after the
o Attributed as an old event.
Southern saying in Smith • It's never too late to mend.
& Smith, Southern Words • It's no use crying over spilt milk.
and Sayings (1976), • It's not over till it's over.
according to Quinion, o Yogi Berra
Michael (21 August o Often attributed to
1999). "It Ain't Over Till sportscaster Dan Cook
the Fat Lady Sings". (1978)
World Wide Words. • It is not so much the gift that is
Retrieved on 2007-01-23. given but the way in which the
• It's a blessing in disguise. gift is driven.
• It's a cracked pitcher that goes • It's not the size of the boat, it's
longest to the well. the motion of the ocean.
• It's a good horse that never • It's often a person's mouth broke
stumbles. their nose.
• It's a long lane that has no o Meaning: People talk
turning. themselves into trouble.
• It's a poor job that can't stand at • It's the early bird that gets the
least one supervisor. worm.
• It's always darkest before the • It's the empty can that makes the
dawn most noise.
• It's always the baker's children • It's the squeaky wheel that gets
who have no bread. the grease.
• It's an ill wind that blows no • It is through the small things we
good. do that we learn, not the big
• It's better to be safe than sorry. things
• It's better to be silent and thought
a fool, than to speak up and • It never rains, but it pours.
remove all doubt. o Alternatively: When it
• It is better to die on one's feet rains, it pours.
than live on one's knees. • It pays to pay attention.
• It's better to give than to receive. o Rewards come to those
• It's better to have loved and lost who are attentive, or wary
than never to have loved at all. of events in the
• It's better to have something you past/present/future.
don't need than to need • It takes all sorts to make a world.
something you don't have. o Alternatively: It takes all
• It's better to want something you sorts to make the world
can't have than have something go round.
you don't want. o Alternatively: It takes all
• It's cheaper to keep her. kinds to make the world
• It's easier to ask forgiveness than go round.
permission.
• It takes both rain and sunshine to • The key to all action lies in
make rainbows belief.
o It takes good and bad to • Kindness, like grain, increase by
make good things in the sowing.
future, or make them • A kingdom is lost for want of a
stand out. shoe.
• It takes two to lie — one to lie o See: "For want of a nail
and one to listen. the shoe is lost, ..."
• It takes two to make a quarrel. • Knaves and fools divide the
• It takes two to tango. world.
• Knowledge creates mysteries.
[edit] J • Knowledge is power. (17th
Century)
• Jack of all trades and master of
none. (18th Century) [edit] L
o Literal meaning: Anyone
who's good at everything • Laugh and the world laughs with
is not a master of you .. Cry and you will find no
anything. one with tears.
• Joan is as good as my lady in the • Laugh when you're happy, cry
dark. (17th Century) when you're sad, and do both
• A journey of a thousand miles when you're the happiest you've
starts with a single step. ever been.
o Laozi, Tao Te Ching, Ch. • Laughter is the best medicine for
64, line 12. 千里之行, them who do not know how to
始于足下 laugh.
• Justice delayed is justice denied. • Laughter is the shortest distance
(Legal Proverb, India) between two people.
• Justice pleaseth few in their own • The law is a jealous mistress.
house. o - Professor Ferdinand
o Meaning: No one ever Fairfax Stone, Tulane
blames themselves for Law School, early and
anything. mid 1960s.
• Law is the solemn expression of
legislative will.
[edit] K • Lead to Success, Follow to
Failure
• Keep some till more come. • Learn to walk before you run.
o Interpretation: Save
o Possible interpretation:
something until the next Do not rush into what you
stock comes. do not know.
• Keep your mouth shut and your o Alt. interpretation: Learn
eyes open. (18th Century) the basics before you start
• Keep your mouth shut and your using more complex tools
ears open. or methods
• Least said sooner mended.
o meaning: those who • Life is what happens to you
speak less get more done while you're busy making other
o Alt. Interpretation: plans.
dwelling on the o Attributed to John
problem/blame makes it Lennon
worse and delays the • Life is what you do while you're
ability to get on and fix waiting to die.
things o Quote from song sung by
• Leave it alone and it will grow Zorba from the musical
on its own. 'Zorba' by Kander and
• Let him who is without sin cast Ebb
the first stone. • Life is what you make of it.
o Jesus Christ o meaning: Nothing's going
• Let sleeping dogs lie. to change unless you do
o Agatha Christie's something about it
Sleeping • Life's battle don't always go to
Murder[citation needed] the stronger or faster man, but
• Let the cobbler stick to his last. sooner or later the man who wins
• Let us go hand in hand,not one is the one who thinks he can.
before another. • Lightning never strikes twice in
• A lie can be halfway around the the same place.
world before the truth gets its • Like cures like.
boots on. o Meaning: A person can
o Charles Spurgeon. A better help another if they
great lie may be widely have something in
accepted before the truth common.
comes to light. • Like father, like son.
• Lie down with dogs, wake up • Like water off a duck's back.
with fleas. o interpretation: Do not let
o meaning: When you get this impact you, but let it
revenge, you will be pass off you like water
punished in some way or rolls off of a ducks back.
other • Little bean comes around his
• Life begins at forty. little salary
• Life does not come with any • Little by little and bit by bit.
guarantees o Meaning: Do things
• Life imitates art slowly and carefully
• Life imitates chess -Kasparov • Little enemies and little wounds
• Life is a perception of your own must not be despised.
reality. • A little knowledge is a dangerous
• Life is just a bowl of cherries. thing.
• Life is like a box of chocolate, o A little Learning is a
you never know what you're dangerous Thing;
gonna get Drink deep, or taste not
• Life is too short to drink bad the Pierian Spring:
wine. There shallow Draughts
intoxicate the Brain, • Luck favors the prepared - Louis
And drinking largely Pasteur
sobers us again. ~ • Luck is a mirror of hard work -
Alexander Pope Beslin
• A little pot is easily hot.
• Live and let live. [edit] M
o Alternative: Live simply
to let others simply live.
• Make a Friend when you don't
• A loaded wagon makes no noise.
need One (from Urim)
o People with real wealth
o Possible interpretations:
don't talk about it.
Do the task while it is
• Long absent, soon forgotten.
possible. Don't wait until
• The longest mile is the last mile
you need help to ask for
home.
it.
• Look after the pennies and the
• Make hay while the sun shines.
pounds will look after
• Making a rod for your own back.
themselves.
• Make the best of a bad bargain.
o Possible interpretation:
• A man is known by the company
Take care of the details.
he keeps.
(12 pence to the shilling,
• Man is truly himself when he's
20 shillings to the pound.)
alone.
o Alt. interpretation: Save
• Man wasn't born to suffer but to
every penny you can and
carry on.
it will build up into a
• A man's home is his castle.
significant amount of
o William Blackstone refers
money.
to this traditional proverb
• Look before you leap.
in Commentaries on the
• Look on the sunny side of life.
Laws of England (1765–
• Loose lips sink ships.
1769), Book 4, Chapter
o World Wartime mantra
16:
encouraging people to
 And the law of
avoid talking about things
England has so
which could have been
particular and
overheard by spies
tender a regard to
• Love is a bridge between two
the immunity of a
hearts.
man's house, that
• Love is anger disappointed.
it stiles it his
• Love is blind.
castle, and will
• Love is like war, Easy to start,
never suffer it to
Hard to end, Impossible to
be violated with
forget.
immunity:
• Love is not finding someone to
agreeing herein
live with; it's finding someone
with the
whom you can't live without.
sentiments of
• Love laughs at locksmiths.
ancient Rome, as
expressed in the
works of Tully; o Perform verifying
quid enim operations that have no
sanctius, quid cost (measure) before
omni religione performing an operation
munitius, quam that is irreversible and has
domus significant consequences
unusquisque (cut).
civium? • Mind your P's and Q's.
 Translatio o British: Mind your
n: What manners (origin theories)
more • Mirrors do everything we do, but
sacred, they cannot think for themselves.
what more • Misery loves company.
strongly o interpretation: When one
guarded by person is miserable they
every holy tend to act to make others
feeling, as miserable as
than a themselves.
man's own • Misfortunes never come singly.
home? • A miss by an inch is a miss by a
• Manners maketh the man. mile.
o From 'Manners makyth o Meaning: A miss is a
man' - the motto of miss regardless the
William of distance
Wykeham(1320 - 1404) • Missing the wood for the trees.
• Many a true word is spoken in o Overlooking the more
jest important issue.
• Many hands make light work
• Many things are lost for want of • Money can't buy everything, but
asking. everything needs money
• Many words will not fill a • Money cannot buy happiness.
bushel. • Money for old rope.
o This Proverb is a severe o In the days of wooden-
Taunt upon much hulled sailing ships, ropes
Talking. - Divers that were worn could be
Proverbs, Nathan Bailey, sold for use as caulking
1721 [7] (pressed between the
• Marriage equals hell and planks and often covered
bankruptcy. with tar to prevent
• Marry in haste, and repent at seepage), or as filling for
leisure. fenders, and so the ship's
• Meaner than a junk-yard dog. owner was paid even for
• Meaning of life is not meaningful old rope.
-- Allen Zimama • The money is burning a hole in
• Measure twice, cut once. my pocket.
• (love of)Money is the root of all [edit] N
evil.
• Money makes the mare go.
• The nail that sticks up will be
• Money makes the world go
hammered down.
around.
• Nature never did betray the heart.
• Money talks; mine always says,
that loved her.
"Good-bye!"
• Nature, time, and patience are
• Money talks.
three great physicians.
o Variant: Money talks,
• Necessity is the mother of
bullshit walks.
invention.
o Related: Talk is cheap.
• Necessity is the mother of all
o Related: Actions speak
invention, but Laziness is the
louder than words. father. -[Benjamin Franklin]
o meaning: It's easy to say
• Ne'er cast a clout till May be out.
you believe something, (Not known if 'May' relates to the
but people are more likely month of May or may blossom).
to risk cash or o Don't remove winter vests
possessions on something (undergarments) until
they truly believe. summer arrives.
o meaning: its time to stop
• Never change, for the sake of
living in the fantasy others. There will be no one like
world, and live in the real you if you change. (GPL)
world. • Never judge the book by its
• Monkey see, monkey do. cover.
• Morals are for others to follow. o meaning: Do not let a
• More haste, less speed. quick/superficial
o More haste at a task will
evaluation pass for a
lead to the task being deep/quality one. Be
completed less speedily. willing to recheck.
As with many English Measure twice, cut once.
proverbs, it describes • Never leave a woman to do a
consequences rather than man's work.
giving an order. o alternate version, Never
• The more things change, the let a monkey to do a
more they stay the same. man's job, Never send a
o From the French: Plus ça
woman to do a man's job
change, c'est la même o Meaning:
chose. Leaving\employing
• The more you know, the more someone less qualified to
you know you don't know. do your work will
• The more you study, the more produce undesired results.
you know. The more you know, • Never let a man do a woman's
the more you forget. The more job.
you forget, the less you know. o Feminist phrase; Men are
The less you know the more you
poorer than women, skill-
study.
wise.
• Never let the right hand know • No time like the present.
what the left hand is doing. • Noblesse oblige.
o Possible interpretation: o French expression: To be
Do not boast in giving to a member of the nobility
the poor- anonymous is carries obligations to care
best. for the lower classes.
o Possible interpretation: • Nobody leaves us, we only leave
Secrecy insures security others.
• Never lie to your doctor. • Not enough room to swing a cat
• Never lie to your lawyer. • Nothing exceeds like excess.
• Never look a gift horse in the • Nothing to be feared in life, but
mouth. understood.
• Never put off till (until) • Nothing ventured, nothing
tomorrow what you can do today. gained.
• Never say die. o Variant: Nothing
o interpretation: Never give ventured, nothing have. -
up. Divers Proverbs, Nathan
• Never say never. Bailey, 1721 [8]
• Never smash a glass over a brick • Now the shit has really hit the
donkey. fan.
• Never trouble trouble 'til trouble • Now we have doors so we can
troubles you. hide.
• A new broom sweeps clean.
• A night with Venus and a life [edit] O
with mercury.
o Anti-promiscuity adage,
• An old dog will learn no tricks. -
alluding to a 18th-century
Divers Proverbs, Nathan Bailey,
mercury-based folk
1721 [9]
treatment for syphilis
• Old is Gold
o Cited in
• On your feet lose your seat.
Bartz, Diane, "Har, me
• One good turn deserves another.
hearties! Excavating
- Divers Proverbs, Nathan
Blackbeard's ship",
Bailey, 1721 [10]
Reuters (via Yahoo!
o Meaning: You should
News), 30 October 2006.
return a favour done to
URL accessed on 2006-11-01.
you.
• No man can serve two masters.
• One grain of sand can tip the
o Christian New Testament
scale.
• No man is an island
o Meaning: Any advantage,
o interpretation: Everybody
no matter how slight, can
needs other people.
turn a hopeless situation
• No man is content with his lot.
into a fighting chance if
• No money, no justice.
used properly.
• No need to cry over spilled milk.
• One hand washes the other. From
• No news is good news.
the Latin MANUS MANAM
• No pain, no gain.
LAVAT, meaning "Hand washes
hand," or "One hand washes the - Divers Proverbs,
other"; or impliedly, "You Nathan Bailey, 1721 [11]
scratch my back, and I'll scratch • One should not think, when one
yours." is not equipped for the job.
• One man's junk is another man's • One swallow doesn't make a
treasure. summer.
• One man's meat is another man's • Once bitten, twice shy
poison. o William Caxton, the first
o Meaning: What is liked English printer, gave the
by one person is disliked earliest version of this
by another. saying in 'Aesope' (1484),
• One man's terrorist is another his translation of Aesop's
man's freedom fighter. - Ronald fables: 'He that hath ben
Reagan ones begyled by somme
• One might as well be hanged for other ought to kepe hym
a sheep as a lamb. - English, 17th wel fro(m) the same.'
century Centuries later, the
o meaning: If you are going English novelist Robert
to incur a cost/risk, make Surtees referred to the
sure to maximize the saying in 'Mr. Sponge's
benefit for the cost/risk Sporting Tour' (1853)
incurred. with '(He) had been bit
• One murder makes a villain, once, and he was not
millions a hero. going to give Mr. Sponge
• One rotten apple will spoil the a second chance.' The
whole barrel. exact wording of the
o Meaning: Corruption saying was recorded later
must be rooted out or else that century in 'Folk
it will spread. Phrases of Four Counties'
o Cf. Dan Michael of (1894) by G.G. Northall
Northgate, Ayenbite of and was repeated by,
Inwyt (1340): "A rotten among others, the English
apple will spoil a great novelist Joseph Conrad
many sound ones." (1920, 'The Rescue'), the
(Middle English: "A novelist Aldous Huxley
roted eppel amang þe (1928, 'Point Counter
holen: makeþ rotie þe Point'), and the novelist
yzounde.") Wyndham Lewis (1930,
• One scabbed sheep mars the 'The Apes of God'). 'Once
whole flock. bitten, twice shy' has been
o This Proverb is apply'd to a familiar saying in the
such Persons who being twentieth century. From
vicious themselves, Wise Words and Wives'
labour to debauch those Tales by Stuart Flexner
with whom they converse. and Doris Flexner (Avon
Books, New York, 1993).
o A variation, once burned, o Meaning: it is better to be
twice shy, is also traced careful and discreet than
back to Mr. Sponge's to be clever.
Sporting Tour. Once • An ounce of prevention is worth
burned was First attested a pound of cure.
in the United States in o Possible interpretation:
'Dead Sure' (1949) by S. Similar to that of A stitch
Sterling. The meaning of in time saves nine.
the saying is One who Preventing something in
had an unpleasant advance is better than
experience is especially fixing it later on.
cautious. From the • Our costliest expenditure is time.
Random House <Theophrastus>
Dictionary of Popular • Our greatest glory is not in never
Proverbs and Sayings by falling but in rising every time
Gregory Y. Titelman we fall.
(Random House, New o Confucius
York, 1996). • Out of sight... Out of mind
• Once in a lifetime comes often, o Cf. Fulke Greville's
so be prepared. sonnet "And out of minds
• Only a coward will write an as soons as out of sight"
anonymous letter. -President • Out of small acorns grow mighty
Franklin D. Roosevelt oaks.
• Only bad drivers cut corners. • Owt for Nowt
• The only free cheese is in the o Northern English,
mouse trap. Anything for nothing...
o Russian saying.
• Only losers say "Winning isn't
everything."
[edit] P
• The only stupid question is the
one that is not asked. • Paddle your own canoe.
• Only the good die young • Pain is only weakness leaving the
• The only thing you get from body.
o U.S. Marines proverb
picking bottoms (ie. of the stock
market) is a smelly finger. • The pain o the little finger is felt
• Opinions are like assholes: by the entire body.
everyone has them and they • A paragraph should be like a
usually stink. lady's skirt: long enough to cover
• Opportunity knocks only once. the essentials but short enough to
o Meaning: Do not waste keep it interesting.
time while grabbing • A Pasoly in the eye is worth
opportunities. several in the shins.
o A good shot is worth
• Opportunity is waiting, you need
but to open the door. many bad ones
• An ounce of discretion is worth a • Patience is a virtue.
pound of wit. • Peace Sells, but who's Buying?
<Megadeth>
• The pen is mightier than the Prudentum, 1651,
sword. number 196
• A penny earned is a penny lost; a o Meaning: Don't criticize
penny shared is a penny well- other people when you
spent. yourself have faults and
• A penny saved is a penny earned. weaknesses.
o Attributed to Benjamin • Perfect Planning Prevents Piss
Franklin, Poor Richard's Poor Performance. (a.k.a The six
Almanac, but actually P's)
17th c. English • Persistence becomes Reality.
• A penny spent is a penny earned. • "A person who laughs may not
o In contrast to spending on be happy, but he's hide the
the poor people. sadness in his heart". (Al
o Interpretation: keynesian Sagheer, Suhail)
alteration of Ben • A picture is worth a thousand
Franklin's original saying words.
["A penny saved is a o An instant sight may save
penny earned"]. The a thousand words.
concentration on o A snap of sight may
spending rather than describe much more than
saving promotes the a thousand words.
contemporary keynesian • A pint of plain is yer only man.
economic theory of • The pitcher which goes too often
putting money back into to the well gets broken.
the economy (rather than • Please don’t retouch my
hoarding it) to create wrinkles. It took me so long to
more wealth. earn them.
• Penny wise, pound foolish. • POETIS MENTIRI LICET. -
Latin for "Poets are allowed to
• People who live in glass houses lie." Has to do with rhetoric
shouldn't throw stones. (hyperbole) and poetic and/or
o Variation: Whose house litarary license.
is of glasse, must not o Meaning: You need to
throw stones at another. make the initial step if
 George Herbert, you are ever to complete
Outlandish a task.
Proverbs, 1640; • Politeness cost nothing and gains
cited in "Proverbs everything. <M.W. Montagu>
120". The Yale • Politics makes strange
Book of bedfellows.
Quotations. 2006. • A poor man does not learn from
pp. p. 613. ISBN his mistakes. A good man does
0-300-10798- learn from his mistakes. A wise
6.*** George man learns from the mistakes of
Herbert, Jacula others.
o Bryan Strain
• Power tends to corrupt; absolute Origin-宁为太平犬,莫为乱世
power corrupts absolutely. 人
o Attributed to Lord Acton o Rather be a dog in a
• Practice before you preach. peaceful land, instead of
o Meaning: Before asking being a man in a land of
others to do something, war.
make sure you are • Reality is not only stranger than
following it yourself. we imagine, it is stranger than we
• Practice make man perfect. can imagine.
• Prevention is better than cure. • Reality is often stranger than
o Variation: An ounce of fiction
prevention is worth a • Repetition is the mother of
pound of cure. memory.
• Pride comes before a fall o Latin: REPETITIO
• Prior preparation prevents poor MATER MEMORIAE
performance. o equivalent to: Eternal
• The proof of the pudding is in the repetition is the price of
eating. knowledge.
• Procrastination is the thief of • Revenge is a dish best served
time. cold.
• Proverbs are long life • A rising tide lifts all boats
experiences, told in one short o This traditional proverb is
sentence. sometimes attributed to
• Proverbs run in pairs. John F. Kennedy because
o Meaning: Every proverb he repeated it several
seems to be contradicted times, but he disclaimed
by another proverb with originality in his address
an opposed message, such in the Assembly Hall at
as "too many cooks spoil the Paulskirche in
the broth" and "many Frankfurt, West
hands make light work." Germany, 25 June 1963:
• Put a beggar on horseback and  As they say on my
he'll ride it to death. own Cape Cod, a
• Put a beggar on horseback and rising tide lifts all
he'll ride to the devil. the boats.
• Put a cat amongst the pigeons. • The road to hell is paved with
• Put it in song, put it in drink; but good intentions.
never, ever put it in ink! o Earlier variants of this
o Reportedly said by Earl proverb are recorded as
K. Long, Governor of Hell is paved with good
Louisiana intentions. recorded as
early as 1670, and an
[edit] R even earlier variant by
Saint Bernard of
Clairvaux Hell is full of
• Rather be a dog in peace, than to
be a man in chaos.-Chinese
good intentions or gathers
desires. moss.
o Similar from Latin: "The  John
gates of hell are open Heywood,
night and day; Smooth Proverbs
the descent, and easy is (1546),
the way" — Virgil, the Part 1, Ch.
Aeneid Book VI line 126 11
• Robbing Peter to pay Paul • Rome wasn't built in a day
• A rolling stone gathers no moss. o meaning: great things
o Early versions include: take time to
 Saxum volutum build/accomplish
non obducitur • The rotten apple injures its
musco neighbors.
 A rolling • Rules were meant to be broken.
stone does
not gather [edit] S
moss.
 Publius
• Same meat, different gravy.
Syrus (var.
• Same shit, with different flies on
Publilius),
it.
Sententiae
• Same trouble, different day.
(c. 42 BC),
• Say something nice or say
Maxim
nothing at all.
524
• Seek and ye shall find.
 Musco lapis
o Christian New Testament
volutus haud
• Seek water in the sea.
obducitur.
• Self trust is the first secret of
 A rolling
success.
stone is
• Sell a man a fish, he eats for a
not
day, teach a man how to fish, you
covered
ruin a wonderful business
with moss.
opportunity.
 Desiderius
o Karl Marx
Erasmus,
• Set a thief to catch a thief.
Adagia
• Shallow graves for shallow
(1500–
people.
1536), III,
• Ships happen. -Navy saying.
iv
• Shit or get off the pot
 The rollyng ſtone
• silence is golden
neuer gathereth
o Meaning: sometimes it is
moſſse.
 The rolling
better not to say anything.
stone • Simple minds think alike.
never (William Truong)
o Simple things o or The squeaky wheel
please/amuse simple gets replaced.
minds. o If you speak up, you will
o Alternative: Simple go farther in life.
minds, simple pleasures. o Those who complain, will
• Six of one, and half a dozen the attract more attention (for
other. good or ill) than those
o Meaning: Describes two who are content.
actions with the same • The start of a journey should
result, or two things that never be mistaken for success.
are essentially the same. • S tart small; T hink tall; R each
• Slow and steady wins the race. over the wall; I nvest your all; V
o Variant: Slow but sure. isualize the mall; E xpect you
• Smile, and the world smiles with may fall; but, if you fall, that's
you; cry, and you cry alone. not all; get up and STRIVE
• So close, yet so far. again.
• Some days you get the bear, o Dr. Robert Schuller
other days the bear gets you. • Sticks and stones may break my
• Someone who gossips to you will bones but words will never hurt
gossip about you. me.
• Something is better than nothing. o Contrast: "A blow with a
• Something worth doing is worth word strikes deeper than a
doing well. blow with a sword."
• A son is a son 'till he gets him a • A still tongue makes a wise head.
wife; a daughter's a daughter all o From Lewis the (Black)
her life. Barber; Lake Charles,
o Interpretation: the LA; who always told
relationship between a people, "Never let the
daughter and her parents right hand know what the
is enduring; the left hand is doing; a still
relationship with a son is tongue makes a wise
attenuated after he head; still water runs
marries. deep."
• Spare the rod, spoil the child. • Still waters run deep.
o Meaning: Lack of o Possible interpretation:
deserved discipline Looks can be deceiving,
develops undesired quiet people are often the
behavior in a child. most deep.
• Speak the truth, but leave • A stitch in time saves nine.
immediately o Fix the small problem
• The spirit is willing but the flesh now before it becomes
is weak. larger and harder to fix.
o Gospel of Matthew 26:41 • Stolen fruit is the sweetest.
• The squeaky wheel gets the o Possible interpretation:
grease. forbidden things are the
most tempting
• Straightn not the dog's tail even • Talking nineteen to the dozen.
in the bamboo hollow. • That which does not kill you,
• The straw that broke the camel's makes you stronger.
back. o Friedrich Nietzsche, The
o The last of a number of Twilight of the Idols
little things which led to (1888)
something major. • The worth of a thing is what it
• Strike while the iron is hot. will bring.
o Possible interpretation: • There is luck in odd numbers.
Seize the moment. Take • The teacher has not taught, until
the opportunity now; the student has learned.
don't waste it. • There are no endings: only new
• Success grows out of struggles to beginnings.
overcome difficulties. • There are no facts; only
• Success is a journey not a interpretations of facts.
destination. • There are no small parts, only
• Sufficient unto the day is the evil small actors.
thereof. • There are so many things to say
that are better left unsaid.
• There are three types of lies -
[edit] T lies, damned lies, and statistics.
• There's a method in his madness.
• Take an old dirty, hungry,
• There is a thin line between love
mangy, sick and wet dog and
and hate
feed him and wash him and nurse
• There's always a calm before a
him back to health, and he will
storm.
never turn on you and bite you.
o or The calm before the
This is how man and dog differ.
storm.
o (Possibly Lord Byron)
• There's many a slip 'twixt cup
• Take care of the pennies and the
and lip.
pounds will take care of
o This comes from a Greek
themselves.
legend, as follows: One
• Take it with a grain of salt.
of the Argonauts returned
o Meaning: Regard it with a
from his voyage, and
copious measure
went home to his winery.
scepticism.
He called for the local
o (See Wikipedia article.)
soothsayer, who had
• Taking care of business. predicted before his
• Talk of the devil and he's sure to voyage that he would die
appear. before he tasted another
• Talk the hind legs off a donkey. drop of his wine, from his
o Possible interpretation:
vinery. As he finished
Someone who never shuts saying this, he raised a
up - often used in cup filled with wine to his
reference to London cab lips, in toast to the
drivers soothsayer, who said
• Talking a mile a minute.
something in reply. Just o Shakespeare's Hamlet
then, he was called away (Marcellus in act 1, scene
to hunt a wild boar that 4).
was approaching, and
died in his attempt to kill • A thief thinks everyone steals.
it. The phrase that the • Think before you speak.
soothsayer said is • Thinking the worst always
translated best as, There's prepares you for the worst.
many a slip 'twixt the cup • This, too, shall pass.
and the lip. • Those who live in glass houses
• There's money in muck. shouldn't throw stones.
o or Where there's muck • Those who run with pigs, smell
there's brass. like pigs.
• There's more than one way to • Time and tide wait for none.
skin a cat. • Time flies.
• There's no accounting for taste. o Latin: Tempus fugit!
o From the Latin: De • Time is gold.
gustibus non est • Tit for Tat.
disputandum. • To burn the candle at both ends.
• There's no arguing with the • To each, his own.
barrel of a gun. • To err is human; to forgive,
• There is no god except God. divine. (Pope, Essay on
• There's no peace for the wicked Criticism)
• There's no place like home. • To have the fulfilled life, you
• There is no point of knowledge must question the unanswerable
or wisdom if not dotted. and learn nothing.
• There's no point in washing clean o Meaning: you must build
things. your own opinions, but
o Meaning: Don't fix things life is too short to waste
that are fine, just the bad trying to understand life
things! • To know the road ahead ask
• There's no such thing as a free those coming back.
lunch. • To put something in a new
• There's no time like the present. jacket.
• There is only eight years between • Tomorrow is another day.
success and failure in politics. • Too many Chiefs and not enough
o Jim Brown, Louisiana Indians.
statesman o Implies that an
• There is something rotten in the organization is top-heavy,
state of Denmark. too many different
o or There's something directions to go and not
rotten in Denmark. enough ability to go along
o Expresses strong them.
suspicion. • Too many cooks spoil the broth.
• Too much of one thing, good for
nothing.
o Meaning: Don't o In a multitude of
overspecialize counselors there is more
• Trapped between a rock and a wisdom (than in few)
hard place. • Two things prolong your life: A
• Tread on a worm and it will turn. quiet heart and a loving wife.
o This Proverb is generally • Two wrongs don't make a right.
used by Persons who o Also jocularly formed
have received gross from above: Two wrongs
insults and don't make a right - but
Injuries from others three lefts make a right.
(which they have for • Two's company; three's a crowd.
some time bore with
Patience) to excuse their [edit] U
being at last transported
to some Warmth of
• An unasked question is the most
Resentment and Passion.
futile thing in the world
- Divers Proverbs,
• Unprepare to prepare, be
Nathan Bailey, 1721 [12]
prepared to be unprepared
• Trouble shared is trouble halved.
o supposedly said by
• The truth is in the wine.
W.B.Govo in 1916
o Possible interpretation: A
• Use it or lose it
person will more freely
• Use it up, wear it out, make do
divulge a secret when
with, or do without
plied with alcohol.
o Great depression era
o A drunken man's words
proverb.
are a sober man's
thoughts.
• Truth is stranger than fiction. [edit] V
• The truth shall set you free, or
The truth will set you free. • The value is determined by the
o In the Bible, John 8:32. agreement of two people.
• Truth will out. • Variety is the spice of life.
o Meaning: The truth will o An early version is found
eventually come out, no in William Cowper, The
matter how well it is Task (1785), Book II,
hidden. "The Timepiece", lines
• Try not to become a man of 606–7:
success but a man of value.  Variety's the very
• Try try but don't cry. spice of life,
o Meaning: Never give up That gives it all its
in life. flavour.
o Try and try until you • Vengeance is mine, thus saith the
suceed Lord.
• Two heads are better than one. • Virtue which parleys is near a
surrender. - Divers Proverbs,
Nathan Bailey, 1721 [13]
• Vision without action is a ocean,but the ocean would be
daydream. Action without vision less without that drop.
is a nightmare. (Japanese • We tend to be perfect. That’s
proverb) why when we make mistakes we
are hard on ourselves.
[edit] W • We've qualified for the World
Cup, Go and compete.
• The weak can never forgive.
• Walk softly, carry a big stick.
Forgiveness is the attribute of the
o Variant of an African
strong.
proverb that was made
o Attributed to Mahatma
famous in the U.S. by
Gandhi
Teddy Roosevelt, "Speak
• Well begun is half done.
softly and carry a big
o Variant: Well begun is
stick; you will go far".
half ended. - Divers
• Walk the walk and talk the talk.
Proverbs, Nathan Bailey,
• Waste not, want not.
1721 [14]
• A watched pot never boils.
• "Well done" is better than "well
o Main interpretation: Time
said".
seems to pass quicker
• What a tangled web we weave,
when you aren't
when first we practice to deceive.
consciously waiting for
(A lie will always spawn a bigger
something
lie.)
o Possible interpretation:
• What goes around comes around.
Worrying over something
o You will eventually have
can make the task seem to
to face the consequences
take longer than it should.
of your actions towards
• The way to a man's heart is
others as people tend to
through his stomach.
behave towards you as
• We are all on this earth, we can't
you have behaved
get off so get on.
towards others.
• We can't always build the future
• What goes up must come down.
for our youth, but we can build
• What you see is what you get.
our youth for the future.
• What you sow is what you reap.
o By: Franklin D.
• What's good for the goose is
Roosevelt
good for the gander.
• We have nothing to fear but fear
o In marriage: the standard
itself.
that applies to the
o By: Franklin D.
husband applies also for
Roosevelt
the wife.
• We must take the bad with the
o In general: Double
good.
standards are not allowed
o Variant: We must take the
- the same standard
bitter with the sweet.
governs all.
• We ourselves feel that what we
• When a thing is done advice
are doing is just a drop in the
comes too late.
• When in Rome, do as the quoted in ancient texts, as
Romans do. follows.
• When one door closes, another o Variants and derived
door opens. paraphrases:
• When the cat is away, the mice  For cunningly of
will play. old
o Without enforcement was the celebrated
lawlessness always saying revealed:
results evil sometimes
• When the going gets tough, the seems good
tough get going. to a man whose
• When you lie on roses while mind
young, you'll lie on thorns while a god leads to
you're old. destruction.
• Where ignorance is bliss, 'tis  Sophocles,
folly to be wise. [[15]] Antigone
o Thomas Gray, "Ode on a 620-3, a
Distant Prospect of Eton play pre-
College" dating any
• Where there's a will, there's a of
way. Euripides'
• Where vice goes before, surviving
vengeance follows after. - Divers plays. An
Proverbs, Nathan Bailey, 1721 ancient
[16] commentar
• The whole dignity of man lies in y explains
the power of thought. the
o - B. Pascal passage as
• The whole is greater than its a
parts. paraphrase
of the
• Those whom the gods wish to following,
destroy they first make mad. from
o Anonymous ancient another,
proverb, often wrongly earlier
attributed to Euripides. poet.
The version here is  When a god
quoted as a "heathen plans harm
proverb" in Daniel, a against a man,
Model for Young Men he first damages
(1854) by William the mind of the
Anderson Scott. The man he is
origin of the plotting against.
misattribution to  Quoted in
Euripides is unknown. the scholia
Several variants are vetera to
Sophocles' source is a
Antigone tragic play.
620ff., These
without lines are
attribution. misattribut
The meter ed to the
(iambic much
trimeter) earlier
suggests semi-
that the mythical
source of statesman
the Lycurgus
quotation of Sparta
is a tragic in a
play. footnote of
 For whenever the recent
anger of divine editions of
spirits harms Bartlett's
someone, Familiar
it first does this: Quotation
it steals away his s and other
mind works.
and good sense,  The gods do
and turns his nothing until they
thought to have blinded the
foolishness, minds of the
so that he should wicked.
know nothing of  Variant in
his mistakes. ''Dictionar
 Attributed y of
to "some Quotation
of the old s
poets" by (Classical)
Lycurgus (1906),
of Athens compiled
in his by Thomas
Oratio In Benfield
Leocratem Harbottle,
[Oration p. 433.
Against  Whom Fortune
Leocrates] wishes to destroy
, section she first makes
92. Again, mad.
the meter  Publilius
suggests Syrus,
that the
Maxim Menander'
911 s play The
 The devil when Double
he purports any Deceiver
evil against man, via Plautus
first perverts his (Bacchide
mind. s 816-7).
 As quoted  quem (or quos)
by Deus perdere
Athenagor vult, dementat
as of prius.
Athens  "Whom
[citation needed]
God
 quem Iuppiter wishes to
vult perdere, destroy, he
dementat prius. first sends
 "Whom mad." -- A
Jupiter Christianis
wishes to ed version
destroy, he of the
first sends above.
mad"; neo-  Whom the gods
Latin would destroy,
version. they first make
"A maxim mad.
of obscure  This
origin variant is
which may spoken by
have been Prometheu
invented in s, in The
Cambridge Masque of
about Pandora
1640" -- (1875) by
Taylor, Henry
The Wadswort
Proverb h
(1931). Longfello
Probably a w
variant of  Those whom the
the line gods would
"He whom destroy, they
the gods first make mad.
love dies  As quoted
young", in George
derived Fox
from Interprete
d: The changed in many English
Religion, versions from the 20th
Revelation and 21st centuries that
s, Motives start with the proverb's
and first half (through "they")
Mission of and then end with a
George phrase that replaces "first
Fox (1881) make mad" or "make
by Thomas mad." Such versions can
Ellwood be found at Internet
Longshore search engines by using
, p. 154 either of the two keyword
 Those whom phrases that are on Page 2
God wishes to and Page 4 of the
destroy, he first webpage "Pick any
makes mad. Wrong Card." The rest of
 As quoted that webpage is
in frameworks that induce a
Bartlett's reader to compose new
Familiar variations on this proverb.
Quotation
s 16th • Whom thy care to tamper pots in
edition an abandoned house
(1992) • Willful waste makes woeful
 Nor do the gods want.
appear in warrior's • Winners don't quit, thats why
armour clad they win.
To strike them • Winners never quit and quitters
down with sword never win.
and spear • Winning is earning. Losing is
Those whom they learning.
would destroy • Winning isn't everything... It's
They first make the only thing.
mad. • The wish is father to the thought.
 Bhartṛhari, • A woman is like a cup of tea;
7th c. AD; you'll never know how strong she
as quoted is until she boils
in John o Meaning: Never
Brough,Po underestimate people;
ems from they could be stronger
the than you think
Sanskrit, o Possible interpretation:
(1968), p, Don't pester your wife too
67 often, unless you want
o Modern derivatives: her to never cook for you
The proverb's meaning is again.
• A woman's work is never done. [edit] See also
o From a folk rhyme - "A
man may work from sun
• American proverbs
to sun, but woman's work
• Scottish proverbs
is never done", meaning
that a man's traditional
role as breadwinner may [edit] Notes and
keep him occupied from references
sun-up to sundown, but
the traditional roles of a
1. ↑ The original is spoken by
woman demand even
Caesar (Act II scene 2). The
longer hours of work.
actual words as written were:
• Women need men like a fish
'Cowards die many times before
needs a bicycle.
their deaths; The valiant never
• A word spoken is past recalling.
taste of death but once.'
o Alternative: What's done
Complete text at
is done (so think before
http://www.william-
doing).
shakespeare.info/act2-script-text-
o Interpretation: Once you
julius-caesar.htm
say something hurtful,
2. ↑ The meaning is clear from the
provocative, etc., you
original text. Caesar is
can't take it back.
conversing with Calpurnia, who
• Words uttered only causes
warns him to be careful, as there
confusion. Words written only
are portents of his death; but he
causes history.
resolves to go about his business
• Working hard or hardly working?
as normal, explaining with this
• The world is your oyster.
phrase.
• Worship the Creator not His
3. ↑ From "Encyclopedia of Word
creation.
and Phrase Origins" by Robert
• The worst good day is always
Hendrickson (Facts on File, New
better than the best bad day.
York, 1997): Dow "coined these
• The worst way to miss someone
words while condemning other
is to be sitting right beside them
preachers who 'make the Bible
knowing you can't have them.
clash and contradict itself, by
• Write injuries in the sand,
preaching somewhat like this:
kindnesses in marble.
'You can and you can't - You
shall and you shan't - You will
[edit] Y and you won't - And you will be
damned if you do - And you will
• You can lead a horse to water but be damned if you don't.'"
you can't make it drink. 4. ↑ "Therefore all things
• You reap what you sow. whatsoever ye would that men
• The younger brother the better should do to you, do ye even so
gentleman. to them: for this is the law and
o Divers Proverbs, Nathan the prophets" in the King James
Bailey, 1721 [17] version; "So in everything, do to
others what you would have Search
them do to you, for this sums up
the Law and the Prophets." in the
New International Version

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