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List of proverbial phrases

Below is an alphabetical list of widely used and repeated proverbial phrases. If known, their origins are noted.

A proverbial phrase or expression is a type of conventional saying similar to a proverb and transmitted by oral tradition. The difference is that a proverb is a fixed expression, while a proverbial phrase permits alterations to fit the grammar of the context.

In 1768, John Ray defined a proverbial phrase as:

A

B

C

  • Calm seas never made a good sailor
  • Careless talk costs lives
  • Cheese, wine, and friends must be old to be good.
  • Civility costs nothing and buys everything (Mary Wortley Montagu)
  • Coffee and love taste best when hot (Ethiopian proverb)
  • Comparisons are odious
  • Courage is the measure of a Man, Beauty is the measure of a Woman
  • Cowards may die many times before their death
  • Cream rises to the top
  • Criss-cross, applesauce
  • Cross the stream where it is shallowest
  • Cut the head off the snake (see Lernaean Hydra myth)
  • Curiosity killed the cat

D

E

  • (Benjamin Franklin (1706–1790), polymath and Founding Father of the United States)
  • East, west, home is best
  • Easy, times easy, is still easy
  • Early marriage, earlier pregnant
  • Eat breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince and dinner like a pauper
  • Even a worm will turn
  • Even from a foe a man may learn wisdom
  • Every cloud has a silver lining
  • ()
  • Every picture tells a story
  • Every stick has two ends
  • Everybody wants to go to heaven but nobody wants to die
  • Every tide has its ebb

F

G

H

  • Hard cases make bad law
  • Hard work never did anyone any harm
  • He that goes a-borrowing, goes a-sorrowing
  • He who can, does; he who cannot, teaches
  • He who lives by the sword, dies by the sword
  • He who loves the world as his body may be entrusted with the empire – Laozi, Chinese philosopher (604 BC – c. 531 BC)
  • He who makes a beast out of himself gets rid of the pain of being a man
  • He who knows does not speak. He who speaks does not know – Laozi, Chinese philosopher (604 BC – c. 531 BC)
  • ; – William Congreve, The Mourning Bride, Act III scene viii
  • Hope for the best, and prepare for the worst
  • How long is a piece of string?
  • Hunger never knows the taste, sleep never knows the comfort

I

  • (Also referred to as Murphy's law)
  • If a job is worth doing, it is worth doing well
  • If God had meant us to fly, he would have given us wings
  • If ifs and ands were pots and pans, there would be no work for tinkers
  • If ifs and buts were candies and nuts, we'd all have a merry Christmas
  • If it were not for hope the heart would break
  • If it were a snake, it would have bit you
  • If wealth is lost, nothing is lost. If health is lost, something is lost. If character is lost, everything is lost
  • If wishes were horses, beggars would ride
  • If you're growing in age, then you're nearing to the graveyard
  • If you can't be good, be careful
  • If you can't live longer, live deeper
  • If you can't run with the horses, get off the track
  • If you give a mouse a cookie, he'll always ask for a glass of milk
  • If you think that you know everything, then you're a Jack ass
  • (James Sandford, The Garden of Pleasure)
  • If you , you will get burned
  • If you steal from one author, it is plagiarism; if you steal from many, it is research (Wilson Mizner (1876–1933), American writer and entrepreneur)
  • If you have never seen the bottom of the tree, you cannot know how tall it stands
  • If you must dance with the Devil, you might as well know his favorite song (H. Anthony Ribadeneira)
  • If you've got it, flaunt it
  • Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery
  • (March comes) in like a lion, (and goes) out like a lamb
  • In the midst of life, we are in death
  • Into every life a little rain must fall
  • It's the little things
  • It ain't over till/until it's over
  • It ain't over till the fat lady sings
  • It ain't what you don't know that gets you into trouble. It's what you know for sure that just ain't so
  • It is best to be on the safe side
  • It is better to be smarter than you appear than to appear smarter than you are
  • It is better to give than to receive
  • It is better to cultivate a Land with two Bulls, rather working under Boss who never gives Wage when asked
  • It is better to travel hopefully than to arrive
  • It is easy to be wise after the event
  • It's Greek to me
  • It is like juggling sand (Ian Murray)
  • It is never too late
  • It is not enough to learn how to ride, you must also learn how to fall
  • It is the empty can that makes the most noise
  • It needs a hundred lies to cover a single lie
  • It takes a thief to catch a thief
  • It takes a whole village to raise a child
  • It takes two to tango
  • I'm going to have to give you the pink slip
  • It will come back and haunt you
  • It will be the same a hundred years hence
  • Islands depend on reeds, just as reeds depend on islands (Myanmar proverbs)

J

K

L

M

  • Make love not war
  • Man does not live by bread alone
  • Man proposes, heaven disposes
  • Man thinks, God laughs
  • Many a little makes a mickle
  • Many a true word is spoken in jest
  • March comes in like a lion and goes out like a lamb
  • Marriages are made in heaven
  • Memory is the treasure of the mind
  • Men are blind in their own cause – Heywood Broun (1888–1939), American journalist
  • Men get spoiled by staying, women get spoiled by wandering
  • Might is right
  • Might makes right
  • Milking the bull
  • Moderation in all things
  • Monday's child is fair of face, Tuesday's child is full of grace, Wednesday's child is full of woe, Thursday's child has far to go, Friday's child is loving and giving, Saturday's child works hard for its living, and a child that is born on the Sabbath day is fair and wise and good and gay
  • Money earned by deceit, goes by deceit
  • Money is not everything
  • Money demands care, you abuse it and it disappears – Rashida Costa
  • Money makes the world go around
  • Money makes many things, but also makes devil dance
  • More haste, less speed
  • Mud sticks
  • Music has charms to soothe the savage beast

N

O

  • Old sins cast long shadows.
  • Old soldiers never die, (they simply/just fade away). From a Great War soldiers' song; the phrase was most notably referred to by U.S. General Douglas MacArthur (1880–1964) in his farewell address to the Congress.
  • Once a(n) _, always a(n) _
  • One half of the world does not know how the other half lives
  • One hand washes the other
  • One kind word can warm three winter months
  • One might as well throw water into the sea as to do a kindness to rogues
  • One law for the rich and another for the poor
  • One who hates gifts shall live
  • Opportunity does not knock until you build a door
  • One who believes in Sword, dies by the Sword
  • One who speaks only one language is one person, but one who speaks two languages is two people. Turkish Proverb
  • One year's seeding makes seven years weeding
  • Open confession is good for the soul.

P

R

S

T

U

  • United we stand, divided we fall
  • Until the lions have their historians, tales of the hunt shall always glorify the hunter (African Proverb)
  • Use it or lose it
  • Ugly is as ugly does
  • United we bargain; divided we beg
  • Unity is strength

V

  • Variety is the spice of life. William Cowper, English poet (1731–1800)
  • Virtue is its own reward

W

  • Walls have ears
  • Walnuts and pears you plant for your heirs
  • Waste not, want not
  • Well begun is half done
  • What does not kill me makes me stronger
  • Well done is better than well said
  • What cannot be cured must be endured
  • What goes around, comes around
  • What goes up must come down
  • What you lose on the swings you gain on the roundabouts
  • What is sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander
  • What is the worst that can happen?
  • What the eye does not see (the heart does not grieve over)
  • When in Rome, (do as the Romans do). St. Ambrose, 347 AD
  • Whatever floats your boat
  • When it rains it pours
  • When life gives you lemons, make lemonade
  • When the cat is away, the mice will play
  • When the going gets tough, the tough get going
  • When the oak is before the ash, then you will only get a splash; when the ash is before the oak, then you may expect a soak
  • When you have seen one, you have seen them all
  • What is learnt in the cradle lasts to the tombs
  • What the eye does not see, the heart does not grieve over
  • Where there is a will there is a way
  • Where there is muck there is brass
  • Where there is life there is hope
  • Whether you think you can, or you think you can't, you're right
  • While there is life there is hope
  • Who will bell the cat?
  • Whom the Gods love die young
  • Why keep a dog and bark yourself?
  • With great power comes great responsibility (often attributed to Marvel Comics superhero Spider-Man)
  • Woe to the vanquished
  • Woman is the root of both good and evil
  • Wonders will never cease
  • Work expands so as to fill the time available
  • Worrying never did anyone any good

Y

  • You are never too old to learn
  • You are what you eat
  • You can have too much of a good thing
  • You can lead a horse to water, but you cannot make it drink
  • You can never/never can tell
  • You cannot always get what you want
  • You cannot burn a candle at both ends.
  • You cannot have your cake and eat it too
  • You cannot make a silk purse from a sow's ear
  • You cannot make an omelette without breaking eggs
  • You cannot make bricks without straw
  • You cannot push a rope
  • You cannot run with the hare and hunt with the hounds
  • (You cannot) teach an old dog new tricks
  • You cannot unscramble eggs
  • You cannot win them all
  • You catch more flies with honey than with vinegar
  • You either die a hero or live long enough to see yourself become the villain
  • You pay your money and you take your choice
  • Youth is wasted on the young
  • You may/might as well be hanged/hung for a sheep as (for) a lamb
  • You must have rocks in your head
  • You scratch my back and I will scratch yours
  • You only live once.
  • You'll never get if you never go
  • You're never fully dressed without a smile
  • You've got to separate the wheat from the chaff
  • You've made your bed and you must lie in/on it

Z

  • Zeal without knowledge is fire without light

See also

Notes

References

External links

  • , list of proverbs, idioms and quotes