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Dutch Proverbs (201-300)

Fools are free all the world over.

If fools ate no bread, corn would be cheap.

It is good fishing in troubled waters.

Fortune lost, nothing lost; courage lost, much lost;
honor lost, more lost; soul lost, all lost.

Little fish are sweet.

More flies are caught with a spoonful of syrup
than with a cask of vinegar.

The fly flutters about the candle till at last it gets burnt.

Soon grass, soon hay.

Where there's no good within, no good comes out.

With the good we become good.

The best goods are the cheapest.

When the cat sleeps, the mice play.

Daughters may be seen but not heard.

One God, one wife, but many friends.

The goose hisses, but does not bite.

Grass grows not upon the highway.

Common goods, no goods.

The older one grows, the more one learns.

Many heads, many minds.

A daily guest is a great thief in the kitchen.

A guest, like a fish, stinks the third day.

Nothing in haste but catching fleas.

Marry in haste and repent at leisure.

Hearsay is half lies.

God sells knowledge for labor, honor for risk.

Help yourself and God will help you.

He that has a head of butter must
not come near the oven.

Hastiness is the beginning of wrath,
and its end repentance.

Everything has two handles.

It's bad combing where there is no hair.

When the head is sick the whole body is sick.

It is a grief to one beggar that another stands at the door.

A stout heart tempers adversity.

A beggar's hand is a bottomless basket.

Hares are not caught with drums.

Even hares pull a lion by the beard when he is dead.

Who gives to me, teaches me to give.

The frog will jump back into the pool
although it sits on a golden stool.

It's hard to catch hawks with empty hands.

Guessing is missing.

What has horns will gore.

Ill-matched horses draw badly.

Hens like to lay where they see an egg.

A good horse is worth his fodder.

One's own hearth is worth gold.

One can't shoe a running horse.

Black hens lay white eggs.

He buys honey dear who has to lick it off thorns.

Roast pigeons don't fly through the air.

He who would gather honey
must brave the sting of bees.

East or west, home is best.

The best horse stumbles sometimes.

Better a blind horse than an empty halter.

Where the hedge is lowest every one goes over.

After honor and state follow envy and hate.

A horse may stumble, though he has four feet.

Better poor with honor than rich with shame.

A merry host makes merry guests.

It is better to ride a good horse for a day
than an ass for the rest of your life.

A good friend is better than silver and gold.

So got, so gone.

It is hard to steal where the host is a thief.

Many hounds are the death of the hare.

The heart does not lie.

When industry goes out of the door,
poverty comes in at the window.

Idleness is hunger's mother, and of theft it is full brother.

Good hunters track narrowly.

Every house has its cross.

When the husband earns well the wife spins well.

From a spark the house is burnt.

Hunger eats through stone walls.

Old foxes are hard to catch.

Before you make a friend, eat a peck of salt with him.

He that would have the kernel
must crack the shell.

Travel east or travel west, a man's own house is still the best.

Better poor on land than rich at sea.

Better a ruined than a lost land.

It is easier to make a lady of a peasant girl
than a peasant girl of a lady.

Who knows the language is at home everywhere.

Better a leg broken than the neck.

Who knows the language is at home everywhere.

The most learned are not the wisest.

The better lawyer, the worse Christian.

God cures, and the doctor gets the money.

God helps the strongest.

Let me get over the lake, and I have no fear of the brook.

Better a ruined than a lost land.

Better poor on land than rich at sea.

Good leading makes good following.

Labor warms, sloth harms.

A liar must have a good memory.

He that would jest must take a jest,
else to let it alone were best.

Self-love is blind.

Love makes labor light.

He that hears much, hears many lies.

In the division of inheritance, friendship stands still.

Forced love does not last.

He that has the luck leads the bride to church.

A man is not known till he comes to honor.

A man without money is like a ship without sails.

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