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English Proverbs (1501-1600)

Perfection can't be expected in this world.

Dally not with money or women.

Stretching and yawning leads to bed.

A small hurt in the eye is a great one.

Face to face the truth comes out.

The money you refuse will never do you good.

Action and reaction are equal.

It is a hard winter when one wolf eats another.

Stretch your legs according to your coverlet.

Slight impressions soon fade.

Rule youth well, for age will rule itself.

If the farmer fails all will starve.

He has ill neighbors that is fain to praise himself.

Let no woman's painting breed your heart's fainting.

Beauty may have fair leaves, yet bitter fruit.

The fairest silk is soonest stained.

Sloth makes all things difficult, but industry all things easy.

Leaves have their time to fall.

Men's years and their faults are always
more than they are willing to own.

Experience is the father of wisdom,
and memory the mother.

Money answers all things.

All the world goes by fair speech.

Health and money go far.

The tide never goes out so far
but it always comes in again.

He that ventures too far, loses all.

They are rich who have true friends.

Better keep the devil at the door
than turn him out of the house.

Every extremity is a fault.

Love sees no faults.

Better have a dog fawn upon you than bite you.

Were there no fools, bad ware would not be sold.

More words than one go to a bargain.

The child that's born must be kept.

A man without reason is a beast in season.

Gifts make beggars bold.

A man's best fortune, or his worst, is his wife.

Those that eat black pudding will dream of the devil.

It is a blind man's question to ask why
those things are loved which are beautiful.

Covetousness is always filling a bottomless vessel.

An evil conscience breaks many a man's neck.

A bolt lost is not a bow broken.

Bare words buy no barley.

Who sees you by day will not seek you by night.

All men can't be first.

A little man may cast a great shadow.

A wise man changes his mind, a fool never will.

It is a hard winter when dogs eat dogs.

Call a spade a spade.

He who feels the benefit should feel the burden.

The devil is dead.

A man has many enemies when his back is to the wall.

Disgraces are like cherries, one draws another.

Of sufferance comes ease.

The greatest wealth is contentment with a little.

Who tells a lie to save his credit, wipes his nose
on his sleeve to save his napkin.

Time cures all things.

Wit without wisdom cuts other men's meat and its own fingers.

Experience is sometimes dangerous.

Who is wise in the day can be no fool in the night.

Experience keeps a dear school,
but fools will learn in no other.

The wise man is deceived but once, the fool twice.

There's danger in delay.

He begins to die that quits his desires.

Needs must go when the devil drives.

Half an hour is soon lost at dinner.

A generous confession disarms slander.

Every commodity has its discommodity.

Fine fruit will have flies about it.

They brag most that can do least.

That which a fool does at last,
a wise man does at first.

One pair of ears draws dry a hundred tongues.

A fool will laugh when he is drowning.

Use makes everything easy.

Lose a leg rather than life.

Better hazard once than be always in fear.

He that is angry is not at ease.

Big fish eat little fish.

All mouths must be fed.

Chickens feed capons.

He that does what he should not,
shall feel what he would not.

He that shoots always aright forfeits his arrow.

A man never surfeits of too much honesty.

Sickness is felt, but health not at all.

A burden of one's own choice is not felt.

There's no fence against a flail.

As you begin the year, so you'll end it.

Well thrives that well endures.

Much power makes many enemies.

The best defense is offense.

A courtesy much entreated is half recompensed.

Eternal vigilance is the price of travel.

Evil name is evil fame.

One's too few, three too many.

The fewer his years, the fewer his tears.

Bear with evil and expect good.

A fool may sometimes give a wise man counsel.

He that has a fellow ruler, has an overruler.

A good friend never offends.

All things may be suffered saving wealth.

The fairest looking shoe may pinch the foot.

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