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English Proverbs (1601-1700)

Take all, pay all.

Swearing never catches fish.

A little labor, much health.

An old ox will find a shelter for himself.

God finds good.

Love of lads and fire of chips is soon in and soon out.

Marry first and love will follow.

Never tell your foe that your foot aches.

A full purse makes the mouth run over.

Change of pasture makes fat calves.

First born, first fed.

What God made, he never mars.

An honest man's word is as good as his bond.

A good husband makes a good wife.

One grain fills not a sack, but helps his fellows.

Let patience grow in your garden.

Necessity is a hard dart.

Nothing is impossible to a willing heart.

She that is born a beauty is half married.

There are more ways to kill a dog than hanging.

It is hard to pay and pray too.

Soft words are hard arguments.

It is harder to use victory than to get it.

Happy is he that is happy in his children.

Sweet heart and honey bird keep no house.

No grass grows where the Turk's horse has trod

Truth is stranger than fiction.

He that lives in hope, dances without a fiddle.

A penny in pocket is a good companion.

Dogs bark more from custom than fierceness.

He that would conquer must fight.

Wedding and ill wintering tame both man and beast.

Bad words find bad acceptance.

Every thing new is fine.

So much finery, so much poverty.

A fair wife and a frontier castle breed quarrels.

It is hard to make an old dog stoop.

The first shot is worth a dozen afterward.

Speak fitly or be silent wisely.

Draw not your bow before your arrow be fixed.

In a false quarrel there is no true valor.

He that converses not, knows nothing.

He that knows when he has enough is no fool.

Friendship that flames goes out in a flash.

Jest with an ass, and he will flap
you in the face with his tail.

He may well be contented who needs neither borrow or flatter.

Adversity flatters no man.

There is flattery in friendship.

Follow love and it will flee; flee love and it will follow thee.

In fleeing from the water do not run into the fire.

Time flees away without delay.

Fat drops fall from fat flesh.

Little knows the fat sow what the lean does mean.

But the longer we live, the more we learn of commodores.

The highest flood has the lowest ebb.

A kind word is never lost.

He that loves the tree loves the branch.

Patience is a flower that grows not in every garden.

Pleasant hours fly fast.

If you must fly, fly well.

Do not make me kiss, and you will not make me sin.

Who marries for love without money
has merry nights and sorry days.

Much meat, much malady.

Venture not all you have at once.

Where God helps, nothing harms.

A man's life is filed by his foe.

Hatred with friends is succor to foes.

If you would wish the dog to follow you, feed him.

In every fault there is folly.

A good wife makes a good husband.

Lend and lose, so play fools.

By their words we know fools, and asses by their ears.

An inch in an hour is a foot a day.

An old dog bites sore.

Speak well of your friend, of your enemy say nothing.

The poor must pay for all.

One tongue is enough for a woman.

Subtlety is better than force.

No harm, no force.

Revenge a wrong by forgiving it.

Pain is forgotten where gain follows.

Every eve forms its own beauty.

Unmanned hawks forsake the lure.

He's like the master bee that leads forth the swarm.

Fair words and foul deeds cheat wise men as well as fools.

A foul morning may turn to a fair day.

No love is foul nor prison fair.

Love is not found in the market.

Of money, wit, and virtue,
believe one-fourth of what you hear.

A fool thinks himself wise.

Thought is free.

Where men are well used, they'll frequent there.

Benefits please like flowers, while they are fresh.

Many friends, no friend.

Too many friends spoil the dinner.

Even reckoning makes long friends.

Where wealth, there friends.

Neither bribe nor lose your right.

Better no ring than a ring of a rush.

Fortune can take from us nothing but what she gave us.

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