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English Proverbs (1801-1900)

A forgetful head makes a weary pair of heels.

The tongue is ever turning to the aching tooth.

One love expels another.

He falls low that cannot rise again.

Ease and success are fellows.

Fiercer war, sooner peace.

He that looks not before finds himself behind.

Few are fit to be entrusted with themselves.

Birds of a feather flock together.

Counsel must be followed, not praised.

Every thing is for the best.

An empty purse frights away friends.

When the cup is fullest, then carry it most carefully.

The further off the better looked upon.

Everyone talks of what he loves.

Keep good men company and you shall be of their number.

A good lather is half the shave.

A whole bushel of wheat is made up of single grains.

Fools grow without watering.

He that died half a year ago is as dead as Adam.

Marriage and hanging go by destiny.

Content is happiness.

Soft knocks enter hard blocks.

The more you rub a cat on the rump,
the higher she sets up her tail.

Great pains quickly find ease.

A house without woman and firelight
is like a body without soul or sprite.

Play, women, and wine undo men laughing.

Jill Every Jack has his Jill.

Long jesting was never good.

Marriage is honorable but housekeeping is a shrew.

Company's good if you are going to be hanged.

A light hand makes a heavy pocket.

A candle lights others and consumes itself.

All lay the load on the willing horse.

An ill turn is soon done.

Try your skill in gilt first, and then in gold.

Girls will be girls.

If the girls won't run after the men, the men will run after them.

It is a wise child that knows its own father.

Tidings make either glad or sad.

A penny in pocket is a good companion.

A woman and a glass are ever in danger.

Fame, like a river, is narrowed
at its source and broadest afar off.

Like master, like man.

He who says what he likes shall hear what he does not like.

Little strokes fell great oaks.

A man cannot live by the air.

A day to come shows longer than a year that's gone.

Time lost we cannot win.

He that loves noise must buy a pig.

Gold is the glue, sinews, and strength of war.

You may be a wise man though you can't make a watch.

They that make laws should not break them.

He thinks not well that thinks not again.

Lose nothing for want of asking.

Good words anoint us, and ill do unjoint us.

Whom the gods love die young.

Everything goes to loose ends where there is no woman.

It is an old goose that will eat no oats.

Silence is golden.

The way to be gone is not to stay here.

Fair play is good play.

A good life will have a good end.

It is no good hen that cackles in your house
and lays in another's.

Listeners hear no good of themselves.

One good turn deserves another.

Of idleness comes no goodness.

A new friend makes the old forgotten.

A king's face should give grace.

Smooth language grates not the tongue.

No sure dungeon but the grave.

He who greases his wheels, helps his oxen.

Great occasions make great men.

It is a great journey to the world's end.

There would be no great ones, if there were no little.

Where there is honor there is no grief.

It is too late to grieve when the chance is past.

We bachelors grin, but you married
men laugh till your hearts ache.

Mills will not grind if you give them not water.

He is my friend that grinds at my mill.

God's mill grinds slow but sure.

Honor without profit is a ring on the finger.

The house next the mill carries all the grist.

A groaning horse and a groaning
wife never fail their master.

The penny is well spent that saves a groat.

He that runs may rally.

Covetousness breaks the sack.

He that will sail without danger
must never come upon the main sea.

An open door may tempt a saint.

God sends good luck and God sends bad.

A dwarf on a giant's shoulder sees farther of the two.

A good child soon learns.

That which one most anticipates, soon comes to pass.

He's a friend that speaks well behind our backs.

It takes two to make a quarrel.

Like host like guest.

It's an ill guest that never drinks to his host.

A scholar may be gulled thrice, a soldier but once.

He lives long that lives till all are weary of him.

Many a one says well that thinks ill.

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