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English Proverbs (401-500)

It is a poor dog that is not worth whistling for.

Words may pass, but blows fall heavy.

Assail who will, the valiant attends.

Glasses and lasses are brittle ware.

A man assaulted is half taken.

A penny at a pinch is worth a pound.

The last ounce broke the camel's back.

The first and last frosts are the worst.

For the least choice the wolf took the sheep.

Let your purse be your master.

Building and marrying of children are great wasters.

He fasts enough whose wife scolds all dinnertime.

Hot love, hasty vengeance.

Mischief has swift wings.

In time of prosperity friends will be plenty.

A man at five may be a fool at fifteen.

A fool at forty is a fool indeed.

Great strokes make not sweet music.

They live not most at ease that have the world at will.

All is not at hand that helps.

Every bird must hatch its own eggs.

Watch for the sting after your fling.

Late come, late served.

Folly grows without watering.

He whose father is judge goes safe to his trial.

The brother would rather see the sister rich than make her so.

Corn is not to be gathered in the blade but the ear.

Poets are born, but orators are made.

Business makes a man as well as tries him.

All meats to be eaten, all maids to be wed.

You can't get rats out of mice.

Things hardly attained are long retained.

The master's footsteps fatten the soil.

One mistake naturally leads to another.

Better one word in time than two afterwards.

Women laugh when they can and weep when they will.

It was surely the devil that taught
women to dance and asses to bray.

Rich men have no faults.

Wasps haunt the honeypot.

No tree bears fruit in autumn that does not blossom in the spring.

No vice like avarice.

He was wise that first gave reward.

Give losers leave to speak.

A handsaw is a good thing, but not to shave with.

Husbands are in heaven whose wives scold not.

Hell is where heaven is not.

A wavering man is like a skein of silk.

Who leaves the old way for the new,
will find himself deceived.

A stitch in time saves nine.

A knavish wit, a knavish will.

A horse will not avoid oats.

A king's favor is no inheritance.

Something has some savor,
but nothing has no flavor.

Self-preservation is the first law of nature.

No fee, no law.

In a long journey, straw weighs.

Golden dreams make men awake hungry.

New grief awakens the old.

Agues come on horseback, but go away on foot.

Take away fuel, take away flame.

Fractures well cured make us more strong.

The highest spoke in fortune's wheel may soon turn lowest.

It is a wicked world, and we make part of it.

A little house has a wide mouth.

Speak what you will , an ill man will turn it ill.

Wine and wealth change wise men's manners.

It is a wise father that knows his own child.

Fields have eyes and woods have ears.

Deeds, not words.

He that has the world at will, seems wise.

One shrew is worth two sheep.

Lay things buy, they may come to use.

We may give advice,
but we cannot give conduct.

You may play with a bull
till you get his horn in your eye.

He that does amiss may do well.

Better play a card too much than too little.

Say well is good but do well is better.

It is a great way to the bottom of the sea.

The owl thinks all her young ones beauties.

Small rain lays a great dust.

The persuasion of the fortunate sways the doubtful.

A lazy traveler makes a long journey.

Lazy folk take the most pains.

Fools are known by their babbling.

He that does anything for the public
is accounted to do it for nobody.

Too many stairs and back doors make thieves and whores.

Were there no hearers, there would be no backbiters.

Never was bad woman fair.

With all your knowledge know thyself.

Sorrow for husband is like a pain in the elbow,
sharp and short.

Dead dogs bark not.

Bare words buy no barley.

A little barrel can give but a little meal.

A barren sow was never good to pigs.

An old dog barks not in vain.

His bashful mind hinders his good intent.

Every man bastes the fat hog.

It takes two blows to make a battle.

Whoring and bawdry too often end in beggary.

A bald head is soon shaven.

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