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English Proverbs (501-600)

In the end things will mend.

Better tooth out than always ache.

Old cattle breed not.

Youth riotously led breeds a loathsome old age.

There's a scabby sheep in every flock.

Want of care admits despair.

Too much bed makes a dull head.

The dumb man gets no land.

He can ill be master that never was scholar.

To see it rain is better than to be in it.

Better to be idle than ill occupied.

Nothing is to be bought in the market without a penny.

Every mote is a beam.

Many can bear adversity, but few contempt.

A man may bear till his back break.

The most dangerous of wild beasts is a slanderer;
of tame ones a flatterer.

Friendship is not to be bought at a fair.

If you beat spice, it will smell the sweeter.

Even a child may beat a man who's bound.

Better to be beaten than be in bad company.

I will Make me a diviner and I will make you rich.

He that strikes with the sword,
shall be sticken with the scabbard.

Honor and ease are seldom bedfellows.

All things are obedient to money.

Honor will buy no beef.

He that thinks to thrive by hope may happen to beg in misery.

A young prodigal, and old beggar.

They that think no ill are soonest beguiled.

Looks are nothing-behavior is all.

He that much has, much behoves.

Poverty is not a shame,
but the being ashamed of it is.

The devil gets up to the belfry by the vicar's skirt.

Evil is soon believed.

That which is easily done is soon believed.

A fool believes everything.

A fool believes the thing he would have so.

Seeing is believing.

As the fool thinks, so the bell clinks.

As fire is kindled by bellows, so is anger by words.

Fair words fill not the belly.

Grain by grain the hen fills her belly.

Fair words fill not the belly.

He that thinks his business below him,
will always be above his business.

A beggar pays a benefit with a louse.

A bow long bent grows weak.

There is a devil in every berry of the grape.

To forget a wrong is the best revenge.

Quietness is best.

Women want the best first, and the best always.

Mine is better than ours.

The crow bewails the sheep, and then eats it.

He that bewails himself has the cure in his hands.

Without danger we cannot get beyond danger.

Let not the cobbler go beyond his last.

Wisdom goes beyond strength.

Better the feet slip than the tongue.

Good hand, good hire.

He that cheats in small things is a fool;
but in great things is a rogue.

A man is not sure of his meat till it is in his mouth.

If wishes would bide, beggars would ride,

A man that breaks his word bids others be false to him.

Little ponds never hold big fish.

He eye is bigger than his belly.

The bigger the devil, the better soldier.

The biggest horses are not the best travelers.

He that has an ill name is half hanged.

Every bullet has its billet.

Wife and children are bills of charges.

The rusty sword and empty purse
plead performance of covenants.

Willows are weak, yet they bind other wood.

Birchen twigs break no ribs.

Every bean has its black.

Truth may be blamed but cannot be shamed.

Success is never blamed.

Beauty is soon blasted.

Every man must learn once.

A good sheep bleats but little and gives much wool.

Every time the sheep bleats, it loses a mouthful.

Better one house troubled than two.

There is no hell like a troubled conscience.

Who goes to bed supperless,
all night tumbles and tosses.

Use the means, and God will give the blessing.

Hope often blinks at a fool.

A wise child is father's bliss.

Great braggers, little doers.

No man lives without a fault.

Living upon trust is the way to pay double.

A book that is shut is but a block.

While the pot boils friendship blooms.

Beauty is but a blossom.

Gray hairs are death's blossoms.

Pens may blot but they cannot blush.

He that blows in the dust fills his eyes with it.

Fools are pleased with their own blunders.

A blunt wedge will do it,
where sometimes a sharp axe will not.

Pen and ink never blush.

If the bed would tell all it knows,
it would put many to the blush.

One fool makes many.

The more acquaintance the more danger.

He that respects not is not respected.

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