Pages

English Proverbs (601-700)

It is bad to do evil, but worse to boast of it.

Dogs begin in jest and end in earnest.

Weapons bode peace.

When the head aches all the body is the worse.

Money will make the pot boil.

To a boiling pot flies come not.

A boisterous horse must have a rough bridle.

Fortune favors the bold.

Mischief is ever too bold.

Danger makes men bold.

Be not too bold with your betters.

The greater boasters are not the boldest men.

All fear is bondage.

The rod breaks no bones.

Like author like book.

] ❖

Choose your friends like your books, few but choice.

Cards are the devil's books.

The table robs more than the thief.

Some people are born lucky.

Everyone is not born a poet.

None is born master.

Every man is not born to be a boatswain.

Adversity is easier borne than prosperity forgot.

To borrow on usury brings sudden beggary.

A borrowed loan should come laughing home.

Better be half blind than have both eyes out.

The sun shines on both sides of the hedge.

] His bread is buttered on both sides.

A thousand pounds and a bottle of hay,
is all one at doomsday.

The love of a woman, and a bottle of wine,
are sweet for a season, but last for a time.

The dog that fetches will carry.

The earthen pot must keep clear of the brass kettle.

Every cock is brave on his own dunghill.

The bravest soldiers are the most civil to prisoners.

He is fool enough himself who will bray against another ass.

Every ass loves to hear himself bray.

All griefs with bread are less.

Every day brings its bread with it.

Half a loaf is better than no bread.

Set a beggar on horseback and he'll run his horse out of breath.

Wine wears no breeches.

Familiarity breeds contempt.

As one bakes so one may brew.

A tale twice told is cabbage twice sold.

It is good to hold the ass by the bridle,
and a scoffing fool by his wits' end.

Money refused loses its brightness.

Better spare at brim than at bottom.

Bad luck often brings good luck.

A broad hat does not always cover a venerable head.

The pitcher goes often to the well, but is broken at last.

The devil lies brooding in the miser's chest.

Many can brook the weather that love not the wind.

At length the fox is brought to the furrier.

The goat must browse where she is tired.

Who remove stones bruise their fingers.

He that wears black must hang a brush at his back.

Critics are like brushers of noblemen's clothes.

There will be rubs in the smoothest roads.

The belly robs the back.

Weak men had need be witty.

No salary without service.

Soon learned, soon forgotten.

Sooner said than done.

Two things a man should never be angry at:
what he can help, and what he cannot help.

Words are but words.

He that has but one eye sees the better for it.

If wishes were butter cakes, beggars might bite.

One may buy gold too dear.

He is eagle-eyed in other men's matters,
but as blind as a buzzard in his own.

Well is that well does.

A wicked woman and an evil
is three halfpence worse than the devil.

A gentleman will do like a gentleman.

Wit is folly unless a wise man has the keeping of it.

A wool seller knows a wool buyer.

The better workman, the worse husband.

The worth of a thing is known by its want.

Feed by measure and defy the physician.

He who will not be ruled by the rudder
must be ruled by the rock.

Sit by the good, and by the good arise.

Let bygones be bygones.

The abundance of money ruins youth.

One scabbed sheep infects a whole flock.

The escaped mouse ever feels the taste of the bait.

If you want a bird and a cage, buy the cage first.

Mathematical demonstrations can no man gainsay.

Cool words scald not the tongue.

Lose an hour in the morning
and you'll be all day hunting for it.

Call one a thief and he will steal.

The pot calls the kettle black.

In a calm sea every man is a pilot.

The calmest husbands make the stormiest wives.

Talk of camps, but stay at home.

Riches are gotten with pain,
kept with care, and lost with grief.

A quick landlord makes a careful tenant.

He who has shipped the devil,
must carry him over the water.

It is better to be a horse than a cart.

A cartwheel is a cartwheel.

Where love is in the case, the doctor is an ass.

Force without forecast is of little avail.

One's house, one's castle.

❖❖❖