- Better a little fire to warm us, than a great one to burn us.
- Better an egg today than a hen tomorrow.
- Better an open enemy than a false friend.
- Better be alone than in bad company.
- Better be born lucky than rich.
- Better be envied than pitied.
- Better be the head of a dog than the tail of a lion.
- Better deny at once than promise long.
- Better die standing than live kneeling.
- Better early than late.
- Better give a shilling than lend a half-crown.
- Better go to bed supperless than rise in debt.
- Better late than never.
- Better lose a jest than a friend.
- Better one-eyed than stone-blind.
- Better the devil you know than the devil you don't.
- Better the foot slip than the tongue.
- Better to do well than to say well.
- Better to reign in hell, than serve in heaven.
- Better unborn than untaught.
- Better untaught than ill-taught.
- Between the cup and the lip a morsel may slip.
- Between the devil and the deep (blue) sea.
- Between two evils 'tis not worth choosing.
- Between two stools one goes (falls) to the ground.
- Between the upper and nether millstone.
- Betwixt and between.
- Beware of a silent dog and still water.
- Bind the sack before it be full.
- Birds of a feather flock together.
- Blind men can judge no colours.
- Blood is thicker than water.
- Borrowed garments never fit well.
- Brevity is the soul of wit.
- Burn not your house to rid it of the mouse.
- Business before pleasure.
- By doing nothing we learn to do ill.
- By hook or by crook.
- By the street of 'by-and-bye' one arrives at the house of 'Never'.
- Calamity is man's true touchstone.
- Care killed the cat.
- Catch the bear before you sell his skin.
- Caution is the parent of safety.
- Charity begins at home.
- Cheapest is the dearest.
- Cheek brings success.
- Children and fools must not play with edged tools.
- Children are poor men's riches.
- Choose an author as you choose a friend.
- Christmas comes but once a year, (but when it comes it brings good cheer).
- Circumstances alter cases.
- Claw me, and I will claw thee.
- Cleanliness is next to godliness.
- Company in distress makes trouble less.
- Confession is the first step to repentance.
- Counsel is no command.
- Creditors have better memories than debtors.
- Cross the stream where it is shallowest.
- Crows do not pick crow's eyes.
- Curiosity killed a cat.
- Curses like chickens come home to roost.
- Custom is a second nature.
- Custom is the plague of wise men and the idol of fools.
- Cut your coat according to your cloth.
- Death is the grand leveller.
- Death pays all debts.
- Death when it comes will have no denial.
- Debt is the worst poverty.
- Deeds, not words.
- Delays are dangerous.
- Desperate diseases must have desperate remedies.
- Diligence is the mother of success (good luck).
- Diseases are the interests of pleasures.
- Divide and rule.
- Do as you would be done by.
- Dog does not eat dog.
- Dog eats dog.
- Dogs that put up many hares kill none.
- Doing is better than saying.
- Don't count your chickens before they are hatched.
- Don't cross the bridges before you come to them.
- Don't have thy cloak to make when it begins to rain.
- Don't keep a dog and bark yourself.
- Don't look a gift horse in the mouth.
- Don't put all your eggs in one basket.
- Don't sell the bear's skin before you've caught it.
- Don't trouble trouble until trouble troubles you.
- Don't whistle (halloo) until you are out of the wood.
- Dot your i's and cross your t's.
- Draw not your bow till your arrow is fixed.
- Drive the nail that will go.
- Drunken days have all their tomorrow.
- Drunkenness reveals what soberness conceals.
- Dumb dogs are dangerous.
- Each bird loves to hear himself sing.
- Early to bed and early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise.
- Easier said than done.
- East or West ? home is best.
- Easy come, easy go.
- Eat at pleasure, drink with measure.
- Empty vessels make the greatest (the most) sound.
- Enough is as good as a feast.
- Envy shoots at others and wounds herself.
- Even reckoning makes long friends.
- Every ass loves to hear himself bray.
- Every barber knows that.
- Every bean has its black.
- Every bird likes its own nest.
- Every bullet has its billet.
- Every country has its customs.
- Every dark cloud has a silver lining.
- Every day is not Sunday.
- Every dog has his day.
- Every dog is a lion at home.
- Every dog is valiant at his own door.
- Every Jack has his Jill.
- Every man has a fool in his sleeve.
- Every man has his faults.
- Every man has his hobby-horse.
- Every man is the architect of his own fortunes.
- Every man to his taste.
- Every miller draws water to his own mill.
- Every mother thinks her own gosling a swan.
- Every one's faults are not written in their foreheads.
- Every tub must stand on its own bottom.
- Every white has its black, and every sweet its sour.
- Every why has a wherefore.
- Everybody's business is nobody's business.
- Everything comes to him who waits.
- Everything is good in its season.
- Evil communications corrupt good manners.
- Experience is the mother of wisdom.
- Experience keeps a dear school, but fools learn in no other.
- Experience keeps no school, she teaches her pupils singly.
- Extremes meet.
- Facts are stubborn things.
- Faint heart never won fair lady.
- Fair without, foul (false) within.
- Fair words break no bones.
- False friends are worse than open enemies.
- Familiarity breeds contempt.
- Far from eye, far from heart.
- Fasting comes after feasting.
- Faults are thick where love is thin.
- Feast today and fast tomorrow.
- Fine feathers make fine birds.
- Fine words butter no parsnips.
- First catch your hare.
- First come, first served.
- First deserve and then desire.
- First think, then speak.
- Fish and company stink in three days.
- Fish begins to stink at the head.
- Follow the river and you'll get to the sea.
- Fool's haste is no speed.
- Fools and madmen speak the truth.
- Fools grow without watering.
- Fools may sometimes speak to the purpose.
- Fools never know when they are well.
- Fools rush in where angels fear to tread.
- For the love of the game.
- Forbearance is no acquittance.
- Forbidden fruit is sweet.
- Forewarned is forearmed.
- Fortune favours the brave (the bold).
- Fortune is easily found, but hard to be kept.
- Four eyes see more (better) than two.
- Friends are thieves of time.
- From bad to worse.
- From pillar to post.
- Gentility without ability is worse than plain beggary.
- Get a name to rise early, and you may lie all day.
- Gifts from enemies are dangerous.
- Give a fool rope enough, and he will hang himself.
- Give every man thy ear, but few thy voice.
- Give him an inch and he'll take an ell.
- Give never the wolf the wether to keep.
- Gluttony kills more men than the sword.
- Go to bed with the lamb and rise with the lark.
- Good clothes open all doors.
- Good counsel does no harm.
- Good health is above wealth.
- Good masters make good servants.
- Good words and no deeds.
- Good words without deeds are rushes and reeds.
- Gossiping and lying go hand in hand.
- Grasp all, lose all.
- Great barkers are no biters.
- Great boast, small roast.
- Great cry and little wool.
- Great spenders are bad lenders.
- Great talkers are great liars.
- Great talkers are little doers.
- Greedy folk have long arms.
- Habit cures habit.
- Half a loaf is better than no bread.
- "Hamlet" without the Prince of Denmark .
- Handsome is that handsome does.
- Happiness takes no account of time.
- Happy is he that is happy in his children.
- Hard words break no bones.
- Hares may pull dead lions by the beard.
- Harm watch, harm catch.
- Haste makes waste.
- Hasty climbers have sudden falls.
- Hate not at the first harm.
- Hatred is blind, as well as love.
- Hawks will not pick hawks' eyes.
- He begins to die that quits his desires.
- He cannot speak well that cannot hold his tongue.
- He carries fire in one hand and water in the other.
- He dances well to whom fortune pipes.
- He gives twice who gives in a trice.
- He goes long barefoot that waits for dead man's shoes.
- He is a fool that forgets himself.
- He is a good friend that speaks well of us behind our backs.
- He is happy that thinks himself so.
- He is lifeless that is faultless.
- He is not fit to command others that cannot command himself.
- He is not laughed at that laughs at himself first.
- He is not poor that has little, but he that desires much.
- He jests at scars that never felt a wound.
- He knows best what good is that has endured evil.
- He knows how many beans make five.
- He knows much who knows how to hold his tongue.
- He laughs best who laughs last.
- He lives long that lives well.
- He must needs swim that is held up by the chin.
- He should have a long spoon that sups with the devil.
- He smells best that smells of nothing.
- He that comes first to the hill may sit where he will.
- He that commits a fault thinks everyone speaks of it.
- He that does you an i!i turn will never forgive you.
- He that fears every bush must never go a-birding.
- He that fears you present wiil hate you absent.
- He that goes a borrowing, goes a sorrowing.
- He that goes barefoot must not plant thorns.
- He that has a full purse never wanted a friend.
- He that has a great nose thinks everybody is speaking of it.
- He that has an ill name is half hanged.
- He that has no children knows not what love is.
- He that has He head needs no hat.
- He that has no money needs no purse.
- He that is born to be hanged shall never be drowned.
- He that is full of himself is very empty.
- He that is ill to himself will be good to nobody.
- He that is warm thinks all so.
- He that knows nothing doubts nothing.
- He that lies down with dogs must rise up with fleas.
- He that lives with cripples learns to limp.
- He that mischief hatches, mischief catches.
- He that never climbed never fell.
- He that once deceives is ever suspected.
- He that promises too much means nothing.
- He that respects not is not respected.
- He that seeks trouble never misses.
- He that serves everybody is paid by nobody.
- He that serves God for money will serve the devil for better wages.
- He that spares the bad injures the good.
- He that talks much errs much.
- He that talks much lies much.
- He that will eat the kernel must crack the nut.
- He that will not when he may, when he will he shall have nay.
- He that will steal an egg will steal an ox.
- He that will thrive, must rise at five.
- He that would eat the fruit must climb the tree.
- He that would have eggs must endure the cackling of hens.
- He who is born a fool is never cured.
- He who hesitates is lost.
- He who likes borrowing dislikes paying.
- He who makes no mistakes, makes nothing.
- He who pleased everybody died before he was born.
- He who says what he likes, shall hear what he doesn't like.
- He who would catch fish must not mind getting wet.
- He who would eat the nut must first crack the shell.
- He who would search for pearls must dive below.
- He will never set the Thames on fire.
- He works best who knows his trade.
- Head cook and bottle-washer.
- Health is not valued till sickness comes.
- His money burns a hole in his pocket.
- Honesty is the best policy.
- Honey is not for the ass's mouth.
- Honey is sweet, but the bee stings.
- Honour and profit lie not in one sack.
- Honours change manners.
- Hope is a good breakfast, but a bad supper.
- Hope is the poor man's bread.
- Hunger breaks stone walls.
- Hunger finds no fault with cookery.
- Hunger is the best sauce.
- Hungry bellies have no ears.
- Idle folks lack no excuses.
- Idleness is the mother of all evil.
- Idleness rusts the mind.
- If an ass (donkey) bray at you, don't bray at him.
- If ifs and ans were pots and pans...
- If my aunt had been a man, she'd have been my uncle.
- If the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into the ditch.
- If the sky falls, we shall catch larks.
"Four things support the world: the learning of the wise, the justice of the great, the prayers of the good, and the valor of the brave."