Wise fear
Begets care. [ Proverb ]

Smell a rat. [ Cervantes ]

Dark as pitch. [ Bunyan ]

Birchen twigs
Break no ribs. [ Proverb ]

Time is money. [ Edward Bulwer-Lytton ]

Eureka! Eureka! [ Archimedes ]

The game is up. [ William Shakespeare ]

Ossa on Pelion. [ Ovid ]

Neat, not gaudy. [ Charles Lamb ]

A baker's dozen. [ Rabelais ]

Excess of delight
Palls appetite. [ Proverb ]

Deeds, not words. [ Beaumont and Fletcher ]

As sure as a gun. [ Dryden ]

Laugh and be fat. [ John Taylor ]

On his last legs. [ Thos. Middleton ]

A happy accident. [ Mme. De Stael ]

Let us do or die. [ Campbell or Burns ]

As busy as a bee. [ Lyly ]

He's a sure card. [ Dryden ]

Fitted him to a T. [ Samuel Johnson ]

At our wittes end. [ Heywood. Bread is the staff of life. [Swift ]

See and to be seen. [ Ben Jonson ]

Much of a muchness. [ Vanbrugh ]

Out and come again. [ Crabbe ]

By hooke or crooke. [ Heywood ]

No cross, no crown. [ St Paulinus ]

He that cannot pay,
Let him pray. [ Proverb ]

Spick and span new. [ -Cervantes ]

A cold April
The barn will fill. [ Proverb ]

One year a nurse,
And seven the worse. [ Proverb ]

The coast was clear. [ Michael Drayton ]

An old nought
Will never be ought. [ Proverb ]

To give and to have,
Doth a brain crave. [ Proverb ]

Linen often to water,
Soon to tatter. [ Proverb ]

Better are small fish
Than an empty dish. [ Proverb ]

Turn over a new leaf. [ Thomas Dekker ]

A cracked bell
Can never sound well. [ Proverb ]

More knave than fool. [ Cervantes ]

The more the merrier. [ Heywood ]

Fat, fair, and forty. [ Sir Walter Scott ]

God defend the right. [ William Shakespeare ]

He knew what is what. [ Skelton ]

Penny and penny
Laid up will be many. [ Proverb ]

Allwork and no play,
Makes Jack a dull boy. [ Proverb ]

The will for the deed. [ Colley Gibber ]

One foot in the grave. [ Beaumont and Fletcher ]

This peck of troubles. [ Cervantes ]

Silence gives consent. [ Fuller ]

Sometimes words
Hurt more than swords. [ Proverb ]

Diamonds cut diamonds. [ John Ford ]

It is plenty
That makes you dainty. [ Proverb ]

I have you on the hip. [ William Shakespeare ]

He that runs may read. [ Cowper ]

Better late than never. [ Dionysius ]

The fat is in the fire. [ Heywood ]

One man's breath
Is another man's death. [ Proverb ]

Snug as a bug in a rug. [ The Stratford Jubilee ]

Give the devil his due. [ Dryden ]

Patience with poverty
Is a poor man's remedy.

Oil on troubled waters. [ Bede ]

Comparisons are odious. [ Burton ]

Sudden acquaintance
Brings long repentance. [ Proverb ]

Harp not on that string. [ William Shakespeare ]

He that speaks lavishly,
Shall hear as knavishly. [ Proverb ]

Sorrow and an evil life,
Makes soon an old wife. [ Proverb ]

Too late to spare
When the bottom is bare. [ Proverb ]

Hit the nail on the head. [ Beaumont and Fletcher ]

Build castles in the air. [ Burton ]

I have other fish to fry. [ Cervantes ]

Life is short, yet sweet. [ Euripides ]

Leave a jest
When it pleases you best. [ Proverb ]

A penny for your thought. [ Swift ]

A man can never thrive
Who hath a wasteful wife. [ Proverb ]

A cat may look at a king. [ Title of a Pamphlet (published 1652) ]

Half as sober as a judge. [ Charles Lamb ]

Virtue is her own reward. [ Drydon ]

All's well that ends well. [ William Shakespeare ]

He that mischief hatcheth,
Mischief catcheth. [ Proverb ]

Facts are stubborn things. [ Smollett or Le Sage or Elliot ]

It is the farmer's care
That makes the field bare. [ Proverb ]

Living from hand to mouth. [ Du Bartas ]

Nought venter nought have. [ Heywood ]

What will Mrs. Grundy say? [ Thos. Morton ]

Of young men die many,
Of old men escape not any. [ Proverb ]

My man's as true as steel. [ William Shakespeare ]

Not lost, but gone before. [ Matthew Henry ]

Penny wise, pound foolish. [ Burton ]

Make a virtue of necessity. [ Burton ]

Matches are made in heaven. [ Burton ]

Advice whispered in the ear
Is not worth a tare. [ Proverb ]

Fortune befriends the bold. [ Dryden or Cicero ]

Brevity is the soul of wit. [ William Shakespeare ]

Not if I know myself at all. [ Charles Lamb ]

Hide their diminished heads. [ Milton ]

There's luck in odd numbers. [ Samuel Lover ]

Who will not lay up a penny,
Shall never have many. [ Proverb ]

Blood is thicker than water. [ Sir Walter Scott ]

Familiarity breeds contempt. [ Publius Syrus ]

Go West, young man! Go West. [ John L. B. Soule ]

One doth harm,
And another bears the blame. [ Proverb ]

'Tis neither here nor there. [ William Shakespeare ]

Enough is as good as a feast. [ George Chapman ]

Although the last, not least. [ William Shakespeare ]

I will die in the last ditch. [ William of Orange ]

The short and the long of It. [ William Shakespeare ]

How well I feathered my nest. [ Rabelais ]

All that glisters is not gold. [ Cervantes ]

Thy will for deed I do accept. [ Du Bartas ]

Set the cart before the horse. [ John Heywood ]

There's a time for all things. [ William Shakespeare ]

Rome was not built in one day. [ Heywood ]

Two heads are better than one. [ Heywood ]

He will give the devil his due. [ William Shakespeare ]

The better day the better deed. [ Sir John Holt ]

Two of a trade can never agree. [ Gay ]

The end must justify the means. [ Prior ]

We have here other fish to fry. [ Rabelais ]

Curses are like young chickens,
And still come home to roost! [ Bulwer-Lytton ]

Handsome is that handsome does. [ Goldsmith ]

God's mills grind slow but sure. [ Herbert ]

Plain as a nose in a man's face. [ Rabelais ]

A rolling stone gathers no moss. [ Publius Syrus ]

Let the worst come to the worst. [ Cervantes ]

An ape is never so like an ape,
As when he wears a doctor's cap. [ Proverb ]

His bark is worse than his bite. [ Herbert ]

Faint heart never won fair lady. [ Phineas Fletcher ]

The burnt child dreads the fire. [ Ben Jonson ]

What mare's nest hast thou found? [ Beaumont and Fletcher ]

Unquiet meals make ill digestion. [ William Shakespeare ]

A carpenter's known by his chips. [ Swift ]

As you sow, you are like to reap. [ Butler ]

Strike the iron whilst it is hot. [ Rabelais ]

Lord, what fools these mortals be! [ William Shakespeare ]

Fair and foolish, black and proud,
Long and lazy, little and loud. [ Proverb ]

To make a mountain of a mole-hill. [ Henry Ellis ]

So obliging that he never obliged. [ Pope ]

A bushel of March dust is a thing,
That's worth the ransom of a king. [ Proverb ]

Duties are ours; events are God's. [ Cecil ]

He that is down can fall no lower. [ Butler ]

Tall oaks from little acorns grow. [ David Everett ]

He that eats longest lives longest. [ Proverb ]

Better your room than your company. [ Simon Forman ]

Hold their noses to the grindstone. [ Tlios. Middleton ]

Put himself upon his good behavior. [ Byron ]

Better halfe a loafe than no bread. [ Camden ]

Nothing with God can be accidental. [ Henry Wadsworth Longfellow ]

When the age is in, the wit is out. [ William Shakespeare ]

There is never any cake,
But there is some of the same make. [ Proverb ]

Others set carts before the horses. [ Rabelais ]

Chance is a nickname for Providence. [ Chamfort ]

Speech is silver, silence is golden. [ Carlyle ]

She is no better than she should be. [ Henry Fielding ]

Sluggards guise,
Loth to go to bed, and loth to rise. [ Proverb ]

To the grave with the dead,
And let them that live to the bread. [ Proverb ]

You must take the will for the deed. [ Swift ]

Of two evils I have chose the least. [ Prior ]

The counsels that are given in wine,
Will do no good to you or thine. [ Proverb ]

The more haste, ever the worst speed. [ Churchill ]

The King is dead! Long live the King! [ Pardee ]

Pay what you owe,
And what you are worth you will know. [ Proverb ]

Who more than he is worth does spend,
He makes a rope his life to end. [ Proverb ]

A maid oft seen, and a gown oft worn,
Are disesteemed, and held in scorn. [ Proverb ]

The remedy is worse than the disease. [ Bacon ]

We must follow, not force Providence. [ William Shakespeare ]

'Tis nothing when you are used to it. [ Swift ]

The eyes have one language everywhere. [ Herbert ]

We'll take the good-will for the deed. [ Rabelais ]

They that touch pitch will be defiled. [ William Shakespeare ]

Better a bad excuse, than none at all. [ Camden ]

Heaven trims our lamps while we sleep. [ A. Bronson Alcott ]

I am just going to leap into the dark. [ Rabelais ]

A thousand pounds and a bottle of hay,
Is all one at Doomsday. [ Proverb ]

An ape's an ape, a varlet's a varlet,
Though they be clad in silk or scarlet. [ Proverb ]

Nothing is certain but death and taxes. [ Benjamin Franklin ]

God tempers the wind to the shorn lamb. [ Laurence Sterne ]

Be always as merry as ever you can,
For no man delights in a sorrowful man. [ Proverb ]

Those that God loves, do not live long. [ Herbert ]

He that will be served must be patient. [ English Proverb, collected by George Herbert ]

There is no mischief in the world done,
But a woman is always one. [ Proverb ]

Praise the bridge that carried you over. [ Geo. Colman (the Younger) ]

Birds of a feather will gather together. [ Burton ]

A proverb and a byword among all people. [ Bible ]

Be wisely worldly, but not worldly wise. [ Quarles ]

Can one desire too much of a good thing? [ Cervantes ]

Spare your breath to cool your porridge. [ Cervantes ]

Fools make feasts, and wise men eat them. [ Benjamin Franklin ]

Necessity knows no law except to conquer. [ Publius Syrus ]

Leap out of the frying pan into the fire. [ Cervantes ]

A wicked woman, and an evil,
Is three half pence worse than the devil. [ Proverb ]

I won't quarrel with my bread and butter. [ Swift ]

As the good-man saith, so say we,
But as the good-wife saith, so it must be. [ Proverb ]

Greatest happiness of the greatest number. [ Hutcheson ]

I find the medicine worse than the malady. [ Beaumont and Fletcher ]

He jests at scars that never felt a wound. [ William Shakespeare ]

It is better to wear out than to rust out. [ Bishop Cumberland ]

Defer no time, delays have dangerous ends. [ William Shakespeare ]

Don't cross the bridge till you come to it
Is a proverb old, and of excellent wit. [ Longfellow ]

A little more than kin, and less than kind. [ William Shakespeare ]

Couldst thou both eat thy cake and have it? [ Herbert ]

A fair exterior is a silent recommendation. [ Publius Syrus ]

If he had twenty in a flock,
He would leave but one to go with the cock. [ Proverb ]

If you would be loved, love and be lovable. [ Benjamin Franklin ]

Do not trust nor contend,
Nor lay wagers nor lend,
And you will have peace to your life's end. [ Proverb ]

Let pride go afore, shame will follow after. [ George Chapman ]

Rise with the lark and with the lark to bed. [ Tames Hurdis ]

A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush. [ Cervantes ]

Went in at the one ear and out at the other. [ Heywood ]

If the partridge had the woodcock's thigh,
It would be the best bird that ever did fly. [ Proverb ]

A woman, a spaniel, and a walnut tree,
The more they are beaten, the better they be. [ Proverb ]

It is a wise father that knows his own child. [ William Shakespeare ]

She watches him as a cat would watch a mouse. [ Swift ]

I am almost frightened out of my seven senses. [ Cervantes ]

In times of prosperity friends will be plenty,
In times of adversity not one in twenty. [ Proverb ]

The love of a woman, and a bottle of wine,
Are sweet for a season, but last a short time. [ Proverb ]

But when the fox hath once got in his nose,
He'll soon find means to make the body follow. [ William Shakespeare ]

Speak boldly, and speak truly, shame the devil. [ Beaumont and Fletcher ]

God's providence is on the side of clear heads. [ Henry Ward Beecher ]

Three may keep a secret if two of them are dead. [ Benjamin Franklin ]

Where the drink goes in, there the wit goes out. [ Herbert ]

Though this may be play to you, 'Tis death to us. [ Roger L'Estrange ]

Deceive not thy physician, confessor, nor lawyer. [ Herbert ]

What is sauce for the goose is sauce for a gander. [ Tom Brown ]

Half the world knows not how the other half lives. [ Herbert ]

From the crown of our head to the sole of our foot. [ Beaumont and Fletcher ]

Whatever is worth doing at all is worth doing well. [ Earl of Chesterfield ]

I'll make the fur fly about the ears of the old cur. [ Butler ]

A proverb is the wit of one, and the wisdom of many. [ Lord John Russell ]

Set a beggar on horseback, and he will ride a gallop. [ Burton ]

He that woos a maid must come seldom in her sight,
But he that woos a widow, must woo her day and night. [ Proverb ]

Providence protects us in all the details of our lot. [ Mme. de Stael ]

As clear and as manifest as the nose in a man's face. [ Burton ]

Where God hath a temple, the devil will have a chapel. [ Burton ]

One hour's sleep before midnight is worth three after. [ Herbert ]

An undutiful daughter will prove an unmanageable wife. [ Benjamin Franklin ]

Never leave that till tomorrow which you can do today. [ Benjamin Franklin ]

There's a special providence in the fall of a sparrow. [ William Shakespeare ]

A dwarf on a giant's shoulder sees farther of the two. [ English Proverb, collected by George Herbert ]

The mill will never grind with the water that is past. [ Sarah Dowdney ]

Fingers were made before forks and hands before knives. [ Swift ]

No rule is so general, which admits not some exception. [ Burton ]

Every man for himself, his own ends, the devil for all. [ Burton ]

Where the stream runneth smoothest, the water is deepest. [ Lyly ]

Oft times many things fall out between the cup and the lip. [ Greene ]

There can no great smoke arise, but there must be some fire. [ Lyly ]

He has seen a wolf. (Proverb of one who suddenly curbs his tongue.) [ ? ]

And all labor without any play, boys. Makes Jack a dull boy in the end. [ H. A. Page ]

A person with a bad name is already half hanged, saith the old proverb. [ Whipple ]

When the lion's skin cannot prevail, a little of the fox's must be used. [ Lysander ]

Where there's marriage without love there will be love without marriage. [ Benjamin Franklin ]

It is a true proverb that if you live with a lame man you will learn to halt. [ Plutarch ]

A proverb says: A hearth of one's own and a good wife are worth gold and pearls. [ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe ]

There is a German proverb which says that Take-it-Easy and Live-Long are brothers. [ Bovee ]

There is often more true spiritual force in a proverb than in a philosophical system. [ Carlyle ]

Generosity, wrong placed, becometh a vice; a princely mind will undo a private family. [ Fuller ]

There is a proverb in the South that a woman laughs when she can, and weeps when she pleases. [ J. Petit-Senn ]

An old proverb attributes happiness to him who expects little and thereby avoids disappointment. [ Henry D. Chapin ]

The proverb is true, that light gains make heavy purses; for light gains come often, great gains now and then. [ Bacon ]

You must continue learning as long as you do not know, and, if the proverb is to be believed, as long as you live. [ Seneca ]

The old proverb about having too many irons in the fire is an abominable old lie. Have all in, shovel, tongs, and poker. [ Adam Clarke ]

The proverb answers where the sermon fails, as a well-charged pistol will do more execution than a whole barrel of gunpowder idly exploded. [ W. G. Simms ]

I do not say a proverb is amiss when aptly and seasonably applied; but to be forever discharging them, right or wrong, hit or miss, renders conversation insipid and vulgar. [ Cervantes ]

There is a Spanish proverb that a lapidary who would grow rich must buy of those who go to be executed, as not caring how cheap they sell; and sell to those who go to be married, as not caring how dear they buy. [ Fuller ]

There is a Russian proverb which says that misfortune is next door to stupidity; and it will generally be found that men who are constantly lamenting their ill luck are only reaping the consequences of their own neglect, mismanagement, improvidence, or want of application. [ Samuel Smiles ]

It has become a settled principle that nothing which is good and true can be destroyed by persecution, but that the effect ultimately is to establish more firmly, and to spread more widely, that which it was designed to overthrow. It has long since passed into a proverb that the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church. [ Albert Barnes ]