Top 211 Proverb Quotes & Sayings

is there not an Arabick Proverb which goes, 'No one throws Stones at a Barren Tree'?

A proverb is much matter distilled into few words.

A proverb is the wisdom of many and the wit of one.

The old Chinese proverb springs to mind - No pain, no gain.

It is sufficient to say, according to the proverb, that here is God's plenty.

There is an old Italian proverb about the nature of translation: "Traddutore, traditore!" This means simply, "Translators-traitors!" Of course, as you can see, something is lost in the translation of this pithy expression: there is great similarity in both the spelling and the pronunciation of the original saying, but these get diluted once they are put in English dress. Even the translation of this proverb illustrates its truth!

Good advice is like a proverb: the meaning depends on the interpretation.

The proverb answers where the sermon fails.

I like the Chinese proverb: If a horse is yours, it will always come back!

A proverb has three characteristics: few words, good sense, and a fine image.

For as saith a proverb notable, Each thing seeketh his semblable.

The proverb is something musty.

We never get over our fathers, and we’re not required to. (Irish Proverb)

For not many men, the proverb saith, can love a friend whom fortune prospereth unenvying.

Of the Shaker society, it was formerly a sort of proverb in the country, that they always sent the devil to market.

A proverb is a short sentence based on long experience.

There is often more spiritual force in a proverb than in whole philosophical systems.

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

I believe there's no proverb but what is true; they are all so many sentences and maxims drawn from experience, the universal mother of sciences.

The beginning, as the proverb says, is half the whole.

The Chinese have an excellent proverb: "Be modest in speech, but excel in action.

I've always subscribed to an old Chinese proverb that the palest ink is better than the best memory.

There is no proverb that is not true.

you must be careful never to allow doubt to paralyze you. always take the decisions you need to take, even if you're not sure you're doing the right thing. You'll never go wrong if, when you make a decision, you keep in mind an old German proverb: 'The devil is in the detail.' Remember that proverb and you'll always be able to turn a wrong decision into a right one.

The difference between the Japanese and the American is summed up in their opposite reactions to the proverb (popular in both nations), "A rolling stone gathers no moss." Epidemiologist S. Leonard Syme observes that to the Japanese, moss is exquisite and valued; a stone is enhanced by moss; hence a person who keeps moving and changing never acquires the beauty and benefits of stability. To Americans, the proverb is an admonition to keep rolling, to keep from being covered with clinging attachments.

Until a friend or relative has applied a particular proverb to your own life, or until you've watched him apply the proverb to his own life, it has no power to sway you.

Love and a cold cannot be hid. It is, I believe, a Spanish proverb.

Rely only on yourself; it is a common proverb.

A proverb is good sense brought to a point.

May dawn, as the proverb goes, bring happy tidings coming from her mother night.

May not the wolf, as the proverb says, claim a hearing?

If there is love, smallpox scars are as pretty as dimples. - Japanese Proverb

A thousand enemies outside the house are better than one within. Arab proverb

In Russia, we have proverb: Only bad soldiers don't want to be general.

I am always nearest to myself," says the Latin proverb.

The old proverb was now made good, "the mountain had brought forth a mouse.

An old woman is always uneasy when dry bones are mentioned in a proverb

It is a true proverb, that if you live with a lame man, you will learn to limp.

Begin thinking of death and you are no longer sure of your life. It's a Hebrew proverb.

All roads lead to Trantor, says the old proverb, and that is where all stars end.

And a proverb haunts my mind As a spell is cast, The mill cannot grind With the water that is past.

I've often heard it said, as the common proverb goes, that a fool can teach a wise man well.

Those who hear and do not understand are like the deaf. Of them the proverb says: "Present, they are absent."

The first step toward greatness is to be honest, says the proverb; but the proverb fails to state the case strong enough. Honesty is not only "the first step toward greatness," - it is greatness itself.

Look who's calling the cauldron black." "Kettle. It’s a kettle. Get your metaphors right." "That wasn’t a metaphor. It was a, you know..." He stared off into space, blinking. "One of those things that’s symbolic of another thing. But isn’t the same thing. Just like it." "You mean a metaphor?" "No! It’s like a story...like...a proverb! That’s it." "I’m pretty sure that wasn’t a proverb. Maybe it was an analogy." "I don’t think so.

Hence when a person is in great pain, the cause of which he cannot remove, he sets his teeth firmly together, or bites some substance between them with great vehemence, as another mode of violent exertion to produce a temporary relief. Thus we have the proverb where no help can be has in pain, 'to grin and abide;' and the tortures of hell are said to be attended with 'gnashing of teeth.'Describing a suggestion of the origin of the grin in the present form of a proverb, 'to grin and bear it.'

There is a significant Latin proverb; to wit: Who will guard the guards?

As the proverb says, "a good beginning is half the business" and "to have begun well" is praised by all.

The most difficult battles in life are those we fight within. - Old Chinese Proverb

A proverb is one man's wit and all men's wisdom.

The mouth of a perfectly contented man is filled with beer. -Egyptian proverb, c. 2200 BCE

It has become quite a common proverb that in wine there is truth (In Vino Veritas).

There's a Chinese proverb that says it all: Painting is an old man's art.

As the old proverb says: "Well-fed horses don't rampage.

There is also an old proverb, that they who pay much attention to the body generally neglect the soul.

Nothing ever becomes real till experienced – even a proverb is no proverb until your life has illustrated it

Toil, says the proverb, is the sire of fame.

The tragedy of virtue is that the more obvious, boring, unoriginal, and sermonizing the proverb, the harder it is to implement.

There is a southern proverb - fine words butter no parsnips.

Learning is like rowing upstream; not to advance is to drop back.” - Chinese proverb