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The Proverbs are arranged by geographical/national locations.
Select the first character of the geographical location/nation that you want to look at:
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| French Proverb - T
'Tis a good farthing that saves a penny.'Tis a good horse that has no fault.'Tis a long day a day without bread.'Tis a silly sheep that makes the wolf her confessor.'Tis everywhere the same as here.'Tis possible if true.'Twixt the cup and the lip there's many a slip.'Twixt the word and the deed there's a long step.Take a woman's first advice and not her second.Take an ox by his horn, a man by his word.Take down a rogue from the gallows and he will hang you up.Take heed of an enemy reconciled.Talk of the wolf and you see his tail.That brings water to the mill.That day is lost on which one has not laughed.That often happens in a day which does not happen in a hundred years.The arguments of the strongest have always the most weight.The ass that is common property is always the worst saddled.The bagpipe never utters a work till its belly is full.The balance in doing its office knows neither gold nor lead.The beadle of the parish is always of the vicar's opinion.The beast dead, the venom is dead.The beaten pay the fine.The belly overrules the head.The benefice must be taken with its liabilities.The best company must part, as King Dagobert said to his hounds.The best driver will sometimes upset.The best thing about a man is his dog.The best wine has its lees.The big fish eat the little ones.The bird ought not to soil its own nest.The biter is often bit.The blade wears out the sheath.The bud becomes a rose and the rose a hip.The candle that goes before, is better than that which comes after.The cask always smells of the herring.The churl knows not the worth of spurs.The coalheaver is master at home.The corn falls out of a shaken sheaf.The days follow each other and are not alike.The dead are soon forgotten.The devil is not always at a poor man's door.The devil leads him by the nose who the dice too often throws.The devil may die without my inheriting his horns.The devil often lurks behind the cross.The devil was handsome when he was young.The devil's meal turns half to bran.The doctor is often more to be feared than the disease.The dog gets into the mill under cover of the ass.The dog may be wonderful prose, but only the cat is poetry.The eagle does not hunt flies.The ear is the road to the heart.The early riser is healthy, cheerful and industrious.The Emperor of Germany is the king of kings, the King of Spain king of men, the King of France king of asses, the King of England king of devils.The false friend is like the shadow of a sun-dial.The fault is great in proportion to him who commits it.The first comer grinds first.The first step binds one to the second.The first step is all the difficulty.The flawed pot lasts longest.The gentle hawk mans herself.The Germans carry their wit in their fingers.The goslings would lead the geese out to grass.The gown does not make the monk.The greatest burdens are not the gainfullest.The greatest cunning is to have none at all.The greatest evidence of demoralization is the respect paid to wealth.The handsomest woman can only give what she has.The have always returns to her form.The head and feet keep warm,
The rest will take no harm.The ill year comes in swimming.The interested friend is a swallow on the roof. (Prepared to leave at the approach of winter.)The Italians cry, the Germans bawl, and the French sing.The kettle smuts the frying-pan.The larks fall there ready roasted.The last come is the best liked.The last comers are often the masters.The law says what the king pleases.The merchant that loses cannot laugh.The miser and the pig are of no use till dead.The money paid, the workman's arm is broken.The monk that begs for God's sake begs for two.The more a man exposes his nakedness the colder he is.The more fools, the more laughter.The more haste the worse speed.The more you stir it the more it stinks.The most covered fire is always the most glowing.The most cunning are the first caught.The most friendly fortune trips up your heels.The mountaineer's ass carries wine and drinks water.The mouse has but one hole is soon caught.The mule long keeps a kick in reserve for its master.The nearer the minster the later to mass.The niggard spends as much as he who is liberal, and in the end more.The night brings counsel.The noise is so great one cannot hear God thunder.The only way to keep a secret is to say nothing.The only way to treat a Prussian is to step on his toes until he apologies.The pitcher goes often to the well and gets broken at last.The reputation of a man is like his shadow; it sometimes follows and sometimes precedes him, it is sometimes longer and sometimes shorter than his natural size.The two make a pair.The weakest must hold the candle.There are good dogs of all sizes.There are more foolish buyers than foolish sellers.There are more old drunkards than old doctors.There are no children now-a-days.There are no foolish trades, there are only foolish people.There are toys for all ages.There are two great pleasures in gambling: winning and losing.There is no worse water than still water.There is no worse water than that which sleeps.There is nothing so well done but may be mended.There is one who kisses, and the other who offers a cheek.There never was a banquet so sumptuous but some one dined ill at it.There never was a looking-glass that told a woman she was ugly.There's neither rhyme nor reason.There's no guarding against the privy thief.There's no need to grease the fat pig's rump.There's no showing the wolf to a bad dog.Though the fool waits, the day does not.Tired folks are quarrelsome.To ask wool of an ass.To beat the dog in presence of this lion.To begin skinning the eel at the tail.To blow hot and cold.To burn out a candle in search of a pin.To buy a cat in a poke.To carry a lantern in mid-day.To carry water to the river.To cry famine on a heap of corn.To cut broad thongs from another man's leather.To cut off one's nose to spite one's face.To dig one's grave with one's teeth.To exchange a one-eyed horse for a blind one.To give a pea for a bean.To give change out for his coin.To give court holy-water.To go mulberry gathering without a crook.To go to the vintage without baskets.To have friends both in heaven and hell.To hold the wolf by the ears.To jump into the water for fear of the rain.To jump out of the frying pan into the fire.To kill a mercer for a comb.To kill the hen by way of getting the egg.To live from hand to mouth.To look for a needle in a bundle of hay.To look for noon at fourteen o'clock.To make a virtue of necessity.To make one hole by way of stopping another.To make two hits with one stone.To offer one candle to God and another to the devil.To pluck the goose without making it cry out.To promise more butter than bread.To put a good face on a bad game.To put the plough before the oxen.To rude words deaf ears.To scare a bird is not the way to catch it.To sew the fox's skin to the lion's.To show the sun with a torch.To sign for both parties.To squeeze an eel too hard is the way to lose it.To strip St. Peter to clothe St. Paul.To swim between two waters.To take the chestnuts out of the fire with the cat's paw.To the devil with so many masters, said the toad to the harrow.To the jaundiced all things seem yellow.To turn fishmonger on Easter-eve.To want to forget something is to remember it.To wash an ass's head is but loss of time and soap. (To reprove a fool is but lost labour.)To whom do you offer your shells for sale? To people who come from Saint Michel (where shells abound).Too much scratching smarts, too much talking harms.Too much zeal spoils all.Touch not another man's money, for the most honest never added to it.Travellers from afar can lie with impunity.Tread on a worm and it will turn.Trickery comes back to its master.Trim my beard, and I will trim your top-knot.True jokes never please.True nobility is invulnerable.Trust not to God but upon good security.Truth is the club that knocks down and kills everybody.Turn your tongue seven times before speaking. |
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