Google
|
|
The Proverbs are arranged by geographical/national locations.
Select the first character of the geographical location/nation that you want to look at:
A
B
C
D
E
F
G
H
I
J
K
L
M
N
O
P
Q
R
S
T
U
V
W
X
Y
Z
|
| Latin Proverb - T
'Tis folly to love fetters, though they be of gold.'Tis wisdom sometimes to seem a fool.Take counsel of your pillow.Take not the antidote before the poison.Talent and poverty, wealth and stupidity generally dwell together.Talk of the devil and he'll appear.Taught in the same school.Test the danger by the Carians. [Practise new experiments on things of little value.]That country will I call mine which supports me, not that which gave me birth.That is with difficulty preserved which all hanker after.That which I receive, that I return.That which is beyond our reach is nothing to us.That which is deferred is not abandoned.That which is despised is often most useful.That which is his lot to-day may be yours to-morrow.That which is not understood is always marvellous.That which is sweet to some is bitter to others.That which is violent never lasts long.That which is wanting in some respects, may be made up for in others.That which satisfies is enough.That which should feed our children ought not to be given to dogs.That which two will takes effect.That which we really require not is dear at a farthing.The agreeable and the useful combined.The assistance of fools only brings injury.The autumn of beauty is still beautiful.The avenging gods have their feet clothed in wool.The bad refrain from sin from fear of punishment.The baubles of children.The bear wants a tail and cannot be a lion.The beginning is half of the whole.The belly teaches all arts.The best physicians are Dr. Diet, Dr. Quiet, and Dr. Merryman.The best things are the first to perish.The bitch in her haste brings forth blind puppies.The blind man wishes to show the way.The blind would lead the blind.The blossoms in the spring are the fruit in autumn.The blow falls more lightly when it is anticipated.The bones for those who come late!The brave man may die, but he will never say "die."The bust of Mercury cannot be carved in every wood.The bust of Mercury cannot be cut from every wood.The camel going to seek horns lost his ears.The carriage draws the ox.The carrion which the eagle has left feeds the crow.The cause at an end, the effect is removed.The challenger is beaten.The cobbler should not go beyond his last. [Meddle not in things which you do not understand.]The cobbler to his last.The conquered dare not open their mouths.The conqueror weeps, the conquered is ruined. [Both sides suffer in war or litigation.]The corruption of the best things makes the worst.The counsel of the aged is sound.The course of a river is not to be altered. [We cannot alter a natural bent.]The cowl does not make the monk.
[Lat., Cucullus non facit monachum.]The crab would catch the hare!The crow has seized a scorpion. [The soldier caught a Tartar.]The crow is a pretty bird when the jackdaw is not present.The dead are the best counsellors.The die is cast. [The Rubicon is crossed.]The diseases of the mind are either caused or cured by the power of music.The doctor is to be feared more than the disease.The early morn favours study.The evil is lessened when it is seen beforehand.The excess of mirth leads to tears.The face is the index to the mind.The face is the portrait of the mind; the eyes, its informers.The Fates will not permit it.The favour of the great is not lasting.The fear of death is worse than death itself.The field should be poorer than the farmer. [It is useless for a man to attempt farming without capital.]The fish requires salt! [Derisively, the sea abounding with salt.]The gifts of fortune (windfalls) do not always benefit us.The girl is more inviting who smells of wild thyme than she who smells of musk.The gladiator seeks advice, when in the very lists.The gnat trusting itself to the flame is singed.The gods assist the industrious.The gods sell all things for labour.The good fortunes of life fall to the lot even of the base.The goodwill accompanying the gift is the best portion of it.The grape is not ripened by the rays of the moon.The grasshopper is dear to the grasshopper, the ant loves the ant.The great elephant of India cares not for a gnat.The greater the fool, the greater his insolence.The greatest clerks are not the wisest men.The greatest consideration is due to the innocence of youth.The greatest respect is due to children.The habits of our youth accompany us in our old age.The hand often travels to the part where the pain is.The happier the time, the more quickly it passes.The harp dispels care.The hatred of knaves is to be preferred to their company.The intemperate die young, and rarely en joy old age.The iron entered into his house.The knowledge of sin is the beginning of salvation.The labour is in itself a pleasure.The last argument of kings. [The sword.]The laughter, the tears, and the song of a woman are equally deceptive.The law does not concern itself about trifles.
[Lat., De minimis non curat lex.]The law of requital of injury by injury.The matter is under consideration.The mice have taken themselves off.The mill cannot grind with the water that is past.The miller sees not every wave that flows.The mind is best taught with a sharp whip.The mind when unoccupied knows not what it wants.The misfortune of the foolish is a warning to the wise.The misfortunes to which we are accustomed affect us less deeply.The moon does not heed the barking of dogs.The more laws, the more offenders.The more they have, the more they want.The more you give in, the more you have to give in.The most pleasant cruise is near the land; the most inviting walk near the sea.The mouse is caught in the trap.The names of fools are always written on walls.The owl has one note, the crow another.The owl sings to the nightingale.The ox in a strange stall often casts a longing look towards the door.The ox when most weary is most surefooted.The parrot utters one cry, the quail another.The passing hour is sometimes a mother, sometimes a stepmother.The penalty attaching to evil deeds should be thought of in time.The people want to be deceived.The pig prefers mud to clean water.The plan executed, reason comes to our assistance!The pleasures of love are enhanced by injuries.The position in which we were before the war.The prolonged visit of no guest is pleasant.The provoking pertinacity of a fly.The quoit attracts them more than philosophy.The rabble is not influenced by reason, but blind impulse.The rabble, as of old, truckles to success, and hates a favourite in disgrace.The rabble.The rack can extort a false confession from the innocent.The rat betrayed by his own track perishes.The razor against the grindstone.The real nettle will sting early.The remembrance of past pleasures adds to present sorrows.The reserve are engaged.The reward of a thing rightly done is to have done it.The traces of the old flame. [Second love.]The unexpected always happens.The warnings of age are the weapons of youth.There are many languages on earth, but one in heaven.There is no way to make money so certain as to save what you have.There is no wheat without chaff.There is nothing more telling than wit.There is nothing so intolerable as a fortunate fool.There is nothing to be gained by buying inferior goods.There's death in the pot.Those who are conscious of their own iniquity, suspect others.Those who are nourished by hope live ever in suspense, and enjoy not life.Those who are once found to be bad are presumed to be so for ever.Those who attack, though they die in the attempt.Those who do a thing are consenting parties.Those who see the faults of others, and see not their own, are wise for others and fools for themselves.Though living, dead for all useful purposes.Though physician to others, yet himself full of sores.Till you are hoarse with bawling.To act with closed eyes.To add a farthing to the riches of Croesus.To add a farthing to the wealth of Croesus.To add light to the sun.To add malady to malady.To add stars to the firmament.To add water to the ocean.To be aground on the same rock. [To be in the same dilemma. ]To be blind even in the light of the sun.To be dragged by the scruff of the neck.To be in the same hospital. [To be in the same dilemma.]To be wise beyond the scrip. [Have a care for the morrow.]To beat the dog already punished.To bind a dog with the gut of a lamb.To bite the lip. [To manifest indignation.]To blow hot and cold in the same breath.To break the ice.To break the rope by overstraining.To bring out the implements of war, when the battle is over.To bruise the head of the serpent.To call a spade a spade.To carry on the head. [i.e., To love dearly.]To carry water in a sieve.To carry wood to the forest.To cast a dart without any fixed mark or aim. [To have no settled purpose.]To cast out the mote from the eye of another.To catch the shower in a sieve. [To lose one's time and pains.]To checkmate your adversary. To leave him not a leg to stand on.To condemn the error, but not to descend to personalities.To confuse matters.To cram on every stitch of canvas.To cure every one with the same ointment.To cure evil by evil.To cut a man with a sword of lead.To cut the thread. [To open a letter; to break a seal.]To dance out of time. [To say an irrelevant thing: a thing out of place.]To die of laughing.To dig with golden spades. [To waste means.]To dispute about a donkey's shadow.To dispute about smoke.To draw water in a sieve. [To waste time.]To drink from a colander.To drink from the same cup.To drink like frogs.To err again on the same string.To exact an offering from the dead.To fare hard.To fight with every kind of weapon.To fight with ghosts. [To speak against the dead.]To fire the first shot. [To throw down the gauntlet.]To fish in the air. To hunt in the sea.To fish with a golden hook.To flog a stone.To fly, when no one pursues us. [Great timidity.]To follow a man like his shadow.To forget a kindness.To give instruction in the form of praise.To go beyond the bounds. [To digress from the subject of discussion.]To harness unwilling oxen.To have a good opinion of himself.To have no wants, is money.To help the sun by torches.To hide under a cloak.To hold a wolf by the ears. [To be between two difficulties.]To hunt for a knot in a rush which has no knots. [To raise unnecessary scruples.]To hunt the hare with the ox.To hunt with unwilling hounds.To indulge in a joke when surrounded by mourners. [To jest out of season.]To indulge in jest on sacred matters.To interfere in the affairs of others.To lead one by the nose.To lean against a tottering wall.To leave no stone unturned.To leave the nuts. [To put away childish things.]To live at the beck and call of another.To look at a shipwreck from the shore.To look for a needle in a haystack.To lose his last farthing.To make a birthday a day of grief. [To turn joy into sorrow.]To make a black man white.To mingle heaven and earth. [Inextricably to confuse matters.]To miss the mark.To mix fire and water.To move every rope: to cram on all sail.To nourish a serpent in one's breast.To open, as you would an oyster.To oppose by stratagem.To overshoot the mark.To pay off a grudge by a vote.To pound water in a mortar.To put bread into a cold oven.To put his finger on his lips. [To refuse to reveal what he knows.]To put his tail between his legs.To put on the mask of a dancer when wearing the toga. [To do that which is out of place and inconsistent.]To put the same shoe on every foot.To quench fire with oil.To re-open a wound.To remove the hairs from a horse's tail, one by one must be plucked out. [Small persevering efforts succeed, when violent measures would fail.]To repel force by force.To row together, or in time. [To act in unison.]To sacrifice certain for speculative profit.To satisfy one's wants at a small cost.To seek for a knot in a bulrush.
[Lat., Nodum in scirpo quaerere.]To show the sole of the foot.To silence another, first be silent yourself.To sing to an ass.To sit brooding over treasures, and enjoy them not.To sit on two seats.To snatch the lamb from the wolf.To stab the dead.To strike with a leaden sword. [To use a useless argument.]To stumble twice over the same stone.To suit present circumstances.To take a shirt from a naked man.To take two boars in one thicket.To the ass, or the sow, their own offspring appears the fairest in creation. To the ass, or the sow, their own offspring appears the fairest in creation. To the ass, or the sow, their own offspring appears the fairest in creation.To the pure all things are pure.To throw dust in one's eyes.To throw oil on flames.To tread softly like a thief.To turn things upside down.To understand a stammerer, you ought to stammer yourself.To unite that which cannot be united. To attempt an impossibility.To untie the knot. [To solve a difficulty.]To use his own beast to fetch home evil. [To be the author of his own misery.]To wash the Ethiopian. [Labour in vain.]To weep at the tomb of a stepmother. [Hypocrisy.]To whip the air.To whiten ivory with ink. To spoil nature by art.To whiten two walls from the same lime-pot.To whom is he any good, if he is no good to himself?To win a war quickly takes long preparation.To work is to pray.
[Lat., Laborare est orare.]To worry hornets.To wrest the prey from the hungry lion.Too much care does more harm than good.Too much of a thing nauseates.Too much wine will make a sane man mad.Treachery will eventually betray itself; though wary enough at first.Treat everything of this world as mere vanity.Treat your friends as if hereafter they will become your enemies, and your enemies as if they will become your friends.Trifles often lead to serious results.Trifling at an end, now let us go to the point.Troy is a thing of the past.True friends are tested in adversity.Trust no one, until you have eaten a peck of salt with him.Trust not a sword in the hands of a boy.Trust not a woman, even when dead. [She may feign death.]Trust not your all in one ship.Truth becomes lost in the turmoil of arguments.Truth conquers all things.Truth is great and will prevail.Truth is violated by a lie or by silence.Try to deserve the reputation you enjoy.Turn it inside and out. |
|
|