60,000 QUOTES SPIDER
Dictionary of
English World Proverbs and Sayings
QUOTES, APHORISMS AND PROVERBS 10
Only by the candle, held
in the skeleton hand of Poverty, can man read his own dark heart.
Edward George Earle
Lytton Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton
Sharp is the kiss of the falcon's beak.
Edward George Earle
Lytton Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton
The man who wants his wedding garments to suit him must allow plenty
of time for the measure.
Edward George Earle
Lytton Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton
A pearl may in a toad's head dwell, And may be found too in an
oyster shell.
John Bunyan
Every fat (vat) must stand upon its bottom.
John Bunyan,
Pilgrim's Progress (pt. I)
He that is down needs fear no fall He that is low, no pride.
John Bunyan,
Pilgrim's Progress (pt. II)
Better to be despised for too anxious apprehensions than ruined by
too confident a security.
Edmund Burke
There is a limit at which forbearance ceases to be a virtue.
Edmund Burke
And last, the crown of a' my grief.
Robert Burns
Breathes there a man, whose judgment clear Can others teach their
course to steer, Yet run himself life's mad career Wild as the wave?
Robert Burns
But pleasures are
like poppies spread: You seize the flower,--its bloom is shed.
Robert Burns
To take to your
heels.
Proverb, (Spanish)
To take two boars in one thicket.
Proverb, (Latin)
To take Villadiego's boots.
Proverb, (Spanish)
To tell tales out of school.
Proverb
To thrash one's jacket.
Proverb, (Spanish)
To throw a sprat to catch a whale.
Proverb
To throw dust in one's eyes.
Proverb, (Latin)
To throw good money after bad.
Proverb
To throw oil on flames.
Proverb, (Latin)
To throw oil on the fire.
Proverb, (Dutch)
To throw pearls before swine.
Proverb
To throw the halter after the ass.
Proverb, (Italian)
To throw the helve after the hatchet.
Proverb, (French, Spanish)
To throw the rope after the bucket.
Proverb, (Italian)
To throw the stone and conceal the hand.
Proverb, (Spanish)
To throw up a feather in the air, and see where it falls.
Proverb, (Spanish)
To tread softly like a thief.
Proverb, (Latin)
To turn an honest penny.
Proverb
To turn cat in pan.
Proverb
To turn fishmonger on Easter-eve.
Proverb, (French)
To turn over a new leaf.
Proverb
To turn things upside down.
Proverb, (Latin)
To undo crosses in a straw loft (i.e. to part all the straws that
they may not lie crosswise; to be over nice).
Proverb, (Spanish)
To unite that which cannot be united. To attempt an impossibility.
Proverb, (Latin)
To untie the knot. (To solve a difficulty.)
Proverb, (Latin)
To use his own beast to fetch home evil. (To be the author of his
own misery.)
Proverb, (Latin)
To wake a sleeping lion.
Proverb
To wash a blackamoor white.
Proverb, (Dutch, Greek)
To wash dirty linen in public.
Proverb
To wash the Ethiopian. (Labour in vain.)
Proverb, (Latin)
To wear one's heart upon one's sleeve.
Proverb
To wear the breeches.
Proverb
To wear the willow.
Proverb
To weep at the tomb of a stepmother. (Hypocrisy.)
Proverb, (Latin)
To wet one's whistle.
Proverb
To whip the air.
Proverb, (Latin)
To whiten ivory with ink. To spoil nature by art.
Proverb, (Latin)
To whiten two walls from the same lime-pot.
Proverb, (Latin)
To wipe up the sea with a sponge.
Proverb, (Dutch)
To wolf's flesh dog's teeth.
Proverb, (Portuguese, Spanish)
To work for the bishop.
Proverb, (Spanish)
To worry hornets.
Proverb, (Latin)
To wrest the prey from the hungry lion.
Proverb, (Latin)
Tooth and nail.
Proverb
Unbought feasts.
(Lat., Dapes inemptae.)
Proverb, (Latin)
Unbought grace.
Proverb, (Latin)
Up, guards, and at 'em.
Proverb
Utter confusion.
Proverb, (Latin)
War to the knife.
Proverb
Wash a blackamoor white.
Proverb
We apples swim.
(Lat., Nos poma natamus.)
Proverb, (Latin)
Weary of life.
Proverb, (Latin)
Well-digested hatred.
Proverb, (Latin)
When mules breed. (i.e., Never.)
Proverb
When the devil is blind.
Proverb
When the frog has hair.
Proverb
When the Greek Calends come round. (Never.)
Proverb, (Latin)
When two Sundays come together.
Proverb, (German)
When two Sundays meet.
Proverb
Whiter than snow.
Proverb, (Latin)
Willing and able.
(Lat., Volens et potens.)
Proverb, (Latin)
Willy nilly.
Proverb
With all his strength.
Proverb, (Latin)
With bad luck.
Proverb, (Latin)
With beak and claw.
Proverb, (Latin)
With claws and beak.
(Lat., Unguibus et rostro.)
Proverb, (Latin)
With good luck.
Proverb, (Latin)
With oars and sails.
Proverb, (Latin)
With sails and oars.
Proverb, (Latin)
Worn bare by the helmet.
Proverb, (Latin)
Worthy of a monument.
Proverb, (Latin)
You count the waves. (Labour in vain.)
Proverb, (Latin)
You rouse the fury of the lion.
Proverb, (Latin)
Your wife and the sauce at the lance hand (the right hand).
Proverb, (Spanish)
A baker's dozen.
Francois Rabelais, Works (bk. V, ch. XXII)
To beard the lion in his den, The Douglas in his hall.
Sir Walter Scott
The game is up.
William Shakespeare
The short and the long of it.
William Shakespeare
To make a virtue of necessity.
William Shakespeare
. . . that was laid on with a trowel.
William Shakespeare, As You Like It
Words, words, words.
William Shakespeare, Hamlet Prince of Denmark
To take up arms against a sea of troubles, And, by opposing end
them.
William Shakespeare, Hamlet Prince of Denmark
To saw the air.
William Shakespeare, Hamlet Prince of Denmark
To gild refined gold, to paint the lily, To throw a perfume on the
violet.
William Shakespeare, The Life and Death of King John
As like as eggs. (As like as two peas.)
William Shakespeare, The Winter's Tale
As headstrong as an allegory on the banks of the Nile.
Richard Brinsley Sheridan
In the name of the Prophet--figs.
Horace Smith and James Smith
Like a fish out of water. (Lat., Sicut piscis sine aqua caret vita.)
Sozemen (Sozomenos Hermias),
Through thick and thin, both over banck and bush, In hope her to
attaine by hooke or crooke.
Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene
Big-endians and small-endians.
Jonathan Swift, Gulliver's Travels
Hail, fellow, well met, All dirty and wet: Find out, if you can,
Who's master, who's man.
Jonathan Swift, My Lady's Lamentation
Cut off your nose to spite your face. (Fr., Se couper le nez pour
faire depit a son visage.)
Gedeon Tallemant des Reaux, Historiettes
The fools of habit.
Lord Alfred Tennyson
Like glimpses of forgotten dreams.
Lord Alfred Tennyson, The Two Voices
To pick out meat from the very funeral pile.
Terence (Publius Terentius Afer)
To touch a sore place. (A tender point.)
Terence (Publius Terentius Afer)
Much of a muchness.
Sir John Vanbrugh (Vanburgh),
A precious pair of scamps.
Virgil or Vergil (Publius Virgilius Maro Vergil)
To prate of peace, and arm your ironsides.
Virgil or Vergil (Publius Virgilius Maro Vergil)
To spare the vanquished, and subdue the proud.
Virgil or Vergil (Publius Virgilius Maro Vergil)
To whisper insidious accusations in the ear of the mob.
Virgil or Vergil (Publius Virgilius Maro Vergil)
To pile Ossa upon Pelion. (Lat., Imponere Pelio Ossam.)
Virgil or Vergil (Publius Virgilius Maro Vergil),
The total depravity of inanimate things.
Katherine Kent Child Walker (Mrs. Edward Ashley Walker),
I always wanted to be a procrastinator, never got around to it.
Dijon vu - the same mustard as before.
I am a nutritional overachiever.
My inferiority complex is not as good as yours.
I am having an out of money experience.
I plan on living forever. So far, so good.
I am in shape. Round is a shape.
Practice safe eating - always use condiments.
A day without sunshine is like night.
I have kleptomania, but when it gets really bad, I take something.
for it
If marriage were outlawed, only outlaws would have in-laws.
I am not a perfectionist. My parents were, though.
Life is an endless struggle full of frustrations and challenges, but
eventually you find a hair stylist you like.
You're getting old when you get the same sensation from a rocking
chair that you once got from a roller coaster.
One of life's mysteries is how a two pound box of candy can make you
gain five pounds.
The real art of conversation is not only to say the right thing at
the right time, but also to leave unsaid the wrong thing at the
tempting moment.
Time may be a great healer, but it's also a lousy beautician.
Brain cells come and brain cells go, but fat cells live forever.
Age doesn't always bring wisdom. Sometimes age comes alone.
Life not only begins at forty, it begins to show.
You don't stop laughing because you grow old, you grow old because
you stopped laughing.
