Proverbs | List of Proverbs and Sayings
A List of proverbs and sayings. This page contains examples of proverbs and an ever growing list of proverbs. It is a good practice to avoid use of these proverbs in poetry unless used in a completely original way.
See also: Idioms.
What is a Proverb?
A proverb is a brief and popular saying that typically gives advice about how people should live or that expresses a belief that is commonly thought to be true.
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Examples of Proverbs
Sadness and gladness succeed each other.
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Salmon and sermon have their season in Lent.
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Save me from my friends.
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Saving is getting.
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Say no ill of the year till it is passed.
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Saying and doing are two things.
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Scald not your lips in another man's pottage.
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Scorning is catching.
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Search others for their virtues, thyself for their faults.
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Second thoughts are best.
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Seeing is believing.
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Seek till you find, and you'll lose no labour.
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Seldom seen, soon forgotten.
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Self do, self have.
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Self love's a mote in every man's eye.
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Self praise is no recommendation.
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Sell not the hare's skin before you have caught him.
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Send a wise man on an errand and say nothing to him.
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Set a thief to take a thief.
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Set the saddle on the right horse.
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Set trees poor, and they will grow rich; set them rich, and they will grow poor.
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Share and share alike.
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Ships fear fire more than water.
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Short and sweet like a donkey's gallop.
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Short cuts are sometimes longest.
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Short reckonings are soon cleared.
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Short reckonings make long friends.
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Silence is consent.
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Silence is the best ornament of a woman.
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Silence seldom doth harm.
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Silks and satins put out the fire in the kitchen.
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Simon Noland, clown, is a better style and title than Humphrey Hadland, gent.
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Sir John Barleycorn is the strongest knight.
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Sit in your place, and none can make you rise.
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Slander leaves a score behind it.
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Sleep on it; the pillow is the best counsellor.
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Sloth is the mother of poverty.
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Sloth turneth the edge of wit.
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Slow and sure.
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Slow fire makes sweet malt.
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Sluts are good enough to make slovens' pottage.
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Small rain lays great dust.
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Small things affect light minds.
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So many frosts in March, so many in May.
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So we have the chink, we'll bear the stink.
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Soft words butter no parsnips.
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Soft words hurt not the mouth.
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Soldiers in peace are like chimneys in summer.
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Some are wise, and some are otherwise.
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Some rain, some rest.
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Soon hot, soon cold.
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Sorrow and bad weather come unsent for.
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Sorrow comes unsent for, and, like the unbidden guest, brings his own stool.
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Sorrow is good for nothing but sin.
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Sorrow will pay no debt.
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Sorrow will wear away in time.
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Sour grapes, as the fox said when he could not reach them.
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Sow beans in the mud, they'll grow like wood.
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Spare to speak and spare to spend.
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Spare when young and spend when old.
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Speak fair and think what you will.
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Speak the truth and shame the devil.
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Speak well of the dead.
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Speculation completes what extravagance began.
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Speech is the picture of the mind.
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Spend and be free, but make no waste.
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Spend not where you may save; spare not where you must spend.
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Spoil not the ship for a penn'orth of tar.
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Standers by see more than the gamesters.
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Standing pools gather filth.
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Stars are not seen during sunshine.
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StBartholomew brings the cold dew.
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Steal the goose, and give the giblets in alms.
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Step after step the ladder is ascended.
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Step by step the ladder is climbed.
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Still waters run deep.
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Stolen kisses are sweet.
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Store is no sore.
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Straight trees have crooked roots.
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Stretch your legs according to your coverlet.
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Strike while the iron is hot.
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Study to be worthy of your parents.
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Such a beginning, such an end.
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Such as the tree is, such is the fruit.
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Sufficient for the day is the evil thereof.
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Sure bind, sure find.
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Sweep before your own door.
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Sweet discourse makes short days and nights.
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Sweet meat must have some sauce.
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Swine, women, and bees are not to be turned.
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