Wisdom from the Ages

A collection of old proverbs as published in Five Thousand Quotations for All Occasions, 1945.

• I find the medicine worse than the malady. (Francis Beaumont & John Fletcher, early 17th C.)
• First come, first served. (Beaumont & Fletcher)
• One good turn deserves another. (Beaumont & Fletcher)
• Hit the nail on the head. (Beaumont & Fletcher)
• Curses are like young chickens, and still come home to roost! (Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 18th C.)
• Set a beggar on horseback, and he will ride a gallop. (Robert Burton, early 17th C.)
• No rule is so general, which admits not some exception. (Burton)
• Look before you ere you leap. (Samuel Butler, late 19th C.)
• He that is down can fall no lower. (Samuel Butler)
• Better halfe a loafe than no bread. (William Camden, late 16th C.)
• No man is a hero to his valet-de-chambre (slave). (Marshal Catinat)
• All that glistens is gold. (Miguel de Cervantes, late 16th C.)
• Leap out of the frying pan into the fire. (Cervantes, Don Quixote)
• Imitation is the sincerest of flattery. (Charles Colton, early 19th C.)
• The mill cannot grind with water that has past. (Sarah Doudney, late 19th C.)
• Life is short, yet sweet. (Euripides, 5th C. B.C.)
• Tall oaks from little acorns grow. (David Everett, late 18th C.)
• If you would be loved, love and be lovable. (Benjamin Franklin, 18th C.)
• Never leave that till tomorrow which you can do today. (Franklin)
• Three may keep a secret if two of them are dead. (Franklin)
• Where there's a marriage without love there will be love without marriage. (Franklin)
• Silence gives consent. (Thomas Fuller, 17th C.)
• Handsome is that handsome does. (Oliver Goldsmith, 18th C.)
• Out of sight, out of mind. (Barnabe Googe, 16th C.)
• Go West, young man, and grow up with the country. (Horace Greeley, 19th C.)
• Wouldst thou both eat thy cake and have it? (George Herbert, early 17th C.)
• God's mill grinds slow but sure. (Herbert)
• Half the world knows not how the other half lives. (Herbert)
• Whose house is of glass, must not throw stones at another. (Herbert)
• Robbe Peter and pay Paule. (John Heywood, early 16th C.)
• Set the cart before the horse. (Heywood)
• Two heads are better than one. (Heywood)
• Give an inch, he'll take an ell. (Thomas Hobbes, early 17th C.)
• Fitted him to a T. (Samuel Johnson, 18th C.)
• Man proposes, but God disposes. (Thomas 's Kempis, early 15th C.)
• Facts are stubborn things. (Alain Rene' Le Sage, early 18th C.)
• There can no great smoke arise, but there must be some fire. (John Lyly, late 16th C.)
• Hold their noses to the grindstone. (Thomas Middleton, early 17th C.)
• Strike the iron whilst it is hot. (Francois Rabelais, early 16th C.)
• Every man is the architect of his own fortunes. (Sallust, 1st C. B.C.)
• Blood is thicker than water. (Walter Scott, early 19th C.)
• All's well that ends well. (William Shakespeare, late 16th C.)
• Brevity is the soul of wit. (Shakespeare)
• It is a wise father that knows his own child. (Shakespeare)
• A rolling stone gathers no moss. (Publius Syrus, 1st C.)
• Familiarity breeds contempt. (Syrus)