Beware of an oak, it draws the
stroke; avoid an ash, it counts the flash; creep under the thorn, it can
save you from harm.
-late 19th
Blood is thicker than water.
-early 19th
Blood will tell.
-mid 19th
Blue are the hills that are far
away.
-late 19th
Brave men lived before Agamemnon.
-early 19th
The bread never falls but on
its buttered side.
-mid 19th
A bully is always a coward.
-early 19th
The busiest men have the most
leisure.
-late 19th
Business before pleasure.
-mid 19th
Ceasar's wife must be above suspicion.
-late 19th
Catching's before hanging.
-early 19th
A chain is no stronger than its
weakest link.
-mid 19th
A change is as good as a rest.
-late 19th
Cheats never prosper.
-early 19th
The child is the father of the
man.
-early 19th
A civil question deserves a civil
answer.
-mid 19th
Clergymen's sons always turn
out badly.
-late 19th
Coming events cast their shadow
before.
-early 19th
Councils of war never flight.
-mid 19th
The difficult is done at once,
the impossible takes a little longer.
-late 19th
Dogs bark, but the caravan goes
on.
-late 19th
A dog that will fetch a bone
will carry a bone.
-eary 19th
Do not meet troubles half-way.
-late 19th
Don't change horses in mid stream.
-mid 19th; Lincoln
Don't cross the bridge till you
come to it.
-mid 19th
Don't go near the water until
you learn how to swim.
-mid 19th
Don't throw the baby out with
the bathwater.
-mid 19th; early 17th century in German
East, west, home's best.
-mid 19th
Easy does it.
-mid 19th
England's difficulty is Ireland's
opportunity.
-mid 19th
The English are a nation of shipkeepers.
-early 19th; Napoleon
Every cloud has a silver lining.
-mid 19th; Ford
Everybody love a lord.
-late 19th
Fact is stranger than fiction.
-mid 19th
Fair play's a jewel.
-early 19th
Faith will move mountains.
-late 19th; Bible
Fear the Greeks bearing gifts.
-late 19th; Virgil
Feed a cold and starve a fever.
maybe two separate sayings, but sometimes interpreted to
mean: if you feed a cold you will probably have to starve a fever later
-mid 19th
Fight fire with fire.
-mid 19th
Finders keepers, losers weepers.
-early 19th
Findings keepings.
-mid 19th
First catch your hare.
-early 19th; early 14th in Latin
The first duty of a soldier is
obedience.
-mid 19th
First things first.
-late 19th
Fools for luck.
-mid 19th
From clogs to clogs is only three
generations.
-late 19th
From the sublime to the ridiculous
is only one step.
-early 19th; Napoleon(?)
Genius is an infinite capacity
for taking pains.
-late 19th
God makes the back to the burden.
-early 19th
Good Americans when they die
go to Paris.
-mid 19th
The hand that rocks the cradle
rules the world.
-mid 19th; Wallace
Happy is the country that has
no history.
-early 19th
Hard cases make bad law.
-mid 19th
He is a good dog who goes to
church.
-early 19th
He that drinks beer, thinks beer.
-early 19th
He that would go to sea for pleasure
would go to hell for a pastime.
-late 19th
He travels fastest who travels
alone.
-late 19th
He who pays the piper calls the
tune.
-late 19th
He who rides a tiger is afraid
to dismount.
-late 19th
Heaven protects children, sailors,
and drunken men.
-mid 19th
History repeats itself.
-mid 19th
Home is home, as the Devil said
when he found himself in the Court of Session.
-early 19th
Home is where the heart is.
-late 19th
Horses for courses.
-late 19th
Hurry no man’s cattle.
-early 19th
If at first you don’t succeed,
try ,try again.
-mid 19th
If ifs and ands were pots and
pans, there’d be no work for tinkers’ hands.
-mid 19th
If you don’t make mistakes
you don’t make anything.
-late 19th
If you play with fire you get
burnt.
-late 19th
If you want to live and thrive,
let the spider run alive.
-mid 19th
Imitation is the sincerest form
of flattery.
-early 19th
It is a poor heart the never
rejoices.
-mid 19th
It is best to be off with the
old love before you are on with the new.
-early 19th
It is better to travel hopefully
than to arrive.
-late 19th
It is not spring until you can
plant your foot upon twelve daisies.
-mid 19th
It is not work that kills, but
worry.
-late 19th
It is the pace that kills.
-mid 19th
It’s a sin to steal a pin.
-late 19th
It’s dogged as does it.
-mid 19th
It takes three generations to
make a gentleman.
-early 19th
Jam tomorrow and jam yesterday,
but never jam today.
-late 19th
Laugh and the world laughs with
you, weep and you weep alone.
-late 19th
Less is more.
-mid 19th, often associated with Mies van der Rohe
Let the dead bury the dead.
-early 19th
Life isn’t all beer and
skittles.
-mid 19th
Lightning never strikes the same
place twice.
-mid 19th
Little fish are sweet.
-early 19th
Long foretold, long last; short
notice, soon past.
-mid 19th
Love laughs at locksmiths.
-early 19th
Love makes the world go round.
-mid 19th, from a traditional French song
Man cannot live by bread alone.
-late 19th
A man is as old as he feels,
and a woman as old as she looks.
-late 19th
The man who is born in a stable
is not a horse.
-early 19th
A man who is his own lawyer has
a fool for his client.
-early 19th
Many are called but few are chosen.
-late 19th
May chickens come cheeping.
-late 19th
Moderation in all things.
-mid 19th
Monday’s child is fair of
face,
Tuesday’s child is
full of grace,
Wednesday’s child
is full of woe,
Thursday’s child has
far to go,
Friday’s child is
loving and giving,
Saturday’s child works
hard for its living,
And a child that’s
born on the Sabbath day
Is fair and wise and good
and gay.
-mid 19th
Never marry for money, but marry
where money is.
-late 19th
Never trouble trouble till trouble
troubles you.
-late 19th
No cure, no pay.
expression used on Lloyd’s of London’s Standard
Form of Salvage Agreement
-late 19th
No moon, no man.
-late 19th
Nothing is certain but the unforeseen.
-late 19th
Nothing so bad but it might have
been worse.
-late 19th
Nothing succeeds like success.
-mid 19th
The only good Indian is a dead
Indian.
-mid 19th
On the first of March, the crows
begin to search.
-mid 19th
Once a priest, always a priest.
-mid 19th
Once bitten, twice shy.
-mid 19th
One does not wash one’s
dirty linen in public.
-early 19th
One for sorrow; two for mirth,
three for a wedding, four for a birth.
referring to the number of magpies seen
-mid 19th
One for the mouse, one for the
crow, one to rot, one to grow.
referring to sowing seed
-mid 19th
One funeral makes many.
-late 19th
One law for the rich and another
for the poor.
-early 19th
One step at a time.
-mid 19th
One white foot, buy him; two
white feet, try him; three white feet, look well about him; four white feet,
go without him.
on horse-dealing
-late 19th
One year’s seeding makes
seven years weeding.
-late 19th
Out of the mouths of babes—.
-late 19th
Politics makes strange bedfellows.
-mid 19th
Power corrupts.
-late 19th
Praise the child, and you make
love to the mother.
-early 19th
Providence is always on the side
of the big battalions.
-early 19th
Punctuality is the politeness
of princes.
-mid 19th
Punctuality is the soul of business.
-mid 19th
Put your trust in God, and keep
your powder dry.
attributed to Oliver Cromwell
-mid 19th
Rain before seven, fine before
eleven.
-mid 19th
Revenge is a dish that can be
eaten cold.
-late 19th
Revolutions are not made with
rose-water.
-early 19th
Robin Hood could brave all weathers
but a thaw wind.
-mid 19th
Scratch a Russian and you find
a Tartar.
-early 19th
See a pin and pick it up, all
the day you’ll have good luck; see a pin and let it lie, bad luck you’ll
have all day.
-mid 19th
Self-praise is no recommendation.
-early 19th
The sharper the storm, the sooner
it’s over.
-late 19th
Shrouds have no pockets.
-mid 19th
Silence is golden.
-mid 19th
A sow may whistle, though it
has an ill mouth for it.
-early 19th
Speech is silver, but silence
is golden.
-mid 19th
A stern chase is a long chase.
stern chase = a chase in which the pursuing ship follows
directly in the wake of the pursued
-early 19th
Sticks and stones may break my
bones, but words will never hurt me.
-late 19th
Talk is cheap.
-mid 19th
Tastes differ.
-early 19th
There are more ways of killing
a cat than choking it with butter.
-mid 19th
There are more ways of killing
a dog than choking it with butter.
-mid 19th
There are two sides to every
question.
-early 19th
There is honour among thieves.
-early 19th
There is no royal road to learning.
-early 19th
There is nothing lost by civility.
-late 19th
There’s many a good cock
come out of a tattered bag.
-late 19th
Third time lucky.
-mid 19th
To the pure all things are pure.
-mid 19th
Trade follows the flag.
-late 19th
Truth is stranger than fiction.
-early 19th
The unexpected always happens.
-late 19th
A watched pot never boils.
-mid 19th
The way to a man’s heart
is through his stomach.
-early 19th
Whatever man has done, man may
do.
-mid 19th
What Manchester says today, the
rest of England says tomorrow.
-late 19th
What the soldier said isn’t
evidence.
-mid 19th
When in doubt, do nowt.
-late 19th
When the gorse is out of bloom,
kissing’s out of fashion.
-mid 19th
When the oak is before the ash,
then you will only get a splash; when the ash is before the oak, then you
may expect a soak.
-mid 19th
Where MacGregor sits at the head
of the table.
-mid 19th
Who says A must say B.
-mid 19th century, usually North American
Why should the devil have all
the best tunes?
-mid 19th
A willful man must have his way.
-early 19th
A woman’s place is in the
home.
-mid 19th
Yorkshire born and Yorkshire
bred, strong in the arm and weak in the head.
the names of other (chiefly northern) English counties and
towns are also used instead of Yorkshire
-mid 19th
You cannot get a quart into a
pint pot.
-late 19th
You cannot make an omelette without
breaking eggs.
-mid 19th
You don’t get something
for nothing.
-late 19th
You never know what you can do
till you try.
-early 19th
You pays your money and you takes
your choice.
-mid 19th
You should know a man seven years
before you stir his fire.
-early 19th
Youth must be served.
-early 19th
NOTE: Some of this information
can be found in The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations
