English proverbs

The saying expresses a traditional, male-dominated view that a household is disordered when a wife is more outspoken or influential than her husband. Its image treats the cock as the expected leader and the hen’s louder voice as an inversion of that hierarchy.

The saying warns that apparent quietness may be read as concealing strong, troublesome emotions or intentions. Here “humours” uses an older sense: moods, temperaments, or emotional dispositions, rather than things thought funny.

In a quarrel or delicate situation, restraint can prevent further damage. Saying less leaves fewer words to regret, explain, retract, or turn into fresh grounds for offence.

The saying observes that decline can happen more quickly or easily than improvement. Its contrast between falling and rising is figurative: a person, plan, reputation, or condition may slip downward with little effort, while recovery or advancement demands greater persistence.

The saying offers reassurance that troubles, damage, or strained circumstances may improve with time. It encourages patience by directing attention away from the present difficulty toward a hoped-for eventual repair.

The proverb advises accepting a limited benefit when the preferable outcome is not realistically available. Having only part of what one needs may be disappointing, but it is still more useful than receiving nothing at all.

March is characterized by frequent changes in weather. The compressed wording presents the month as bringing a mixture of conditions rather than one settled pattern, rather than predicting the weather in any particular March or place.

The saying portrays a situation in which people are expected to protect their own interests rather than rely on one another. Its appeal to God adds a grim acknowledgement that help for everyone may have to come from beyond human solidarity, and may be unsuitable where religious language is sensitive.

The saying voices appreciation for being alive, presenting life as pleasurable, precious, and worth savoring. It may express contentment in an ordinary moment or a broad affirmation of existence.

Commit only after considering whether you can truly meet an obligation. Careful promises protect others from disappointment and protect your word from becoming unreliable.

Careful, restrained spending is portrayed as wealth in its own right. By preserving resources that might otherwise be wasted, thrift can provide security and independence comparable to having property or a secure material position.

Living within one’s means and avoiding needless expense can build resources that make later life more secure and comfortable. The easy chair is figurative, suggesting rest and relief in old age rather than a literal purchase.

The saying stresses discernment in communication: words can be necessary in one moment, while silence may be the wiser response in another. Neither speaking nor remaining quiet is presented as universally best.

Trying to seize every possible advantage can leave a person with nothing. The saying warns that unchecked greed and overreaching often destroy even the gains already within reach.

Keep searching or working toward a goal instead of abandoning the effort too soon. The saying presents finding what is sought as the result that makes the work worthwhile.

The saying urges people to allow others to make their own harmless choices rather than trying to control, criticize, or interfere with them. It favors reciprocal tolerance: one seeks freedom for oneself while extending the same freedom to others.

The saying warns that worthwhile results do not arise from doing nothing. It presents useful work, improvement, or achievement as requiring effort rather than passivity.

The saying observes that the loudest amusement, mockery, or bravado often comes from people who face little personal risk if events turn out badly. Those with money, status, safety, or responsibility at stake may have less freedom to treat the matter lightly.

A single falsehood often creates pressure for further falsehoods. Once someone has misrepresented the truth, they may need additional inventions to preserve the first deception or avoid its consequences.

The saying presents a wife as the person whose care, judgment, and daily work hold a household together. “Key” suggests practical control of the home as well as an indispensable role in its order and security.

The saying observes a paradox: people regarded as idle may still spend considerable effort or trouble—here, “pains” does not mean physical suffering—especially on matters that do not amount to useful work. It contrasts busyness or fussing with purposeful labour.

The saying favors holding the leading place in a humble or less distinguished group over occupying the lowest rank in a more prestigious one. It presents status as relative: being first may matter more than belonging to what is generally admired.

Something may be genuinely good and still be surpassed. When two options are both worthwhile, the superior one deserves preference: “carries it” means wins or takes precedence, not physically carrying anything.

Ambitious undertakings, powerful people, or large institutions require conditions proportionate to their scale. Great capacity cannot be properly used where the available space, resources, or freedom is too limited.

The saying scorns a crowd as numerous yet irrational. It contrasts the many individual heads in a mob with an alleged absence of collective judgment, reason, or thoughtful direction.

The saying contrasts the expense and trouble of creating something from scratch with the advantage of acquiring it after someone else has done the hard work.

People are entitled to their own tastes and choices, even when those preferences strike others as peculiar, unattractive, or hard to understand.

Close, informed oversight helps work and property prosper. The proverb presents an owner's regular attention as a practical force that prevents neglect and encourages proper care.

The saying presents wisdom as a basis for peace: sound judgment can reduce conflict and help people live together more securely.

The saying judges a person or thing as inadequate if it cannot support itself or repay the resources needed to keep it going. A horse unable to carry its own feed represents an unproductive burden.

When an expected good is repeatedly postponed, the strain of waiting can become emotionally painful. The proverb treats disappointment not as a trivial inconvenience but as something that can wear down a person's spirits and resilience.

Love depends on faith: affection cannot endure where trust is absent. Although “faith” can also suggest broader belief, the paired wording most strongly points to interpersonal trust.

This traditional saying suggests that a person with an obvious physical hindrance may make as much progress as someone whose unsteady conduct repeatedly wastes effort. Difficulty alone does not determine how far a person gets.

A generous person does not merely give when prompted. Their plans, choices, and aims are shaped from the outset by a willingness to benefit others.

When confronted with a stubborn, troublesome person or an awkward matter, proceed with patience and gentleness rather than pressure. A calm, polished manner may succeed where forceful treatment only meets further resistance.

Even a period that feels exceptionally long, tiring, or difficult will eventually be over. The saying offers patience by reminding someone that no ordeal continues without end.

The saying advises against rushing ordinary tasks. It treats haste as rarely worthwhile, reserving it humorously for a small, fleeting target that may escape at once.

The saying expresses confidence that what God intends to endure cannot be destroyed by adversity. Frost represents a force that may damage living things, yet is portrayed as powerless against an outcome held to be under divine protection.

Money or property acquired through wrongdoing is thought likely to be wasted, lost, or used in harmful ways. The saying presents dishonest gain as unstable and ultimately unprofitable.

Even a creature with little strength can overcome a substantial obstacle by working at it steadily over a long period. Small, repeated efforts may achieve what a single forceful attempt cannot.

Cleverness and experience can help a person evade danger, yet an opponent who finally outwits them may possess greater skill, knowledge, or patience.

The saying warns that wealth can cloud everyone's judgment. Even people who might otherwise notice wrongdoing, unfairness, or poor character may overlook it when money, luxury, or profit is in view.

Praise that is lukewarm, grudging, or notably limited can communicate contempt rather than approval. By stressing how little is admirable, the speaker may leave a more negative impression than an open criticism would.

Immediate need makes delay feel worse than it may be. A person suffering from want may judge the provider of relief as slow, careless, or neglectful.

Grief may become less acute as time passes. It frames emotional recovery as gradual, rather than something that can always be forced or completed immediately.

The saying describes someone as so lacking in judgment or basic knowledge that they cannot tell one plainly different thing from another. It is a sharp, often insulting way to question a person's competence in the matter at hand.

Do not turn another person's weakness, illness, limitation, or misfortune into a joke. The saying condemns amusement gained by exposing vulnerabilities that may already cause the other person pain or embarrassment.

The saying describes escaping one unpleasant or risky situation only to enter another that is worse. It emphasizes that a change meant as relief can intensify the very hardship, danger, or pressure one hoped to avoid.

A voluntary, informed swap is not theft: when each side freely agrees to trade, neither has been robbed merely because something changes hands.

Experience can teach valuable lessons, but those lessons often come at a cost through mistakes, disappointment, or difficulty.