Proverbs

Proverbs are short and witty sayings or phrases used by people. Proverbs express a principle, advice, warning or reality. Proverbs are generally used in a slang sense.

The characteristics of proverbs are:

• The proverb is short.
• Proverbs usually express a principle or advice.
• Proverbs have metaphorical meaning.
• The meaning of the proverb is easily understood.

The purposes of proverbs are:

• Providing public education.
• Making people’s lives beautiful and orderly.
• To inculcate honest and moral qualities in people.
• To create alertness and caution in people.

Different types of Proverbs include:

Motto Proverbs: These proverbs express a principle or advice. For example, “Excessive devotion is a sign of a thief.”
Adverbial Proverb: An exhortation is expressed in this proverb. For example, “Listen not to a fool.”
Warning Proverb: This proverb expresses a warning. For example, “eating house flies without eating fish.”
Factual Proverb: This proverb expresses a fact. E.g., “First the seer, then the riches.”
Proverbs are invaluable resources of the Bengali language. The diversity and richness of Bengali language is revealed through proverbs. Proverbs are also an important part of Bengali literature. The proverb has been used in various genres of Bengali literature.

By using Proverb we can enrich and strengthen our language. Through proverbs we can gain knowledge and advice in various areas of our life.

Here has given most of the common Proverb:

• Too much cunning overreaches itself.
• Hide in a superficial way.
• To beat about the bush.
• Riches do not last long.
• Waste not, want not.
• A woman’s weapon is her tongue.
• One unlucky, always unlucky.

• Money is the root of all evils.
• To try one’s utmost.
• While there is life, there is hope. ‘
• To make a mountain out of a molehill-
• A rotten sheep infects the flock.

• Non-violence is a supreme virtue.
• Every dog is a lion at home.
• Even a fool knows his business.
• To hoist with one’s own petard.
• The child of a rich parents.

• Interest is sweeter than the principal.
• Where there is a will, there is a way.
• What God wills is for good.
• Morning shows the day.
• Set a thief to catch a thief

• One swallow does not make a summer.
• To blow hot and cold in the same breath.
• A cat has nine lives.
• Ill got, ill spent.
• It is easy to say, but difficult to do.

• To think twice.
• To be desperate.
• To exact to the last penny.
• Money makes marriages.
• You will know now what’s what.

• Out of debt, out of danger.
• No pains no gains.
• To be spoilt at early youth.
• To strike the iron while it is hot.
• One aven will not pluck another’s eyes.

• Busy for nothing.
• To give a dog a bad name and hang him.
• Given the one, the other will follow.
• To put all the waste buttons in the collection box.
• What is sport to the cat is death to the rat.

• Necessity never makes a bargain.
• Habit is the second nature.
• Like father, like son
• The more you read, the more you learn.
• Cheap goods are dear in the long run. 

• To the pure all things are pure. 
• Let us wait to see the conclusion. 
• It is a pity, he is good for nothing. 
• To make free will public property.
• Hungry dog is an angry dog.

• To feel ill at ease.
• Necessity knows no law.
• To bring a calamity by one’s own imprudence.
• Hunger is the best sauce.
• Nobody listens to the advice of an ordinary man, however good it may prove in the long run.

• Labour of love
• You must not see things with half an eye.
• There are lees to every wine.
• The pot calls the kettle black.
• Like dog, like hammer.

• As is the evil, so is the remedy.
• O the times, O the manner
• Try your best, and you will win.
• To see sparks before the eyes.
• Out of sight, out of mind.

• He runs with the hare and hunts with the sounds.
• The devil would not listen to the scriptures.
• To rob the robber.
• Scapegoat of the family.
• A carpet knight.

• Virtue proclaims itself.
• Give him an inch and he take an ell.
• To build castles in the air.
• Don’t nag me and leave me in peace.
• The sheep return to the flock.

• To teach the guilty a lesson by railing at the innocent.
• Riches have wings.
• Money begets money.
• To gain without spending.
• Faults are thick where love is thin.

• Weal and woe come by turns.
• Habit is the second nature.
• Two heads are better than one.
• Many a little makes a mickle.
• Waste not, want not.

• To make sure something without risking anything.
• To be careless about what happens.
• Danger often comes where danger is feared.
• He who gets the power misuses it.
• Though he is careless to make his mark, others are moving.

• Danger often comes where danger is feared.
• After meat comes mustard.
• I have caught a Tartar, so there is a great disgrace in store for me.
• One cannot really feel for another.
• Pain is forgotten where gain follows.

• All that is old is not bad.
• Silence seldom doth provoke.
• To run with the hare and hunt with the sounds.
• Give him an inch and he will take an ell.
• The chip is tougher than the old block.

• To cast pearls before swine.
• To beat about the bush.
• Childish behaviour of an old man.
• Everybody’s business is nobody’s business.
• Fortune favours the brave.

• Lost credit is like a broken glass.
• A bad workman quarrels with his tools.
• Ill news runs apace.
• Death keeps no time.
• Where there’s will, there’s a way.
• To be tarred with same brush.

• Coquetry under the guise of modesty.
• An angels face with a devil’s mind.
• One swallow does not make a summer.
• If you laugh today you may cry tomorrow.
• To be abused them we do good.

• Law-makers are law-breakers.
• To kill two birds with one stone.
• Handsome is that handsome does
• As you sow so you reap.
• A bolt from the blue.
• Don’t nag me, leave me in peace.

• Make hay while sun shines.
• To make a mountain out of a molehill
• A little learning is a dangerous thing.
• What is lotted cannot be Blotted.
• A friend in need is a friend indeed.

• A tree is known by its fruit.
• A bad workman quarrels with tools.
• A stitch in time saves nine.
• All’s well that ends well.
• All that glitters is not gold.

• Faults are thick where love is thin.
• A beggar has nothing to lose.
• A drowning man catches at a straw.
• A burnt child fears the fire.
• God never sends mouths but He sends meat.

• You are doomed here and hereafter.
• Something is better than nothing.
• A man is known by the company he keeps.
• A fool to others, himself a sage.
• Blessings are not valued till they are gone.

• Beggars must not be choosers.
• Better an empty house than an ill tenant.
• Birds of the same feather flock together.
• Black will take no other hue.
• He is ignorant of the rudiments of this subject.

• After death comes the doctor.
• Diligence is the mother of good luck.
• Barking dog seldom bites.
• Cut your coat according to your cloth
• Crying in wilderness.

• Money makes the mare go.
• To be between two stools.
• Like father like son.
• Look before you leap.
• Misfortune does not come alone.

• Master’s will is law.
• Too much courtesy, too much craft.
• Many men many minds.
• Might is right.
• Mind your own business / Oil your own machine.

• No smoke without fire.
• No pains no gains.
• The cobbler must stick to his last.
• To be quick to occupy.
• Diamond cut diamonds.

• A barking dog seldom bites.
• None but the brave deserves the fair.
• Out of sight, out of mind.
• One swallow does not make a summer.
• Cheap goods are dear in the long run.
• Charity begins at home.

• To act on the spur of the moment.
• To bring on calamity by one own imprudence.
• Don’t build castle in the air.
• Empty vessels sound much.
• Every man is for himself.

• Faults are thick where love is thin.
• Grasp all lose all.
• Good wine needs no bush.
• Hunger is the best sauce.
• Honesty is the best policy.

• Ill got ill spent.
• To lock the stable door when the steen is stolen.
• A stitch in time saves nine
• A mad man and an animal have no difference.
• To bell the cat.

•  It takes two to make a quarrel.
• Industry is the key to success.
• To cast pearls before swine.
• Too much courtesy too much craft.
• The grapes are sour.

• Self-preservation is the first law of nature.
• Black will take no other hue.
• Tit for tat.
• Too many cooks spoil the broth.
• To rob peter to pay paul.

• To cut off one’s nose to spite one’s face.
• To count chickens before they are hatched.
• Ill weeds grow apace.
• It is hard to sit at Rome and strive with pope
• The very ruins of greatness are great.

• Penny wise pound foolish.
• Patience is bitter, but its fruit is sweet.
• It is kind of you to send me the book.
• He talks are if he knew everything.
• The very ruins of greatness as great.

• Industry is the mother of good luck.
• Fifth columnist.
• Everybody respects men of character.
• A Newton is not born every year.
• I am to see him.

• What God wills is for good.
• To kill two birds with one stone.
• He is a blockhead.
• He is not afraid of any undertaking.
• No pains no gains