English Colloguial Sayings

Let the world slide, let the world go;
A fig for care, and a fig or woe!
If I can't pay, why I can owe,
And death makes equal the high and
low.

All a green willow is my garland
[The Green Willow]

Haste Maketh waste.

Beware of, Had I wist.

Good to be merie and wise.

Beaten with his owne rod.

Look ere ye leape.

He that will not when he may,
When he would he shall have nay.

The fat is in the fire.

When the sunne shineth, make hay.

When the iron is hot, strike.
[You should hammer your iron when it is glowing hot. Publius Syrus: Maxim 262; Strike whilst the iron is hot. Rabelais.]

The tide tarrieth no man.
[Hoist up saile while gale doth last,
Tide and wind stay no man's pleasure.
Robert Southwell: St. Peter's Complaint 1595]

Than catch and hold while I may, fast binde, fast finde.
[Fast bind, fast find;
A proverb never stale in thrifty mind.
Shakespeare: Merchant of Venice, Act II, sc. 5, L 54]

And while I at length debate and beate
the bush.
There shall seppe in other men and
catch the burdes.
[It is this proverb which Henry V is reported to have uttered at the siege of Orleans. "Shall I beat the bush and another take the bird?" said King Henry.]

While betweene two stooles my taile goe
to the ground.
[Entre deux arcouns chet cul à terre. (Between two stools one sits on the ground. - Les Proverbes del Vilain, M. S. Bodleian circa 1303]

So many heads so many wits.
[As many men, so many minds. Terrence: Phormio, II, 4.; As the saying is, So many heades, so many wittes. Queen Elizabeth: Godly Meditacyon of the Christian Soule 1548; So many men so many mindes. Gascoigne: Glass of Government] ]

Wedding is destiny, And hanging likewise.
[Hanging and wiving go by destiny. The Schole-hous for Women 1541. Shakespeare: Merchant of Venice, Act II, Sc. 9, L 83; Marriage and hanging go by destiny; matches are made in heaven. Burton: Anatomy of Melancholy, Part III, Sec. 2, Memb. 5, Subsect. 5]

Happy man, happy dole.

God never sends th' mouth but he sendeth meat.

Like will to like

A hard beginning maketh a good ending.

When the skie falth we shall have Larkes.
[Si les nues tomboyent esperoyt prendre les alouettes [If the clouds fall, one may hope to catch larkes]. Rebelais: Book I, Chap. XI]

More frayd than hurt.

Feare may force a man to cast beyond the moone.
[To "cast beyond the moon" is a phrase in frequent use by the old writers. Lyly: Euphues. P. 78. Thomas Heywood: A Woman Killed with Kindness.]

Nothing is impossible to a willing hart.

The wise man sayth, store is no sore.

Let the world wagge, and take mine ease in myne Inne.
[Let the world slide. Skakespaeare: Taming of the Shrew, Ind. I, L. 6 and, Let the world slip, Ind. 2, L. 146; Shall I not take mine ease in mine inn? Shakespeare: Henry IV, Part I, Act III, Sc. 3, L 91]]

Rule the rost.

Hold their noses to grinstone.

Better to give than to take.

When all candles bee out, all cats be gray.

No man ought to looke a given horse in the mouth.

I perfectly feele even at my fingers end.

A sleveless errand.

We both be at our wites end.

Reckeners without their host must recken twice.

A day after the faire.

Cut my cote after my cloth.

The neer to the church, the further from God.

Now for good lucke, cast an old shooe after me.

Better is to bow then breake.

I hurteth not the toung to give faire words.

Two heads are better then one.

A short horse is soone currid.

To tell tales out of schoole.

To hold with the hare and run with the hound.

She is nether fish nor flesh, nor good red herring.

All is well that endes well.

Of a good beginning cometh a good end.

She had seene far in a milstone.

Better late than never.

When the steede is stolne, shut the stable durre.

Pryde will have a fall;
For pryde goeth before and shame commeth after.

She looketh as butter would not melt in her mouth.

The still sowe eats up alla the draffe.

Ill weede growth fast.

It is a deere collop
That is cut out of th'owne flesh.

Beggars should be no choosers.

Every cocke is proud on his owne dung-
hill.

The rolling stone never gathereth mosse.

To robbe Peter and pay Poule.

A man may well bring a horse to the
water,
But he cannot make him drinke without he will.

Men say, kinde will creepe where it may
not goe .

The cat wuld eate fish, and wuld not
wet her feete.

While the grasse gorweth the horse
starveth.

Better one byrde in hand than ten in the
wood.

Rome was not built in one day.

Yee have many strings to your bowe.

Many small make a great.

Children learne to creepe ere they can
learne to goe.

Better is halfe a lofe than no bread.

Nought venter nought have.

Children and fooles cannot lye.

Set all at sixe and seven.

All is fish that co m th to net.

Who is worse shod than the shoemaker's
wife?

One good t urne asketh an o ther.

By hooke or crooke.

She frieth in her owne grease.

Who waite for dead men shall goe long
barefoote.

I pray thee let me and my fellow have
A haire of the dog that bit us last night.

But in deede,
A friend is never knowne till a man have
neede.

This wonder [as wonders last] lasted
nine daies.

New brome swepth cleene.

All thing is the woorse for the wearing.

Burnt child fire dredth.

All is not Gospell that thou doest
speake.

Love me litle, love me long

A fooles bolt is soone shot

A woman hath nine lives like a cat.

A peny for your thought.

You stand in your owne light.

Though chaunge be no robbry.

Might have gone further and have fared
worse.

They grey mare is the better horse.

Three may keepe counsayle, if two be
away.

Small pitchers have wyde eares.

Many hands make light warke.

The greatest Clerkes be not the wisest
men.

Out of Gods blessing into the warme
Sunne.

There is no fire without some smoke.

One swallow m aketh not s ummer.

Fieldes have eies and wods have eares.

A cat may looke on a King.

It is a foule byrd that fyleth his owne
nest.

Have yee him on the hip.

Hee must have a long spoone, shall eat
with the devill.

It had need to bee
A wylie mouse that should breed in the
cats eare.

Leape out of the frying pan into the
fyre.

Time trieth troth in every doubt.

Mad as a march hare.

Much water goeth by the mill
That the miller knoweth not of.

He must needes goe whom the devill
doth drive.

Set the cart before the horse.

The moe the merrier.

To th' end of a shot and beginning of a
fray.

It is better to be
An old man's derling than a yong man's
werling.

Be the day never so long,
Evermore at last they ring to evensong.

The moone is made of a greene cheese.

I know on wich sie my bread is buttered.

It will not out of the flesh that is bred
in the bone.

Who is so deafe or so blinde as is hee
That wilfully will neither heare nor
see?

The wrong sow by th' eare.

Went in at the tone eare and out at the
tother.

Love me, love my dog.

An ill winde that bloweth no man to
good.

For when I gave you an inch, you tooke
an ell.

Would you both eat your cake and have
your cake?

Every man for himselfe and God for us
all.

Though he love not to buy the pig in
the poke.

This hitteth the naile on the hed.

Enough is as good as a feast.