Proverbs from George Chapman

Found 214 related proverbs. Click on any proverb below to view the full analysis and original text.

• A32 As deaf as an ADDER
• A95 As mad as AJAX, who killed sheep
• A172 Bear (Take, Suffer) this, bear (take, suffer) ALL
• A242 There spoke an ANGEL
• A351 An ASS in a lion's skin
• A356 An ASS laden with gold climbs to the top of the castle
• B221 The BEETLE flies over many a sweet flower and lights in a cowshard
• B234 I know him as well as the BEGGAR knows his dish¹
• B260 A hard BEGINNING has (makes) a good ending
• B298 Hold (Fill), BELLY, hold (fill)
• B458 BLOOD will have blood
• B522 To give one a BONE to pick
• B579 To be one's white BOY (son)
• B596 To bear a BRAIN
• B612 BREAD is a binder
• B641 He runs himself out of BREATH
• B670 To bite upon the BRIDLE
• B681 Little BROOKS make great rivers
• B736 BUSH natural, more hair than wit
• B741 One BUSH (grove) cannot harbor two robin red-breasts
• C19 You would have the CALF with the white face
• C21 Essex CALVES
• C23 Everyone must walk (labor) in his own CALLING (vocation)
• C27 The CAMEL going to seek horns lost his ears
• C50 When CANDLES be out (At night) all cats be gray
• C59 A CANTERBURY TALE
• C126 To build CASTLES in the air
• C129 As melancholy as a gibbed CAT
• C202 Remove the CAUSE and the effect will cease
• C207 As straight (tall) as a CEDAR
• C326 Better CHILDREN weep than old men
• C409 The greatest CLERKS are not the wisest men
• C460 Let them that be acold blow at the COAL
• C467 To fetch over the COALS
• C522 Of a ragged COLT comes a good horse
• C540 I CAME, saw, and overcame
• C576 COMPARISONS are odious
• C590 CONFESSION of a fault pardons it
• C597 A clear CONSCIENCE laughs at (fears not) false accusations
• C644 A Cooling CARD
• C667 The CORRUPTION of one is the generation of another
• C711 So many COUNTRIES so many laws (customs)
• C761 Many a good COW has an ill (evil) calf
• C765 Who bulls the COW must keep the calf
• C828 If one dwell by (next door to) a CRIPPLE he will learn to halt
• C864 From the CROWN of the head to the sole of the foot
• C886 To send one to CUCKOLD's haven
• C938 Come CUT and longtail
• D216 DESPAIR (Love) makes cowards courageous (desperate)
• D252 The DEVIL is known by his claws (cloven feet, horns)
• D357 A desperate DISEASE must have a desperate cure
• D388 Lie not in the DITCH and say God help me
• D395 DO as you would be done to
• D405 Self DO self have
• D508 To call a DOG a dog
• D609 It is best DRINKING at the fountain (wellhead, spring)
• D632 To make DUCKS and drakes with one's money
• E21 To carry one by the EARS like a pot (pitcher)
• E107 He is out of his ELEMENT
• E121 Everything has an END and a pudding¹ has two
• E131 He goes in at the wide END of the horn and is squeezed out at the small end
• E171a ENVY is the companion of honor
• E190 The EVENING crowns (praises) the day
• E235 Have an EYE (Look) to the main chance
• F63 As soon may you get a FART of a dead man (horse)
• F106 For FAULT (want) of a better
• F117 Who is in FAULT (guilty) suspects everybody
• F135 FEAR (Suspicion) is one part of prudence
• F138 Foolish FEAR doubles danger
• F277 One FIRE (heat) drives out another
• F287 To quench FIRE with oil
• F307 FISH is cast away that is cast into dry pools
• F347 FLATTERERS look like friends, as wolves like dogs
• F407 It is no FLYING without wings
• F562 Do not make the FOOT the head
• F588 FORECAST is better than work-hard (as good as work)
• G7 Light GAINS make heavy purses
• G128 GIVING much to the poor does increase a man's store
• G156 They that cannot GO before must come behind
• G188 GOD has done his part
• G251 Those that GOD loves do not live long (The good die young)
• G352 A GOOSE cannot graze after him
• G375 To cut the GORDIAN KNOT
• G421 To let no GRASS (moss) grow on one's heel
• G446 The greater GRIEF (sorrow) drives out the less
• G470 Who builds upon another's GROUND loses both mortar and stones
• G473 To swallow (gape for) a GUDGEON
• H147 As fearful as a HARE
• H165 So HARES may pull dead lions by the beard
• H219 To shipwreck in the HAVEN (harbor)
• H248 He has thy HEAD under his girdle
• H317 I will not set at my HEART what I should set at my heel (what you set at your heel)
• H373 Take HEED (Beware) of a reconciled enemy (friend)
• H391 To cool one's HEELS
• H436 HERCULES himself cannot deal with two
• H563 It is but HONEYMOON with them
• H813 HUNGER drops out of his nose
• I84 To be high in the INSTEP
• I88 You are IPSE (he, the man)
• I94 It is good to strike while the IRON is hot
• I99 He has many (other) IRONS in the fire
• J101 To drink the JUICE of mandrake (mandragora)
• K1 KA¹ me ka thee
• K87 KINGS have long arms (ears, hands)
• L20 What do you LACK?
• L68 The LAPWING cries most when farthest from her nest
• L69 Like a LAPWING that runs away with the shell on its head
• L186 A LEG (pestle) of a lark is better than the body of a kite
• L277 A LIGHTENING (lightning) before death
• L280 LIGHTNING (Thunder) bruises the tree (melts the marrow) but breaks not the bark (skin)
• L304 Bring your LINE to the wall, not wall to line
• L319 If the LION's skin cannot the fox's shall
• L406 No LOCK will hold against the power of gold
• L510 LOVE is never without jealousy
• L518 LOVE (Woman, Honor), like a shadow (crocodile, death), flies one following and pursues one fleeing
• L551 Where LOVE is there is faith (Where there is no trust there is no love)
• M1 You might carry (have) an M under your girdle
• M79 A black MAN is a pearl (jewel) in a fair woman's eye
• M94 A drunken MAN (Drunken folk) seldom catches (take) harm
• M159 A hasty (angry) MAN never wants woe
• M162 He is (is not) a MAN of God's making
• M315 No living MAN all things can
• M519 Good MEN are a public good
• M555 MEN (Men's love), not walls, make the city (prince) safe
• M610 Young MEN think old men fools but old men know that young men be fools
• M628 Let him mend his MANNERS, it will be his own another day
• M676 You may know how the MARKET goes by the market folks
• M682 MARRIAGE is destiny
• M832 No MEAT for mowers (your mowing)
• M847 The wholesomest MEAT is at another man's cost
• M898 It is in their MERCY that kings come closest to gods
• M931 As white as MILK
• M1097 To get MONEY from him is like pulling teeth
• M1105 MONMOUTH CAPS
• M1149 The MORE one drinks (eats) the more one may
• M1217 To promise MOUNTAINS (golden mountains)
• M1265 What is sweet in the MOUTH is oft sour (bitter) in the maw (stomach)
• M1319 A MUSHROOM grows in a night
• M1330 MUST is for the king
• N42 NATURE abhors a vacuum
• N43 NATURE does nothing in vain
• N100 To walk (stand) on NEEDLES' points
• N160 In the NICK (nick of time)
• N167 Dark NIGHT is Cupid's day
• N210 To ring NOON on one's head
• P37 The straighter (higher) grows the PALM the heavier the weight it bears
• P181 I will take you a PEG (buttonhole, hole) lower
• P328 To be tossed from PILLAR (post) to post (pillar, pillory)
• P399 When PLAY (game, jest) is best it is time to leave
• P420 There is no PLEASURE without pain
• P462 POLICY goes beyond strength
• P483 The PORPOISE (dolphin) plays before a storm
• P537a PRACTICE what you preach
• P540 PRAISE by evil men is dispraise
• P576 PRIDE goes before and shame (ambition) comes after
• P595 To break PRISCIAN's head
• P600 The PROFIT of the commonwealth should be preferred to a private pleasure
• R4 To lie at RACK and manger
• R59 Do not wear RED before a bull nor white before an elephant
• R122 Extreme RIGHT (justice) is extreme wrong (injustice, injury)
• R136 The RISING of one man is the falling of another
• R174 To twist (make) a ROPE of sand
• R200 He is only fit for RUFFIAN's HALL
• S35 To follow one like a SAINT ANTHONY's PIG
• S42 Like SAINT GEORGE, who is ever on horseback yet never rides
• S214 Be what thou would SEEM to be
• S217 SELF do self have
• S271 Past SHAME past amendment (Shame once found is lost)
• S284 To lick into SHAPE
• S392 Keep thy SHOP and thy shop will keep thee
• S429 To have a blind SIDE
• S473 Successful (Prosperous) SIN passes for virtue
• S507 He is ready to leap out of his SKIN for joy
• S613 SOME wiser than some
• S684 You have the SOW by the right (wrong) ear
• S685 You take the wrong SOW by the ear
• S937 It is good to have two STRINGS to one's bow
• S979 The rising, not the setting, SUN is worshiped by most men
• S989 When the SUN is highest he casts the least shadow
• S992 Two SUNS cannot shine in one sphere
• T130 A good THING cannot be too often spoken
• T166 All THINGS by strife engender
• T199 THINGS are not as they seem
• T221 They that THINK none ill are soonest beguiled (They that do no harm suspect none)
• T229 He cuts large THONGS of other men's leather
• T247 Second THOUGHTS are best
• T324 TIME brings the truth to light
• T424 Good that the TEETH guard the tongue
• T443 A TORCH turned downward is extinguished by its own wax
• T566 Speak the TRUTH and shame the devil
• T587 TRUTH seeks no corners
• V50 Do not triumph before the VICTORY
• V68 To nourish a VIPER (snake) in one's bosom
• V95 The VOICE of the people is the voice of God
• W58 WARs are sweet to them who know them not
• W109 To look to one's WATER
• W114 To write in WATER (sand)
• W238 An ill WEED grows apace (fast, well)
• W422 Keep (Save) your WIND (breath) to cool your pottage (porridge, broth)
• W441 What WIND blew (brought) you hither?
• W445 When the WIND is in the west the weather is at the best
• W456 To come in at the WINDOW (o'er the hatch)
• W552 He has WIT at will
• W607 Speak of the WOLF and he will appear
• W651 A WOMAN either loves or hates to extremes
• W668 Take a WOMAN's first counsel and not her second
• W676 A WOMAN's tongue is the last thing about her that dies
• W681 All WOMEN may be won
• W715 WOMEN must have their wills while they live because they make none when they die
• W727 WONDER (Marvel, Admiration) is the daughter of ignorance
• W731 WOO, wed, and bed (wear) her
• W749 Happy (Blessed) is the WOOING that is not long a doing
• W793 Fair WORDS hurt not the mouth (tongue)
• W924 The WORTH of a thing is best known by the want