Proverbs from Jonathan Swift

Found 383 related proverbs. Click on any proverb below to view the full analysis and original text.

• A8 ABRAHAM's bosom
• A61 AFTER YOU is good manners
• A99 ALE (Liquor) that would make a cat speak
• A103 Good ALE is meat, drink, and cloth
• A112 ALL are not friends that speak us fair
• A141 ALL is lost that falls beside¹ one's own mouth
• B13 His BACK is broad enough to bear jests
• B129 If it were a BEAR (wolf) it would bite you
• B139 He that is BORN to be hanged (drowned) shall never be drowned (hanged)
• B287a The BELLY is the truest clock
• B290 The BELLY thinks the throat cut
• B291 Better BELLY burst than good drink (meat) lost
• B299 I wish it were in your BELLY for me
• B301 My BELLY cries cupboard
• B305 A BELLYFUL is a bellyful though it be but of chopped hay
• B335 To be no BETTER than one (it) should be
• B374 I heard a BIRD sing (A little bird said so)
• B401 You catch BIRDS by laying salt on their tails
• B406 The BISHOP has put his foot in it
• B480 BLUSHING (Bashfulness) is virtue's color (is a sign of grace)
• B506 More (Not so) BOLD than (as) welcome (wise)
• B512 To have shot one's BOLT
• B523 To have a BONE in one's arm (leg)
• B581 To leave BOY's play and fall (go) to blowpoint
• B605 BRANDY is Latin¹ for a goose
• B613 BREAD is the staff of life
• B653 This must be if we BREW (sell ale)
• B667 To make a BRIDGE of one's nose
• B688 The younger BROTHER is the better (ancienter) gentleman
• B698 If you be angry you may turn the BUCKLE of your girdle behind you
• B761 The BUTCHER looked for his knife when he had it in his mouth
• B770 BUTTER is gold in the morning, silver at noon, and lead at night
• B772 BUTTER is mad twice a year
• B774 He looks as if BUTTER would not melt in his mouth
• B787 To be BOUGHT and sold
• C57 Who was killed by a CANNON BULLET was cursed in his mother's belly
• C76 CARDS are the devil's books
• C94 Such (Like) CARPENTER such (like) chips
• C182 It rains CATS and dogs
• C197 He was born with a CAUL
• C211 Without CERES and Bacchus Venus grows cold
• C234 To be no CHANGELING
• C318 To christen one's own CHILD first
• C384 Choke up, the CHURCHYARD is nigh
• C387 Lay not a CHURL upon a gentleman
• C389 CIDER is treacherous because it smiles in a man's face and then cuts his throat
• C438 He is in the CLOTH MARKET
• C581 COMPLIMENTING is lying
• C613 To put on one's CONSIDERING CAP
• C639 You starve in a COOK's shop
• C663 You measure everyone's CORN by your own bushel
• C667 The CORRUPTION of one is the generation of another
• C668 The CORRUPTION of the best is worst
• C682 The COUNSEL thou wouldst have another keep first keep thyself
• C740 Marry come up, my dirty COUSIN
• C772 Till the COWS come home
• C834 CROSS I win, pile you lose
• C870 To leap at a CRUST
• C872 I am sorry for thee but I cannot CRY
• C880 If a CUCKOLD come he'll take away the meat if there be no salt on the table
• C902 As great as CUP and can
• C904 A CUP in the pate is a mile in the gait
• C926 As sick as a CUSHION
• D60 The better DAY the better deed
• D118 My dancing DAYS are done
• D123 You burn DAYLIGHT
• D176 There is no DECEIT in a brimmer
• D188 The DEEPER the sweeter
• D219 As innocent as a DEVIL of two years old
• D243 The DEVIL is at home
• D245 The DEVIL is ever kind to his own
• D249 The DEVIL is good when he is pleased
• D268 The DEVIL (The devil and all) to pay
• D277 He looks as the DEVIL looked over Lincoln
• D291 One had as good eat the DEVIL as the broth he is boiled in
• D295 That will come when the DEVIL is blind
• D299 To hug one as the DEVIL hugs a witch
• D308 Where had the DEVIL the friar but where he was?
• D323 DIAMONDS cut diamonds
• D334 There is DIFFERENCE between staring and stark-blind (stark-mad)
• D427 The best DOCTORS (physicians) are Dr. Diet, Dr. Quiet, and Dr. Merryman
• D432 Ill DOERS are ill deemers
• D463 A DOG will not cry (bite, yowl) if you strike (beat) him with a bone
• D464 Every DOG has his day
• D479 Help the lame DOG over the stile
• D482 I will not keep a DOG and bark myself
• D491 It would vex a DOG (man) to see a pudding creep
• D507 To blush like a black DOG
• D538 Hungry DOGS will eat (love) dirty puddings
• D601 He was hanged that left his DRINK behind
• E12 In at one EAR and out at the other
• E54 EATING and drinking take away one's stomach
• E66 As like as one EGG is to another
• E75 I will warrant you for an EGG at Easter
• E86 I have EGGS on the spit
• E92 You come with your five EGGS a penny and four of them be rotten
• E98 My ELBOW itches, I must change my bedfellow
• E121 Everything has an END and a pudding¹ has two
• E156 You are a right ENGLISHMAN, you cannot tell when a thing is well (when you are well)
• E185 He has a good ESTATE but that the right owner keeps it from him
• E207 Of two EVILS (ills) choose the least
• E261 His EYES are bigger than his belly
• E263 My EYE draw straws
• F6 A good FACE needs no band and a bad one deserves none
• F16 To laugh (smile) in one's FACE and cut one's throat
• F57 You see your FARE (dinner)
• F62 To feed like a FARMER
• F85 Give (Box) it about, it will come to my FATHER at last
• F95 Your FATHER was no glazier
• F106 For FAULT (want) of a better
• F121 The first FAULTS are theirs that commit them, the second theirs that permit them
• F204 FIDDLER's fare, meat, drink, and money
• F228 To have a FINGER (hand) in the pie (matter)
• F235 FINGERS were made before forks and hands before knives
• F241 To have one's FINGERS (hands) in mortar
• F253 FIRE and water are good servants but bad (ill) masters
• F283 To come to fetch FIRE
• F309 FISH must swim thrice (twice)
• F314 I will not make FISH of one and flesh of another
• F341 As fine as FIVEPENCE
• F445 As the FOOL thinks the bell clinks
• F460 A FOOL comes home as wise as he went
• F468 A FOOL may ask more questions in an hour than a wise man can answer in seven years
• F491 I am a FOOL, I love anything that is good
• F501 One FOOL makes a hundred (many)
• F546 FOOLS will be meddling
• F597 FORGIVE and forget
• F634a The FOX is the finder
• F641 The FOX was sick and he knew not where, he clapped his hand on his tail and swore it was there
• F740 Happy is he whose FRIENDS were (whose father was) born before him
• F747 If you deal so ill by your FRIENDS what will you do with your enemies?
• F753 Kiss and be FRIENDS
• F789 She simpers like a FURMITY-KETTLE
• G15 The GALLOWS groans for you
• G18 If I be hanged I'll choose my GALLOWS
• G42 He may go hang himself in his own GARTERS
• G82 It hangs by GEOMETRY
• G84 That would I fain see, said blind GEORGE OF HOLLOWAY (blind Hugh)
• G123 To GIVE (tell) one his own
• G131 To stick in one's GIZZARD
• G155 If thou be hungry I am angry, let us GO fight
• G160 You may GO farther and fare worse
• G216 GOD send you more wit and me more money
• G222 GOD sends meat and the devil sends cooks
• G272 Out of GOD's blessing into the warm sun
• G325 For GOOD AND ALL
• G337 It is more your GOODNESS than my desert
• G423 While the GRASS grows the horse (steed) starves
• G484 He has GUTS (no guts) in his brains
• H23 Take a HAIR of the dog that bit you
• H55 It is merry in HALL when beards wag all
• H92 They are HAND and glove
• H106 Wish in one HAND and shit in the other and see which will be full first
• H118 I will wash my HANDS and wait upon you
• H120 Spit in your HANDS and take better hold
• H121 Spit in your HANDS and take better hold
• H123 Two HANDS in a dish and one in a purse
• H151 HARE is melancholy meat
• H162 To kiss the HARE's foot
• H218 Not what is she but what HAS she
• H252 He will not give his HEAD for the washing
• H285 Better in HEALTH than in good conditions
• H338 With all my HEART and a piece of my liver
• H403 HELL is broke loose
• H416 As fat as a HEN in the forehead
• H418 A black HEN lays a white egg
• H438 It is neither HERE nor there
• H480 HOBBLEDEHOY, half a man and half a boy
• H501 To drive one's HOGS to market
• H698 To stay as one HORSE stays for another
• H720 To fall away from a HORSELOAD to a cartload
• H803 To be in HUCKSTERS' handling (hands)
• I78 As great as INKLE-WEAVERS¹ (beggars)
• K25 To lay the KEY under the door and be gone
• K44 Hertfordshire KINDNESS
• K121 Better kiss a KNAVE than be troubled with him
• K129 More KNAVE than fool
• K167 He has tied a KNOT with his tongue that he can't untie with all his teeth
• K183 He KNOWS (knows not) when he is well
• L1 He has his LABOR for his pains
• L8 Seek till you find and you'll not lose your LABOR
• L97 Agree, for the LAW is costly
• L180 As right (straight) as my LEG
• L244 Anything for a quiet LIFE
• L246 If I were to fast for my LIFE I would eat a good breakfast in the morning
• L276 To stand in one's own LIGHT
• L332 To preach over one's LIQUOR (cup, pot)
• L367 Though he said LITTLE he thought the more
• L374 As sure as you LIVE
• L379 LIVE and learn
• L384 Too soon wise to LIVE long
• L429 LOOK ere (before) you leap
• L437 He LOOKS as if he had neither won nor lost
• L449 I have dined as well as my LORD MAYOR of London
• L471 A LOUSE is a man's (beggar's) companion
• L496 LOVE and pease pottage will make their way
• L541 She lives by LOVE and lumps in corners
• L553 Your LOVE is a million
• L557 I LOVE it but it loves not me
• L575 He that would have good LUCK in horses (horseflesh) must kiss the parson's wife
• M1 You might carry (have) an M under your girdle
• M65 As a MAN must take a wife, for better or for worse
• M77 The best MAN in the company when there is no more
• M151 Good to fetch a sick MAN sorrow or a dead man woe
• M178 He was a bold MAN that first ate an oyster
• M328 No MAN holds you
• M413 Where shall a MAN have a worse friend than he brings from home?
• M491 To go on a dead MAN's errand
• M505 All MEN must die
• M542 MEN are made of clay but women are made of men
• M610 Young MEN think old men fools but old men know that young men be fools
• M626 It is not good MANNERS to offer salt or brains
• M627 It is not good MANNERS to show your learning before ladies
• M657 Whose MARE is dead?
• M658 He has found a MARE's nest and laughs at the eggs
• M684 MARRIAGE is honorable but housekeeping is a shrew
• M797 One may know your MEANING by your gaping (mumping)
• M821 If you wanted me and your MEAT you would want one good friend
• M833 Of all the MEAT in the world drink goes best down
• M835 Quick at MEAT quick at work
• M837 She is MEAT for your master
• M926 Within a MILE of an oak
• M939 To cry for spilt MILK
• M978 You will never be mad (married), you are of so many MINDS
• M980 What is MINE is yours and what is yours is mine (your own)
• M1109 To have a MONTH's mind to a person (thing)
• M1153 The MORE the merrier, the fewer the better cheer (fare)
• M1193 Ask the MOTHER if the child be like his father
• M1203 He was lapped (wrapped) in his MOTHER's smock
• M1271 Drink as MUCH after an egg as after an ox
• M1281 Make MUCH of one, good men are scarce
• M1306 One MULE (ass, horse) does scrub (scratch, claw) another
• M1307 Sick of the MULLIGRUBS with eating chopped hay
• M1312 He looks (stands) like MUMCHANCE (Mumhazard), who was hanged for saying nothing
• M1330 MUST is for the king
• M1334 MUSTARD takes one by the nose
• N13 You had as good eat your NAILS
• N21 Do not take my NAME in vain
• N66 NECK or nothing, for the king loves no cripples
• N154 Tell me NEWS (what I know not)
• N157 I will thank you for the NEXT, for this I am sure of
• N169 A fine (fit) NIGHT to run away with another man's wife (to steal away a fair lady)
• N217 He has a good NOSE to make a poor man's sow
• N224 If your NOSE itches you will kiss a fool
• N278 I will foreheet¹ NOTHING but building churches and louping² over them
• N290 NOTHING has no savor
• O9a To ask what it is O'CLOCK
• O74 To speak like an ORACLE
• O118 OYSTERS are ungodly meat, uncharitable meat, and unprofitable (cruel) meat
• P11 Make a PAGE of your own age
• P119 As old as PAUL's (Paul's steeple, Charing Cross)
• P136 As like as two PEAS (as one PEA is like another)
• P167 As pert as a PEARMONGER
• P203 A PENNY for your thought
• P237 He is not PEPPER-PROOF
• P260 Kitchen PHYSIC is the best physic
• P315 Here is a PIGEON (goose, pig) so finely roasted it cries, Come eat me
• P324 PILGARLIC
• P337 Hang PINCHING
• P368 It is PITY fair weather should do any harm
• P387 He that is born under a threepenny (three-halfpenny) PLANET will never be worth a groat¹
• P506 Touch POT touch penny
• P511 If you drink in your POTTAGE you'll cough in your grave
• P565 Do not make a PRESENT of a knife, for it will cut love
• P604 All PROMISES are either broken or kept
• P605 PROMISES, like piecrust, are made to be broken
• P622 Cold PUDDING will settle your love
• P623 I love thee like PUDDING, if thou wert pie I'd eat thee
• Q2 Come and welcome, go by and no QUARREL
• Q12 We must live by the QUICK (living) and not by the dead
• R2 He is like a RABBIT, fat and lean in twenty-four hours
• R84 REPORT has a blister on her tongue
• R120 It is good RIDING the forehorse
• R152 To sleep without ROCKING
• R160 A rich ROGUE, two shirts and a rag
• R175 To be on the high ROPES
• R213 Strew green RUSHES¹ for the stranger
• S12 More SACKS to the mill
• S68 Would I were young for your SAKE
• S78 He could eat me without SALT (garlic)
• S95 More SAUCE than meat (pig)
• S102 What is SAUCE for a goose is sauce for a gander
• S152 SCORNING (Mocking) is catching
• S166 SCRATCHING and eating wants but a beginning
• S232 A good SERVANT must come when you call him, go when you bid him, and shut the door after him
• S336 Hang him that has no SHIFTS and hang him that has too many
• S401 In a SHOULDER of veal there are twenty and two good bits
• S402 One SHOULDER of mutton draws (drives) down another
• S409 To make a fair SHOW in a country church
• S436 SIGH not but send, he will come if he be unhanged
• S461 Sup, SIMON, the best is at the bottom (here is good broth)
• S463 To be cut for (of) the SIMPLES
• S482 All good SINGERS have colds
• S495 It is as cheap SITTING as standing
• S499 He hath good SKILL in horseflesh, to buy a goose to ride on
• S508 It will be long enough ere you wish your SKIN full of holes (eyelet holes)
• S512 Not worth three SKIPS of a louse (pie¹)
• S518 To praise (extol) one to the SKIES
• S571 The SMOKE follows the fair
• S586 SNAPPING so short makes you look so lean
• S612 SOME are wise and some are otherwise
• S620 SOMETHING (Somewhat) has some savor
• S671 He was born within the SOUND of Bow bell
• S672 As meet as a SOW to bear a saddle
• S685 You take the wrong SOW by the ear
• S699 To call a SPADE a spade
• S725 To SPEAK (Not to speak) as one thinks
• S791 A SPUR in the head is worth two in the heel
• S945 To be in a brown STUDY
• S973 If it rains when the SUN is shining the devil is beating his wife
• S1008 I am here as SURE as you are there
• T6 TACE is Latin¹ for a candle
• T8 He frets like gummed TAFFETY (grogram, velvet)
• T27 TAKE it as you will (list, please)
• T28 TAKE it or leave it
• T30 You TAKE me up before I am down
• T40 I tell you my TALE and my tale's author
• T41 Must I tell you a TALE and find you ears?
• T48 Thereby hangs a TALE
• T89 So you TOLD me
• T102 As safe as a THIEF in a mill
• T130 A good THING cannot be too often spoken
• T195 Some good THINGS I do not love: a good long mile, good small beer, and a good old woman
• T246 I know your THOUGHTS (know you) as well as if I were within you (in your belly)
• T247 Second THOUGHTS are best
• T347 A TINKER stops one hole and makes two (three)
• T379 TOMORROW come never
• T380 TOMORROW is a new day
• T382 He (Time) is TOM TELLTRUTH
• T387 Her TONGUE runs on pattens (wheels)
• T388 His TONGUE is like a lamb's tail or the clack of a mill
• T389 His TONGUE is no slander
• T398 One TONGUE is enough for a woman
• T412 Your TONGUE runs before your wit
• T413 To have it at one's TONGUE's end
• T425 If you cannot bite never show your TEETH
• T516 To belong to the TRIBE OF GAD
• T521 Do not put TRICKS upon travelers
• T522 He has as many TRICKS as (more tricks than) a dancing bear
• T597 To throw out a TUB to the whale
• T640 To be TWO (twain)
• W10 It is good WALKING with a horse in one's hand
• W19 WALLS (Hedges), have ears (eyes)
• W31 For WANT of company welcome trumpery
• W36 I will not WANT when I have and when I have not too
• W90 Cast not out your foul WATER till you have clean
• W102 Pour not WATER on a drowned mouse (rat)
• W118 WATER bewitched
• W230 Never but once at a WEDDING (coronation)
• W265 Never WELL, full nor fasting
• W299 A WHETSTONE cannot itself cut but yet it makes tools cut
• W307 To have the WHIP HAND of one
• W310 Where there is WHISPERING there is lying
• W319 Call her WHORE first
• W347 A dead WIFE is the best goods in a man's house
• W360 He that loses his WIFE and sixpence (a farthing) has lost a tester¹
• W422 Keep (Save) your WIND (breath) to cool your pottage (porridge, broth)
• W438 To talk to the WIND
• W441 What WIND blew (brought) you hither?
• W506 I might put my WINNINGS in my eye and see never the worse
• W547 Do not set your WIT against a fool's (a child)
• W552 He has WIT at will
• W577 Good WITS have short (bad) memories
• W578 Good WITS jump¹
• W582 His WITS go a woolgathering
• W583 To be frightened (scared) out of one's WITS (five wits and seven senses)
• W585 I think you are a WITCH
• W627 He that does not love a WOMAN sucked a sow
• W637 To be born of WOMAN
• W652 A WOMAN has nine lives, like a cat
• W659 A WOMAN needs but to look on her apron string to find an excuse
• W676 A WOMAN's tongue is the last thing about her that dies
• W680 All WOMEN are good-either good for something or good for nothing
• W682 Choose neither WOMEN nor linen by candle-light (candle)
• W762 He has not a WORD to cast at a dog
• W772 There is many a true WORD spoken in jest
• W827 Two WORDS to a bargain
• W858 Never had ill WORKMAN good tools
• W866 As good be out of the WORLD (Better be dead) as out of fashion
• W873 I hate no one but love all the WORLD
• W895 The WORLD is a wide parish
• Y22 It will be all one a hundred YEARS hence
• Y36 You shall never be (labor) YOUNGER