Never spur a willing horse. Open your door to the stranger and don’t shut up your heart. Don’t reckon with your host. A merry host makes merry guests. An hour may destroy what was an age in building.
One little moment of pleasure may ruin a lifetime of happiness. Pleasant hours fly fast. A house divided against itself cannot stand. Don’t set your house on fire to keep yourself warm. The ugliest girl makes the best housewife. Well, sometimes anyway.
A house well-furnished makes a good housewife. The human race has improved everything except people. A hungry stomach has no ears. A hungry man is an angry man. Hunger eats through stone walls and builds barricades.
All are not hunters who carry a gun. If you hunt two hares at once, you’ll catch neither. Don’t hunt with unwilling hounds. A good son makes a good husband. Beware of the two-faced.
Don’t try to sell ice to the Eskimos. The ideal we embrace is our better self. A rose smells better than a cabbage, but you can’t eat roses. It’s with ideas as with pieces of money: those with the least value generally circulate the most. Ideas are weapons.
Ideas never work unless you do. If the devil catches a man idle he’ll set him to work. Time is life and when the idle man kills time, he kills himself. By doing nothing we learn to do evil. Idleness and lust are bosom friends.
Idleness is the refuge of weak minds and the holiday of fools. He that sleeps in harvest is a son that causes shame. There is more trouble in having nothing to do than in having much to do. The devil tempts all, but the idle man tempts the devil. Standing pools gather filth.
Rust eats iron. “If’s” and “buts” butter no bread. If a frog had wings he wouldn’t bump his arse every time he jumps. The wise are too smart to deny their ignorance. Ignorance is no excuse.
As the old hen crows, so crow her chicks. Small men imitate; great men originate. If you pull one pig by the tail, all the rest squeal. Impatience does not diminish but increases the evil. The impatient virgin becomes a mother without being a bride.
Impatience gathers unripe fruit. You can’t make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear. No man can skin a stone. You can’t get blood from a turnip. If you don’t improve today you’ll grow worse tomorrow.
A fox, though bonded, is still a bad guard for a goose. He who doesn’t have understanding must have legs. Inconsistency is the only thing in which men are consistent. Indecision is like a donkey standing between two bales of hay wondering which to eat. Dry bread at home is better than roast meat abroad.
