Curiosities in Proverbs: A Collection of Unusual Adages, Maxims, Aphorisms, Phrases and Other Popular Dicta from Many Lands |
Other editions - View all
Common terms and phrases
African Arabian Arabs asked Assamese beard beauty Behar Bengalese better Bible bird blind camel cheese Chinese Christmas comes Creole crow Danish death devil drink Dutch eggs English evil fire fool fortune French Gaelic German give goat gude hair hand hath head heart Hebrew Hindustani honour horse indicate Irish Italian Japanese John John Heywood Kashmiri king land Latin lish live Louisiana Creole luck lucky Luke man's Marathi marry Martinique master Matt misfortune Modern Greek morning mouth never night Osmanli Persian phrase Portuguese Prov proverb is applied quoted rain referring replied Rhyme Russian Sanskrit saying Scotch Scotland simile snake sneeze sometimes Spanish stone tail Tamil Telugu Testament thee things Thomas Tusser thou tomorrow tongue tree Turkish Urdu weather weaver Welsh wife wind wise woman words Yule
Popular passages
Page 105 - Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots ? then may ye also do good, that are accustomed to do evil.
Page 112 - The wicked flee when no man pursueth : but the righteous are bold as a lion.
Page 99 - A friend loveth at all times, and a brother is born for adversity.
Page 98 - A brother offended is harder to be won than a strong city ; and their contentions are like the bars of a castle.
Page 182 - Tis as the general pulse Of life stood still, and Nature made a pause ; An awful pause! prophetic of her end.
Page 125 - For whosoever hath, to him shall be given, and he shall have abundance: but whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken away even that which he hath.
Page 367 - I might have been inclined, myself, to regard a coffin-nail as the deadest piece of ironmongery in the trade. But the wisdom of our ancestors is in the simile; and my unhallowed hands shall not disturb it, or the Country's done for. You will therefore permit me to repeat, emphatically, that Marley was as dead as a door-nail.
Page 112 - There is that scattereth, and yet increaseth; and there is that withholdeth more than is meet, but it tendeth to poverty. The liberal soul shall be made fat: and he that watereth shall be watered also himself.
Page 146 - Come, bring with a noise, My merry, merry boys, The Christmas log to the firing ; While my good dame, she Bids ye all be free, And drink to your hearts
Page 146 - If apples are inclined to fall before their time, a stone placed in a split root will retain them.' Some such notion, still surviving, may account for some of the stones which we see placed, to be overgrown, in the forks of trees. They have a saying, in Suffolk, England. 'At Michaelmas time, or a little before, Half an apple goes to the core.