Quotes: Proverbs.

A collection of quotes on various topics. The sentence in bold face is a plain statement of the quote that follows.

Proverbs
If you want to get rich, sell your last shirt.
Proverb 488 …Viennese proverb: The way to get rich is to sell your last shirt. Irving Stone, The Passions of the Mind (Life of Freud).

Only the one wearing the shoe knows where it pinches.
Proverb 546 Lincoln: As the proverb goes, no man knows so well where the shoe pinches as he who wears it. Sandburg, Abraham Lincoln: The War Years.

A living bush makes the best gravestone.
Proverb 432 "A grown bush makes the best gravestone." Jewett, The country of the Pointed Firs.

Two are needed to make a quarrel, but only one can end it.
Proverb 296 After all, here was another proof of the wisdom of the old Spanish proverb, that it takes two to make a quarrel, but only one to end it. Jewett, A Country Doctor.

A cripple who knows where he is going will beat a racer who does not.
Proverb 69 …and you know there’s an old sayin’ that a cripple in the right road will beat a racer in the wrong. Sarah Orne Jewett, Deephaven.

If the house was owned by a hanged man, don’t mention rope.
Proverb 250 Sancho: …for one shouldn’t mention rope in the house of the hanged. Miguel de Cervantes, Don Quixote of La Mancha. Part One: 1605.

If you are happy while you are searching, you will be happy with what you find.
Proverb 292 Sancho Panza: Happy search makes happy finds. Miguel de Cervantes, Don Quixote of La Mancha. Part One: 1605.

If you give quickly, without hesitation, you give twice.
Proverb 349 “…he who gives quickly gives twice over.” Miguel de Cervantes, Don Quixote of La Mancha. Part One: 1605.

If it doesn’t cost much, it is not valued.
Proverb 349 “…what costs little is little prized.” Miguel de Cervantes, Don Quixote of La Mancha. Part One: 1605.

Take what you can rather than count on what you hope.
Proverb 394 Captive’s Father: For it is said: ‘Better the King’s crumb than the lord’s plum.’ Miguel de Cervantes, Don Quixote of La Mancha. Part One: 1605.

Hunger makes everything taste better.
Proverb 558 The best sauce in the world is hunger…. Miguel de Cervantes, Don Quixote of La Mancha. Part Two: 1615.

People come with money and purpose, but return having lost everything.
Proverb 620 Sancho: …many a man comes for wool and goes back shorn. Miguel de Cervantes, Don Quixote of La Mancha. Part Two: 1615.

God gives the sore, but also the cure.
Proverb 660 Sancho: For God, who gives the sore, gives the plaster. Miguel de Cervantes, Don Quixote of La Mancha. Part Two: 1615.

The best preacher preaches by example.
Proverb 671 “He preaches well who lives well,” replied Sancho, “and I know no other theologies than that.” Miguel de Cervantes, Don Quixote of La Mancha. Part Two: 1615.

Giving me something I don’t need could hurt me.
Proverb 768 Sancho’s reply to the Duchess: …perhaps if you don’t give it [the island] to me, it will be all the better…for though I’m a fool I know the proverb, ‘To her hurt the ant grew wings’ …. [When she flew, the birds gobbled her up.] Miguel de Cervantes, Don Quixote of La Mancha. Part Two: 1615.

Someone good may be dressed poorly.
Proverb 771 Duchess to Sancho: …if we may speak in Sancho’s own style, ‘You’ll often find a good drinker under a bad cloak.’ Miguel de Cervantes, Don Quixote of La Mancha. Part Two: 1615.

You can raise the cup, but it might never reach your lip.
Proverb 777 Duke: …for there’s many a slip ‘twixt cup and lip. Miguel de Cervantes, Don Quixote of La Mancha. Part Two: 1615.

Aristocracy is inherited but one must acquire virtue.
Proverb 825 Don Quixote: …for blood is inherited, but virtue is acquired. Miguel de Cervantes, Don Quixote of La Mancha. Part Two: 1615.

If there’s plenty, the guests will be full; the one who cuts the deck does not deal; if he rings bells, he will be safe; if he can both spend and restrain his spending, he is no fool.
Proverb 829 Sancho: …for ‘Where there’s plenty, the guests can’t be empty’; and ‘He that cuts doesn’t deal’; and ‘He’s safe as a house who rings the bells’; and ‘He’s no fool who can spend and spare.’ Miguel de Cervantes, Don Quixote of La Mancha. Part Two: 1615.

The only thing that can’t be cured is death.
Proverb 830 Sancho: …For there’s a remedy for all things but death. Miguel de Cervantes, Don Quixote of La Mancha. Part Two: 1615.

The rich man’s foolishness is accepted as wise behavior.
Proverb 830 Sancho: The rich man’s follies pass current for wise deeds. Miguel de Cervantes, Don Quixote of La Mancha. Part Two: 1615.

Cover yourself with honey if you want to attract flies.
Proverb 831 Sancho: Plaster yourself with honey and you’ll have flies in plenty. Miguel de Cervantes, Don Quixote of La Mancha. Part Two: 1615.

It doesn’t matter if the stone hits the pitcher or the pitcher hits the stone, the pitcher still gets the worst of it.
Proverb 831 Sancho: Whether the pitcher hits the stone or the stone hits the pitcher, ‘tis worse for the pitcher. Miguel de Cervantes, Don Quixote of La Mancha. Part Two: 1615.

If there’s no opportunity, there will be no sin; if you are unaware of something, you will not desire it; taking a chance is better than praying for it.
Proverb 1008 Sancho: “So, ‘Take away the opportunity and you take away the sin’; and ‘What the eye does not see, the heart doesn’t grieve for’; and “A leap over the hedge is better than good men’s prayers.’” Miguel de Cervantes, Don Quixote of La Mancha. Part Two: 1615.

If you are going to go fishing, you have to expect to get wet.
Proverb 1029 Sancho: “He who goes fishing shouldn’t fear a wetting.” Miguel de Cervantes, Don Quixote of La Mancha. Part Two: 1615.

One example does not prove your case.
Proverb 133 Don Quixote: Sir, one swallow does not a summer make [i.e. one example does not prove your case]. Miguel de Cervantes, Don Quixote of La Mancha, Part 1: 1605.

The dead must go to the grave; the living must eat.
Proverb 185 Sancho: …And, as the saying goes, ‘to the grave with the dead, and the living to the loaf of bread.’ Miguel de Cervantes, Don Quixote of La Mancha, Part 1: 1605.

Don’t ask a favor if you can take it by force.
Proverb 207 Sancho: It reminds me of what scapegraces often say: ‘Never ask as a favor what you can take by force.’ Miguel de Cervantes, Don Quixote of La Mancha, Part 1: 1605.

Being kind to evil people is like adding water to the ocean.
Proverb 219 Don Quixote: Sancho, I have always heard it said that to do a kindness to rogues is like pouring water into the sea. Miguel de Cervantes, Don Quixote of La Mancha, Part 1: 1605.

If we can’t get what we want, then like what we get.
Proverb 439 Spanish proverb: Since we cannot get what we like, let us like what we can get. George Eliot, Middlemarch.

Proverbs are never qualified.
Proverbs 293 ...the proverbs of all nations, which are always the literature of reason, or the statements of an absolute truth, without qualification. Emerson, Compensation.

Whatever you do to others will happen to you; what goes around, comes around.
Proverbs 293 All things are double, one against another...tit for tat; an eye for an eye; a tooth for a tooth; blood for blood; measure for measure;...give and it shall be given you...nothing venture, nothing have...curses always recoil on the head of him who imprecates them...if you put a chain around the neck of a slave, the other fastens itself around your own. Emerson, Compensation.

When one door closes, another opens.
Proverbs 198 Don Quixote: I am sure, Sancho, that there is no proverb that is not true, for all proverbs are maxims drawn from experience, the mother of all knowledge; especially that one that says: ‘When one door shuts, another opens.’ Miguel de Cervantes, Don Quixote of La Mancha, Part 1: 1605.