French Proverbs Love Life Friendship

Women, money, and wine have their balm and their harm.

Honour blossoms on the grave.

The stable wears out a horse more than the road.

Long on hair, short on brains.

If wishes were horses, beggars would ride.

Drop by drop wears away the stone.

Children and fools have merry lives.

The word of a woman is as a little feather on the water.

Write injuries in the sand, kindnesses in marble.

One must step back to make the better leap.

So many men, so many opinions.

You have to give time some time.

Tasty is the chicken that is fed by someone else.

He who curbs his desires will always be rich enough.

Be a horse ever so well shod, he may slip.

Shoemakers are always the worst shod.

Fine and fine make but a slender doublet.

Hatred watches while friendship sleeps.

Snakes prefer to hide under flowers.

Elbow-grease is a great preventative of disease.

He who sows the seed of discord works in the devil's barn.

Widows comfort themselves when they remarry, widowers take revenge.

The tree does not fall at the first stroke.

One does not always hit what one aims at.

Since the wine is drawn it must be drunk.

None are more haughty than a common place person raised to power.

If you give a gift to a rich man, the devil sniggers.

You cannot be very smart if you have never done anything foolish.

The longer the way, the more tired the man.

Man is not man, but a wolf to those he does not know.

Even the smallest little bush casts some shadow.

The merchant who gains not, loseth.

Save a thief from the gallows and he will cut your throat.

Trust is the mother of exasperation.

If the fire does not burn you the smoke will blacken you.

Many a one is good because he can do no mischief.

When all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail.

Don't teach fishes to swim.

Ingratitude is a kind of weakness; the clever are never ungrateful.

The wine given to your workmen is that for which you get the best paid.

Small profits are good if they come often.

Jest not with the eye, or religion.

He who goes to collect wool may come back shorn.

One good argument is worth more than ten better ones.

You cannot make bricks without straw.

French Sayings in English

Something is better than nothing.

Marriages are written in heaven.

A good husband should be deaf and a good wife should be blind.

God saves the moon from the wolves.

God helps him who helps himself.

God often visits us, but most of the time we are not at home.

It is better to have to do with God than with his saints.

A silent woman is a gift from God.

He who gives to the poor loans to God.

He who is near the church is often far from God.

Every one for himself, and God for us all.

The nearer the church the farther from God.

Saint cannot if God will not.

He sins as much who holds the bag as he who puts into it.

The noise is so great one cannot hear God thunder.

For a web begun God sends thread.

When God sends flour the devil carries off the sack.

The monk that begs for God's sake begs for two.

When the woman wants something God quakes.

The people's voice, God's voice.

What a woman wills God wills.

To grow rich one has only to turn his back on God.

Pray, pray very much; but beware of telling God what you want.

Why hide from God what the saints already know?

A party of two is that of God; of three of the king; of four is of the devil.

Trust not to God but upon good security.

The secret of two is God's secret, the secret of three is everybody's secret.

He does not guard himself well who is not always on his guard.

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Beauty and folly are often companions.

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Likeness is the mother of love.

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Love expels jealousy.

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Love teaches asses to dance.

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Love Bertrand love his dog.

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Love is often the fruit of marriage.

Love me little and love me long.

Love teaches even asses to dance.

Love does much, money everything.

Love and lordship like no fellowship.

Love makes time pass; time makes love pass.

Love, a cough, and smoke will not remain secret.

Love does wonders, but money makes marriages.

Love makes the time pass. Time makes love pass.

Love subdues everything except the recreant's heart.

Love never dies of starvation, but often of indigestion.

Love, a cough, smoke, and money, cannot long be hid.

Love makes time pass away, and time makes love pass away.

Love is the dawn of marriage, and marriage is the sunset of love.

Loving with the eyes only, has blinded a lot of fools.

He who marries for love has good nights and bad days.

In love, there is always one who kisses and one who offers the cheek.

Who is born a chicken loves scratching.

Always in love, never married.

Real love is when you don't have to tell each other.

Who loves well is slow to forget.

In love and war don't seek counsel.

One always returns to one's first love.

Without bread and wine even love will pine.

Who loves well, chastises well.

Pity is akin to love.

To love is to choose.

By beating love decays.

A good hater,a good lover.

Old cats love young mice.

Never did capon love a hen.

One grows used to love and to fire.

He has a very hard heart who does not love May.

The only victory over love is flight.

It is loving too much to die of love.

Where there's music there can be love.

Some fathers love another man's daughter most.

The first love letters are written with the eyes.

The love that you die from is too big.

To love and to be wise are two different things.

Being loved is the best way of being useful.

Where love sets the table food tastes at its best.

Small gifts maintain friendship, big ones maintain love.

A fence between makes love more keen.

It is overdoing the thing to die of love.

There is no love without jealousy.

Mother's love is ever in its spring.

What you love is always beautiful.

To be loved is the best way of being useful.

The greatest hate springs from the greatest love.

Old love and old brands kindle at all seasons.

When the furze is in bloom, my love's in tune.

Try to reason about love, and you will lose your reason.

When we cannot get what we love, we must love what is within our reach.

The pleasure of love lasts but a moment, The pain of love lasts a lifetime.

For most people love of justice is no more than the fear to suffer injustice.

If you want to love your household as much as your bread then you will have to knead your wife like dough.

Life is made up of tomorrows.

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Life is like an onion, which one peels crying.

Life is a dung pie from which you take a bite every day.

Life is half spent before one knows what life is.

Most men employ the earlier part of their life to make the other miserable.

Take away my good name, take away my life.

A pig's life, short and sweet.

We must learn from life how to suffer it.

He, who more than he is worth doth spend, E'en makes a rope, his life to end.

A merry life forgets father and mother.

To enjoy life is worth so much more than it costs.

A handful of good life is better than seven barrels of learning.

He who marries on a rainy day will be happy for the rest of his life.

Smoke, floods, and a troublesome wife, are enough to drive a man out of his life.

The first half of life is spent in longing for the second, the second half in regretting the first.

Friends are lost by calling too often and by not calling often enough.

A friend is known in time of need.

Little presents maintain friendship.

A clown enriched knows neither relation nor friend.

The interested friend is a swallow on the roof.

He who lends to a friend loses twice.

Long absence changes friends.

Adversity is the touchstone of friendship.

He is called clever who cheats and plunders his friend.

Night has no friend.

A friend's meat is soon ready.

The most friendly fortune trips up your heels.

I love my friends but I love myself more.

A hedge between keeps friendship green.

The friendship of a great man is like the shadow of a bush soon gone.

It is more disgraceful to suspect our friends than to be deceived by them.

Better to have a friend on the road than gold and silver in your purse.

The false friend is like the shadow of a sun-dial.

Old friends and new reckonings.

A friend to my table and wine, is no good neighbour.

He cannot be a friend to any one who is his own enemy.

A girl without a friend is like the spring without roses.

The sweetest grapes are picked from the vineyard of friendship.

One has always strength enough to bear the misfortunes of one's friends.

Two sparrows on the same ear of corn are not long friends.

Suspicion is the poison of friendship.

It is good to have friends in all parts.

Do not let grass grow on the path of friendship.

A dead man has neither relations nor friends.

Rich people never know who their friends are.

Trade knows neither friends or kindred.

He never was a friend who has ceased to be one.

A table friend is changeable.

Short reckonings make long friends.

The villain that becomes rich knows neither friends nor family.

There is something in the misfortune of our best friends which does not displease us.

Kindred without friends, friends without power, power without will, will without effect, effect without profit, profit without virtue, is not worth a rush.

French Proverbs about God

God knows who is a good pilgrim.

God save me from those I trust in.

God gives the cold according to the cloth.

God helps three sorts of people: fools, children and drunkards.

God's work is soon done.

God puts a good root in the little pig's way.

God and man think him a fool who brags of his of his own great wisdom.

God is on the side of the strongest battalions.

God visits us often, but most of the time we are not home.

God visits us, but most of the time we are not at home.

God alone understands fools.

God heals, and the physician takes the fee.

God made hands before knives.

God save you from a man who has but one business.

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Everything must have a beginning.

It is always well to keep hold of your horse's bridle.

He is a horse with four white feet.

A cake and a bad custom ought to be broken.

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Hares are not caught by the sound of the drum.

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The wolf knows what the ill beats thinks.

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A peg for every hole.

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Beauty, unaccompanied by virtue, is as a flower without perfume.

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Do not lend your money to a great man.

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What you lose in the fire, you will find amongst the ashes.

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No fine clothes can hide the clown.

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Justifying a fault doubles it.

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The eye of the master fattens the steed.

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A thing too much seen is little prized.

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Flying birds have no master.

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He looks one way and rows another.

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What the she -wolf does pleases the he-wolf.

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A healthy woman is a successful woman.

The early bird catcheth the worm.

Every one his own, is but fair.

Never share a foxhole with anyone braver than you are.

A good dog never gets a good bone.

Deceit always returns to its master.

Ask my comrade, who is as great a liar as myself.

Every medal has its reverse.

What is true by lamplight is not always true by sunlight.

It is the tone that makes the music.

The doctor is often more to be feared than the disease.

For a stubborn ass a stubborn driver.

A foolish judge passes brief sentence.

He is like the gardener's dog, who don't eat cabbage and will let no one else eat them.

The first step binds one to the second.

What comes from the fife goes back to the drum.

No more teachers, no more books, no more teacher's dirty looks.

A man who wants to drown his dog says he is mad.

Every art requires the open person.

Never look for a worm in the apple of your eye.

A baby is an angel whose wings decrease as his legs increase.

Let every one mind his own business, and the cows will be well tended.

Take down a rogue from the gallows and he will hang you up.

No one is so liberal as he who has nothing to give.

The devil rebukes sin.

He that corrects not youth, controls not age.

Every road leads to Rome.

Well knows the cats whose ear she licks.

The fool's mother is always pregnant.

A good head does not want for hats.

He is a thief indeed who robs a thief.

A blind hen can sometimes find her corn.

It is a stupid goose that listens to the fox preach.

When a man's friend marries, all is over between them.

Light burdens borne far become heavy.

Courtesy that is all on one side cannot last long.

Naught must disturb a man of worth at dinner.

The friends of our friends are our friends.

Anger is a bad adviser.

No wind can do him good who steers for no port.

It is only good bargains that ruin.

We must have reasons for speech but we need none for silence.

Believe that, and drink some water.

He'll laugh well that laughs longest.

The days follow each other and are not alike.

A good beast heats with eating.

For one pleasure a thousand pains.

The gown does not make the monk.

Do you want better bread than wheaten?

Hunger drives the wolf out of the wood.

A covetous woman deserves a swindling gallant.

War is much too serious a matter to be entrusted to the military.

Not every thunderclap is followed by lightning.

When in Rome, do as the Romans do.

By night all cats are grey.

A landmark is very well placed between the fields of two brothers.

Not every sort of wood is fit to make an arrow.

He has enough who is content.

It is in vain for a man to rise early who has the repute of lying in bed all the morning.

Vanity has no greater foe than vanity.

The greatest cunning is to have none at all.

Everyone according to their talent and every talent according to its work.

The chicken sings what the cock teaches him.

When the daughter dies, the son-in-law is dead as well.

Penny wise is often pound foolish.

After rain fine weather.

He who takes a wife takes a master.

Upbraiding makes a benefit an injury.

Fortune can take from us only what she has given us.

People who have bread to eat do not appreciate the severity of a famine.

The hunchback does not see his own hump, but he sees his brother's.

When the kitchenmaids are together the roast burns.

He that laughs on Friday may cry on Sunday.

The bird ought not to soil its own nest.

Better to be envied than pitied.

Nothing is done while something remains undone.

People will ignore their misfortunes and their interests when they are in competition with their pleasures.

Gratitude is the heart's memory.

A dead mouse feels no cold.

Two sparrows upon one ear of corn make ill agreement.

Mistrust is the mother of certainty.

Don't run too far, you will have to return the same distance.

Everybody has a hump when he stoops.

When you are well off keep as you are.

The last drop makes the cup run over.

Loaning money causes loss of memory.

Paris wasn't made in a day.

Too much scratching smarts, too much talking harms.

Between the hand and the mouth the soup is often spilt.

He who recovers but the tail of his cow does not lose all.

The best thing about a man is his dog.

A restive morsel needs a spur of wine.

Where the hedge is lowest men jump over.

Possession is nine points of the law.

Contrivance is better than force.

Make yourself a sheep and the wolf will eat you.

The list is worse than the cloth.

Nothing is more like an honest man than a rogue.

To squeeze an eel too hard is the way to lose it.

A handsome hostess is bad for the purse.

Out of yes and no comes all dispute.

He forgot nothing except to say farewell.

The maxims of men disclose their hearts.

Where wine appears the doctor disappears.

The benefice must be taken with its liabilities.

Foxes come at last to the furrier's.

Look not a gift horse in the mouth.

Misfortune comes on horseback and goes away on foot. *

Trickery comes back to its master.

Prices are forgotten, quality remains.

He that that hath a head of wax must not approach the fire.

Better alone than in bad company.

To leave a place is to die a little.

Beauty without virtue is as a flower without perfume.

Who cares well for cats will marry as happily as he or she could ever wish.

Good wine makes the horse go.

A fool is always beginning.

The balance in doing its office knows neither gold nor lead.

His like Jean de Nivelle's dog, that runs away when he is called.

Out of sight out of mind.

Everything in time comes to him who knows how to wait.

The monk responds to the abbot's chants.

Nothing so bold as a miller's shirt.

Punctuality is the politeness of princes.

Money is a good servant but a had master.

Who hears but one bell hears but one sound.

To do like the monkey, get the chesnuts out of the fire with the cat's paw.

Incense intoxicates and every one wishes for it.

A gilt bridle for an old mule.

The absent are always in the wrong.

Choosy pigs never get fat.

Men count up the faults of those who keep them waiting.

Who lends to a friend loses doubly.

A woman who looks much in the glass spins but little.

The most cunning are the first caught.

From word to deed is a great space.

Those who shine in the second rank, are eclipsed by the first.

One never gets more than one's money's worth of anything.

Quarrels do not last long if the wrong is only on one side.

One scabby sheep is enough to spoil the whole flock.

Tell me whom you frequent, and I will tell you who you are.

Who proves too much proves nothing.

A hundred years is not much, but never is a long while.

Good comes to better, and better to bad.

Better die a beggar than live as a miser.

Who wishes to travel far spares his steed.

He that would keep his house clean must not let priest or pigeon into it.

The nimblest footman is a false tale.

Nothing venture, nothing gain.

Who sows thorns let him not walk bare-foot.

Dread the anger of the dove.

Marry in haste and repent at leisure.

He that leaves certainty and sticks to chance, When fools pipe he may dance.

There's nothing like being bespattered for making a man defy the gutter.

Great thieves hang little thieves.

One must be either anvil or hammer.

Authority has no partner.

Hunger is the best sauce.

The person who has no opinion will seldom be wrong.

Starlings are skinny because they fly in a group.

Whores and thieves are always very pious.

Caesar's wife must be above suspicion.

Money is round, it must roll.

In a good family the husband is deaf and the wife blind.

Rich garments weep on unworthy shoulders.

Youth must be served.

Fair is he that comes, but fairer he that brings.

He who judges between two friends loses one of them.

Man is preceded by forest and followed by desert.

There is no worse water than that which sleeps.

Muddied water does not reflect.

All the treasures of earth cannot bring back one lost moment.

Why keep a dog and bark yourself?

Spare to speak and spare to speed.

Fair feathers make fair fowls.

He does a good day's work who rids himself of a fool.

Give out that you have many friends, and believe that you have but few.

The rich man has more relations than he knows about.

I know on which side my bread is buttered.

Youth may stray afar yet return at last.

A living dog is better than a dead lion.

Sadness and gladness succeed each other.

He who cannot speak well of his trade does not understand it.

Bad news has wings.

Wine will not keep in a foul vessel.

A small fire that warms you is better than a large one that burns you.

He who hold the thread holds the ball.

Enough is better than too much.

Some think they have done when they are only beginning.

The second blow makes the fray.

Many enter the wood without an axe.

One man alone is prey to the wolf.

There is no bush so small but casts its shadow.

A cake eaten in peace, is worth two in trouble.

You sell more herrings on the market than sole.

See a pin and let it lie, you'll want a pin before you die.

Build a golden bridge for the fleeing enemy.

Half the truth is often a whole lie.

Like master, like man.

A good advice is as good as an eye in the hand.

Fat pastures make fat venison.

If the doctor cures the sun sees it, but if he kills the earth hides it.

That day is lost on which one has not laughed.

There are more foolish buyers than foolish sellers.

You often meet your destiny on the road you take to avoid it.

Set hard heart against hard hap.

An easy shepherd makes the wolf void wool.

One candle for St. Michael, and another for his devil.

It is good to dance on another man's floor.

It is the old cow's notion that she never was a calf.