Gaelic proverbs
Traditional saying. The library holds 85 of them. Here are the 60 most quoted; search the library in the maker for the rest.
Often about: wisdom, power, time, home, war, faith
The 60 best known
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If you tell me all you see, you’ll tell what will make you feel shame.
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Choose a good mother’s daughter, though her father were the devil.
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“I shall go to-morrow,” said the king. “You shall wait for me,” quoth the wind.
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A man in a farm and his thoughts away, is better out of it than in it.
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All the difference between the wise man and the fool is, that the wise man keeps his counsel, and the fool reveals it.
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Poor when I have, poor when I haven’t, poor will I ever be.
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Not less in God’s sight is the end of the day than the beginning.
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It’s bad flesh that won’t take salt; worse is the body that won’t take warning.
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There was never good or ill but women had to do with it.
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A blockhead can find more faults than a wise man can mend.
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The day is longer than the brae; we’ll be at the top yet.
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It’s poor friendship that needs to be constantly bought.
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He that waits long at the ferry will get over some time.
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Night is a good herdsman; she brings all creatures home.
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He that is courteous at all, will be courteous to all.
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There is no greater fraud than a promise unfulfilled.
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Hard is the factor’s rule; no better is the minister’s.
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Friends are lost by calling often and calling seldom.
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Flesh will warm in a man to his kin against his will.
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Slippery is the flagstone at the great house door.
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Their own will to all men, all their will to women.
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Pity him who has his choice, and chooses the worse.
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High is the head of the stag on the mountain crag.
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What’s the good of the pipe if it’s not played on?
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Every foot will tread on him who is in the mud.
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The clerk wishes the priest to have a fat dish.
translated by Walter K. Kelly -
Take your thirst to the stream, as the dog does.
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Every creature can bear well-being except man.
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Choose your wife as you wish your children to be.
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From hand to mouth will never make a worthy man.
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Death-bed repentance is sowing seed at Martinmas.
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He that won’t plough at home won’t plough abroad.
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The heaviest head of corn hangs its head lowest.
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Better understand the world than condemn it.
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A king’s son is no nobler than his company.
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A man may survive distress, but not disgrace.
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Short lived is all rule but the rule of God.
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He that conquers himself conquers an enemy.
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There is no hiding of evil but not to do it.
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All good has an end but the goodness of God.
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Good sword has often been in poor scabbard.
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Blue are the hills that are far from us.
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For whom ill is fated, him it will strike.
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God comes in distress, and distress goes.
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He that doth not plough at home won’t plough abroad.
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As a man makes his bed, so must he lie.
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It’s difficult to give sense to a fool.
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A friend’s eye is a good looking-glass.
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A thing is the bigger of being shared.
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Losing the bundles gathering the wisps.
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Better knot straws than do nothing.
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He thinks no evil who means no evil.
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He that flees not will be fled from.
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Correct counting keeps good friends.
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Assurance is two-thirds of success.
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Avoid the evil, and it will avoid thee.
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Fear is worse than fighting.
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Monday is the key of the week.
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Neither seek nor shun the fight.
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God has not said all that thou hast said.