Italian proverbs
Traditional saying. The library holds 1517 of them. Here are the 60 most quoted; search the library in the maker for the rest.
Often about: wisdom, money, nature, faith, love, time
The 60 best known
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In buying horses and taking a wife, shut your eyes and commend yourself to God.
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Good repute is like the cypress: once cut, it never puts forth leaf again.
translated by Henry G. Bohn -
A good beginning makes a good ending.
translated by Henry G. Bohn -
Where there’s a will there’s a way.
translated by Henry G. Bohn -
Trust was a good man, Trust-not was a better.
translated by Henry G. Bohn -
The bearskin before you have caught the bear.
translated by Walter K. Kelly -
God keep me from my friends, from my enemies I will keep myself.
translated by Henry G. Bohn -
Every one for himself and God for us all.
translated by Henry G. Bohn -
Tell me the company you keep, and I’ll tell you what you are.
translated by Henry G. Bohn -
There’s never a cry of ‘Wolf!’ but the wolf is in the district.
translated by Walter K. Kelly -
The dog that has been beaten with a stick is afraid of its shadow.
translated by Henry G. Bohn -
He that labours is tempted by one devil; he that is idle by a thousand.
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God sends meat and the devil sends cooks.
translated by Henry G. Bohn -
Eaten bread is soon forgotten.
translated by Henry G. Bohn -
He is the world’s master who despises it, its slave who prizes it.
translated by Henry G. Bohn -
For the buyer a hundred eyes are too few, for the seller one is enough.
translated by Henry G. Bohn -
Feather by feather the goose is plucked.
translated by Henry G. Bohn -
It is not enough to know how to steal, one must know also how to conceal.
translated by Henry G. Bohn -
Keep yourself from opportunities and God will keep you from sins.
translated by Henry G. Bohn -
There’s never much talk of a thing but there’s some truth in it.
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Who goes softly goes safely, and he that goes safely goes far.
translated by Henry G. Bohn -
Little children and headaches—great children and heartaches.
translated by Walter K. Kelly -
Marriages are not as they are made, but as they turn out.
translated by Henry G. Bohn -
When rogues go in procession the devil carries the cross.
translated by Henry G. Bohn -
To whom you tell your secret you surrender your freedom.
translated by Henry G. Bohn -
Three women and a goose make a market.
translated by Henry G. Bohn -
He dances well to whom fortune pipes.
translated by Henry G. Bohn -
Love rules his kingdom without a sword.
translated by Henry G. Bohn -
A hundred years cannot repair a moment’s loss of honour.
translated by Henry G. Bohn -
Hear, see, and say nothing, if you wish to live in peace.
translated by Walter K. Kelly -
One enemy is too many, and a hundred friends are too few.
translated by Henry G. Bohn -
Love and lordship like not fellowship.
translated by Henry G. Bohn -
The devil tempts all, but the idle man tempts the devil.
translated by Henry G. Bohn -
Like master like man.
translated by Henry G. Bohn -
Many a true word is spoken in jest.
translated by Henry G. Bohn -
Of what does not concern you say nothing, good or bad.
translated by Henry G. Bohn -
Things are not as they are, but as they are regarded.
translated by Henry G. Bohn -
Laws were made for rogues.
translated by Henry G. Bohn -
There is no worse fruit than that which never ripens.
translated by Henry G. Bohn -
The pan says to the pot: Keep off, or you’ll smutch me.
translated by Henry G. Bohn -
Look before you leap.
translated by Henry G. Bohn -
One swallow does not make a summer.
translated by Henry G. Bohn -
A wise man and a fool know more than a wise man alone.
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Associate with the good and you will be one of them.
translated by Henry G. Bohn -
He that is afraid of the devil does not grow rich.
translated by Henry G. Bohn -
Handsome is not what is handsome, but what pleases.
translated by Henry G. Bohn -
The dog wags his tail, not for you, but for bread.
translated by Henry G. Bohn -
He that is born to be hanged will never be drowned.
translated by Henry G. Bohn -
Men are as old as they feel, and women as they look.
translated by Henry G. Bohn -
He that seeks to have many friends never has any.
translated by Henry G. Bohn -
He who is of the craft can discourse about it.
translated by Henry G. Bohn -
It is easy to preach fasting with a full belly.
translated by Henry G. Bohn -
Who has love in his heart has spurs in his sides.
translated by Henry G. Bohn -
If the sun shines on me I care not for the moon.
translated by Henry G. Bohn -
Let us have florins and we shall find cousins.
translated by Henry G. Bohn -
Ill luck comes by pounds and goes away by ounces.
translated by Henry G. Bohn -
A thousand probabilities do not make one truth.
translated by Henry G. Bohn -
If the wife sins the husband is not innocent.
translated by Henry G. Bohn -
When the will is prompt the legs are nimble.
translated by Henry G. Bohn -
He is not a good mason who refuses any stone.
translated by Henry G. Bohn