I know that all of us what to improve our English skills. I have a suggetion to make. Let’s post here English proverbs, that you have already learned, heard or read somewhere. Apart from that we could find out some equivalents in other languages. But it is not nessesary. Sometimes it’s very difficult. We could also add some famous quotations. I think it will be very useful for all of us. We can learn them and use reasonably in every day life.
What do you say?
For example:
Cheapest is the dearest. A cheapskate pays twice( Russian equivalent). A miser pays twice.
Saying and doing are two things.
Neither a lender nor a borrower be ( Shakespear"Нamlet")
Money spent on the brain is never spent in vain.
In Rome do as Romans do
To call a spade a spade
To beat arouhd the bush
My house is my castle
Live and let live.
He who laughs last, laughs longest.
Revenge is a dish best served cold.
Ask not for whom the bell tolls, it tolls for thee.
A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.
What can’t speak, can’t lie.
Backwards. It’s, “He who laughs last laughs best.”
More:
“You can fool all of the people some of the time, and some of the people all of the time, but you can’t fool all of the people all of the time.”
“If you tell the truth, you don’t need a good memory.”
“Give a man a fish, and he’ll eat for a day. Teach a man to fish, and he’ll eat for a lifetime.”
“Don’t bite off more than you can chew.”
“All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.”
“Don’t count your chickens before they’re hatched.”
“There’s a sucker born every minute.”
“Birds of a feather flock together.”
“Opposites attract.”
“The truth does not change according to our ability to stomach it.” – Flannery O’Connor
“Miracles are not contrary to nature, but only contrary to what we know about nature.” – St. Augustine of Hippo
“I ain’t man enough to be no mother!” – Popeye
“I’ve had enough, and enough is too much!” – Popeye
“Take care of the minutes and the hours will take care of themselves”
“Time works wonders”
“Make haste slowly”
“Barking dogs seldom bite”
“No sooner said than done”
Hi, Jamie K
I was wondering, if you could help me. What does it mean -“There’s a sucker born every minute.” “All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.”
What about …?
“All politics have no relation to morals” Niccolò Machiavelli
“Politics, as the word is commonly understood, are nothing but corruptions.”
Jonathan Swift
“The only horrible thing in the world is ennui, Dorian. That is the one sin for which there is no forgiveness”. Oscar Wilde “The Picture of Dorian Gray”
-Life is a game, boy. Life is a game one plays according to the rules.
-If you get on the side where the hot shots are, then it’s a game all right … But if you are on the other side where there aren’t any hot shots, then what’s the game about?[p.11, 12]
All you have to do is say something nobody understands and they’ll do practically anything you want them to. [ p.181]
Jerome David Salinger ‘The Catcher in the Rye’
" I have a feeling that you’re riding for some kind of a terrible, terrible fall…This fall I think you’re riding for - it’s a special kind of fall, a horrible kind. The man falling isn’t permitted to feel or hear himself hit bottom. He just keeps falling and falling. The whole
arrangement’s designed for men who, at some time or other in their lives, were looking for something their own environment couldn’t supply them with. Or they thought their own environment couldn’t supply them with. So they gave up looking. They gave it up before they ever really even got started." J.D. Salinger “The Catcher in the Rye”.