HELPFUL PROVERBS of PRACTICAL WISDOM
I have selected and collected these proverbs and maxims because they can be easily understood and remembered and are therefore more likely to be used. I share them with you and others who, unlike me, may not have the time and available resources to search for them. May you enjoy and appreciate them as I do.
ANONYMOUS PROVERBS AND HELPFUL THOUGHTS
He is a benefactor of mankind who contracts the great rules of life into short sentences, that may be easily impressed on the memory.–Johnson
A hasty word, hastily spoken, is as difficult to retrieve as a straw in the wind.
There is frequently more enjoyment in the road we travel than in the destination.
Opportunity may knock only once, but temptation knocks repeatedly.
A man wrapped up in himself makes a small package.
If there is anything better than to be loved it is to love.
Humility is always more becoming than pride. It is also more productive.
The cheapest of all things is kindness. It requires little effort and no sacrifice.
Luck is a better word if your put a P in front of it.
Marry in haste and repent forever.
As a cure for despondency-- count your blessings and thank God for them.
Love or friendship given by you,-- like a boomerang, always comes back to you.
Sermons heard may not last long–but sermons seen make impressions strong.
If deeds of kindness become your way–happiness will be with you every day.
The benefits of service by far exceed the cost to you of each kindly deed.
Tolerance is true humility. It is also true nobility.
We suffer more from our reactions than from the actions of others.
Forgive and forget for peace of mind and use the time saved for happy living.
To think and feel we are able helps to become so. Act as if. As a man thinketh, he becomes.
Cultivate enthusiasm. It will stimulate all your days and bring success and happiness, give energy and help in many ways.
Whenever or whatever you read with enthusiasm your comprehension and retention are greater: the things you read become your knowledge and stay with you much later.
Avoid evil as you would avoid the punishment of evil.
Teach your children by example. Be the kind of person you would like them to be.
Prayer and provender hinder no man’s journey.
An ounce prevention is better than a pound of cure.
He that buys what he does not want, may soon want what he cannot buy.
The end must justify the means.
What should not be heard by little ears should not be said by big mouths.
If you don’t want temptation to follow you, don’t leave a forwarding address.
Experience is the father of wisdom.
You worship in vain without work.
The more you thank God your blessings for, the more blessings you will have to be thankful for.
True humility is not without dignity and self-respect. It is willingness to accept instruction, to learn, to admit and repent of ignorance or error, to hear both sides of a question.
Don’t quote others: think for yourself.–Be creative.
Good manners take little effort and improve the personality greatly.
For a peaceful and happy marriage marry someone with your own beliefs, goals, standards, race, color, religion, interests, social and financial background.
Next to the slavery of substances is the slavery of sin or bad habits.
Sleep is the best medicine.
A smile makes beautiful the plainest face.
Sorrow’s best cure is prayer to God.
Bad company is worse than having no company.
A soft answer turneth away wrath.–Proverbs 15:1
Criticizing others harms you more than it harms others.
A vacant apartment is better than one with a bad tenant.
There are two sides to every story.
You can’t plow a field by turning it over in your mind.
Self-discipline is more dependable than luck.
Don’t count your chickens before they are hatched.
Don’t put all your eggs in one basket.
You must have respect for yourself if you want respect from others.
A person without respect for himself will not have respect for others.
Necessity is the mother of invention.
Adversity developes strength.
Perseverance is the keynote of success.
Diligence is the mother of good fortune.
Second thoughts are best.
If you neglect opportunities, you lose opportunities.
Barking dogs don’t bite.
None are as blind as those who will not see.
None are as deaf as those who will not hear.
You are as old as you feel.
One bad apple spoils a sack full.
The best defense is a good offense.
As the twig is bent, so the tree will grow.
Time wasted is time lost.
Winners always get up after they are knocked down.
Business before pleasure.
Work when you work and play when you play.
God helps those who help themselves.
Don’t cry over spilt milk.
Measure twice and saw once.
Ask twice to avoid one mistake.
You are your own worst enemy.
The tide ebbs and flows.
If you don’t plant, you don’t harvest.
The well traveled road is the safest.
Believing is more rewarding than doubting.
Don’t make the same mistake often.
Better late than never but better never late.
Don’t grieve for what can’t be helped.
A good beginning helps make a good ending.
Fortune favors the brave.
Fortune favors those who help themselves.
A bold heart is half the battle.
If it’s not broken, don’t fix it.
Experience is the most effective teacher.
Haste causes waste.
Strike while the iron’s hot.
United we stand, divided we fall.
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.
A clean conscience is a good prescription for sleep.
Birds of a feather flock together.
Gold opens every gate but that of heaven.
If you dig a pit for others, you may fall in it yourself.
If God gives you a task he will help you fulfil it.
Virtue is its own reward.
Courtesy costs nothing but results in many rewards.
It is too late to shut the gate when the horse is gone.
No man can serve two masters.
Cleanliness is next to Godliness.
As you sow, so shall you reap.
A stitch in time saves nine.
Ignore weeds one year, fight weeds seven years.
Pride goes before a fall.
Actions speak louder than words.
Empty barrels make the most noise.
Prevention is better than cure.
A word to the wise is sufficient.
Practice makes perfect, but don’t practice errors.
Familiarity breeds contempt.
You cannot hide from your conscience.
All that glistens is not gold.
The last straw will break the camel’s back.
Diet cures more than doctors.
Better bend than break.
Teachers learn more than students do. And leaders learn more than followers too.
All things come to those who wait.
Where there’s smoke there’s fire.
Don’t change horses in mid-stream.
Garbage in; garbage out.
Forewarned is forearmed.
The road to hell is paved with good intentions.
Ignorance breeds poverty.
Sloth breeds poverty.
The squeaking wheel gets the grease.
You can’t make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear.
Honey catches more flies than vinegar.
Every ass likes to hear himself bray.
A man’s praise in his own mouth stinks.
Preparation for war is the best preparation for peace.
Offense is the best defense.
Beggars can’t be choosers.
Let sleeping dogs lie.
It is better to want what you have than to have what you want.
When in Rome do as Romans do.
There’s an exception to every rule.
He who laughs last laughs best.
Some times the remedy is worse than the disease.
People who live in glass houses should never throw stones.
A good wife is like a port in a storm: a bad wife is a storm in the port.
Fools rush in where angels fear to tread.
Procrastination is the thief of time.
Take while the taking is good.
Don’t jump out of the frying pan into the fire.
If you wish to command, learn to obey.
He who knows when to be silent shows wisdom.
Curses, like chickens, come home to roost.
Still waters run deep.
It takes a thief to catch a thief.
It takes a hero to appreciate a hero.
Every cloud has a silver lining.
While there’s life, there’s hope.
Adversity makes a man wise.
Fight fire with fire.
Youth never comes again.
Don’t cry because it’s over–smile because it happened.
Friendship is a plant which must be watered often.
He who begins many things finishes few.
An ill life, and ill end.
If you rest, you rust.
The more good you do the easier it is to do good.
Where force fails, skill and patience may prevail.
He that may not do as he would must do as he can.
The best place for criticism is in front of your mirror.
From one quarrel come a hundred sins.
The pain of dispute excels by far its utility.
One evil breeds another.
The delay is good that makes the way safer.
There is no royal road to learning.
God protect us from him that has read one book.
It is impossible to do good for others without doing good for oneself.
Humility is always more becoming than pride.
Much law–little justice.
Time lost cannot be recalled.
Love is the true reward of love.
The wish is father to the thought.
Water is not missed until the well runs dry.
It is better to build boys than to repair men.
The conscience of clean linen is, in and of itself, a source of moral strength, second only to that of a clean conscience.
When saving for old age, be sure to put away a few pleasant thoughts.
The only thing more costly than education is ignorance.
Fortune favors the best prepared people.
Life is not a goblet to be drained but a measure to be filled.
Reckless youth makes rueful age.
Penney wise, pound foolish.
A good name is better than riches.
One learns by teaching.
Constant dripping wears away stone.
Nothing ventured, nothing gained.
Every sin brings its punishment with it.
Tears bring nobody back from the grave.
Confidence begets confidence.
The road to hell is paved with good intentions.
It is not good for man to be alone.
Anger begins with folly and ends with repentance.
The more your have, the more you will want.
Happiness and contentment are the road we travel, not the destination.
When fortune knocks, open the door.
Bad company is worse than no company: If you lie with the dogs you’ll arise with their fleas.
I've read a thousand German proverbs, a thousand Spanish proverbs and a thousand Oriental proverbs in the public library but copyright laws prevented me from quoting any of them. The following are from newspapers, magazines, memory, books, collections over the years, etc.
QUOTABLE QUOTES
There ain’t nothing in this world for free, and it blows my mind how so many fools just don’t get that. –Jamie Fox
I have enjoyed life a lot more by saying yes than by saying no.–Richard Branson
A sharp tongue sometimes cuts its own throat.–Jim Scancarelli.
Don’t worry that children never listen to you; worry that they are always watching you. –Robert Fulghum
It is better to sleep on things beforehand than lie awake about them afterward.– Baltasar Gracian
Each time history repeats itself, the price goes up.–Ronald Wright
You only have to do a very few things right in your life–so long as you don’t do too many things wrong.–Warren Buffet
All mothers have intuition. The great ones have radar.–Cathy Guisewite
Every success is usually an admission ticket to new set of decisions.–Henry Kissinger
I have found that if you love life, life will love you back. –Arthur Rubinstein
A moment’s insight is sometimes worth a life’s experience.–Oliver Wendell Holmes
Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle.–Plato
Character is doing what’s right when nobody is looking.–J .C. Watts
I’ve always tried to go a step past wherever people expected me to end up.–Beverly Sills
Help others get ahead. You will always stand taller with someone else on your shoulders. - Bob Moawad
Success isn’t permanent, and failure isn’t fatal.–Mike Ditka
Nothing is easy to the unwilling.–Nikki Giovanni
I have never seen a monument erected to a pessimist.–Paul Harvey
Change your thoughts and you change the world.–Harold R. McCalindon
Truce is better than friction.–Charles Herguth
We cannot direct the wind, but we can adjust the sails.–Bertha Calloway
Worry is the misuse of the imagination.–Dan Zadra
Only you can be yourself. No one else is qualified.
Personality can open doors, but only character can keep them open.–Elmer G. Leterman
I bargained with life for a penny. A penny is what I got.....
There can be no happiness if the things we believe in are different from the things we do. –Freya Madeline Stark
Be life long or short, its completeness depends on what it was lived for.–David Starr Jordan
Make the most of yourself, for that is all there is of you.–Ralph Waldo Emerson
If you want others to be happy, practice compassion. If you want to be happy practice compassion. –Dalai Lama
If you would create something you must be something.–Goethe
Nobody will believe in you unless you believe in yourself.–Liberace
A light heart lives long.–Shakespeare
Minds are like parachutes–they only function when open.–Thomas Dewar
Life is like an escalator: You can move forward or backward; you cannot remain still. –Patricia Russell-McCloud
I will prepare and my time will come.-- A. Lincoln
Never give up. Never–Never–Never give up when an issue is at stake.–Winston Churchill
If you can’t stand the heat get out of the kitchen.–Harry Truman
We have nothing to fear but fear itself.–Franklin Delano Roosevelt.
Ask not what your country can do for you but what can you do for your country.-John F. Kennedy
I never take counsel from my fears.–Dwight Eisenhower
There are no atheists in the foxholes of Bataan.–Douglas Mac Arthur
Nothing is so frightening as ignorance in action.–Voltaire
Whatever the mind can conceive and believe, man can achieve.–A. Carnegie
He that wont be counseled can’t be helped.–Benjamin Franklin
When angry, count 10 before you speak; if very angry, 100.–Thomas Jefferson
A man in passion rides a mad horse.–Benjamin Franklin
An atheist is a man with no invisible support.–Bishop Fulton J. Sheen
Character is much easier kept than recovered.– Thomas Paine
Charity is a debt of honor.–Immanuel Kent
The dangers of knowledge are not to be compared with the dangers of ignorance. Richard Whately
Live always in the best company when you read.–Sidney Smith
The end of all knowledge should be virtuous action.–Sir Philip Sidney
The man who does not read good books has no advantage over the man who cannot read.-Mark Twain
A man is saved no faster than he gains knowledge. Man cannot be saved in ignorance.–
Joseph Smith
Fortune favors the best-prepared people.
The Ten Commandments should be re-read not re-written.–Cecil B. deMille
Freedom cannot live after the family , as we know it, is dead. Freedom cannot outlive morality. - Thomas Anderson
Liberty cannot be established without morality.–Horace Greely
One man’s word is one man’s word. We should hear both sides.--Goethe
What is the best government? That which teaches us to govern ourselves.–Goethe
Contentment is natural wealth. Luxury is artificial poverty.–Socrates
To see what is right and not do it, is want of courage.–Confucius
Small courtesies sweeten life: the greater ones ennoble us.–Bovee
Life is not so short that there is not always time for courtesy.–Ralph Waldo Emerson
Poverty is hard but debt is horrible.–Spurgeon
Want of decency is want of sense.–Roscomon
If it be right, do it boldly!–If it be wrong leave it undone!--Gilpin
Our deeds determine us as much as we determine our deeds.–George Eliot
What we have been makes us what we are.–Dykes
Good deeds ennoble us and we are the sons of our own deeds.– Cervantes
A noble deed is a step toward God. J.G. Holland
The sweetest sounds to mortals given are “Mother”, “Home” and “Heaven”.
-- William Goldsmith Brown
Men do less than they ought unless they do all that they can.–Thomas Carlyle
Thou shalt eat thy bread in the sweat of thy brow.–Genesis 3:19
God sells us all things at the price of labor.– Leonardo da Vinci
There is no development physically or intellectually without effort and effort means work. –Calvin Coolidge
Only a life lived for others is a life worth while.–Albert Einstein
To obey God is perfect liberty. He who does that shall be free, safe and quiet.–Seneca
Lean liberty is better than fat slavery.–John Ray
The history of liberty is a history of the limitations of government, not the increase of it.–Woodrow Wilson
Remember that any government which is so big it can give you anything you want will
also be so big it can take everything you have.–William Miller
Only the disciplined are free.–James Cash Penney
Life is too short to be little.–Benjamin Disraeli
You will never “find time” for anything. If you want time you must arrange it.
Nothing but a good life here can fit men for a better one hereafter.–William Penn
God gave us life. It is our duty to make the most of it.
The wise man will always reflect on the quality, not the quantity of life. –Seneca
As long as you live keep learning how to live.–Seneca
There is more to life than increasing its speed.–Mahatma Ghandi
The best thing about the future is that it comes one day at a time.–Lincoln
How much time you lose over a bad matter.–Seneca
Forgive and forget for peace of mind and happiness you will always find.–Ward Hicken
Believe that life is worth living and your belief will create the fact.–William James
The future is the time when you’ll wish you had done what you’re not doing now.
To be able to look back on one’s past life with satisfaction is to live twice.–Marcus Martiales
Let us realize that the privilege to work is a gift, that power to work is a blessing, that love of work is success.–David O. McKay
There is no worse robber than a bad book.–Italian proverb
What men usually ask for when they pray to God is, that two and two may not make four.-Russian proverb
The willing contemplation of vice is vice.–Arabian proverb
All sunshine makes the desert.–Arab proverb
A man devoid of religion, is like a horse without bridle.–Latin proverb
What we shall be, we are becoming.–Old proverb
Waste not: Want not. Wilful waste makes woeful want.–Pioneer & Depression proverb
Wear it out, make it last, make it do or do without– Depression Proverb
A person who talks about his inferiors hasn’t any.–Hawaiian proverb
Anger is the only thing to put of till tomorrow.–Slovakian Proverb
Even nectar is poison if taken to excess.– Hindu proverb
A guilty conscience needs no accuser.–English proverb
What e’re thou art, act well thy part.–Scottish proverb
A kind word is better than a big pie.–Russian proverb
A pennyweight o’ love is worth a pound o’ law.–Scottish proverb
He only does not live in vain, who employs his wealth, his thought, his speech to the good of others.-Hindoo maxim
Thinking well is wise; planning well, wiser; doing well wisest and best of all.–Persian proverb
Either do as your neighbors do or move away.–Moroccan proverb.
Forgetting a debt does not pay it.–Celtic proverb
The willing contemplation of vice is vice.–Arabian proverb
If you lie down with the dogs you arise with fleas.
Into the closed mouth the fly doe not get.–Philippine proverb
Youth supposes; age knows.–Welsh proverb
He who has health, has hope; and he who has hope, has everything. –Arab proverb
An idle mind is the devil’s workshop. –English proverb
Do little things now, so shall big things come to thee by and by asking to be done.-Persian p.
God could not be everywhere and therefore he made mothers.–Jewish saying
What men usually ask for when they pray to God is, that two and two may not make four.-Russian proverb
Seest thou a man diligent in his business? He shall stand before kings.-Proverbs 2:29
If the devil finds a man idle, he’ll put him to work.–Scottish proverb
Anger is the only thing to put of till tomorrow.–Slovakian Proverb
What we shall be, we are becoming.–Old proverb
A kind word is better than a big pie.–Russian proverb
Make hay while the sun shines.-English proverb
Good things cost less than bad ones.–Italian proverb
Quarrel and strife make short life.–Swedish proverb
Talent without sense is a torch in folly’s hand.–Welsh proverb
When you shoot an arrow of truth dip its point in honey–Arab proverb
Love is the flower; marriage is the fruit.–Finnish proverb.
It is impossible for a man to be saved in ignorance. Seek knowledge out of the best books. –Joseph Smith
For additional writings by Ward Hicken read:
www.wisdomofshakespeare.blogspot.com (4 pages of one-line statements from his writings)
www.happypoems.blogspot.com (Concise practical instructions in verse and rhyme for daily happiness, plus teachings and miracles of Jesus in enjoyable verse and rhyme)
