Robert Christy, comp. Proverbs, Maxims and Phrases of All Ages. 1887.
Woman
A bag of fleas is easier to keep watch over than a woman.German.
A beautiful and chaste woman is the perfect workmanship of God, the true glory of angels, the rare miracle of earth, and sole wonder of the world.Hermes.
A beautiful hand is a beautiful thing in woman.Benjamin Disraeli.
A beautiful woman if poor should use double circumspection; for her beauty will tempt others, her poverty herself.Colton.
A beautiful woman is the hell of the soul, the purgatory of the purse and the paradise of the eyes.Fontenelle.
A beautiful woman smiling bespeaks a purse weeping.Italian.
A black woman hath turpentine in her.
A busy woman is a fearful nuisance.Ben Jonson.
A cat has nine lives and a woman has nine cats’ lives.
A clock serves to point out the hours and a woman to make us forget them.
A cunning woman is a knavish fool.Lord Lyttleton.
A dishonest woman cannot be kept in and an honest one will not.
A dog is wiser than a woman; he does not bark at his master.Russian.
A fair woman and a slashed gown find always some nail in the way.
A fair woman without virtue is like palled wine.
A faithful subject dies without fear, and a virtuous woman meets danger with delight.Chinese.
A foolish woman is clamorous.Bible.
A foolish woman is known by her finery.
A French woman talks a great deal more than she thinks, an English woman thinks a great deal more than she talks.
A glaring sunny morning, a woman that talks Latin, and a child reared on wine, never come to a good end.French.
A goose, a woman and a goat are bad things lean.Portuguese.
A graceful correction:—the proper study of mankind is woman.Punch.
A handsome woman is always right.German.
A handsome woman is either silly or vain.Spanish.
A high estate with woman takes place of all desert.Massinger.
A judicious woman that is diligent and religious is the very soul of the house.Bishop Thorne.
A man frequently admits he was in the wrong, a woman never, she was only mistaken.Punch.
A man of straw is worth a woman of gold.
A man pauses, hesitates and requests time to study a woman, whereas a woman will read you a dozen men at first sight.Punch.
A man’s words are like an arrow, close to the mark; a woman’s like a broken fan.Chinese.
A woman and a melon are hard to choose.French.
A mill, a clock and a woman always want mending.
A mule and a woman do what is expected of them.Spanish.
A pretty woman is a welcome guest.Byron.
A proud woman brings distress on her family.Sri Lankan.
A prudent woman is in the same class of honor as a wise man.
Arthur could not tame a woman’s tongue.
A sack full of fleas is easier to watch than a woman.
A shameless woman is the worst of men.Young.
A ship, a mill and a woman are always repairing.
A silent woman is always more admired than a noisy one.Latin.
A spaniel, a woman and a walnut tree,
The more they be beaten, the better they be.
A thousand men may live together in harmony, whereas two women are unable to do so though they be sisters.Tamil.
A truth telling woman has few friends.Danish.
A vicious woman is like a thorn in the foot, you cannot get rid of either without pain.Sanscrit.
A virtuous woman commands her husband by obeying him.Publius Syrus.
A virtuous woman is a crown to her husband.Bible.
A virtuous woman though ugly is the ornament of the house.
A weeping man and a smiling woman are not to be trusted.Tamil.
A wicked woman and an evil, is three halfpence worse than the devil.
A wicked woman is a magazine of evils.Latin.
A woman and a cherry are painted for their own harm.German, Spanish.
A woman and a glass are always in danger.
A woman and a greyhound must be small in the waist.Spanish.
A woman and a hen are soon lost in gadding.Spanish.
A woman can love a poor boy better than a rich dotard.Hebrew.
A woman can throw away more with a spoon than a man can bring in with a shovel.
A woman changes oft,
Who trusts her is right soft.Francis I. (He afterwards had good cause to alter his opinion.)
A woman complains, a woman in woe,
A woman is sick when she likes to be so.Italian.
A woman conceals what she knows not.
A woman’s counsel is no great thing, but he who does not take it is a fool.Spanish.
A woman either loves or hates, there is no third part.Publius Syrus.
A woman finds it much easier to do ill than well.Plautus.
A woman for a general, and the soldiers will be women.Latin.
A woman forgives sin in her lover, but never meanness.
A woman has never spoiled anything through silence.German.
A woman has often committed herself by talking, never by holding her tongue.Punch.
A woman hates a question but loves to ask one.Punch.
A woman impudent and mannish grown,
Is not more loathed than an effeminate man
In time of action.Shakespeare.
A woman is always changeable and capricious.Virgil.
A woman is known by her walking and drinking.Spanish.
A woman is naturally born to fears.Shakespeare.
A woman is to be from her house three times, when she is christened, married and buried.
A woman laughs when she can and weeps when she pleases.
A woman may be ever so old, if she take fire she will jump.Danish.
A woman never brings a man into the right way.Kanuri.
A woman never commands a man, unless he be a fool, but by her obedience.Turkish Spy.
A woman possessed of a decent and modest spirit marries but once.Chinese.
A woman’s preaching is like a dog’s walking on his hind legs: it is not done well but you are surprised to find it done at all.Johnson.
A woman seldom asks advice before she has bought her wedding clothes.
A woman seldom writes her mind but in her postscript.Spectator.
A woman’s first counsel is the best.
A woman’s greatest torment, dust; man’s greatest plague, a woman continually brushing the same.Punch.
A woman’s head is always influenced by her heart, but a man’s heart is always influenced by his head.Lady Blessington.
A woman smells sweetly when she smells of nothing at all.Plautus.
A woman’s mind and winter wind change oft.
A woman’s strength is in her tongue.Welsh.
A woman’s tear-drop melts, a man’s half sears,
To them ’tis a relief, to us a torture.Byron.
A woman’s tears and a dog’s limping are not real.Spanish.
A woman’s tears are a fountain of craft.Italian.
A woman’s tongue is her sword and she does not let it rust.French.
A woman’s tongue is only three inches long, but it can kill a man six feet high.Japanese.
A woman’s tongue wags like a lamb’s tail.
A woman strong in flounces is weak in the head.German.
A woman’s vengeance knows no bounds.German.
A woman’s work and washing of dishes is never at an end.
A woman that loves to be at the window is a bunch of grapes on the highway.
A woman that paints puts up a bill, to let.
A woman the more curious she is about her face is commonly the more careless about her house.Ben Jonson.
A woman when inflamed by love or hatred will dare everything.
A woman when thinking by herself is always thinking of mischief.
A woman who accepts sells herself, a woman who gives surrenders.French.
A woman who has lost her rival has no sorrow.Woloffs (Africa).
A woman who has sacrificed her virtue soon resigns every other principle.Tacitus.
A woman who is never spoken of is praised the most.
A woman who looks much in the glass spins but little.French.
A woman who walks the streets ought to know whether they be paved or no.Fielding.
A woman will forgive anything in a rival excepting her being prettier than herself.Punch.
A woman wins an old man by listening to him, a young man by talking to him.Punch.
A woman without a husband, a house without a foundation.German.
A woman without dower has no liberty to speak.Euripides.
A woman without religion, a flower without perfume.German.
A woman’s first advice is the best.German.
A woman’s hair is long but her sense short.Russian.
A woman’s lot is made for her by the love she accepts.George Eliot.
A woman’s mind is affected by the meanest gifts.Livy.
Abandon her who is careless of her own reputation.Tamil.
Adam must have an Eve to blame for all his faults.Italian.
All that a woman has to do in this world, is contained within the duties of a daughter, a sister, a wife, and a mother.Steele.
After all, woman’s fort is her piano.Punch.
All women are good. Viz., good for something or good for nothing.
All women are good Lutherans: they would rather preach than hear mass.Danish.
An ill-tempered woman is the devil’s doornail.Danish.
An ugly woman dreads the mirror.Japanese.
As a jewel of gold in a swine’s snout so is a fair woman which is without discretion.Bible.
As great a pity to see a woman cry as a goose go barefoot.
A woman’s honor is her good name.Don Quixote.
A woman’s wisdom is under her heels.Pashto.
Beat a woman with a hammer and you’ll make gold.Russian.
“Because,” is a woman’s answer.
Better dwell with a dragon than with a wicked woman.
Between a woman’s “yes” and “no” there is no room for the point of a needle.Spanish.
Beware of a bad woman and put not your trust in a good one.Spanish, Portuguese.
But what is woman? only one of nature’s agreeable blunders.Mrs. Cowley.
But yet believe me, good as well as ill
Woman’s at last a contradiction still.Pope.
Civil carriage is the best sign of affection to a woman.
Disguise our bondage as we will,
’Tis woman, woman rules us still.Tom Moore.
Divination seems heightened to its highest power in woman.Alcott.
Earth’s noblest thing: a woman perfected.Lowell.
Earth’s twin-born rulers, fame and woman’s love.Bulwer.
Everything in the world depends on women.Benjamin Disraeli.
Every woman is in the wrong until she cries, and then she is in the right instantly.Punch.
Every woman loves the woman in the looking-glass.German.
Every woman who is a shrew in domestic life is now become a scold in politics.Addison.
Every woman would rather be handsome than good.German.
Fairest of creatures, last and best.
Fair, good, rich and wise is a woman four stories high.French.
For woman’s soul when once plunged in,
Knows no stopping place in sin.
Fortune and women are partial to fools.German.
From four things God preserve us: a painted woman, a conceited valet, salt beef without mustard and a little late dinner.Italian.
Hares are caught with hounds, fools with praise and women with gold.German.
He is a fool who thinks by force or skill
To turn the current of a woman’s will.
He who listens to the advice of a woman is a fool.Tamil.
He who listens to the words of a woman will be accounted worthless.
He who trusts a woman and leads an ass will never be free from plague.French.
I hate a dumpy woman.Byron.
I hate a learned woman.Euripides.
If a woman hold her tongue, it is only from the fear she cannot hold her own.Punch.
If a woman were as little as she is good,
A peascod would make her a gown and a hood.
If the heart of a man is depressed with cares,
The mist is dispell’d when a woman appears.Gay.
If you want to know a woman’s true character linger after the guests are gone and listen to what she has to say about them.Punch.
In arguments with men a woman ever,
Goes by the worse whatever be her cause.Milton.
In men every mortal sin is venial; in women every venial sin is mortal.Italian.
It is better to dwell in a corner of the housetop, than with a brawling woman in a wide house.Bible.
It is better to dwell in the wilderness than with a contentious and angry woman.Bible.
It is better to irritate a dog than an old woman.Italian.
It is easier to guard against a bushel of fleas than a woman.German.
It is vain to watch a really bad woman.Italian.
It is nothing at all, only a woman drowning.French.
It is the men that cause the women to dislike each other.French.
Kind words and few are a woman’s ornament.Danish.
King Arthur did not violate the refuge of a woman.
Let women spin and not preach.
Man is fire and woman is tow and the devil comes and blows.French, Spanish, Portuguese.
Man may be the head of the family, but far better than that woman is the heart of it.Punch.
Man without woman is head without body; woman without man is body without head.German.
Man, woman, and the devil are the three degrees of comparison.
Man to man so oft unjust, is always so to woman.Byron.
Many estates are spent in the getting
Since women for tea forsook spinning and knitting,
And men for their punch hewing and splitting.
Many things make the honor of a man, few that of a woman. (Economy, modesty and silence adorn a woman.)Modern Greek.
Many women, many words.
Many words honor a man and few the woman.Modern Greek.
Mean women have their faults as well as queens.Massinger.
Men are as old as they feel and women as they look.Italian.
Men as well as women born to be controlled,
Stoop to the forward and the bold.
Men make wealth and women preserve it.Italian.
Men must work and women must weep.Kingsley.
Men never begrudge the money they spend on dinners, nor women on pastry.Punch.
Men respect and women love.
Men’s vows are women’s traitors.Shakespeare.
My only books were woman’s looks,
And folly’s all they taught me.Tom Moore.
Never ask a woman her age: ask it of some other woman.Punch.
Never contradict a woman when she is abusing her husband.Punch.
No relying on wine, women, or fortune.
No woman is a beauty to her femme-de-chambre.Punch.
No woman is ugly if she is well dressed.Spanish, Portuguese.
No woman marries a man for God’s sake.
No woman sleeps so soundly that the twang of a guitar will not bring her to the window.Spanish.
Not she with traitorous kiss her Saviour stung,
Not she denied him with unholy tongue,
She, while apostles shrunk, could danger brave,
Last at his cross, and earliest at his grave.E. S. Barrett.
Nothing causes women to lose the taste of visiting but the want of attire and ornament.Chinese.
Nothing is more unbearable than a woman with a full purse.Juvenal.
Nothing is so important to a young man entering life as to be well criticised by women.Benjamin Disraeli.
Oh! woman, woman, when to ill thy mind
Is bent, all hell contains no fouler fiend.Homer.
Old women’s gold is not ugly.
One demands four things from a woman: that virtue dwell in her heart, modesty beam on her forehead, sweetness flow from her lips, and industry occupy her hands.Chinese.
One hair of a woman draws more than a bell rope.German.
One hair of a woman draws more than a team of oxen.
One tongue is enough for a woman.
One tongue is enough for two women.
Out of nine women, one is sure to be affected with jealousy.Chinese.
Play, women and wine make a man laugh till he dies.
Play, women and wine undo a man laughing.
Praise a woman’s taste, and you may attack her sense with impunity.Punch.
Priests and women never forget.German.
Provided a woman be well principled she has dowry enough.Plautus.
Put the light out and all women are alike.German.
Seek to be good, but aim not to be great,
A woman’s noblest station is retreat.Lyttleton (1731).
Summer sown corn and woman’s advice, turn out well in every seven years.German.
Swine, women and bees cannot be turned.
Take a woman’s first advice, not her second.French.
Talk to women as much as you can, ’tis the best school.Benjamin Disraeli.
Tears are ordinarily the touchingest eloquence of women.Turkish Spy.
Tell a woman she’s a beauty and the devil will tell her it ten times.Spanish.
Tell a woman she is wondrous fair and she will soon turn fool.
Tell her she’s handsome and you will turn her head.Spanish, Portuguese.
That bench is well adorned that is filled with virtuous women.Danish.
That man that hath a tongue, I say is no man,
If with his tongue he cannot win a woman.Shakespeare.
The action of women on our destiny is increasing.Benjamin Disraeli.
The best guidance for a woman’s life is a union with the man she loves.Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine.
The cunning of the sex is equal to their obstinacy. (Female sex.)
The dog is faithful, women never.Turkish.
The first counsels of women are the wisest and their last resolutions the most dangerous.Chinese.
The first talent of a woman is to be able to converse.Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine.
The fortitude that becomes a woman would be cowardice in a man, and the modesty which becomes a man would be pertness in a woman.Tacitus.
The laughter, the tears and the song of a woman are equally deceptive.
The looking-glass is the woman’s best counsellor.German.
The love of woman buries her wrongs without a tear.Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine.
The man’s a fool who thinks by force or skill,
To stem the torrent of a woman’s will;
For if she will, she will, you may depend on it,
And if she won’t she won’t, and there’s an end on it.
The man that lays his hand upon a woman save in the way of kindness, is a wretch whom ’twere gross flattery to name a coward.
The more a woman admires her face, the more she ruins her house.Spanish.
The more women look in their glasses the less they look to their houses.
The most beautiful object in the world is a beautiful woman.Macaulay.
The ornament of a woman is her modesty.Sri Lankan.
The power of a Brahmin is in his knowledge, of a woman in her beauty, of a soldier in his courage.Sri Lankan.
The reputation of chastity to a woman, is not so necessary as veracity to a man.
The smiles of a pretty woman are the tears of the purse.Italian.
The thoughts of women are afterthoughts.
The tongue of women is their sword and they take care not to let it rust.Chinese.
The way of women: when you will they won’t, and when you won’t they’re dying to.
The well-dressed woman draws her husband from another woman’s door.Spanish.
The whisper of a beautiful woman can be heard further than the loudest call of duty.
The woman in finery, the house in filth, but the door-way swept.Spanish.
The woman that deliberates is lost.Addison.
The woman who gives is seldom good; the woman who accepts is in the power of the just.Italian.
The world is the book of women.French.
The world was sad, the garden was a wild,
And man the hermit sighed, ’til woman smiled.Campbell.
There are only two good women in the world: the one is dead, the other not to be found.German.
There is little use in watching a bad woman.Spanish.
There is no mischief done, but a woman is one.
There is no torture a woman would not endure to enhance her beauty.Montaigne.
There is not a woman without some duty.Cicero.
There is nothing on earth to be compared with a virtuous and lovely woman.Arabian.
There is only one way in which a woman can be handsome but a hundred thousand ways in which she can be pretty.Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine.
There is scarcely a lawsuit unless a woman is the cause of it.Juvenal.
There is scarcely a man who does not inveigh against the scandal of women, but they all of them listen to it.Punch.
There is no mischief in the world done,
But a woman is always one.
There never was a looking-glass that told a woman she was ugly.French.
There never yet was fair woman,
But she made mouths in the glass.Shakespeare.
They say that women and music should not be dated.Goldsmith.
They talk about a woman’s sphere as though it had a limit,
There’s not a place in earth or heaven,
There’s not a task to mankind given,
There’s not a blessing or a woe,
There’s not a whisper yes or no,
There’s not a life or birth,
That has a feather’s weight of worth,
Without a woman in it.
Three things women highly hold in hate,
Falsehood, cowardice and poor descent.Shakespeare.
Time, wind, women and fortune are ever changing.German.
’Tis as natural for women to pride themselves in fine clothes as ’tis for a peacock to spread his tail.
’Tis beauty that doth oft make women proud,
’Tis virtue that doth make them most admired,
’Tis modesty that makes them seem divine.Shakespeare.
To a foolish woman, a violin is more pleasing than a distaff.Italian.
To a gentleman every woman is a lady in right of her sex.Bulwer.
To be slow in words is a woman’s only virtue.Shakespeare.
Trust not a woman even when dead. (She may feign death.)
Trust not a woman when she weepeth, for it is her nature to weep, when she wanteth her will.Socrates.
’Twas surely the devil that taught women to dance and asses to bray.
Two cats and one mouse, two women and one house,
Two dogs and one bone, will not agree long.German.
Two things govern the world: women and gold.German.
Two women can be reconciled who have quarrelled unless they have called each other ugly.Horace Walpole.
Two women placed together make cold weather.Shakespeare.
Ugliness is the guardian of women.Hebrew.
Ugly women finely dressed are the uglier for it.
Upon a woman one must wait an hour.
Virtue is the most beautiful ornament of woman.German.
Want of sympathy in a woman is almost as bad as want of beauty.
Watching a woman is labor in vain.German.
We never know what a woman doesn’t mean until she has spoken.
We should make it a rule to give up to women and they are sure to give up to us.Benjamin Disraeli.
Wealth, wind, women and fortune change like the moon.French.
What a woman wills, God wills.French, Spanish.
What manly eloquence could produce such effect as woman’s silence.Michelet.
What’s a table richly spread, without a woman at its head?J. Wharton.
When a handsome woman laughs you may be sure her purse weeps.
When a woman has no answer, the sea is empty of water.German.
When a woman has nothing to do, she talks scandal.Punch.
When a woman is openly bad she is good. (She then is at her best.)Publius Syrus.
When a woman thinks by herself, she’s thinking of mischief.Latin.
When a woman vows she never flirts, she is flirting.Punch.
When an ass climbs a ladder, we may find wisdom in woman.
When pain and anguish wring the brow,
A ministering angel thou.Scott.
When there are two women in one house there is one too many.German.
When woman reigns the devil governs.Italian.
Where a woman deposits her heart, she should deposit her fortune.Fielding.
Where a woman rules the house, the devil is serving-man.German.
Where there are women and geese, there wants no noise.
Whether sunned in the tropics, or chilled at the pole,
If a woman be there, there is happiness too.Moore.
Who is it can read a woman?Shakespeare.
Who places his confidence in a woman is a fool.Polish.
Who takes an eel by the tail, and a woman at her word, may say he holds nothing.Italian.
Who is the man that was never fooled by woman?German.
Wine and women bring misery.Martial.
Wine and women make fools of everybody.German.
Woman as a mother makes the house and mars it.Turkish.
Woman, fairest of creation, last and best.Milton.
Woman impromptu, man on reflection.Italian.
Woman is an evil, but a necessary evil.Latin.
Woman is an idol man worships until he throws it down.
Woman’s at best a contradiction still.Pope.
Woman is the handsomest in animal creation.Hebrew.
Woman is the lesser man.Tennyson.
Woman like good wine is a sweet poison.Turkish.
Woman, take her all in all, is extravagant by nature.Greek.
Woman’s beauty, the forest echo, and rainbow soon pass away.German.
Woman’s grief is like a summer storm, short as it is violent.Joanna Baillie.
Woman’s honor is nice as ermine: ’twill not bear a soil.Dryden.
Woman’s happiness is in obeying.Michelet.
Woman’s love is dangerous, their hate is fatal.
Woman’s mission: to stop at the fireside whilst man goes to collect material to make the pot boil.Punch.
Women always speak the truth but not the whole truth.Italian.
Women always poke the fire from the top.
Women and dogs set men together by the ears.
Women and fools are always in extreme.Pope.
Women and glass are always in danger.Portuguese.
Women and hens are lost by too much gadding.Italian.
Women and maidens must be praised whether truly or falsely.German.
Women and wine, game and deceit,
Make the wealth small and the want great.Franklin.
Women and wine intoxicate the young and old.Italian.
Women are as fickle as April weather.German.
Women are in extremes, they are better or worse than men.La Bruyère.
Women are never at a loss for words.German.
Women are passive agents and when love prompts them can outsuffer martyrs.Massinger.
Women are sooner angry than men.Hermes.
Women are supernumerary when present and missed when absent.Portuguese.
Women are the refiners of the merits of men.Chesterfield.
Women are watches that keep bad time.German.
Women are wise impromptu, fools on reflection.Italian.
Women, asses, and nuts require strong hands.Italian.
Women can do everything because they rule those who command everything.French.
Women cannot be completely severed unless they hate.Rochefoucauld.
Women confess little faults that their candor may cover great ones.Punch.
Women commend a modest man but like him not.
Women conceal all they know not.
Women fear too much even as they love.Shakespeare.
Women, fortune and gold favor fools.German.
Women have long hair and short wit.Turkish.
Women in mischief are wiser than men.
Women know a point more than the devil.Italian.
Women know the better they obey the surer they are to rule.Michelet.
Women laugh when they can and weep when they will.French.
Women like princes find few real friends.Lyttleton.
Women, money and wine have their value and their harm.French.
Women must have their wills while they live because they make none when they die.
Women rouge that they may not blush.Italian.
Women tell the truth indeed but only half of it.German.
Women think plaice a sweet fish.
Women weep for their friends, men remember them.Tacitus.
Women who have been happy in a first marriage are the most apt to venture on a second.Addison.
Women, wind and fortune soon change.Spanish, Portuguese.
Women’s counsels are ever cruel.Icelandic.
Women’s jars breed men’s wars.
Women’s tears are a fountain of craft.Italian.
You may know a foolish woman by her finery.
You should believe one word in forty that a woman speaks.Turkish.
You should lecture neither child nor woman.Turkish.