PROVERBS  --  2

I have never seen the Philosopher’s Stone that turns lead into Gold, but I have known the pursuit of it turn a Man’s Gold into Lead.
I never saw an oft-transplanted tree,
Nor yet an oft-removed family,
That throve so well as those that settled be.
I saw few die of Hunger, of Eating 100000.
I’ll warrant ye, goes before Rashness; Who’d-a-tho’t it? comes sneaking after.
Idleness is the greatest Prodigality.
If a Man casually exceeds, let him fast the next Meal, and all may be well again, provided it be not too often done; as if he exceed at Dinner, let him refrain a Supper, &c.
If any man flatters me, I’ll flatter him again; tho’ he were my best Friend.
If evils come not, then our fears are vain:
And if they do, Fear but augments the pain.
If God blesses a Man, his [Dog] brings forth Pigs.
If Pride leads the Van, Beggary brings up the Rear.
If thou art dull and heavy after Meat, it’s a sign thou hast exceeded the due Measure; for Meat and Drink ought to refresh the Body, and make it chearful, and not to dull and oppress it.
If thou dost ill, the joy fades, not the pains;
If well, the pain doth fade, the joy remains.
If thou findest these ill Symptoms, consider whether too much Meat, or too much Drink occasions it, or both, and abate by little and little, till thou findest the Inconveniency removed.
If thou hast wit & learning, add to it Wisdom and Modesty.
If thou injurest Conscience, it will have its Revenge on thee.
If thou wouldst live long, live well; for Folly and Wickedness shorten Life.
If what most men admire, they would despise,
’Twould look as if mankind were growing wise.
If wind blows on you thro’ a hole, Make your will and take care of your soul.
If you desire many things, many things will seem but a few.
If you do what you should not, you must hear what you would not.
If you have time dont wait for time.
If you know how to spend less than you get, you have the Philosophers-Stone.
If you ride a Horse, sit close and tight,
If you ride a Man, sit easy and light.
If you want a neat wife, chuse her on a Saturday.
If you wou’d be reveng’d of your enemy, govern your self.
If you wou’d have Guests merry with your cheer,
Be so your self, or so at least appear.
If you wou’d not be forgotten
As soon as you are dead and rotten,
Either write things worth reading,
or do things worth the writing.
If you would keep your Secret from an enemy, tell it not to a friend.
If you’d be belov’d, make yourself amiable.
If you’d be wealthy, think of saving, more than of getting: The Indies have not made Spain rich, because her Outgoes equal her Incomes.
If you’d have a Servant that you like, serve your self.
If you’d have it done, Go: If not, send.
If you’d have your shoes last, put no nails in ’em.
If you’d lose a troublesome Visitor, lend him Money.
Ill Company is like a dog who dirts those most, that he loves best.
Ill Customs & bad Advice are seldom forgotten.
In a discreet man’s mouth, a publick thing is private.
In other men we faults can spy,
And blame the mote that dims their eye;
Each little speck and blemish find;
To our own stronger errors blind.
In prosperous fortunes be modest and wise,
The greatest may fall, and the lowest may rise:
But insolent People that fall in disgrace,
Are wretched and no-body pities their Case.
In success be moderate.
Industry need not wish.
Industry pays Debts, Despair increases them.
Industry, Perseverance, & Frugality, make Fortune yield.
Interest which blinds some People, enlightens others.
Is there any thing Men take more pains about than to render themselves unhappy?
It is better to take many Injuries than to give one.
It is wise not to seek a Secret, and Honest not to reveal it.
It’s common for Men to give 6 pretended Reasons instead of one real one.
It’s the easiest Thing in the World for a Man to deceive himself.
Jack eating rotten cheese, did say,
Like Sampson I my thousands slay;
I vow, quoth Roger, so you do,
And with the self-same weapon too.
Jack Little sow’d little, & little he’ll reap.
Jane, why those tears? why droops your head?
Is then your other husband dead?
Or doth a worse disgrace betide?
Hath no one since his death apply’d?
Joke went out, and brought home his fellow, and they two began a quarrel.
Kate would have Thomas, no one blame her can:
Tom won’t have Kate, and who can blame the Man?
Keep flax from fire, youth from gaming.
Keep out of the Sight of Feasts and Banquets as much as may be; for ’tis more difficult to refrain good Cheer, when it’s present, than from the Desire of it when it is away; the like you may observe in the Objects of all the other Senses.
Keep thou from the Opportunity, and God will keep thee from the Sin.
Keep thy shop, & thy shop will keep thee.
Keep your eyes wide open before marriage, half shut afterwards.
Kings a be an Honour to them tho’ they are dead.
Late Children, early Orphans.
Laws like to Cobwebs catch small Flies,
Great ones break thro’ before your eyes.
Lawyers, Preachers, and Tomtits Eggs, there are more of them hatch’d than come to perfection.
Learn of the skilful: He that teaches himself, hath a fool for his master.
Lend Money to an Enemy, and thou’lt gain him, to a Friend and thou’lt lose him.
Let all Men know thee, but no man know thee thoroughly: Men freely ford that see the shallows.
Let no Pleasure tempt thee, no Profit allure thee, no Ambition corrupt thee, no Example sway thee, no Persuasion move thee, to do any thing which thou knowest to be Evil; So shalt thou always live jollily: for a good Conscience is a continual Christmass.
Let our Fathers and Grandfathers be valued for their Goodness, ourselves for our own.
Let the Letter stay for the Post, and not the Post for the Letter.
Let thy Child’s first Lesson be Obedience, and the second may be what thou wilt.
Let thy Discontents be Secrets.
Let thy discontents be thy Secrets; — if the world knows them, ’twill despise thee and increase them.
Let thy maidservant be faithful, strong, and homely.
Let thy vices die before thee.
Light Gains heavy Purses.
Light-heel’d mothers make leaden-heel’d daughters.
Look before, or you’ll find yourself behind.
Love & lordship hate companions.
Love, and be lov’d.
Love, Cough, & a Smoke, can’t well be hid.
Lovers, Travellers, and Poets, will give money to be heard.
Lying rides upon Debt’s back.
Mad Kings and mad Bulls, are not to be held by treaties & packthread.
Maids of America, who gave you bad teeth?
Answ. Hot Soupings & frozen Apples.
Make haste slowly.
Man’s tongue is soft, and bone doth lack;
Yet a stroke therewith may break a man’s back.
Many a long dispute among Divines may be thus abridg’d, It is so: It is not so. It is so; It is not so.
Many a Meal is lost for want of meat.
Many complain of their Memory, few of their Judgment.
Many dishes many diseases,
Many medicines few cures.
Many have been ruin’d by buying good pennyworths.
Mark with what insolence and pride,
Blown Bufo takes his haughty stride;
As if no toad was toad beside.
Marry above thy match, and thou’lt get a Master.
Marry your Daughter and eat fresh Fish betimes.
Marry your Son when you will, but your Daughter when you can.
Mary’s mouth costs her nothing, for she never opens it but at others expence.
Men differ daily, about things which are subject to Sense, is it likely then they should agree about things invisible.
Men meet, mountains never.
Money & Man a mutual Friendship show:
Man makes false Money, Money makes Man so.
Money and good Manners make the Gentleman.
Monkeys warm with envious spite,
Their most obliging FRIENDS will bite; —
And, fond to copy human Ways,
Practise new Mischiefs all their days.
Nec sibi, sed toto, genitum se credere mundo.
[Latin: And not to each, but all together, he created the world to believe.]
Necessity has no Law; I know some Attorneys of the name.
Necessity never made a good bargain.
Neither a Fortress nor a Maidenhead will hold out long after they begin to parly.
Neither praise nor dispraise, till seven Christmasses be over.
Never intreat a servant to dwell with thee.
Never praise your Cyder, Horse, or Bedfellow.
Never spare the Parson’s wine, nor Baker’s Pudding.
Nick’s Passions grow fat and hearty; his Understanding looks consumptive!
No better relation than a prudent & faithful Friend.
No gains without pains.
No longer virtuous no longer free; is a Maxim as true with regard to a private Person as a Common-wealth.
No man e’er was glorious, who was not laborious.
No Resolution of Repenting hereafter, can be sincere.
No wonder Tom grows fat, th’ unwieldy Sinner,
Makes his whole Life but one continual Dinner.
No Wood without Bark.
No workman without tools,
Nor Lawyer without Fools,
Can live by their Rules.
None are deceived but they that confide.
None but the well-bred man knows how to confess a fault, or acknowledge himself in an error.
None know the unfortunate, and the fortunate do not know themselves.
None preaches better than the ant, and she says nothing.
Nor Eye in a letter, nor Hand in a purse, nor Ear in the secret of another.
Nothing brings more pain than too much pleasure; nothing more bondage than too much liberty, (or libertinism.)
Nothing but Money,
Is sweeter than Honey.
Nothing so popular as GOODNESS.
Now I’ve a sheep and a cow, every body bids me good morrow.
O Lazy-Bones! Dost thou think God would have given thee Arms and Legs, if he had not design’d thou should’st use them.
O Maltster! break that cheating Peck; ’tis plain,
When e’er you use it, you’re a Knave in Grain.
Observe all men; thy self most.
Observe the Mean, the Motive and the End;
Mending our selves, or striving still to mend.
Our Souls sincere, our Purpose fair and free,
Without Vain Glory or Hypocrisy:
Thankful if well; if ill, we kiss the Rod;
Resign with Hope, and put our Trust in GOD.
Of learned Fools I have seen ten times ten,
Of unlearned wise men I have seen a hundred.
Old Hob was lately married in the Night,
What needed Day, his fair young Wife is light.
Old Maids lead Apes there, where the old Batchelors are turn’d to Apes.
Old young and old long.
One good Husband is worth two good Wives; for the scarcer things are the more they’re valued.
One Man may be more cunning than another, but not more cunning than every body else.
One Mend-fault is worth two Findfaults, but one Findfault is better than two Makefaults.
Onions can make ev’n Heirs and Widows weep.
Opportunity is the great Bawd.
Pain wastes the Body, Pleasures the Understanding.
Pay what you owe, and you’ll know what’s your own.
Pollio, who values nothing that’s within,
Buys books as men hunt Beavers, — for their Skin.
Poor Dick, eats like a well man, and drinks like a sick.
Poverty wants some things, Luxury many things, Avarice all things.
Poverty, Poetry, and new Titles of Honour, make Men ridiculous.
Pox take you, is no curse to some people.
Prayers and Provender hinder no Journey.
Pride and the Gout,
are seldom cur’d throughout.
Principiis obsta.
[Latin: Resist the first advances]
Proclaim not all thou knowest, all thou owest, all thou hast, nor all thou canst.
Promises may get thee Friends, but Nonperformance will turn them into Enemies.
Prythee isn’t Miss Cloe’s a comical Case?
She lends out her Tail, and she borrows her Face.
Punch-coal, cut-candle, and set brand on end,
is neither good house wife, nor good house-wife’s friend.
Quarrels never could last long,
If on one side only lay the wrong.