James Wood, comp. Dictionary of Quotations. 1899.
Gaelic Proverb
A blockhead can find more faults than a wise man can mend.
A friend’s eye is a good looking-glass.
A king’s son is no nobler than his company.
A man in a farm and his thoughts away, is better out of it than in it.
A man is king in his own house.
A man may survive distress, but not disgrace.
A man’s wife is his blessing or his bane.
A promise is a debt.
A thing is the bigger of being shared.
All good has an end but the goodness of God.
All the difference between the wise man and the fool is, that the wise man keeps his counsel, and the fool reveals it.
All will be as God wills.
As a man makes his bed, so must he lie.
Assurance is two-thirds of success.
Avoid the evil, and it will avoid thee.
Better be unborn than untaught.
Better knot straws than do nothing.
Better understand the world than condemn it.
Blue are the hills that are far from us.
Carelessness is worse than theft.
Choose a good mother’s daughter, though her father were the devil.
Choose thy speech.
Choose your wife as you wish your children to be.
Correct counting keeps good friends.
Courtesy never broke one’s crown.
Death-bed repentance is sowing seed at Martinmas.
Dry shoes won’t catch fish.
Every creature can bear well-being except man.
Every foot will tread on him who is in the mud.
Far-off cows have long horns.
Fear is worse than fighting.
Flesh will warm in a man to his kin against his will.
For whom ill is fated, him it will strike.
Forwardness spoils manners.
Friends are lost by calling often and calling seldom.
Friendship’s as it’s kept.
From hand to mouth will never make a worthy man.
God comes in distress, and distress goes.
God has not said all that thou hast said.
Going to ruin is silent work.
Good is not got without grief.
Good sword has often been in poor scabbard.
Half-wits greet each other.
Hard is the factor’s rule; no better is the minister’s.
He that conquers himself conquers an enemy.
He that doth not plough at home won’t plough abroad.
He that flees not will be fled from.
He that is courteous at all, will be courteous to all.
He that knows is strong.
He that lives longest sees most.
He that waits long at the ferry will get over some time.
He that won’t plough at home won’t plough abroad.
He thinks no evil who means no evil.
High is the head of the stag on the mountain crag.
Honour is nobler than gold.
Honour won’t patch.
Hunger is a good cook.
If you tell me all you see, you’ll tell what will make you feel shame.
Ignorance is a heavy burden.
“I shall go to-morrow,” said the king. “You shall wait for me,” quoth the wind.
It’s bad flesh that won’t take salt; worse is the body that won’t take warning.
It’s difficult to give sense to a fool.
It’s poor friendship that needs to be constantly bought.
Lazy is the hand that ploughs not.
Losing the bundles gathering the wisps.
Love hides ugliness.
Love the good and forgive the bad.
Meal is finer than grain; women are finer than men.
Modesty is the beauty of women.
Monday is the key of the week.
Neither seek nor shun the fight.
Night is a good herdsman; she brings all creatures home.
None lie that would not steal.
Not less in God’s sight is the end of the day than the beginning.
Patience wears out stones.
Pity him who has his choice, and chooses the worse.
Poor when I have, poor when I haven’t, poor will I ever be.
Repentance won’t cure mischief.
Say little and say well.
Sense hides shame.
Short lived is all rule but the rule of God.
Slippery is the flagstone at the great house door.
Take a bird from a clean nest.
Take your thirst to the stream, as the dog does.
The betrayer is the murderer.
The day is longer than the brae; we’ll be at the top yet.
The dependant is timid.
The fated will happen.
The heaviest head of corn hangs its head lowest.
Their own will to all men, all their will to women.
There is no greater fraud than a promise unfulfilled.
There is no hiding of evil but not to do it.
There was never good or ill but women had to do with it.
What’s the good of the pipe if it’s not played on?