Robert Christy, comp. Proverbs, Maxims and Phrases of All Ages. 1887.

Lion

A lion may be beholden to a mouse.Æsop’s Fables.

An old lion is better than a young ass.Latin.

Dreadful is the lion’s cave, though he’s no longer there.

Even hares pull a lion by the beard when he is dead.Dutch.

He is a lion in a good cause.

If thy hand be in a lion’s mouth, get it out as fast as thou canst.

It is an ill office to file the teeth of the lion.German.

It is little honor to the lion to sieze the mouse.German.

It is not good to wake a sleeping lion.

Like a worn-out lion in a cave,
That goes not out to prey.

Lions in time of peace—deer in war.Latin.

Lions make leopards tame.Shakespeare.

Lions’ skins were never cheap.French.

Little birds may pick a dead lion.

So when the lion quits his fell repast,
Next prowls the wolf, the filthy jackall last.Byron.

The hind that would be mated by the lion must die for love.Shakespeare.

The lion hath need of the mouse.

The lion is known by his claws.Italian.

The lion is not half so fierce as he is painted.Spanish.

The lion’s skin is never cheap.

The old lion perisheth for lack of prey.Shakespeare.

’Tis better playing with the lion’s whelp,
Than with an old one dying.Shakespeare.

’Tis not a basket of hay, but a basket of flesh that makes a lion war.

When the lion is dead the hares jump upon his carcass.Italian.

Where the lion’s skill falls short, it must be eked out with the fox’s.Lysander.

Where the lion’s skin falls short piece it out with the fox’s.Italian, German.

You may know the lion by his claw.French.