Danish Proverbs

Enjoy dozens of witty and insightful Danish proverbs and idioms that have been passed down from one generation to the next for hundreds of years!

• Give your wife the short knife, and keep the long one for yourself.
• Don’t cross the stream to get water.
• Gray hairs are death’s blossoms.
• Care, and not fine stables, make a good horse.
• Weighty work must be done with few words.
• Beauty draws with a single hair.
• From praise, as from a shadow, a man is neither bigger nor smaller.
• Everything has an end—except a sausage, which has two.
• Envy does not enter an empty house.
• One bite brings another.
• A blind pigeon may sometimes find a grain of wheat.
• Wise men do not quarrel with each other.
• One mangy sheep spoils a whole flock.
• Meddle with dirt and some of it will stick to you.
• A small cloud may hide both sun and moon.
• Every fox looks after his own skin.
• A slight suspicion may destroy a good repute.
• It is no disgrace to be poor, but it can be inconvenient.
• He who feeds the hen is out to have the egg.
• Young people must be taught, old ones be honored.
• Ask advice of your equals.
• It is hard to make a fire on a cold hearth.
• Better half a loaf than none at all.
• Cunning has little honor.
• Beware of the dog himself, his shadow does not bite.
• No man limps because another is hurt.
• He scolds most that can hurt the least.
• He who rises early will gather wisdom.
• Many a cow stands in the meadow and looks wistfully at the common.
• Art and knowledge bring bread and honor.
• Do as others do, and few will mock you.
• Age is a sorry traveling companion.
• He knows best where the shoe pinches, who wears it.
• It is time enough to take off your hat when you see the man.
• Advice after the mischief is like medicine after death.
• A lord without land is like a cask without wine.
• While the dogs yelp, the hare flies to the wood.
• When wisdom fails, luck helps.
• You cannot take a shirt from a naked man.
• If you can’t heal the wound, don’t tear it open.
• You must have good luck to catch hares with a drum.
• Unwilling service earns no thanks.
• The sword keeps the peace of the land.
• “Relatives are the worst friends,” said the fox as the dogs took after him.
• The bow may be bent until it breaks.
• Unworthy offspring brag the most about their worthy descendants.
• Flowers are the pledges of fruit.
• Every day has its evening.
• The nobler the blood, the less the pride.
• The sheep is shorn, not the horse.

For thousands more proverbs and words of wisdom, collected from over 40 countries, check out Proverbs from Around the World!