Irish Proverbs

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

• Mere words do not feed the friars.
• Quiet people are well able to look after themselves.
• The work praises the man.
• You didn’t turn up when sense was being distributed.
• Don’t let your tongue cut your throat.
• Patience cures many an old complaint.
• Nature will come through the claws, and the hound will follow the hare.
• To the fighting man, peace is sure.
• Age is honorable, and youth is noble.
• The day will come when the cow will have use for her tail.
• You never miss the water until the well has run dry.
• Lack of resource has hanged many a person.
• It is easy to halve the potato where there’s love.
• A hound’s food is in its legs.
• Don’t say everything you want to say, lest you hear something you would not like to hear.
• To every cow, its calf; to every book, its copy.
• If you want to know me, come and live with me.
• An old broom knows the dirty corners best.
• He knows how many grains to a bushel of wheat.
• If you want to be criticized, marry.
• All sins cast long shadows.
• It takes time to build castles.
• Marry a mountain girl, and you marry the whole mountain.
• Two shorten the road.
• One beetle recognizes another.
• Better be quarrelling than lonesome.
• A wild goose never reared a tame gosling.
• May you have a bright future, as the chimney sweep said to his son.
• There is no strength without unity.
• A silent mouth is melodious.
• What will come from the briar but the berry?
• Patience and forbearance make a bishop of his reverence.
• The well fed does not understand the lean.
• It is sweet to drink but bitter to pay for.
• There is no luck except where there is discipline.
• When the sky falls, we’ll catch larks.
• Better own a trifle than want a great deal.
• It is no secret that is known to three.
• What butter and whiskey will not cure there’s no cure for.
• Life is like a cup of tea: it’s all in how you make it.
• When you are right, no one remembers; when you are wrong, no one forgets.
• The best way to keep loyalty in a man’s heart is to keep money in his purse.
• As the old cock crows, the young cock learns.
• It is a bad hen that does not scratch herself.
• When the fruit is scarcest, its taste is sweetest.
• Possession satisfies.
• Don’t bless the fish until it gets to the land.
• Three diseases without shame: love, itch, and thirst.
• Instinct is stronger than upbringing.
• It is better to be a coward for a minute than dead for the rest of your life.

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