Enjoy dozens of witty and insightful Dutch proverbs and idioms that have been passed down from one generation to the next for hundreds of years!
- Every day is not a holiday.
- Good right needs good help.
- From trivial things, great arguments often arise.
- One nail drives in another.
- What the sober man thinks, the drunkard tells.
- They who fight with golden weapons are pretty sure to prove they are right.
- Better return halfway than lose yourself.
- Fair money can cover much that is foul.
- An old rat won’t go into the trap.
- In the company of the good, we become good.
- It is too late to lock the stable door when the horses have already been stolen.
- Economy is a great revenue.
- Big fish jump out of the kettle.
- In small woods may be caught large hares.
- Men can bear all things except good days.
- When the shepherd strays, the sheep stray.
- A handful of patience is worth more than a bushel of brains.
- What the old ones sing, the young ones whistle.
- Everything has an end, with the exception of God.
- That is good wisdom which is wisdom in the end.
- You cannot make a silk purse from a sow’s ear.
- Were everybody to sweep in front of their own house, every street would be clean.
- Wisdom in the man, patience in the wife, brings peace to the house and a happy life.
- Coupled sheep drown one another.
- Where there’s no good within, no good comes out.
- Better keep peace than make peace.
- Better once in Heaven than ten times at the gate.
- It is hard to steal where the host is a thief.
- By labor fire is got out of stone.
- Never wear a brown hat in Friesland.
- Geese are plucked as long as they have feathers.
- Love makes labor light.
- Poor folk’s wisdom counts very little.
- Take nothing in hand that may bring repentance.
- He talks like a sausage without the fat.
- Better lose the anchor than the whole ship.
- Poverty is the reward of idleness.
- Little pots soon run over.
- Promises make debt, and debt makes promises.
- A daily guest is a great thief in the kitchen.
- Who goes fasting to bed will sleep but lightly.
- Bear patiently that which you suffer by your own fault.
- Who fears no shame comes to no honor.
- The devil has his martyrs among men.
- Covetousness is always filling a bottomless vessel.
- Might is not right.
- Men that crawl, never fall.
- Who watches not, catches not.
- Who undertakes many things at once seldom does anything well.
- The worse the carpenter, the more the chips.
For thousands more proverbs and words of wisdom, collected from over 40 countries, check out Proverbs from Around the World!