Proverb Examples from around the world

Proverbs Starting with letter C - part 1
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Ca' me, ca' thee.
Cabbage for cabbage.
Cabbage is best after it is reheated seven times.
Cactus is bitter only to him who tastes it.
Cactus is bitter only to him who tastes of it.
Caesar's wife may not be suspected' (, 'Caesar' 10) The rhetorian was having an affair with Caesar's second wife, . At a party attended by Pompeia Clodius arrived in disguise but was caught. In the following trial, Caesar claimed that nothing wrong had happened, but he still had to divorce her.
Caesar's wife must be above suspicion.
Caesar's wife should be above suspicion.
Cake 'it' goes, (but) cake 'qui' comes.
Call a woman a harlot and you make her one.
Call me not fortunate till you see me buried.

Call me not olive before you see me gathered.
Call no man happy till he dies.
Call not a surgeon before you are wounded.
Call not the devil, he will come fast enough unbidden.
Call on God, but row away from the rocks.
Call someone your lord and he'll sell you in the slave market.
Call the bear 'Uncle' till you are safe across the bridge.
Call the bear $quot;Uncle' till you are safe across the bridge.
Call the bear uncle till you are safe across the bridge.
Call your husband cuckold in jest, an he'll never suspect you.
Calling the devil is not the same as seeing him come.
Calm water does not mean there are no crocodiles.
Calumniate strongly and some of it will stick.
Can a burst dam be mended with toothpicks?.
Can a man take fire in his bosom, and his clothes not be burned? Proverbs 6:27.
Can a mill go with the water that's past?.
Can a mouse fall in love with a cat?.
Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots?.
Can the monkey know the taste of ginger?.
Can't see the forest for the trees.
Can't tell his mule from a hole in the ground.
Can't turn dogs tail into a silk scarf!.
Cancer--schmancer!--as long as you're healthy.
Candour breeds hatred.
Cannon fodder.
Cap in hand never did any harm.
Capitalism is the exploitation of man by man.
Capitalist alteration of Ben Franklin's original saying 'A penny saved is a penny earned']. The concentration on spending rather than saving promotes the contemporary capitalist economic theory of putting money back into the economy (rather than hording it) to create more wealth.
Captive Greece captured her ferocious victor, and brought the arts into the rustic Latium' ('s 'Epistulae').
Care and chicken soup never hurt no-one.
Care brings on grey hairs, and age without years.
Care for your horse as a friend; ride it as if it were an enemy.
Care killed the cat.
Care now, be cared for later.
Care, and not fine stables, make a good horse.
Careless rat chewing on a cat's tail: beware lightning!.
Careless rat chewing on a cat's tail: beware lightning!.
Carelessness is worse than a thieve.
Caress your dog, and he'll spoil your clothes.
Carry bread in your hood to Don Garcia's wedding.
Carrying water to the sea.
Carve the peg by looking at the hole.
Carve the peg only after studying the hole.
Cast no dirt into the well that gives you water.
Cast no roses before swine.
Cast not pearls to swine.
Casting the iron whilst it is hot.
Cat died of curiosity.
Cat knows who's meat it has eaten.

Cat will eventually get a downpour of mice' tears.
Catch a chicken slowly.
Catch not at the shadow, and lose the substance.
Catch the bird before you build a cage.
Catch the opportunity.
Catching's before hanging.
Cats always fall in their paws.
Cats don't catch mice to please God.
Cats don't catch the old birds.
Cats hide their claws.
Cattle in faraway lands have long horns.
Caution is not cowardice; even the ants march armed.
Caution is the parent of delicate beer glasses.
Caution is the parent of delicate beer-glasses.
Caution is the parent of safety.
Caution minimizes loss.
Cautious in small matters, careless in great.
Cease your jests, there is no joke in being ill-natured.
Censure pardons the ravens but rebukes the doves.
Cent-wisdom and dollar-folly.
Ceremony is the smoke of friendship.
Chains of gold are stronger than chains of iron.
Chairs sink and stools rise.
Challenge your preconceptions, or they will challenge you.
Change in the grandchild begins with the grandfather.
Change of work is rest.
Change pleases.
Change yourself, and fortune will change with you.
Change yourself, and your luck will change.
Change yourself, change your fortunes.
Character and presence from the cradle to the tomb.
Character can be built on daily routine.
Character is easier kept than recovered.
Character is habit long continued.
Charge nothing and you'll get a lot of customers.
Charity and pride have different aims, yet both feed the poor.
Charity begins at Home.
Charity begins at home.
Charity covers a multitude of sins.
Charity excuseth not cheating.
Charity gives itself rich, covetousness hoards itself poor.
Charity looks at the need and not at the cause.
Charity sees the need, not the cause.
Charity well regulated begins at home.
Charity will be rewarded in heaven.
Charm is more than beauty.

Charm is stronger than beauty.
Chasten thy son while there is hope.
Chastise one that is worthless, and he will presently hate you.
Cheap meat never makes a good soup.
Cheap things are not good, good things are not cheap.
Cheap things cost a lot of money.
Cheap things don't come without problems; expensive things don't come without effort.
Cheap things turn out to be expensive.
Cheat me in the price and not in the goods.
Cheat me in the price, but not in the goods.
Cheat me with the price, but not with the goods I buy.
Cheat the earth and the earth will cheat you.
Cheating is more honourable than stealing.
Cheating is the chapman's cart and plough.
Cheats never prosper.
Check before you bite if it is bread or a stone.
Cheerful company shortens the journey.
Cheerful company shortens the miles.
Cheerfulness and goodwill make labour light.
Cheese and bread make the cheeks red.
Cheese from the ewe, milk from the goat, butter from the cow.
Cheese is gold in the morning, silver at noon, and lead at night.
Cherries are bitter to the glutted blackbird.
Chickens are counted in autumn.
Chickens can't go back into eggs.
Chickens can't speak well of their own soup.
Chickens don't praise their own soup.
Chicks ought to be counted in the fall.
Child's pig, father's pork.
Children and drunken men speak the truth.
Children and drunks always speak the truth.
Children and fools are prophets.
Children and fools have merry lives.
Children and fools speak the truth.
Children and fools tell the truth.
Children are a poor man's riches.
Children are a poor man's wealth.
Children are buttonholes that hold their parents together.
Children are certain cares, but uncertain comforts.
Children are certain sorrow, but uncertain joy.
Children are poor men's riches.
Children are the reward of life.
Children are the riches of the poor.
Children are what they are made.
Children aren't dogs; adults aren't gods.
Children grow up, with or without parents.
Children have a hair of their father.
Children have more need of models than critics.
Children have wide ears and long tongues.
Children learn to creep ere they can learn to go.
Children married, cares increased.
Children of the same mother do not always agree.
Children of three days - one has to spoil them: not more than that.
Children should be seen and not heard.
Children suck the mother when they are young and the father when they are old.
Children tell in the highway what they hear by the fireside.
Children who get everything they ask for seldom succeed in life.
Children will tell you what they do, men what they think and older people what they have seen and heard.
Children's love is like water in a basket.
Children: one is one, two is fun, three is a houseful.
Chinese Version: A good beginning is half a succession-??????????.

Chinese Version: One bitten by a snake for a snap dreads a rope for a decade.?????,?????.
Chins without beards deserve no honor.
Choleric men are blind and mad.
Choose a friend with the eyes of an old man, and a horse with the eyes of a young one.
Choose a wife from among your equals.

Choose a wife rather by your ear than by your eye.
Choose neither a lover nor linen by candlelight.
Choose neither a woman nor linen by candlelight.
Choose your bedfellows by day.
Choose your company before you choose your drink.
Choose your fellow traveller before you start on your journey.
Choose your inn before dark, get back on the road before dawn.
Choose your lodging before dark and leave before the morning dew.
Choose your neighbor before your house and your companion before the road.
Choose your neighbors before you buy your house.
Choose your wife as you wish your children to be.
Choose your wife with her nightcap on.
Choose your woman with a velvet glove, but control her with a fist of iron.
Choosing eggs for your money.
Choosy pigs never get fat.
Chop wood, carry water.
Chop, and you will have splinters.
Christ endured and told us to.
Christian.
Christians have no neighbours.
Christmas comes but once a year.
Christmas comes, but once a year is enough.
Christmas has been talked of so long that it has come at last.
Church is close, but the road is slippery, pub is far, but the road is easy.
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Civility costs nothing.
Clapping with the right hand only will not make a noise.
Clapping with the right hand only will not produce a noise.
Claw a churl by the breech, and he will shite in your fist.
Claw me and I'll claw thee.
Clay and lime conceal much evil.
Clean bodies, pure morals.
Cleaning a blot with blotted fingers maketh a greater.
Cleanliness is half a meal.
Cleanliness is half of health.
Cleanliness is next to godliness.
Cleanliness is the luxury of the poor.

Cleanness is half of believe.
Clear agreements, good friends.
Clear conscience never fears midnight knocking.
Clemency is the support of justice.
Clergymen's sons always turn out badly.
Clever father, clever daughter; clever mother, clever son.
Clever person likes to learn, and the fool - to teach.
Clinging onto someone's lips.
Clodius impeaches the adulterers!.
Close sits my shirt, but closer my skin.
Close to the Tsar, close to death.
Close, but no cigar.
Clothes cover up character.
Clothes do not make the man.
Clothes make the man.
Clothes put on while running come off while running.
Clothing makes a man.
Clouds are a sign of rain.
Clouds do not always mean rain, but smoke is a sure sign of fire.
Clouds that thunder do not always rain.
Clumsy birds have need of early flight.
Coal that does not burn gives little heat.
Coat after rain.
Cobbler, no further than the sandal!' I.e. don't offer your opinion on things that are outside your competence. It is said that the Greek painter once asked the advice of a cobbler on how to render the sandals of a soldier he was painting. When the cobbler started offering advice on other parts of the painting, Apelles rebuked him with this phrase (but in ).
Cocks that crow too early will quickly find themselves in the pot.
Coffee and love are best when they are hot.
Coffee has two virtues, it is wet and warm.
Coffee has two virtues, it's wet and it's warm.
Coffee should be black as Hell, strong as death, and sweet as love.
Coin a phrase.
Coincidence defeats a well-laid plan.
Cold hand, a warm heart.
Cold hands, hot heart.
Cold hands, warm heart.
Cold hearts can find warm words.
Cold tea and cold rice are bearable, but cold looks and cold words are not.
Cold teaches a man how to steal charcoal.
Colewort twice cooked.
Colts by falling, and lads by losing, grow prudent.
Come a little closer when your sword is too short.
Come fish, come frog, all goes into the basket.
Come for your inheritance and you may have to pay for the funeral.
Come for your inheritance and you may wind up paying for the funeral.
Come live with me and you'll know me.
Come trouble, but come alone (trouble never comes alone)!.
Comedian! Tragedian!.
Comes in at the end with a wet sail.
Cometh the hour cometh the man.
Comfortable is he who doesn't have a donkey -- He who doesn't know of its straw and barley.

Coming events cast their shadow before.
Command your wealth, else that will command you.
Commit a sin twice and it will not seem a crime.
Common Goods, no goods.
Common fame is seldom to blame.
Common fame seldom lies.
Common grief is lighter to bear.
Common mal-shortening of 'Where' ignorance is bliss, 'tis folly to be wise.
Common sense hides shame.
Communism is a cow of many; well milked and badly fed.
Communities begin by building their kitchen.
Company in distress makes trouble less.
Compare the older French proverb:.
Compare your griefs with other men's and they will seem less.
Compare your griefs with those of other men and they will seem less.
Comparing apples to pears.
Comparison is not proof.
Comparisons are misleading.
Compassion is an illness.
Compete not with a friend.
Compete, don't envy.
Competition is the whetstone of talent.
Complain about the house where the husband is the wife.
Complain to one who can help you.
Complain to the one who can help you.
Complete idiot who can keep silent, to a wise man is similar.
Compliments cost nothing, yet many pay dear for them.
Compliments cost nothing, yet many pay dearly for them.
Concealed goodness is a sort of vice.
Condemn a man within earshot; praise him at a distance.
Confess and be hanged.
Confess you were wrong yesterday; it will show you are wise today.
Confessed faults are half mended.
Confessed faults are half-mended.
Confession is good for the soul.
Confession is the first step to repentance.
Confide a secret to a dumb man and he will speak.
Confide in a woman and a magpie if you want something to be broadcast.
Confidence begets confidence.
Confiding a secret to an unworthy person is like carrying grain in a bag with a hole.
Confucius say too much.
Confusing use of 'have' where it is meant as 'keep': You can't keep your cake and eat it (too).
Conquer in the Sign of the Cross' motto of in.
Conquerors are kings; the beaten are bandits.
Conscience betrays guilt.
Conscience cannot be compelled.
Conscience is as a thousand witnesses.
Conscience is as good as a thousand witnesses.
Conscience is the chamber of justice.

Conscience is the dog that can't bite, but never stops barking.
Conscience is the nest where all good is hatched.
Conscience is what tells you not to do what you have just done.
Conscience makes cowards of us all.
Consider each day of your life to be the best.
Consider how long the winter will last.
Consider the facts seven times before you suspect someone.
Consideration gets as many victories as rashness loses.
Consideration is the parent of wisdom.
Consideration should be shown to a novice.
Considering who it is, codfish will be enough.
Consolation, for the condemned, is to be one of many.
Constant dripping wears away the rock.
Constant dropping wears away a stone.
Constant dropping wears the stone.
Constant occupation prevents temptation.
Consult with your pillow.
Continual cheerfulness is a sign of wisdom.
Continue to do good, and heaven will come down to you.
Contraries are cured by contraries.
Contrasts mutually set off each other.
Contrivance is better than force.
Conversation is like making love; the man is the question, the woman the answer, and the union of both will bear fruit.
Conversation is the food of the ears.
Conversation ministers to a mind diseased.
Conversation shortens the distance, singing lightens the load.
Conviviality reveals secrets.
Copper begets copper, and not ()the labour of) men's bones.
Copying everybody else all the time, the monkey one day cut his throat,.
Corner a dog in a dead-end street and it will turn and bite.
Correction bringeth fruit.
Correction is good when administered in time.
Corsair against corsair nothing is got but empty casks.
Cost goes before the profit.
Cotton cannot play with fire.
Could a man foresee events he would never be poor.
Could everything be done twice it would be done better.
Could everything be done twice, everything would be done better.
Councils of war never fight.
Counsel after action is like rain after harvest.
Counsel before action.
Counsel is irksome when the matter is past remedy.
Counsel is nothing against love.
Count not only my blessings but also count my worries and struggles as well.
Count not what is lost but what is left.
Count not your chickens before they are hatched.
Count your blessings.
Counted sheep are eaten by the wolf.
Counterfeit coin passes current at night.

Coupled sheep drown one another.
Courage cannot be bought at the inn.
Courage is a kingdom without a crown.
Courage is often caused by fear.
Courage is ten, nine is the ability to escape.
Courage mounteth with occasion.
Courage, not multitude, wins.
Court not companionship with tigers.
Courteous men learn courtesy from the discourteous.
Courtesie is cumbersome to them that ken it not.
Courtesy never offended anybody.
Courtesy on one side can never last long.
Courtesy that is all on one side cannot last long.
Courting and wooing brings dallying and doing.
Courts grant not their favours as men are good and deserving.
Cover up the good you do -- do like the Nile and conceal your sources.
Cover up the pot, there's an eel in it.
Covet not the property of others.
Covet wealth, and want it; don't, and luck will grant it.
Covetous men's chests are rich, not they.
Covetousness bursts the bag.
Covetousness is always filling a bottomless vessel.
Covetousness is the father of unfulfilled desires.
Cow of many -- well milked and badly fed.
Coward against coward, the assailant conquers.
Cowardice will not prolong life.
Cowardly men, healthy bones.
Cowards die many times before their deaths; The valiant never taste of death but once. , 'Spoken by Caesar (Act II scene 2). Complete text at https://www.william-shakespeare.info/act2-script-text-julius-caesar.htm.
Cowards have no luck.
Cowards may die many times before their death.
Cowards win no laurels.
Cowards' weapons neither cut nor pierce.
Cowl does not make the friar.
Cows do not indulge in horseplay.
Cows have no business in horseplay.
Crabs teach their offspring to walk straight.
Craftiness must have clothes, but truth loves to go naked.
Crafty advice is often got from a fool.
Crap or get off the pot.
Crazy wheels run longest.
Crazy words, closed ears.
Creaking carts last longest.
Creaking carts last the longest.
Cream doesn't rise to the top, it works its way up.
Create fame, and go to sleep.
Creating the thing with which you will be beaten.
Credit is better than money.
Credit is better than ready money.
Credit is better than wealth.
Credit is dead, bad pay killed it.
Credit lost is like a broken looking-glass.
Crime does not pay.
Crime doesn't pay.
Crime is cunning; it puts an angel in front of every devil.
Crime leaves a trail like a water beetle; like a snail, it leaves its silver track; like a horse-mango, it leaves its smell.
Crimes may be secret, yet not secure.
Criminals are punished, that others may be amended.
Criticism of the state is all right, but don't forget the nation is you.
Crooked bannock, straight belly.
Crooked by nature is never made straight by education.
Crooked iron may be straightened with a hammer.

Crooked logs make straight fires.
Crooked wood burns quite as well as straight.

These are Proverb Examples from around the world, some have been translated from their original language to english.


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