Skip to main content
My Desk

Level: B2

List of English Proverbs

English proverbs and sayings beginning with the letters B, C, D, and E.

  • Bad news travels fast.
  • Barking dogs seldom bite.
  • Barking up the wrong tree.
  • Be careful before every step.
  • Be careful what you wish for, you just might get it.
  • Before criticizing a man, walk a mile in his shoes.
  • Before the storm comes the calm
  • Beggars can't be choosers.
  • Beginning is half done.
  • Better late than never.
  • Better safe than sorry.
  • Better to have it and not need it than to need it and not have it.
  • Better to remain silent and thought a fool, than to speak out and remove all doubt.
  • Beware of Greeks bearing gifts.
  • Birds of a feather flock together.
  • Bitter pills may have blessed effects.
  • Blood is thicker than water.
  • Bloom where you are planted.
  • Boys will be boys.
  • Brain is better than brawn.
  • Bread is the stuff of life.
  • Buy the best and you only cry once.
  • Change is the only constant.
  • Cheaters are invariably liars.
  • Clearer the conscience, merrier the life.
  • Damned if you do, damned if you don't.
  • Decisions are never good or bad, consequences are.
  • Deserving something and not getting is better than getting something undeserved.
  • Desperate times call for desperate measures.
  • Different strokes for different folks.
  • Discretion is the better part of valor.
  • Distance makes the heart grow fonder.
  • Do it today, tomorrow it may be against the law.
  • Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.
  • Doctors make the worst patients.
  • Don't ask God to guide your footsteps if you're not willing to move your feet.
  • Don't bark if you can't bite.
  • Don't bite off more than you can chew.
  • Don't bite the hand that feeds you.
  • Don't bring a knife to a gun fight.
  • Don't burn your bridges.
  • Don't count your chickens before they're hatched.
  • Don't dig your grave with your own knife and fork.
  • Don't enter your nose in the affairs of others.
  • Don't fall before you're pushed.
  • Don't have too many irons in the fire.
  • Don't judge a book by its cover.
  • Don't judge a man by the size of his hat, but by the angle of his tilt.
  • Don't let procrastination eat your own clock.
  • Don't look a gift horse in the mouth.
  • Don't make a mountain out of a molehill.
  • Don't mend what ain't broken.
  • Don't put all your eggs in one basket.
  • Don't shut the barn door after the horse is gone.
  • Don't spit into the wind.
  • Don't take life too seriously; you'll never get out of it alive.
  • Don't try to teach a pig to sing. It doesn't work, and you'll annoy the pig.
  • Don't worry, God has a plan.
  • Doubt is the beginning, not the end, of wisdom.
  • Dreams are not the ones which come when you sleep, but they are the ones which will not let you sleep.
  • Early to bed and early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise.
  • Education is a progressive discovering of our own ignorance.
  • Effort is important, but knowing where to make an effort makes all the difference.
  • Enjoy what you don't know.
  • Even a broken clock is right twice a day.
  • Even a dog can distinguish between being stumbled over and being kicked.
  • Even angels have teeth.
  • Every dog has its day.
  • Every rose has its thorn.
  • Everyday living is life lessons.
  • Everyone wants to go to heaven, but no one wants to die.
  • Everything can be justified until it happens to you.
  • Everything changes; everything stays the same.
  • Everything good in life is either illegal, immoral, or fattening.
  • Everything in its own time.