58 John Heywood Quotes

John Heywood offers witty proverbs that nudge you to act before chances slip away.

The loss of wealth is loss of dirt, As sages in all times assert; The happy man's without a shirt.
#1
Let the world slide, let the world go; A fig for care, and a fig for woe! If I can't pay, why I can owe, And death makes equal the high and low.
#2
Haste maketh waste.
#3
Good to be merry and wise.
#4
Look ere ye leap.
#5
He that will not when he may, When he would he shall have nay.
#6
The fat is in the fire.
#7
When the sun shineth, make hay.
#8
The tide tarrieth no man.
#9
Fast bind, fast find.
#10
And while I at length debate and beat the bush, There shall step in other men and catch the birds.
#11
Wedding is destiny, And hanging likewise.
#12
A hard beginning maketh a good ending.
#13
Like will to like.
#14
When the sky falleth we shall have larks.
#15
Nothing is impossible to a willing heart.
#16
Hold their noses to grindstone.
#17
The nearer to the church, the further from God.
#18
Better is to bow than break.
#19
It hurteth not the tongue to give fair words.
#20
Two heads are better than one.
#21
To tell tales out of school.
#22
To hold with the hare and run with the hound.
#23
All is well that ends well.
#24
Attribution disputed; shown as originally published.
Of a good beginning cometh a good end.
#25
Better late than never.
#26
Ill weed groweth fast.
#27
Beggars should be no choosers.
#28
To rob Peter and pay Paul.
#29
A man may well bring a horse to water, But he cannot make him drink without he will.
#30
Rome was not built in one day.
#31
Children learn to creep ere they can learn to go.
#32
Better is half a loaf than no bread.
#33
Nought venture nought have.
#34
Children and fools cannot lie.
#35
Who is worse shod than the shoemaker's wife?
#36
One good turn asketh another.
#37
A hair of the dog that bit us.
#38
But in deed, A friend is never known till a man have need.
#39
A woman hath nine lives like a cat.
#40
A penny for your thought.
#41
You cannot see the wood for the trees.
#42
Tit for tat.
#43
Three may keep counsel, if two be away.
#44
Many hands make light work.
#45
There is no fire without some smoke.
#46
Set the cart before the horse.
#47
The more the merrier.
#48
It is better to be An old man's darling than a young man's warling.
#49
The moon is made of greene cheese.
#50
I know on which side my bread is buttered.
#51
Love me, love my dog.
#52
Attribution disputed; shown as originally published.
An ill wind that bloweth no man to good.
#53
For when I gave you an inch, you took an ell.
#54
Would ye both eat your cake and have your cake?
#55
Every man for himself and God for us all.
#56
Though he love not to buy the pig in the poke.
#57
This hitteth the nail on the head.
#58

John Heywood quotes