The Routledge Book of World Proverbs
A brother may not be a friend, but a friend will always be a brother. (Poor Richard)
A clear bargain, a dear friend. (Italian)
A fair-weather friend changes with the wind. (Spanish)
A friend at court is worth a penny in one’s purse. (Irish)
A friend at one’s back is a safe bridge. (Dutch)
A friend by thee is better than a brother far off. (Irish)
A friend in need is a friend indeed. (English)
A friend is better than money in the purse. (Dutch)
A friend is known in time of need. (French)
A friend is not known till he is lost. (Italian)
A friend is one soul in two bodies. (Roman)
A friend is proven in time of necessity. (Roman)
A friend is the solace of life. (Roman)
A friend is to be taken with his faults. (Portuguese)
A friend to all is a friend to none. (German)
A friend to everybody is a friend to nobody. (Spanish)
A friend to my table and wine, is no good neighbor. (French)
A friend, and look to thyself. (Italian)
A friend’s dinner is soon dressed. (Dutch)
A friend’s eye is a good mirror. (Irish)
A friend’s frown is better than a fool’s smile. (Danish)
A friend’s meat is soon ready. (French)
A good friend is better than silver and gold. (Dutch)
A man’s oldest friend is his best. (Roman)
A mile walk with a friend has only one hundred steps. (Russian)
A reconciled friend is a double enemy. (Spanish)
A rock offered by a friend is like an apple. (Sicilian)
A small house will hold a hundred friends. (German)
A stone from the hand of a friend is an apple. (Moroccan)
A table friend is changeable. (French)
A thousand cups of wine do not suffice when true friends meet, but half a sentence is too much when there is no meeting of minds. (Chinese)
A true friend is a rare bird. (Roman)
A true friend is a second self. (Roman)
A true friend is certain when certainty is uncertain. (Roman)
A true friend laughs at your stories even when they’re not so good, and sympathizes with your troubles even when they’re not so bad. (Irish)
Admonish your friends secretly, but praise them openly. (Roman)
All are not friends who smile on you. (Dutch)
All things are common among friends. (Roman)
An enemy will agree, but a friend will argue. (Russian)
An old friend met in a far country is like rain after drought. (Chinese)
At the narrow passage there is no brother and no friend. (Arabian)
Avoid a friend who covers you with his wings and destroys you with his beak. (Spanish)
Be on such terms with your friend as if you knew that he might one day become your enemy. (Roman)
Be slow in choosing a friend, slower in changing. (Poor Richard)
Beat the churl and he will be your friend. (Italian)
Better a friend than money to spend. (Dutch)
Better a friend’s bite than an enemy’s caress. (Danish)
Better a good enemy than a bad friend. (Yiddish)
Better an open enemy than a false friend. (Danish)
Better one old friend than two new ones. (Yiddish)
Better to have a friend on the road than gold or silver in your purse. (French)
Better to have friends in the marketplace than money in your coffer. (Portuguese)
Beware of a reconciled friend as of the Devil. (Spanish)
Conceal not your secret from your friend, or you deserve to lose him. (Portuguese)
Do not protect yourself by a fence, but rather by your friends. (Czech)
Do not tell even a true friend your true feelings. (Korean)
Every man’s friend is every man’s fool. (Danish)
Everybody’s friend is true to none. (Norwegian)
Everybody’s friend, nobody’s friend. (Italian)
Fall sick, and you will see who is your friend – and who not. (Spanish)
Farewell and be hanged; friends must part! (Chinese)
Few there are that will endure a true friend. (Danish)
Forbear a quarrel with a friend: anger breeds hatred; concord sweetens love. (Dutch)
Friends and mules fail in hard trials. (Rumanian)
Friends and wine: the older the better. (Spanish)
Friends are flowers in the garden of life. (Portuguese)
Friends are known in time of need. (Dutch)
Friends are known in times of danger. (Irish)
Friends are like fiddle strings: they must not be screwed too tight. (Italian)
Friends are proved by adversity. (Roman)
Friends are sometimes troublesome. (Roman)
Friends are thieves of time. (English)
Friends are to be regarded from deeds, not words. (Roman)
Friends may meet, but mountains never greet. (Roman)
Friends of our friends are our friends. (French)
Friends should have a high wall between them. (Chinese)
Friends tie their purses with a spider’s web. (Italian)
Full of men, vacant of friends. (Roman)
Give as though you have many friends, but know that you have but few. (French)
Go often to the house of a friend; for weeds soon choke up the unused path. (Swedish)
God keep me from my friends, from my enemies I will keep myself. (Italian)
Good accounts make good friends. (Greek)
Good fellow to everyone, good friend to no one. (Yiddish)
Good friends appear in difficulties. (Roman)
Guard against taking sides against your friends. (Irish)
Have but few friends though many acquaintances. (Chinese)
He is my friend that grinds at my mill. (Danish)
He is my friend that succors me, not he that pities me. (Danish)
He is no friend that eats his own by himself, and mine with me. (Portuguese)
He is your friend who gets you out of a fray. (Spanish)
He never was a friend who ceased to be so for a slight cause. (Portuguese)
He that seeks to have many friends never has any. (Italian)
He who is everybody’s friend is either very poor or very rich. (Spanish)
He who makes friends of all keeps none. (German)
I am ever my own best friend. (Roman)
If you have a good friend, you don’t need a mirror. (German)
In dress, the newest is the finest; in friends, the oldest is the best. (Korean)
In happy times we reckon many friends; but if fortune fails, we will have no friends. (Roman)
It is as bad to have too many friends as no friends at all. (Roman)
It is easier to visit friends than to live with them. (Chinese)
It is good to have friends but bad to need them. (German)
It is good to have friends even in Hell. (Serbian)
Know well, but take no offense at the manners of a friend. (Roman)
Liberal hands make many friends. (Danish)
Love your friend with her faults. (Italian)
Make a friend when you don’t need one. (Jamaican)
Make new friends, but don’t forget the old ones. (Yiddish)
Many friends will sit at the same table. (German)
Mind neither storms nor snows for the sake of a friend. (Georgian)
No man can be happy without a friend, or be sure of his friend till he is unhappy. (Roman)
Of everything else the newest; of friends, the oldest. (Kurdish)
Of oil, wine, and friends, the oldest is the best. (Portuguese)
Old friends and old ways ought not to be disdained. (Danish)
Old friends and old wine are best. (German)
On the road between the homes of friends, grass does not grow. (Norwegian)
Once a friend, always a friend. (Kurdish)
One can care little for man, but we need a friend. (Chinese)
One enemy is too many, a hundred friends is too few. (German)
One God, one wife, but many friends. (Dutch)
One should go invited to a friend in good fortune, and uninvited in misfortune. (Swedish)
One who looks for a friend without faults will have none. (Yiddish)
Only your real friends will tell you when your face is dirty. (Burmese)
Over the bottle many a friend is found. (Yiddish)
Peel a fig for your friend, a peach for your enemy. (Italian)
Promises may make friends, but performance keeps them. (German)
Save us from our friends. (Italian)
Short reckonings make long friends. (English)
Tell me who’s your friend and I’ll tell you who you are. (Russian)
Tell your friend a lie; if he keeps it secret, tell him the truth. (Spanish)
The best of friends must part. (English)
The constant friend is never welcome. (Yiddish)
The false friend is like the shadow of a sundial. (French)
The name of friend is common, but a faithful friend is rare. (Roman)
The road to a friend’s house is never long. (Danish)
The same man cannot be both friend and flatterer. (Poor Richard)
There is no need like the lack of a friend. (Irish)
There’s no living without friends. (Portuguese)
To be intimate with a foolish friend, is like going to bed to a razor. (Poor Richard)
To lose a friend is the greatest of all losses. (Roman)
True friends are tested in adversity. (Roman)
When you know who his friend is, you know who he is. (African)
Where friends, there riches. (German)
Without friends to share it, no good we possess is truly enjoyable. (Roman)
You can hardly make a friend in a year, but you can easily offend one in an hour. (Chinese)
You may be sure that the one who is a friend to himself is a friend to all. (Roman)
This is the complete article, containing 1,544 words
(approx. 5 pages at 300 words per page).
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