The Routledge Book of World Proverbs
A boy’s love is water in a sieve. (Spanish)
A flower cannot blossom without sunshine nor a garden without love. (Chinese)
A heart in love with beauty never grows old. (Turkish)
A long love, a severe bondage. (German)
A lovelorn cook over-salts the porridge. (German)
A love-marriage is not without problems. (Spanish)
A loving man, a jealous man. (Italian)
A man in love mistakes a pimple for a dimple. (Japanese)
A man in love, though he is hungry, is not hungry. (Roman)
A man is not where he lives, but where he loves. (Roman)
A wall between increases love. (German)
Absence is a foe to love: away from the eyes, away from the heart. (Spanish)
Absence is a foe to love: out of sight out of mind. (Italian)
All ages are submissive to love. (Russian)
All’s fair in love and war. (French)
An old man in love is like a flower in winter. (Portuguese)
Anyone who teases you loves you. (Yiddish)
Better a dinner of herbs where love is, than a feast and hatred therewith. (Chinese)
Better to have loved and lost, than not to have loved at all. (Roman)
By beating love decays. (French)
Certainly everyone is blind when maddened by love. (Roman)
Coffee and love are best when they are hot. (German)
Cultivate a heart of love that knows no anger. (Cambodian)
Do not treat your loved one like a swinging door: you are fond of it but you push it back and forth. (Madagascan)
Even a god finds it hard to love and be wise at the same time. (Roman)
Even Jupiter himself cannot be in love and wise at the same time. (Roman)
Follow love and it will flee; flee love and it will follow thee. (German)
For love of the ox the wolf licks the yoke. (Catalan)
For love the wolf eats the sheep. (German)
Forced love does not last. (Dutch)
From love comes anger. (Korean)
Happy is she who is in love with an old dotard. (Italian)
He loves well who does not forget. (Italian)
He saith little that loveth much. (Italian)
He that loves the tree loves the branches.
He who falls in love meets a worse fate than he who leaps from a rock. (Roman)
He who forces love when none is found remains a fool the whole year round. (German)
He who is not impatient is not in love. (Italian)
He who loves much forgives much. (Spanish)
He who loves much suffers much. (Spanish)
He who loves Peter loves his dog. (Spanish)
He who loves waits. (Spanish)
He who loves well is slow to forget. (Spanish)
He who loves well, obeys well. (Spanish)
He who would not be idle, let him fall in love. (Roman)
I say as an expert, no one is faithful in love. (Roman)
If love be timid it is not true. (Spanish)
If there’s a will, love finds a way. (the Editor)
If you want to be loved, then love. (Roman)
If you would be loved, love and be loveable. (Poor Richard)
In hunting and in love you begin when you like and leave off when you can. (Spanish)
In love the eyes are our leaders. (Roman)
In love, in delirium. (Roman)
In the war of love, the one who flees conquers. (Italian)
It is best to be off with the old love before you are on with the new. (Danish)
It is better to be loved than feared. (West African)
It is difficult to give up suddenly a long love. (Roman)
It is easy to halve the potato where there’s love. (Irish)
It’s far better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all. (English)
Labor is light where love doth pay. (Unknown)
Let enmity stop short, but love linger on. (English)
Love and a cough cannot be hid. (Roman)
Love and blindness are twin sisters. (Russian)
Love and dignity do not dwell together. (Roman)
Love and do what you will. (Roman)
Love and eggs are best when they are fresh. (Russian)
Love and faith are seen in works. (Spanish)
Love and hunger hold the world together. (German)
Love and jealousy are twins. (Spanish)
Love and lordship like no fellowship. (French)
Love and poverty are hard to conceal. (Danish)
Love begets love. (Roman)
Love Bertrand, love his dog. (French)
Love brooks no delay. (Roman)
Love cannot be bought or sold, its only price is love. (German)
Love cannot be cured by herbs. (Roman)
Love conquers all things, let us also yield to love. (Roman)
Love does not rust. (German)
Love does not seek things for itself. (Roman)
Love enters a man through his eyes, a woman through her ears. (Polish)
Love enters through the eyes. (Spanish)
Love for its own sake is true love. (Spanish)
Love for me depends on me. (Korean)
Love for those too easily won does not last long. (Roman)
Love grows with obstacles. (German)
Love has both honey and gall in abundance. (Roman)
Love in his heart, spurs at his heels. (German)
Love is a great leveler. (Spanish)
Love is a kind of warfare. (Roman)
Love is a king who reigns without laws. (Spanish)
Love is a stream that will find its course. (Jamaican)
Love is a thing full of anxious fears. (Roman)
Love is a wound that never heals. (German)
Love is an excuse for its own faults. (Italian)
Love is beyond reflection [i.e., analysis]. (Japanese)
Love is blind. (English)
Love is blind, but not the neighbors. (Mexican)
Love is blind but sees afar. (Italian)
Love is blind to faults and blemishes. (Irish)
Love is like butter, it goes well with bread. (Yiddish)
Love is like dew that falls on both nettles and lilies. (Swedish)
Love is like war, begin when you like and leave off when you can. (French)
Love is master of all arts. (Italian)
Love is more easily quenched than moderated. (Roman)
Love is never without jealousy. (German)
Love is not an impartial judge. (Irish)
Love is one thing, lust another. (Roman)
Love is repaid with love. (Mexican)
Love is a ring, and a ring has no end. (Russian)
Love is a sweet torment. (English)
Love is sweet but tastes best with bread. (Yiddish)
Love is the beginning of sorrow. (German)
Love is the fruit of love. (Roman)
Love is the same in all. (Roman)
Love is the true price at which love is bought. (Italian)
Love is won by affectionate words. (Roman)
Love knows hidden paths. (German)
Love knows no law. (Portuguese)
Love knows not labor. (Italian)
Love lasts as long as the money endures. (Unknown)
Love laughs at locksmiths. (British)
Love lives in palaces as well as in thatched huts. (Japanese)
Love makes sour things sweet. (Unknown)
Love makes the heart to sing. (Portuguese)
Love makes the world go round. (French)
Love makes time pass; time makes love pass. (French)
Love me little, love me long. (French)
Love others as you love yourself and let benevolence abound. (Chinese)
Love received, love returned. (Mexican)
Love rules without law. (Italian)
Love steals on us unseen. (Roman)
Love teaches even asses to dance. (French)
Love tells us many things that are not so. (Ukrainian)
Love that comes late in life bears great interest. (Roman)
Love will change you. (German)
Love will find a way. (English)
Love will find a way; indifference will find an excuse. (Ukrainian)
Love without return is like a question without an answer. (German)
Love would soon perish, were it not nourished by Ceres [food] and Bacchus [wine]. (Roman)
Love, and be loved. (Poor Richard)
Love’s anger is fuel to love. (German)
Love’s merchandise is jealousy and broken faith. (Italian)
Love’s plant must be watered with tears, and tended with care. (Danish)
Love’s wounds are cured by love itself. (Roman)
Love’s wrath is love’s tinder. (German)
Majesty and love do not consort well together, nor do they dwell in the same place. (Roman)
Make love, not war. (American)
Man loves but once. (German)
Money is the sinew of love. (German)
Neither love nor a cough can be hidden. (Roman)
Never love with all your heart, it only ends in breaking. (English)
New love drives out old. (Spanish)
No fate is worse than a life without love. (Mexican)
No herb can remedy the anguish of love. (Roman)
No one in love sees. (Roman)
No one loves another better than himself. (Roman)
Nobody’s sweetheart is ugly. (Dutch)
Not all men love the same things. (Roman)
Nothing is hard for one who loves. (Roman)
Of soup and love, the first is the best. (Portuguese)
Old love and old brands kindle at all seasons. (French)
Old love does not rust. (German)
One always returns to his first love. (French)
One cannot love and be wise. (English)
One grows used to love and to fire. (French)
One love drives out another. (Spanish)
Parental love is an ocean, sibling love a trickling stream. (the Editor)
Pleasing manners and a handsome form conciliate love. (Roman)
Separation reveals love. (German)
She who loves an ugly man thinks him handsome. (Spanish)
Sometimes one glance is enough for love to be planted. (Egyptian)
Take hold lightly, let go lightly: this is one of the great secrets of felicity in love. (Spanish)
Tell me whom you love and I’ll tell you who you are. (French)
The beautiful is less what one sees than what one dreams. (Belgian)
The body seeks that which has wounded the mind with love. (Roman)
The course of true love never did run smooth. (Roman)
The falling out of lovers is the renewal of love. (German)
The grasshopper is dear to the grasshopper, the ant loves the ant. (Roman)
The greatest love is a mother’s, then a dog’s, then a sweetheart’s. (Polish)
The love of God and our neighbor is the highest happiness. (Roman)
The man in love is no judge of beauty. (German)
The man who does not love a horse cannot love a woman. (Spanish)
The man who loves is easy of belief. (Italian)
The more violent the love, the more violent the anger. (Burmese)
The oaths of one who loves a woman are not to be believed. (Spanish)
The one who loves errs; behold, all men err. (German)
The one who loves well chastises well. (Roman)
The one who loves you will make you weep. (Argentine)
The only victory over love is flight. (French)
The pleasure of love lasts but a moment, but the pain of love lasts a lifetime. (French)
The pleasures of love are enhanced by injuries. (Roman)
There are as many pangs in love as shells on the seashore. (Roman)
There are no limits to love. (Japanese)
There is no love greater than a mother’s. (Spanish)
There is no teacher for love. (Japanese)
There is no wrong that love will not forgive. (Roman)
Those we think love us, love us only a little. (Yoruban)
Those whom true love has held, it will go on holding. (Roman)
Though there is love downwards, there is no love upwards. (Korean)
’Tis no thief that steals love. (German)
To be loved, be loveable. (Roman)
To be loved, love. (Spanish)
To give is honor, to love is grief. (Spanish)
To love and be wise are two different things. (French)
To love and be wise is impossible. (Spanish)
To love is to choose. (French)
To love living beings is to love oneself. (Chinese)
To understand your parents’ love bear your own children. (Chinese)
True love hates, and does not suffer, delay. (Roman)
True love knows no limits [i.e., knows not moderation]. (Roman)
True love never grows old. (Italian)
We are born once, die once, love once. (Spanish)
What is dearly loved is too soon lost. (Spanish)
When love is not madness, it is not love. (Spanish)
When one is in love, a cliff becomes a meadow. (Ethiopian)
When struck by love, love extends even to the crow on your lover’s roof. (Japanese)
Where love enters to season a dish, it will please anyone. (Roman)
Where the heart loves, there the legs walk. (Maltese)
Where there is great love there is great pain. (Italian)
Where there is love, there is pain. (Spanish)
Who has love in his heart has spurs in his sides. (Italian)
Who loves well chastises well. (Italian)
Who loves well is slow to forget. (French)
Who loves, believes. (Italian)
Who loves, fears. (Italian)
Who travels for love finds a thousand miles not longer than one. (Dutch)
With soft words must love be fostered. (Roman)
Without bread and wine even love will pine. (French)
You always hurt the one you love. (American)
You can’t live on love alone. (Unknown)
You haven’t lived if you haven’t loved. (Unknown)
You must make a lover angry if you wish him to love. (Roman)
You who seek an end of love, love will yield to business; be busy, and you will be safe. (Roman)
You will not be loved if you care for none but yourself. (Spanish)
You will not be loved if you think only of yourself. (Italian)
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