Irish Proverbs & Sayings

Personal


It's a lonely washing line that has no man's shirt on it!

Rarely is a fight continued when the chief has fallen

Neither give cherries to pigs nor advice to a fool

You'll never plough a field by turning it over in your mind.

What's good for the goose is good for the gander.

There are finer fish in the sea than have ever been caught

A windy day is not the day for thatching

If you put a horse out he'll always find grass

If you lie down with dogs you'll rise with fleas.

A wild goose never reared a tame gosling.

A boy's best friend is his mother and there's no spancel stronger than her apron string.

There never was an old slipper but there was an old stocking to match it

Forgetting a debt does not pay it.

The fox never found a better messenger than himself

What is in the marrow is hard to take out of the bone.

What will come from the briar but the berry

The hand goes only where the leg goes.

One who is without cows must be his own dog.

A blind man can see his mouth.

He who has livestock on a hill will not sleep soundly

Pity the man who has a stranger's spancel on him.

It takes a man a long time to grow, but it takes death a short time to overcome him

Everyone praises his native land.

The end of a feast is better than the beginning of a fight

An eye is blind in another man's corner

One eye in the corner is sharper than two about the house

A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.

Live, horse, and you will get grass

There is no expert without a fault

There is no fireside like your own fireside

There is no smoke without fire

When all fruits fail welcome haws

A secret is a weapon and a friend

It is no secret that is known to three

Fences have ears

Don't tell your secret even to a fence

A man has often cut a rod to beat himself

May the roof above us never fall in, and may we friends gathered below never fall out.

His own wound is what everyone feels soonest

May the strength of three be in your journey

A man is shy in another man's corner

The silent are often guilty

The eye should be blind in the home of another

Don't rest your eyes beyond what is your own

What's all the world to a man when his wife is a widow

Everyone's wise till he speaks

There's no wise man without a fault

You can't put a wise head on young shoulders

Though wisdom is good in the beginning it is better at the end

Many a time the man with ten cows has overtaken the man with forty

Do it as if there was fire in your skin