English proverbs (D)

English proverbs (D)

Proverbs are popularly defined as short expressions of popular wisdom. Efforts to improve on the popular definition have not led to a more precise definition. The wisdom is in the form of a general observation about the world or a bit of advice, sometimes more nearly an attitude toward a situation.

D

• Damned if you do, damned if you don't.
  • Lorenzo Dow (d. 1834).
  • Meaning: Refers to a situation where both possibilities will lead to harm or blame.
• Desperate times call for desperate measures.
• The difference between a man and a cat or a dog is that only a man can write the names of the cat and the dog.
• Different strokes for different folks.
  • Meaning: Someone prefers one thing; others, something different.
• Discretion is the better part of valour.
  • Derived from "The better part of valour is discretion, in the which better part I have saved my life." Falstaff in Shakespeare's Henry IV Part One.
  • Meaning: Caution is preferable to rash bravery.
• Does a One Legged Duck swim in circles?

--alternate saying for "Does a bear shit in the woods" and a common response to an obvious answer yes to a silly question.

• Do it today, tomorrow it may be against the law.
• 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.
  • meaning - Don't complain if you can't enforce your point of view.
  • meaning - if you won't do it, don't say you will
• Don't bite off more than you can chew.
  • Meaning: Do not take on more responsibility than you can handle at any one time.
• Don't bite the hand that feeds you.
  • Meaning: Behave respectfully or deferentially to those who provide for you.
• Don't bring a knife to a gun fight.
• Don't burn your bridges.
  • Meaning: Do not act in such a way as to leave yourself no alternative or no opportunity to "retreat."
• Don't count your chickens before they're hatched.
• Don't cross a bridge before you come to it.
  • Meaning: Don't fret unnecessarily about future problems.
• Don't cry over spilt milk.
  • Meaning: Don't worry about things that have already happened.
• Don't cut off your nose to spite your face.
  • Interpretation: Do not act to spite someone else if it is damaging to yourself.
• Don't dig your grave with your own knife and fork.
  • Meaning: Don't do something to yourself which causes your own downfall.
• Don't enter your nose in the affairs of others.
  • Meaning: Do not mix yourself in others problems.
• Don't fall before you're pushed.
• Don't have too many irons in the fire.
  • Possible interpretation: Do not take on more responsibility than you can handle.
• Don't judge a book by its cover.
  • Meaning: Do not judge by appearances.
• 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.
  • Meaning: Don't procrastinate most of the time as your chances and opportunities are wasted away.
• Don't look a gift horse in the mouth.
  • Possible interpretation: Do not look for faults in a gift.
• Don't make a mountain out of a molehill.
  • Don't exaggerate small things / Don't make a big deal out of something minor.
• Don't mend what ain't broken.
  • Alternatively, If it ain't broke, don't fix it.
  • Alternatively, Leave well enough alone.
• Don't put all your eggs in one basket.
  • Meaning: Do not rest all your hopes on one eventuality; plan for several cases.
• Don't put the cart before the horse.
  • Meaning: Do things in the correct order.
  • Cf. Dan Michael of Northgate, Ayenbite of Inwyt (1340): "Many religious folk set the plough before the oxen." (Middle English: "Moche uolk of religion зetteþ þe зuolз be-uore þe oksen.")
• Don't raise more Demons than you can lay down.
  • Meaning: Do not do more wrongs than you can deal with, or put right.
• Don't shut the barn door after the horse is gone.
  • Possible interpretation: Prepare for things to go wrong rather than worrying about them after the fact.
• Don't spit into the wind.
  • Or, Don't piss into the wind.
  • Meaning, don't take actions which you know will harm yourself or be futile.
• Don't spoil the ship for a ha'p'orth of tar.
  • Meaning: Don't jeopardize a project - especially a large one - by being miserly or cutting corners.
    • A ha'p'orth (pronounced haypeth) is a halfpenny-worth, i.e. a very small amount.
• Don't take life too seriously; you'll never get out of it alive.
• Don't throw the baby out with the bathwater.
  • Possible interpretation: Do not, in an attempt to remove something undesirable, lose things that are valuable.
• Don't try to teach a pig to sing. It doesn't work, and you'll annoy the pig.
  • Meaning: Don't go into a relationship expecting to change your partner, it doesn't work.
• Don't worry, God has a plan.

- Jiv

• • • Distance makes the heart grow fonder.
• Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.
  • Based on the Bible (Matthew 7:12; Luke 6:31).; a statement of the ethic of reciprocity
• Doctors make the worst patients.
• The dog is nude though the clothing cost a penny.
• 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.
  • Meaning: Dreams in your sleep are different from the dreams of your future.
• A drop of knowledge is greater than an ocean of strength.
• A dull pencil is greater than the sharpest memory.