English For All: Scottish Proverbs

Scottish Proverbs

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.

A child may have too much of his mother's tit.
A day to come seems longer than a year that's gone.
A dry Lent, a fertile year.
A penny saved is a penny gained.
A thistle is a fat salad for an ass's mouth.
Be happy while you're living, for you're a long time dead.
Better be ill spoken of by one before all than by all before one.
Better bend than break.
Better keep the devil at the door than turn him out of the house.
Bring a cow into the hall and she'll run the byre.
Confessed faults are half-mended.
Cutting out well is better than sewing up well.
Early to bed early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise.
Every fisher loves best the trout that is of his own tickling.
Finders keepers, losers weepers.
Fools look to tomorrow; wise men use tonight.
Fur coat and nae knickers
He that has one sheep in the flock will like all the rest the better for it.
He that loves law will get his fill of it.
It is ill fishing if the hook is bare.
It's an ill wind that blows naebody any good.
It's sin and not poverty that makes men miserable.
Learn young, learn fair; learn old, learn more.
Many haws, many snows.
Money is flat and was meant to be piled up.
Never go to the devil and a dish-clout in your hand.
Never marry for money. Ye'll borrow it cheaper.
One for sorrow, two for joy,
Three for a girl, four for a boy.
Five for silver, six for gold,
And seven for a secret that must never be told.