Incredibly Wise Irish Proverbs and Sayings

Put silk on a goat and it’s still a goat

A closed mouth a wise head

May you be at the gates of heaven an hour before the devil knows you’re dead

It’s easy to halve the potato where there’s love

Don’t give cherries to pigs or advice to fools

Sunshine always follows rain

A family of Irish birth will argue and fight but
let a shout come from without and see them all unite

You’ll never plow our field by turning it over in your mind

Who gossips with you will gossip of you

Both your friend and your enemy think you will never die

A little fire that warms is better than A big fire that burns

Better to be a man of character than a man of means

If you are looking for a friend without
a fault you will be without a friend forever

Lie down with dogs and you’ll rise with fleas

A drink proceeds a story

All the world’s a stage and most of us are desperately unrehearsed

Good as drink is it ends in thirst

Do not resent growing old many are denied the privilege

The man with the boots does not mind where he places his foot

A kind word never broke anyone’s mouth

The world would not make a racehorse of a donkey

Winter comes fast on the lazy

A sword a spade and a thought should
Never be allowed to rust

The best way to keep loyalty in a man’s heart is to keep money in his purse

Life is like a cup of tea it’s all in how you make it

Who keeps his tongue keeps his friends

A friend’s eye is a good mirror

You’ve got to do your own growing no matter how tall your grandfather was

Beware of the anger of a patient man

Better the coldness of a friend than the sweetness of an enemy

Do not show your teeth until you can bite

May misfortune follow you the rest of your life and never catch up

A trout in the pot is better than a salmon in the sea

It is better to be a coward for a minute than dead for the rest of your life

Hindsight is the best insight to foresight

Two people shorten the road

A bad wife takes advice from everyone but her husband

If you do not sew in the spring you will not reap in the autumn

Never dread the winter till the snow is on the blanket

The waiting man thinks the time long

Three diseases without shame love, itch and thirst

Sometimes one day changes everything
Sometimes years change nothing

Eight lives for the men and nine for the women

Show the fatted calf but not the thing that fattened him

Every little frog is great in his own bog

Many a ship is lost within sight of the harbour

I complained that I had no shoes until I met a man who had no feet

It’s better to pay the butcher than the doctor

The skin of the old sheep is on the rafter no sooner than the skin of the young sheep

Lamb’s bleat is often more telling than a dog’s bark

Even blackheads lay white eggs

Every man is sociable until a cow invades his garden

Experience is the comb that life gives a bald man

May your heart be light and happy may
Your smile be big and wide and may your pockets always have a coin or two inside

One woman understands another

Don’t fear an ill wind if your haystacks are tied down

Every eye forms its own fancy

No matter how many rooms you have in your house you’re only able to sleep in one bed

There’s no use boiling your cabbage twice

The full stomach does not understand the empty one

A woman will never leave a man who doesn’t hold her

Forgetting a debt doesn’t mean it’s paid

If you buy what you don’t need you might have to sell what you do

It’s not a delay to stop and sharpen the side

Better to spend money like there’s no tomorrow than spend tonight like there’s no money

If you want to be criticized marry

A man’s got to do what a man has got to do women must do what they can’t

Better to be fortunate than rich

Don’t marry the one you love but marry

The one who loves you

Lve conceals ugliness and hate sees many faults

Men are like bagpipes no sound comes from them till they are full

Never burn a penny candle looking for a hay penny