The course of true love never did run smooth
When two young people love each other dearly they often have difficulties to face before they can marry. The proverb is quotation from... Read more →
Proverbs starting with letter C
A contented mind is a perpetual feast
This means that contentment of mind is the cause of lasting happiness, and suggests that striving for such contentment is more important than... Read more →
A constant guest is never welcome
People like their friends' company at fairly long intervals. If their friends come too often they are apt to grow to dislike them.
Constant dripping wears away the stone
Sometimes 'dropping' is used instead of 'dripping'. The lesson to be learnt is summed up in the last two words of this quotation from Ovid:... Read more →
Conscience does make cowards of us all
This is a quotation from Hamlet’s famous soliloquy beginning 'To be or not to be…' We use at is a proverb to mean that anyone who has a... Read more →
Comparisons are odious
This proverb dates back to the fifteenth century. It means that we should not make comparisons between two people, because it is very likely... Read more →
Coming events cast their shadows before
As Cicero wrote: 'Certain signs precede certain events.' For example, the widening by the Germans of the Kiel Canal in 1909 to admit the passage... Read more →
Clothes do not make the man
It is what is behind the man - that is, his character - that really matters. On the other hand, this is contradicted by The tailor makes the man... Read more →
Cleanliness is next to godliness
Cleanliness can be defined as 'diligence in keeping clean in person and dress'; and 'next to' means 'second only to'. Francis Bacon wrote in his... Read more →
Circumstances alter cases
Here 'case' has the meaning of situation, the position in which one finds oneself; and this position in the circumstances surrounding it. If the... Read more →