Proverbial Wisdom
Express the idea behind each of these proverbs using different words as much as you can.
Express the idea behind each of these proverbs using different words as much as you can.
On this page you will a find a selection of brief sayings, including short quotations from English literature as well as traditional proverbs. Choose a saying, and try to express the idea in different words as much as you can. In what circumstances might you use this quotation?
Note: Many of these proverbs and quotations are in archaic English, and neither grammar nor spelling has been modernised.
1. What cannot be eschew’d, must be embrac’d.
Merry Wives of Windsor (Page), Act V, Scene V
2. Trust not him that hath once broken faith.
Henry VI, Pt III (Queen Elizabeth),
Act IV, Scene IV
3.
The strawberry grows underneath the nettle,
And wholesome berries thrive and ripen best
Neighbour’d by fruit of baser quality.
Henry V (Bishop of Ely), Act I, Scene I
4.
Be proud of those strong sons of thine
Who wrenched their rights from thee!
England and America
5. A death for love’s no death but martyrdom.
Revenge for Honour, Caropia, Act IV, Scene II
6.
The first act’s doubtful, but we say
It is the last commends the play.
Hesperides, 225