Exercises

Proverbial Wisdom

Express the idea behind each of these proverbs using different words as much as you can.

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The sayings in this puzzle are taken randomly from a list of 750 proverbial sayings.

Note: Many of these proverbs and quotations are in archaic English, and neither grammar nor spelling has been modernised.

1. Heat not a furnace for your foe so hot
That it do singe yourself.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616)

Henry VIII (Norfolk), Act I, Scene I

2. A man’s disposition is never well known till he be crossed.

Sir Francis Bacon (1561-1626)

Advancement of Learning, Bk II

3. Costly thy habit as thy purse can buy,
But not expressed in fancy; rich, not gaudy;
For the apparel oft proclaims the man.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616)

Hamlet (Polonius), Act I, Scene III

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