“Still waters run deep...” and the River Wear at Stanhope in County Durham provides proof of the old saw. The photographer is looking upstream from the churning ford and stepping-stones, towards deeper and calmer waters. The proverb reminds us that what is visible to the eye is not always a good guide to what is hidden underneath, and that the man who is placid and even dull on the outside may be full of secrets or turbulent passions within.
Introduction
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?
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. The appetite of the labouring man laboureth for him.
The Bible
Proverbs 16:26
2. We look before and after, and pine for what is not.
Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822)
Ode to a Skylark
3. Trust not him that hath once broken faith.
William Shakespeare (1564-1616)
Henry VI, Pt III (Queen Elizabeth),
Act IV, Scene IV
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Archive
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