Table of Contents
Preface 7
1 If the Cap Fits, Wear It 9
2 Burn a Candle at Both Ends, and It Will Soon Be Gone 12
3 Hunchback Sees Not His Own Hump, but He Sees His Neighbors 16
4 It Is Hard for an Empty Sack to Stand Upright 19
5 He Who Would Please All Will Lose His Donkey and Be Laughed at for His Pains 24
6 All Are Not Hunters That Blow the Horn 28
7 A Handsaw Is a Good Thing, but Not to Shave With 32
8 Don't Cut Off Your Nose to Spite Your Face 36
9 He has a Hole Under His Nose, and His Money Runs Into It 39
10 Every Man Should Sweep Before His Own Door 45
11 Scant Feeding of Man or Horse Is Small Profit and Sure Loss 48
12 Never Stop the Plough to Catch a Mouse 53
13 A Looking Glass Is of No Use to a Blind Man 56
14 He Has Got the Fiddle, but Not the Stick 61
15 "Great Cry and Little Wool," as the Man Said Who Clipped the Sow 63
16 You May Bend the Sapling, but Not the Tree 67
17 A Man May Love His House, Though He Ride Not on the Ridge 71
18 Great Drinkers Think Themselves Great Men 76
19 Two Dogs Fight for a Bone, and a Third Runs Away With It 81
20 He Lives Under the Sign of the Cat's Foot 83
21 He Would Put His Finger in the Pie, and so He Burnt His Nail Off 88
22 You Can't Catch the Wind in a Net 92
23 Beware of the Dog 96
24 Like Cat Like Kit 102
25 A Horse Which Carries a Halter is Soon Caught 105
26 An Old Fox Is Shy of a Trap 108
27 A Black Hen Lays a White Egg 111
28 He Looks One Way and Pulls the Other 113
29 Stick To It and Do It 115
30 Don't Put the Cart Before the Horse 122
31 A Leaking Tap Is a Great Waster 126
32 Fools Set Stools for Wise Men to Stumble Over 131
33 A Man in a Passion Rides a Horse That Runs Away with Him 133
34 Where the Plough Does Not Go, the Weeds Will Surely Grow 136
35 All Is Lost That Is Poured into a Cracked Dish 139
36 Grasp All and Lose All 142
37 Scatter and Increase 143
38 Every Bird Likes Its Own Nest 146
About the Author 151