This site is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Alan William Smolowe who gave birth to the creation of this database.
Italian Proverbs
Never let people see the bottom of your purse or of your mind.
Care | Heart |
The ass does not know the worth of this tail till he has lost it.
Books | Character | Effort | Hope | Judgment | Will | Work | Realism |
One enemy is too much, and a hundred friends are not enough.
One enemy is too many and a hundred friends aren't enough.
Learning | Need | Will | Teacher |
Smooth words make smooth ways.
World |
One who makes his bed must lie in it.
Determination | People | Will | Work |
Preventing someone from falling is better than helping him get up.
People |
The buckets take to fighting with the well, and get their heads broken.
Life | Life | Little | Practice | Precept | Sense | Govern |
One devil drives out another.
Better | Organization | Virtue | Virtue |
The dog that is quarrelsome and not strong, woe to his hide.
Memory | Order | Rank |
The devil is bad because he is old.
Ability | Age | Art | Control | Culture | Humor | Memory | Need | Time | Work | World | Art |
The fruit of a good tree is also good.
Need | People | Understand |
The thief's wife does not always laugh.
Energy | Family | Little | Need | People | Regulation | Old |
The road to hell is paved with good intentions.
Need |
Two women and a goose make a market.
Doubt | Irony | Life | Life | Means | Need | Plenty | Self | Superiority | Understanding | Work | World | Afraid |
What a fool does in the end, the wise man does in the beginning.
When a wife sins the husband is never innocent.
Education | Ideas | Justify | Knowledge | Learning | Literature | Need | People | Question | Study | Virtue | Virtue | Will | Value |
The mills of god grind slowly, yet they grind exceedingly small.
Comfort | Time | Will | Loss |
When the fox preaches, take care of yourselves, hens.
Self |
While two dogs are fighting for a bone, a third runs away with it.