Gaelic Proverbs

Gaelic Sayings

Gaelic languages form one of the two groups of Insular Celtic languages, the other being the Brittonic languages.

Goidelic languages historically formed a dialect continuum stretching from Ireland through the Isle of Man to Scotland. There are three modern Goidelic languages: Irish (Gaeilge), Scottish Gaelic (Gàidhlig) and Manx (Gaelg), the last of which died out in the 20th century but has since been revived to some degree. (Source)

It is not with the first stroke that the tree falls.
Praise the good day at the close of it.
Self-assurance is two-thirds of success.
A man may do without a brother, but not without a neighbour.
‘Tis hard to hold a conger by the tail.
Two should stay together when crossing a ford.
Evil thoughts often come from idleness.
Every dog sets upon the stranger dog.
A clean bird never came out of a kite’s nest.
See that your own hearth is swept before you lift your neighbor’s ashes.
The moon is none the worse for the dogs’ barking at her.
The active mother makes the lazy daughter.
There is no smoke in a lark’s house.
A gossip’s mouth is the devil’s postbag.
The cat wonders at its own tail.
The scraping hen will find something, but the creeping hen will find nothing.
The man who puts not a knot on his thread loses the first stitch.
Hold back your dog till the deer falls.
It is at the year’s end that the fisher can tell his luck.
The chief’s house has a slippery doorstep.
A dimple on the chin, the devil within.
The fated thing will happen.
Better a good retreat than a bad stand.
The drunk man thinks himself the only one sober.
The learning in youth is the pretty learning.
Do not judge by appearances; a rich heart may be under a poor coat.
No wonder the cast smells of the herrings that it holds.
The man that divides the pudding will have the thick end to himself.
The hand that gives is the hand that gets.
A ‘thank you’ doesn’t pay the fiddler.
Go courting afar, but marry next door.

Wet fuel may kindle, but a stone never will.
The strong foot will not find more than the big belly will devour.
He who would enjoy the fruit must not spoil the blossoms.
Nothing is easy to the unwilling.
Beauty won’t boil the pot.
Nothing can get into a closed fist.
The night is long for the husband of a bad wife.
Grass does not grow on the high road.
Check your purse before you please yourself.
A feast is no use without good talk.
A wild goose never laid a tame egg.
A man’s fault will be as big as a mountain before he sees it.
It’s no secret if three know it.
The wine is sweet, the paying bitter.
Who is born to be hanged will never be drowned.
The value of the well is not known until it goes dry.
A lazy youth will make an active old man.
Keep a thing seven years and you’ll find a use for it.
The windy day is not the day for thatch-wattles.
Honey may be sweet, but no-one licks it off a briar.
It is easy to straighten in the oak the crook that grew in the sapling.
The bitter cup we strive to remove from us holds the medicine we are most in need of.
Two never kindled a fire but it lit between them.
A patch is better than a hole.
Common sense hides shame.
When thieves dispute, honest men will get their own.
A little hole will sink a big ship.
No hero is proof against injury.
Even God cannot make two mountains without a valley in between.
The smart fellow’s share is on every dish.
What comes with the wind will go with the water.
The man who always goes out with his net will catch birds sometimes.
Go carefully with a full cup.
The tartan is all of the one stuff.
It’s no health if the glass is not emptied.
A priest should be learned, but learning won’t make a priest.
A cat in mittens won’t catch mice.
The mouse is mistress in her own house.
The man with a big nose thinks everyone talks of it.
A dog yells not when hit with a bone.
Lofty is the deer’s head on the top of the mountain.
A king’s son is no nobler than his company.
Where the stream is shallowest, it is noisiest.
A wave will rise on quiet water.
The grass that grows in March disappears in April.
Many a thing drops from the man who often flits.
No door ever closed, but another opened.
Men will meet, but the hills will not.
Swift is the slut’s husband over the hill, on a bleak day in Spring.
Avoid the evil, and it will avoid thee.
Sharp would the dog be that could snatch his tail from him.
Don’t give cherries to pigs or advice to fools.
Hot water will quench fire.
A covetous eye never got a good bargain.
He who will not sow in March will not reap in autumn.
The best apple is on the highest bough.
No man ever broke his bow but another man found a use for the string.
A son is a son until he comes of age; a daughter is a daughter all her life.
What the little ones see, the little ones do.
Poor is the bagpipe when widowed.
A fire of broken peat, and a boy’s love, do not last.
More than we use is more than we want.
The lion is known by the scratch of his claws.
Dig your bait while the tide is out.
Assurance is two-thirds of success.
There is no greater fraud than a promise not kept.
A friend’s eye is a good looking-glass.
The willing horse should not be spurred.
Who God does not teach, man cannot.
Welcome the coming, speed the parting guest.
Peats don’t fall from empty creels.
The little fire that warms is better than the big fire that burns.
Marriage takes the heat out of love.
He that will not look forward must look behind.
Some of the sweetest berries grow among the sharpest thorns.
Though you should take a wife from Hell, yet she will bring you home.
Whoever burns his backside must himself sit upon it.
Who comes uninvited will sit down unbidden.
If it is worth taking, it is worth asking for.
The essence of a game is at its end.