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.