Spanish Proverbs

Sayings of Spanish origin

• Hell is full of the ungrateful.
• Too many cooks spoil the broth
• Each person knows where problems lie.
• Discretion is the better part of courage .
• Each of us must face our own responsibilities.
• He who inherits a hill must climb it.
• If you leave your place, you lose it.
• Better a good hope than a bad possession.
• If you want to know the value of money, go and borrow some.
• Hope is a good breakfast but a bad supper.
• God is a good worker but He loves to be helped.
• A word and a stone let go cannot be recalled.
• Half a loaf is better than no bread.
• He who is a Basque, a good Christian and has two mules, needs nothing more.
• He who knows nothing is as blind as him who cannot see.
• Everyone sees things from his own point of view.
• There is no happiness; there are only moments of happiness.
• Friendless in life, friendless in death.
• Cow of many–well milked and badly fed.
• Hell is paved with good intentions
• The wind changes every day, a woman every second.
• Cowards die many times.
• A single occurrence is insufficient to prove a theory or establish a rule.
• If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again.
• The greatest victory is a bloodless victory.
• If a person is away, his right is away.
• God sends cold after clothes.
• Frivolous talk is like shooting without aiming.
• Go to friends for advice; to women for pity; to strangers for charity; to relatives for nothing.
• If you want to marry wisely, marry your equal.
• Better a friendly refusal than an unwilling consent.
• An absent saint gets no candles.
• The first one to eat, the last one to work.
• Different strokes for different folks.
• Who gossips with you will gossip about you.
• Drink nothing without seeing it; sign nothing without reading it.
• A woman’s advice is of little value, but he who does not take it is a fool.
• If fools went not to market, bad wares would not be sold.
• A rose too often smelled loses its fragrance.
• Hidden joy is an extinguished candle.
• Hope deferred makes the heart sick.
• Avoid a friend who covers you with his wings and destroys you with his beak.
• There are no birds in last year’s nest.
• Flattery makes friends and truth makes enemies.
• Fear and love never eat from the same plate.
• If two doctors visit a sick man, the sexton rings the bells.
• If there is still doubt do not accuse.
• He who excuses himself accuses himself.
• He that would have a beautiful wife should choose her on a Sunday.
• From a fallen tree, all make kindling.
• He who deals with a blockhead will need a lot of brains.
• Walls have ears.
• Feed the raven and he’ll peck out your eyes.
• If you want to watch, you’d better keep quiet.
• Confide in a woman and a magpie if you want something to be broadcast.
• Don’t worry if people call you ordinary … only if you are ordinary.
• At twenty a man will be a peacock, at thirty a lion, at forty a camel, at fifty a serpent, at sixty a dog, at seventy a monkey, and at eighty nothing.
• If I die, I forgive you. If I live we shall see.
• If wishes were horses … then beggars would ride.
• Courtesy does not exclude courage.
• Guests always have nice backs.
• A rule isn’t unfair if it applies to everyone.
• Brain is better than brawn.
• How beautiful it is to do nothing, and then rest afterward.
• If your enemy is up to his waist in water, give him your hand; if the water reaches his shoulders, stand on his head.
• Her left hand doesn’t know what her right hand is doing.
• He that chastens one chastens twenty.
• Conscience is what tells you not to do what you have just done.
• Have patience and the mulberry leaf will become satin.
• Beggars can’t be choosers.
• To whom you tell your secrets you resign your liberty.
• Friendly words gain much and cost nothing.
• Buy from desperate people, and sell to newlyweds.
• Three Spaniards, four opinions.
• Dirty clothes are washed at home.
• Communism is a cow of many; well milked and badly fed.
• Home is where the heart is.
• If you want to be dead, wash your head and go to bed.
• Early flowers give no seed.
• I would rather have a donkey that can carry me than a horse that throws me.
• For a good appetite there is no hard bread.
• However bright the sun may shine, leave not your cloak at home.
• I dance to the tune that is played.
• Desperation is the mistress of the impossible.
• If there be no remedy, why worry?
• He who is proud of his sins, sins twice as much.
• Truth is time’s daughter
• If you have the moon, ignore the stars.
• The art of doing business lies more in paying than in buying.
• Every man is a fool in some man’s opinion.
• A friend in need is a friend indeed.
• You can’t escape your destiny.
• The most faithful mirror is an old friend.
• Honesty is the best policy.
• Don´t mention the hangman’s noose in the house of someone who died by it.
• If you wish good advice, consult an old man.
• Anger is a short madeness.
• He who has a good looking wife, a castle on the river, or a vineyard on the roadside is never without war.
• Curiosity killed the cat.
• What has been promised, is debt.
• Bad news flies.
• He who denies all confesses all.
• At the game’s end we shall see who gains.
• Happiness is never quite perfect. There’ll always be some trouble or displeasure.
• Fate sends almonds to toothless people.
• He to whom God gives no sons, the devil gives nephews.
• Blood boils without fire.
• Hunger drives the wolf out of the woods.
• Every man for himself and God for us all.
• He who asks the fewest favors is the best received.
• He who helps everybody, helps nobody.
• Don’t talk too much, because your ignorance is greater than your knowledge.
• He who peeps through a hole may see what will vex him.
• If the devil is going to disguise himself, it will be as a monk or a lawyer.
• Debts are like children, the smaller they are the louder they scream.
• In a choice between bad company and loneliness — the second is preferable.
• He that eats till he is sick must fast till he is well.
• He who never has enough, never has anything.
• Where there’s smoke, there’s fire.
• Don’t be afraid of a spot that can be removed with water.
• To deny everything is to confess everything.
• A wolf’s mourning is the fox’s feast.
• Cheap things cost a lot of money.
• After dinner rest a while, after supper walk a mile.
• Honor and money cannot go in the same sack.
• He who talks to a mule is one himself.
• Home is where he hangs his hat.
• Better visit hell in your lifetime than after you’re dead.
• If you want to sleep well, buy the bed of a bankrupt.
• Treat the small in the way you would want to be treated by the big.
• A woman’s belly is a garden with many fruits.
• He who is afraid of a thing gives it power over him.
• Experience is not always the kindest of teachers, but it is surely the best.
• Chins without beards deserve no honor.
• Beads about the neck, and the devil in the heart.
• Don’t refuse a wing to the one who gave you the chicken.
• He is always right who suspects that he is always wrong.
• Always be patient with the rich and powerful.
• Fine words butter no parsnips.
• When one is hungry everything tastes good.
• What a fool does in the end, the wise do in the beginning.
• A good life, they say, keeps wrinkles at bay.
• Truth will out.
• Eat, drink and be merry (for tomorrow we die).
• Between brothers, two witnesses and a notary.
• If the sky falls, hold up your hands.
• A day without bread lasts long.
• He that would have the fruit must climb the tree.
• Beauty draws more than oxen.
• Don’t call me a little olive until you’ve picked me.
• Too much bursts the bag.
• When the Spaniard sings he is either stupid or without money.
• God comes to see without ringing the bell.
• Better lose a supper than have a hundred physicians.
• Also of hope and aspiration do we live.
• Compare your griefs with other men’s and they will seem less.
• Trouble will rain on those who are already wet.
• If you have nothing better to do, go to bed with your own wife.
• Advise no one to go to war or to marry.
• The father a saint, the son a sinner.
• Blue eyes say, Love me or I die; black eyes say, Love me or I kill thee.
• He that fights and runs away, lives to fight another day.
• A wise man changes his mind, a fool never will.
• He who leaves his people will be left by God.
• If you can’t bite, don’t show your teeth.
• If a job is worth doing, it’s worth doing well.
• He who goes to law for a sheep loses his cow.
• The best word still has to be spoken.
• The shoemaker’s son always goes barefoot.
• A hidden fire is discovered by its smoke.
• Every cask smells of the wine it contains.
• Even the best writer has to erase.
• Evildoers always think the worst of others.
• Better late than never.
• If you want good service, serve yourself.
• An apple a day keeps the doctor away.
• An empty stomach will not listen to anything.
• A soft answer turneth away wrath.
• He who eats a partridge in his youth will only be left with feathers in his old age.
• Honor buys no meat in the market.
• If your wife tells you to throw yourself off a cliff, pray to God that it is a low one.
• A strong attack is half the battle won.
• Where there is love, there is pain.
• If you want to be respected, respect yourself.
• God delays but doesn’t forget.
• Beauty and chastity are always quarreling.
• The secret of two no further will go; the secret of three a hundred will know.
• A daily guest is a thief in the kitchen.
• Absence makes the heart grow fonder.
• Death is the reaper who doesn’t take a midday nap.
• If you lie down with dogs, you’ll get up with fleas.
• An ounce of mother is worth a ton of priest.
• A secret between two is God’s secret, between three is all men.
• I don’t care what people say as long as I get what want.
• A good life is the best sermon.
• Better a quiet death than a public misfortune.
• Hope for the best and prepare for the worst.
• Better to ask the way than to go astray.
• He who goes with wolves learns to howl.
• Dead men have no friends.
• If you cannot be chaste, be cautious.
• Fools walk in where angels fear to tread.
• Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.
• He who wants to bring home the riches of India, he must have them within himself.
• If you live with wolves learn to howl.
• Between two Saturdays happen many marvels.
• A word from the mouth is like a stone from a sling.
• He who pays the piper calls the tune.
• As soon as one goes out the window, another comes in the door.
• Tomorrow is often the busiest day of the week.
• An ounce of blood is worth more than a pound of friendship.
• He who knows how to live, knows enough.
• Truth and oil always come to the surface.
• A rolling stone gathers no moss.
• Actions speak louder than words.
• Appetite comes with eating.
• I wept when I was born and as each day passes I know why.
• He who lost his faith, has nothing more to lose.
• He who lives a long life must pass through much evil.
• For a chaste woman God is enough.
• If I die, I forgive you; if I recover, we shall see.
• He who divides gets the worst share.
• Her father’s fortune will make the ugliest girl attractive.
• April and May make meal for the whole year.
• Discretion is a way of hiding what you cannot help.
• All things are easy that are done willingly.
• All talk and no action.
• Everything in its season, and turnips in Advent.
• Time is a great healer.
• Idiots can sometimes give good advice.
• Ask for too much in order to get enough.
• If you would live in health, grow old early.
• He who would be rich should not collect money, but reduce his needs.
• However early you get up you cannot hasten the dawn.
• Do what is right, come what may.
• A woman’s place is in the home.
• Health is better than wealth.
• Giving alms never lessens the purse.
• Between the “yes” and “no” of a woman you can’t place a pin.
• The best or the worst for a man is his wife.
• If you are not good for yourself, how can you be good for others?
• Each person knows where his shoe hurts.
• For a bad night, a mattress of wine.
• Faint heart never won fair lady.
• Happiness itself does not stay — only moments of happiness do.
• Half the truth is often a whole lie.
• Elm trees have beautiful branches but hardly ever bear fruit.
• What is much desired is not believed when it comes.
• Time doesn’t stand still.
• The sap rises in the spring.
• Beware of a reconciled friend as of the devil.
• Give a thing and take a thing, to wear the devil’s gold ring.
• A dog won’t bite you if you are carrying a stick.
• Great minds think alike.
• A young woman is to an old man the horse that he rides to hell.
• Better keep now than seek anon.
• The best mirror is an old friend.
• Cheat me with the price, but not with the goods I buy.
• When misfortune sleeps, let no one wake her.
• Every dog has its day.
• Hunger is good kitchen.
• He who forgives a thief is a thief himself.
• We do not know what is good until we have lost it.
• Birth is much, but breeding is more.
• Hunger is the best sauce.
• He who plants the lettuce doesn’t always eat the salad.
• Hunger sharpens the wit.
• If the doctor is fasting it is bad for the priest.
• I know they are all honest men, but my cloak is nowhere to be found.
• Dine with arrogance, sleep with shame.
• In large rivers one finds big fish but one may also be drowned.
• The devil hides behind the cross.
• You can’t please everybody.
• After one vice a greater follows.
• He who sows brambles must not go barefoot.
• Habits are first cobwebs, then cables.
• Halfway is twelve miles when you have fourteen miles to go.
• A woman’s tears are worth a lot, but cost little.
• If your roof is made of glass, don’t throw stones at your neighbor’s house.
• Do not rejoice at my grief, for when mine is told, yours will be new.
• In the face of love and death, courage is useless.
• Each to his own and God watching over everyone.
• From the leather of others you can cut long strips.
• He who shelters under a tree gets twice as wet.

The Kingdom of Spain

Spain is a sovereign state located on the Iberian Peninsula in southwestern Europe, with two large archipelagoes, the Balearic Islands in the Mediterranean Sea and the Canary Islands off the North African Atlantic coast, two cities, Ceuta and Melilla, in the North African mainland and several small islands in the Alboran Sea near the Moroccan coast. The country’s mainland is bordered to the south and east by the Mediterranean Sea except for a small land boundary with Gibraltar; to the north and northeast by France, Andorra, and the Bay of Biscay; and to the west and northwest by Portugal and the Atlantic Ocean. It is the only European country to have a border with an African country (Morocco) and its African territory accounts for nearly 5% of its population, mostly in the Canary Islands but also in Ceuta and Melilla. (Source)

Madrid is the capital of Spain and the largest municipality in both the Community of Madrid and Spain as a whole.

Spanish recognised in the constitution as Castilian —is the official language of the entire country (Spain), and the constitution establishes that the nation will protect “all Spaniards and the peoples of Spain in the exercise of human rights, their cultures and traditions, languages and institutions.

The “Marcha Real” is the national anthem of Spain.