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Around the World
Date: Centuries-old
Notes: The following list was taken from "Aphorisms of Wisdom: or, a Complete Collection of the Most Celebrated Proverbs in the English, Scotch, French, Spanish, Italian, and other languages: Ancient and Modern" selected by Thomas V. Fuller, M.D., (GLASGOW: (R. & D. MALCOLM, 1814).
     
     
      A cat has nine lives, and a woman has nine cats' lives*
     
      A dishonest woman cannot be kept in, and an honest one will not.
     
      A fair wife without a fortune is a fine house without furniture.
     
      A good face needs no paint.
     
      A good season for courtship is, when the widow returns from the funeral.
     
      A maid that laughs is half taken.
     
      A man's best fortune, or his worst, is a wife.
     
      A virtuous woman, though ugly, is the ornament of the house.
     
      A wife is not to be chosen by the eye only.
     
      A woman is to be from her house three times; when she
      is christened., married, and buried.
     
      A woman that paints, puts up a bill that she is to be let.
     
      A young whore, an old saint.
     
      A young woman married to an old man, must behave like
      an old woman.
     
      All are good maids, but whence come the bad wives?
     
      All women are good; viz. good for something, or good for nothing.
     
      An old whore's curse is a blessing.
     
      As spiteful as an old maid.
     
      Age and wedlock bring a man to his night-cap.
     
      Age and wedlock tame man and beast.
     
      Age and wedlock we all desire, and repent of.
     
      At weddings and funerals, friends are discerned from kinsfolks.
     
      Bachelor's wives, and maid's children are well taught.
     
      Better a blush in the face, than a spot in the heart.
     
     
     
      Beauty's a blossom.
     
      Beauty draws more than oxen.
     
      Beauty in women is like the flowers in the spring; but
      virtue is like the stars of Heaven.
     
      Beauty is but skin deep ; within is filth and putrefaction.
     
      Beauty is no inheritance.
     
      Beauty is potent, but money is more potent.
     
      Beauty is soon blasted.
     
      Beauty is the subject of a blemish.
     
      Beauty may have fair leaves, yet bitter fruit.
     
      Beauty will buy no beef.
     
      Beauty without virtue is a curse.
     
      Beauties without fortunes have sweethearts plenty, but husbands none at all.
     
      Call your husband cuckold in jest, and he'll ne'er suspect you.
     
      Choose a wife rather by your ear than your eye.
     
      Commend not your wife, wine, nor house.
     
      Every one as they like, fast the woman said when she kissed her cow.
     
      Every one can keep house better than her mother, till she trieth.
     
      Every one can tame a shrew but he that has her.
     
      Fair faces need no paint.
     
      He has a great fancy to marriage that goes to the devil for a wife.
     
      He has a head as big as a horse, and brains as much as an ass.
     
      Hearts may agree though heads differ.
     
      If you make your wife an ass, she will make you an ox.
     
      If you make your wife a goldfinch, shemay prove in time
      a wagtail.
     
      Ladies will rather pardon want of sense than want of manners.
     
     
      Let women spin, and not preach.
     
      Maidens should be seen, and not heard.
     
      Maids make much of one ; good men are scarce.
     
      Maids say nay, and take it.
     
      Maids want nothing but husbands, and then they want every thing.
     
      Man, woman, and devil, are the three degrees of comparison.
     
      Old women's gold is not ugly.
     
      Once a whore and ever a whore.
     
      One hair of a woman draws more than a team of oxen.
     
      Over the greatest beauty hangs the greatest ruin,
     
      Play, women, and wine undo men laughing.
     
      She broke her elbow on her wedding day.
     
      She can laugh and cry both in a wind.
     
      She cannot leap an inch from a slut.
     
      She goes as if she cracked nuts with her tail.
     
      She had rather kiss than spin.
     
      She has less beauty than her picture hath, and truly not
      much more wit.
     
      She is as common as a barber's chair.
     
      She is as quiet as a wasp in one's ear.
     
      She is like a cat, she will play with her own tail.
     
      She is neither maid, wife nor widow.
     
      She is not so ugly as to fright one, nor so beautiful as to
      kill one.
     
      She looks like a cow turd stuck with primroses.
     
      She shines like a dry cow turd.
     
      She spins a good thread that brings up her daughter well.
     
      She that gazes much spins not much.
     
      She that hath an ill husband shews it in her dress.
     
     
      She that hath spice enough may season as she likes.
     
      She that is born a beauty is half married.
     
      She that is ashamed to eat at table, eats in private.
     
      She that loseth her modesty and honesty, hath nothing
      else worth losing.
     
      She that marries ill never wants something to say for it.
     
      She was a neat dame that washed the ass's face
     
      She was so hungry she could not stay for the parson to say grace.
     
      She who often looks in the glass thinks of her tail.
     
      She will as soon part with the cook as the porridge.
     
      She will scold the devil out of a haunted house.
     
      She will stay at home perhaps if her leg be broke.
     
      Silence is not the greatest vice of a woman.
     
      The more women look into their glass, the less they look
      into their hearts.
     
      The old woman would never have looked for her daughter
      in the oven, had she not been there herself,
     
      The rich widow cries with one eye, and laughs with the other.
     
      Three women and a goose make a market.
     
      Ugly women, finely dressed, are the uglier for it.
     
      Where women are, and geese, there wants no gaggling.
     
      Whores affect not you, but your money.
     
     
      Women and wine make men out of their wits.
     
      Women are better sold for sorrow, than bought for repentance.
     
      Women commend a modest man but like him not.
     
      Women conceal all that they know not.
     
      Women grown bad are worse than men, because the
      corruption of the best turns worst.
     
      Women have tears of dissimulation, as well as sorrow.
     
      Women's work is never done.
     
     
     
     
     
Contributed by: Courtesy of www.archive.org

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Around the World
Date: Centuries-old
Notes: The following list of proverbs and sayings about women was taken from "A BOOK OF QUOTATIONS PROVERBS AND HOUSEHOLD WORDS, a Collection of Quotations from British and American Authors, Ancient and Modem; with many Thousands of Proverbs, Familiar Phrases and Sayings, from all sources, including Hebrew, Arabic, Greek, Latin, French, German, Spanish, Italian, and other Languages" by W. GURNEY BENHAM (PHILADELPHIA: J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY & London: CASSELL & Company, 1907). The book is available for free at www.archive.org.
     
      A house and a woman suit excellently.
      (G. H.)
     
      A lisping lass is good to kiss. (E.)
     
      A poor beauty finds more lovers than husbands.
     
      A woman who talks like a man, and a hen
      which crows like a cock, are no good to anyone. (Fr.)
     
      A hen which crows and a girl who whistles bring the house bad luck. (Fr.)
     
      A woman, a dog, and a walnut tree.
      The more you beat them, the better they'll be.
     
      Woman is made of glass. (Span.)
     
      A woman conceals what she knows not. (G. H.)
     
      A woman's counsel is not worth much, but
      he who does not take it is mad.
     
      A woman's hair is long ; her tongue is longer. {Russian.)
     
      A woman's work is never done.
     
      All are not maidens that wear fair hair. (E. Sc.)
     
      All women are good ? for something or nothing. (E.)
     
      As great pity to see a woman weep, as a
      goose go barefoot. (B.)
     
      Beautiful flowers are soon picked. (Germ.)
     
      Beauty buys no beef.
     
      Beauty carries its dower in its face.
     
      Beauty draws more than oxen. (G. H.)
     
      Beauty is no inheritance. (R.)
     
      Beauty is potent, but money is omnipotent. (E.)
     
      Beauty is the flower of virtue.
      Beauty is a blossom. (R.)
     
      Beauty without grace is a violet without smell.
     
      Beauty without discipline, a rose without scent. (Danish.)
     
      Beggars should not be chooser.
     
      Borrowers must be no choosers. (From the French.)
     
      He who borrows docs not choose.
     
      The best is best cheap. (R.)
     
      The best is the cheapest in the end.
     
      Better a bare foot than none. (G. H.)
     
      Change of women makes bald knaves. (K.)
     
      Choose a wife rather by your ear than your eye.
     
      Choose neither a woman nor linen by candle-light.
     
      The greatest wealth is contentment with a little. (E.)
     
      Deeds are males and words are females. (B.)
     
      Discreet women have neither eyes nor ears. (G. H.)
     
      England is the Paradise of women. (R.)
     
      England is a paradise for women, and hell for horses; Italy a paradise for horses, hell for women.
     
      The wife of ever Englishman is counted blessed.
     
      Every woman would rather be beautiful than good. (Germ.)
     
      Maidens should be meek until they be married. (E. Sc.)
     
      Maids want nothing but husbands, but when they have them want everything. (Said to be a Somersetshire proverb.)
     
      Old maids lead apes in hell. (R.)
     
      Prettiness dies first. (G. H.)
     
      Prettiness dies quickly. (R.)
     
      Swine, women, and bees cannot be turned. (R.)
     
      The preparations of a woman are as long as the legs of a goose. ? (Russian)
     
      There's no mischief in the world that's done, but a woman is always one.
     
      Three women make a market. (G. H.)
     
      Three women and a goose make a market. (E.)
     
      Three women, three geese, and three frogs make a fair. (Germ.)
     
      Wine and wenches empty men's purses. (E.)
     
      Women and girls must be praised whether
      it be the truth or not.
     
      Women laugh when they can, and weep
      when they will. (G. H.)
     
      Woman complains, woman mourns, woman
      is ill when she chooses.
     
      Women, priests, and poultry never have enough. (B.)
     
      Women's chief weapon is the tongue, and they will not let it rust.
     
      Women's jars breed men's wars. {Fuller.)
     
      Women and dogs set men together by the ears. (R.)
     
Contributed by: Courtesy of www.archive.org

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