Robert Christy, comp. Proverbs, Maxims and Phrases of All Ages. 1887.
Matrimony
A deaf husband and a blind wife are always a happy couple.French, Danish.
A growing moon and a flowing tide are lucky times to marry in.Irish.
A hawk’s marriage—the hen’s the better bird.Danish.
A hog has eaten the fine pear. (Said when an ugly man marries a fine woman.)Modern Greek.
A man finds himself seven years older the day after his marriage.Lord Bacon.
A man may woo whar he will, but wed whar he is wierd.
A man is newly married who tells his wife everything.
A man is not to be known till he takes a wife.French.
A poor wedding is a prologue to misery.
A young man married is a man that’s marred.Shakespeare.
Age and wedlock bring a man to his nightcap.
Age and wedlock tame man and beast.
Age and wedlock we all desire and repent of.
Always say “no,” and you will never be married.French.
An ill marriage is a spring of ill fortune.
An impudent face never marries.German.
An office is the shoeing-horn to marriage.German.
As comfortable as matrimony.
As your wedding ring wears, you’ll wear off your cares.
Before you marry have where to tarry.Italian.
Be sure before you marry,
Of a house wherein to tarry.Spanish.
Before you marry beware, for it is a knot difficult to untie.Spanish.
Before you marry have a house to live in, fields to till, and vines to cut.Spanish.
Better be half hanged than ill wed.
Better have an old man to humor than a young man to break your heart.
But depth of judgment most in him appears,
Who wisely weds in his maturer years.Pope.
Cupid is blind to everything save pin money.Punch.
Do not buy a carrier’s ass, nor marry an innkeeper’s daughter.Spanish.
Do you want to see a wolf with young (i.e., an insatiable plunderer) marry your daughter?Spanish.
Domestic happiness, the only bliss of paradise that has survived the fall.L’Estrange.
Early marriages are to be deprecated, especially for men.Benjamin Disraeli.
Either marry very young or turn monk very young.Modern Greek.
Every one sings as he has the gift and marries as he has the luck.Portuguese.
For better, for worse, they have married me.Spanish.
Go down the ladder when thou marriest a wife, go up when thou chooseth a friend.Hebrew.
Grief still treads upon the heels of pleasure,
Married in haste we may repent at leisure.Cowper.
Hasty marriage seldom proveth well.Shakespeare.
Hasty marriages seldom turn out well.German.
He can’t demand a flitch of bacon at Dunmow. (An allusion to a custom in the manor of little Dunmow, England. A couple who had been married a year without repenting it could demand a flitch of bacon under the charter of the convent of Dunmow.)
He has a great fancy to marry that goes to the devil for a wife.
He has great need of a wife who marries mamma’s darling.
He hath tied a knot with his tongue that he cannot untie with all his teeth.
He that cannot find wherewith to employ himself let him buy a ship or marry a wife.Spanish.
He that goes far to marry goes to be deceived or to deceive.Spanish.
He that is needy when he is married shall be rich when he is buried.
He that marries a daw eats meikle dirt.
He that marries ere he be wise will die ere he thrive.
He that marrieth for wealth sells his liberty.
He that marrieth for love hath good nights and bad days.French.
He that would the daughter win, must with the mother first begin.
He who fain would marry, in choice should not tarry.German.
He who is about to marry should consider how it is with his neighbors.
He who marries a beauty marries trouble.Yorubas (Africa).
He who marries does well, but he who remains single does better.German.
He who marries ill is long in becoming widowed.Spanish.
He who would the daughter win
With the mother must begin.German.
Honest men marry soon, wise men not at all.
How thrice wretched is he who marries when he is poor.Greek.
Humble wedlock is better than proud virginity.Augustine.
I’ll marry and eat the prime of the pot and sit down first.Spanish.
If marriages are made in heaven you had but few friends there.Scotch.
If one will not another will, so are all maidens married.
If thou wouldst marry wisely, marry thy equal.Ovid.
If thy estate be good, match near home and at leisure; if weak, far off and quickly.
If you wish to marry suitably, marry your equal.Ovid.
In marriage cheat who can.
It goes ill with the house when the hen sings and the cock is silent.Spanish.
It is a sad house where the hen crows louder than the cock.
It is a silly flock where the ewe bears the bell.
It is better to marry a quiet fool than a witty scold.
It is hard to wive and thrive both in a year.
It is unlucky to marry in May.Ovid.
Keep your eyes wide open before marriage and half shut after.
Let every one marry an equal.Don Quixote.
Like blood, like age, and like goods make the happiest marriage.
Make haste when you are purchasing a field, but when you are to marry a wife be slow.
Make the happiest marriage.
Many a good hanging prevents a bad marriage.Shakespeare.
Many a one for land, takes a fool by the hand.
Marriage and hanging go by destiny.
Marriage at first, like a knock on the elbow is peculiarly painful, but the pain lasts only a little while.Lope de Vega.
Marriage in haste we may repent at leisure.Congreve.
Marriage in the blood is seldom good.German.
Marriage is a lottery.
Marriage is heaven or hell.German.
Marriage is honorable but housekeeping a shrew.
Marriage is the bloom or blight of all men’s happiness.Byron.
Marriage is the mother of the world and preserves kingdoms, and fills cities, churches and heaven itself.Jeremy Taylor.
Marriage with peace is the world’s paradise, with strife this life’s purgatory.
Marriages are made in heaven.
Marriages are not as they are made but as they turn out.Italian.
Marriages are written in heaven.
Married to-day, married to-morrow.French.
Marry and grow tame.Spanish, Portuguese.
Marry a girl who is your inferior, don’t give your daughter to a superior.Turkish.
Marry a person in your rank in life.
Marry above your match and you get a master.
Marry in haste and repent at leisure.French, Italian, German, Dutch.
Marry in haste and repent at leisure,
’Tis good to marry late or never.
Marry in preference to all other women one who dwells near thee.
Marry! marry! and who is to manage the house.Spanish.
Marry, marry, sounds well but tastes ill.Portuguese.
Marry me without delay mother, for my face is growing wrinkled.Portuguese.
Marry your son when you please, your daughter when you can.Spanish, Portuguese, Danish.
Marrying is easy but housekeeping is hard.German.
“Mother, marry me, marry me, or the gulls will fly away with me.”
“Mother, what is marriage?” “Spinning, bearing children and crying, daughter.”Spanish.
No pot so ugly as not to find a cover.Italian.
Observe the edge and take the linen, observe the mother and take the daughter.Turkish.
One marriage is never celebrated but another grows out of it.German.
She is well married who has neither mother-in-law nor sister-in-law by her husband.Spanish.
She that marries ill never wants something to say for it.
She who marries secretly is defamed openly.
Single long, shame at last.Modern Greek.
Some go as far as to say, “No one marries but repents.”French.
That house is in a bad case, where the distaff commands the sword.
The day upon which you marry, you either make or mar yourself.
The day you marry, ’tis either kill or cure.Spanish.
The old man who is married, bids death to the feast.German.
There is no paradise on earth equal to the union of love and innocence.Rousseau.
To be tied to the sour apple tree; i.e., married to an ill husband.
To marry once is a duty, twice a folly, thrice is madness.Dutch.
Wedding and ill wintering tame both man and beast.
Wedlock forced is but a hell, an age of discord and continual strife.Shakespeare.
Wedlock is heaven or hell.German.
Wedlock rides on the saddle, and repentance on the crupper.French.
Wedlock without children, a world without a sun.German.
Wedlock, a padlock.
When an old man marries death laughs.German.
Who marries between the sickle and the scythe will never thrive.
Who weds a sot to get his cot,
Will lose the cot and get the sot.Dutch.
Who weds ere he be wise
Shall die ere he thrives.
With an old husband’s hide, one buys a young one.French.
You have married a beauty, so much the worse for you.Italian.
You have tied a knot with your tongue, you cannot undo with your teeth.
You need not marry, you have troubles enough without it.