All the Business Proverbs You’ll Ever Need (Part 2)

Continuing our series on the wisdom of the ages in proverb form. Some aren’t taken directly from the Bible but have been motivated by those writings. We’ll leave it up to you to decide if they are worthy of inclusion. Here are business proverbs for letters D through F. (Thanks to Marketing Deviant for the list).

D
Damned if you do, damned if you don’t
Deep doubts, deep wisdom; small doubts, little wisdom
Desperate times call for desperate measures
Different strokes for different folks
Dig the well before you are thirsty
Diligence is the mother of good fortune
Discretion is the better part of valor
Divide and rule
Do good, reap good; do evil, reap evil
Do not fear going forward slowly; fear only to stand still
Do not protect yourself by a fence, but rather by your friends
Do not remove a fly from your friend is forehead with a hatchet
Do not wear out your welcome
Do unto others as you would like them to do unto you
Doctors make the worst patients
Don’t cut off your nose to spite your face
Don’t go near the water until you learn how to swim
Don’t put all your eggs in one basket
Don’t wash your dirty linen in public
Don’t ask God to guide your footsteps if you’re not willing to move your feet
Don’t be sweet, lest you be eaten up; don’t be bitter, lest you be spewed out
Don’t bite off more than you can chew
Don’t bite the hand that feeds you
Don’t bring a knife to a gun fight
Don’t burn your bridges behind you
Don’t change horses in midstream
Don’t count your chickens before they are hatched
Don’t cross the bridge till you come to it
Don’t fall before you’re pushed
Don’t have too many irons in the fire
Don’t judge a man by the size of his hat, but by the angle of his tilt
Don’t look a gift horse in the mouth
Don’t make a mountain out of a molehill
Don’t mend what ain’t broken
Don’t open a shop unless you like to smile
Don’t put new wine into old bottles
Don’t rock the boat
Don’t shut the barn door after the horse is gone
Don’t spit into the wind
Don’t spoil the ship for a ha’pworth of tar
Don’t take life too seriously; you’ll never get out of it alive
Don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater
Don’t try to walk before you can crawl
Don’t upset the apple-cart
Doubt is the beginning, not the end, of wisdom
Dreams are not the ones which come when you sleep, but they are the ones which will not let you sleep
Dwell not upon thy weariness, thy strength shall be according to the measure of thy desire

E
Each generation will reap what the former generation has sown
Each to his own taste
Early to bed and early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise
Easier said than done
Easy come, easy go
Eat to live, but do not live to eat
Education is a progressive discovering of our own ignorance
Empty vessels make the most noise
Enjoy what you don’t know
Enough is as good as a feast
Even a broken/stopped clock is right twice a day
Even a dog can distinguish between being stumbled over and being kicked
Even a dog can make it to the top when there is a flood
Even an old dog likes to be patted on the head and told, “Good boy!”
Even angels have teeth
Every bird loves to hear himself sing
Every dark cloud has a silver lining
Every dog has his day
Every family has a skeleton in the cupboard
Every man has his faults
Every man has his price
Every man is his own worst enemy
Every picture tells a story
Every rose has its thorn
Every stick has two ends
Everything can be justified until it happens to you
Everything in its own time
Everything with time
Experience is the best teacher
Experience is the mother of wisdom

F
Failing to plan is planning to fail
Failure is not falling down, you fail when you don’t get back up
Failure is the stepping stone for success
Failure teaches success
Fair exchange is no robbery
Faith will move mountains
Falling down does not signify failure but staying there does
Familiarity breeds contempt
Fear is stronger than love
Fear of death is worse than death itself
Fight fire with fire
Finder is keepers, loser weepers
Fine feathers make fine birds
Fingers were invented before knives and forks
Fire is a good servant but a bad master
First come, first served
First deserve, then desire
First things first
First think, and then speak
Fish and guests smell after three days
Flattery will get you nowhere
Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me
Fools rush in where angels fear to tread
For want of a nail the horseshoe was lost
Forewarned is forearmed
Fortune favors the brave
Fortune knocks once at every man’s door
Fretting cares make grey hairs
From those to whom much is given, much is expected

Got a favorite? Find one too dumb for the list? Let us know with a comment below. More next time.

The Solomon Success Team

SolomonSuccess.com

 

 

 

 

 

(Flickr / aldrin_muya)