What is an adage? Definition, 100 examples and adage vs proverb

An adage is a short, memorable saying that expresses a general truth and has been repeated so long that it feels like common wisdom. “Haste makes waste,” “Rome wasn't built in a day” and “Actions speak louder than words” are adages. Most are anonymous, many work through a metaphor, and nearly all are easier to remember than the advice they stand for.

Merriam-Webster defines an adage as “a saying often in metaphorical form that typically embodies a common observation.” Below are 100 adages grouped by theme, each with what it means or when people say it, and where the famous ones come from.

Adage meaning and origin

The word is pronounced AD-ij. It came into English around 1530, through French, from the Latin adagium, which is built on the root of aio, “I say.” An adage, then, is something that gets said, and has been said by a great many people before you.

The most famous collection is Erasmus's Adagia. The first edition, printed in Paris in 1500, held about 800 sayings from Greek and Latin writers, each with a commentary. Erasmus kept adding to it for the rest of his life, and by his death in 1536 it had grown to 4,151 entries. Many sayings that English speakers think of as homegrown have an equivalent in it, from “Many hands make light work” to “In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king.”

Adage vs proverb, maxim and idiom

These words overlap, and dictionaries define them with each other. The table separates them by what each one does.

In practice the lines blur. An aphorism with a known author becomes an adage once people repeat it without remembering who said it: Pope's “To err is human, to forgive divine” is now just something people say. A good working rule: an aphorism has an author, a maxim tells you what to do, and an idiom doesn't claim anything at all.

100 adages and what they mean

The adages below are grouped by theme. Where a source can be traced, it is given in brackets. Most adages are older than any written source, so the date is when the saying was first recorded or made famous, not when someone invented it.

Adages about work and effort

1. Many hands make light work. What people say when they hand out tea towels after dinner. (Erasmus has a version in his Adagia.)
2. Rome wasn't built in a day. Big things take time, so don't judge a project by its first week. (Recorded in French around 1190; first in English in Richard Taverner's 1545 translation of Erasmus.)
3. The early bird catches the worm. Whoever starts first gets the advantage. (First recorded in John Ray's A Collection of English Proverbs, 1670, as “The early bird catcheth the worm.”)
4. Well done is better than well said. A reply to someone with a great plan and nothing to show for it. (Poor Richard's Almanack, 1737.)
5. Practice makes perfect. Usually said to someone stuck in the dull middle stretch of learning a skill.
6. Strike while the iron is hot. Act while conditions are right, the way a blacksmith shapes metal while it glows.
7. A jack of all trades is a master of none. Often said, half admiringly, of the colleague who can fix anything.
8. Too many cooks spoil the broth. The counterweight to number 1: extra people help with the work, not with the decisions.
9. The proof of the pudding is in the eating. Judge a thing by how it works, not by how it is described. Here “proof” means “test.”
10. If at first you don't succeed, try, try again. One failed attempt is not a verdict.
11. Where there's a will, there's a way. Said to someone listing the reasons a plan can't work.
12. Necessity is the mother of invention. Said over a makeshift fix, like a folded beer mat under a wobbly table leg. (One of the sayings with an equivalent in Erasmus's Adagia.)
13. You reap what you sow. Results follow from what you put in. (Galatians 6:7, King James Bible: “whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.”)
14. No pain, no gain. Now a gym slogan, but the idea is old: Poor Richard's Almanack for 1745 has “No gains without pains.”
15. Little by little, the bird builds its nest. Small steps add up. A translation of a French proverb.

Adages about money and thrift

16. A penny saved is a penny earned. Saving money is as good as making it. (Poor Richard's Almanack had an earlier version: “A Penny sav'd is Twopence clear.”)
17. A fool and his money are soon parted. Said, rarely to their face, about someone who has just overpaid.
18. Money doesn't grow on trees. A parent's reply to a request for a second ice cream.
19. You get what you pay for. Cheap things often cost more in the end.
20. Don't put all your eggs in one basket. Spread your risk.
21. The love of money is the root of all evil. Greed does the damage, not money itself. (1 Timothy 6:10, King James Bible. It is often misquoted as “Money is the root of all evil.”)
22. Waste not, want not. Here “want” means “lack”: waste nothing and you won't go short.
23. Time is money. Wasted time is lost income. (Benjamin Franklin, Advice to a Young Tradesman, 1748.)
24. Look after the pennies and the pounds will look after themselves. Small savings add up. A British favorite.
25. There's no such thing as a free lunch. Everything costs something, even when the cost is hidden.
26. Easy come, easy go. What arrives without effort leaves without regret.
27. Never spend your money before you have it. The warning for anyone already pricing holidays against a bonus that hasn't arrived.
28. Neither a borrower nor a lender be. Lending strains friendships and borrowing breeds debt. (Polonius's advice to his son in Shakespeare's Hamlet, Act 1, Scene 3.)

Adages about time and patience

29. Time and tide wait for no man. Opportunities pass whether you are ready or not.
30. Lost time is never found again. Aimed at the person who plans to start properly next Monday.
31. Good things come to those who wait. Usually said to someone refreshing an inbox for news.
32. Haste makes waste. Rushing causes mistakes that cost more time than they save. (Poor Richard's Almanack, 1753.)
33. More haste, less speed. The British cousin: hurrying slows you down. (Another saying with an equivalent in the Adagia.)
34. Make haste slowly. Move quickly, but carefully. (The Latin festina lente. The historian Suetonius says the emperor Augustus often quoted it in its Greek form.)
35. Slow and steady wins the race. Consistent effort beats bursts of speed. (The moral English retellings give Aesop's fable of the tortoise and the hare.)
36. A watched pot never boils. Waiting anxiously makes time drag.
37. Better late than never. The gracious reply to an apology for a late reply.
38. Patience is a virtue. Usually said to someone who is visibly short of it.
39. There's no time like the present. The nudge when someone says they'll call the dentist next week.
40. Don't put off until tomorrow what you can do today. Postponed jobs pile up.
41. Time heals all wounds. Pain fades with time, though that is easier to believe months after a loss than in the first week.
42. All good things must come to an end. Enjoy things while they last.

Adages about people and friendship

43. A friend in need is a friend indeed. True friends show up when you need help.
44. Birds of a feather flock together. People with similar tastes find each other.
45. Actions speak louder than words. Said about someone whose apologies keep outnumbering their changes.
46. Don't judge a book by its cover. Appearances mislead.
47. You can't please everyone. Comfort for anyone who has just organized a group dinner.
48. Blood is thicker than water. Family ties outlast other bonds.
49. Like father, like son. Children take after their parents. (An equivalent appears in the Adagia.)
50. Two heads are better than one. Said when you ask a colleague to look at a problem you've been stuck on all morning.
51. The more, the merrier. The standard reply when someone asks if they can bring a friend.
52. Fish and visitors stink after three days. Even welcome guests can outstay their welcome. (Poor Richard's Almanack, 1736.)
53. He that lies down with dogs shall rise up with fleas. You pick up the habits of the company you keep. (Poor Richard's Almanack, 1733.)
54. Familiarity breeds contempt. Knowing someone too well can wear down respect.
55. Absence makes the heart grow fonder. Distance can strengthen affection.
56. Out of sight, out of mind. Distance can also make people forget. This one contradicts number 55, which is one reason adages make poor arguments.

Adages about caution and risk

57. Look before you leap. Its opposite number is “He who hesitates is lost,” which the section on using adages comes back to.
58. Better safe than sorry. Caution costs less than regret.
59. Don't count your chickens before they hatch. Don't rely on results you don't have yet.
60. A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush. A sure thing beats a bigger maybe.
61. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. Preventing a problem is cheaper than fixing it.
62. Prevention is better than cure. The plainer form of number 61. (An equivalent appears in the Adagia.)
63. Curiosity killed the cat. Prying can get you into trouble. (The older form was “care killed the cat,” with “care” meaning worry. It appears in Ben Jonson's Every Man in His Humour, 1598, and in Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing. The curiosity version turns up in print in the late 1860s.)
64. Let sleeping dogs lie. Don't stir up a trouble that has gone quiet.
65. Don't bite the hand that feeds you. Don't harm the people who support you.
66. If it ain't broke, don't fix it. The engineer's reply to a proposed redesign of something that works.
67. Discretion is the better part of valor. Sometimes avoiding a fight is the brave choice. (From Falstaff's line in Shakespeare's Henry IV, Part 1: “The better part of valour is discretion.”)
68. All that glitters is not gold. Attractive things aren't always valuable. (Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice has “All that glisters is not gold”; the idea is much older.)
69. Don't look a gift horse in the mouth. Don't inspect a gift for faults. A horse's teeth show its age. (Erasmus has a version.)
70. Three may keep a secret, if two of them are dead. A secret doesn't survive being shared. (Poor Richard's Almanack, 1735.)
71. There's many a slip 'twixt the cup and the lip. Plans can fail at the last moment. (An equivalent appears in the Adagia.)

Adages about wisdom and learning

72. Knowledge is power. Understanding gives you control. (Francis Bacon wrote the Latin “ipsa scientia potestas est,” “knowledge itself is power,” in 1597.)
73. A little learning is a dangerous thing. Shallow knowledge breeds overconfidence. (Alexander Pope, An Essay on Criticism, 1711: “A little learning is a dang'rous thing.”)
74. To err is human, to forgive divine. Everyone makes mistakes; forgiving them is the harder virtue. (Pope, An Essay on Criticism, 1711.)
75. Fools rush in where angels fear to tread. The ignorant take risks the wise avoid. (Pope, An Essay on Criticism, 1711.)
76. Experience is the best teacher. Often offered as consolation right after an expensive mistake.
77. You can't teach an old dog new tricks. Habits get harder to change with age. Often said as an excuse by the old dog.
78. One swallow does not make a summer. One good sign doesn't prove a trend. (Aristotle used it in the Nicomachean Ethics, where the swallow makes a spring, and Erasmus collected it.)
79. In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king. A little ability goes a long way among people with none. (Erasmus, Adagia.)
80. The pen is mightier than the sword. Words and ideas outlast force. (Edward Bulwer-Lytton, Richelieu, 1839.)
81. Every cloud has a silver lining. Hard times usually carry some good.
82. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Taste is personal.
83. There is nothing new under the sun. Every idea has been had before. (Ecclesiastes 1:9, King James Bible: “there is no new thing under the sun.”)
84. Hope springs eternal. People keep hoping whatever happens. (Pope, An Essay on Man, 1733–34: “Hope springs eternal in the human breast.”)
85. When in Rome, do as the Romans do. Follow local customs.
86. Live and learn. Mistakes are how most lessons arrive.

Adages about honesty and consequences

87. Honesty is the best policy. Note the word “policy”: the adage recommends honesty because it pays, not because it's right.
88. Pride goes before a fall. Arrogance leads to failure. (Proverbs 16:18, King James Bible: “Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall.”)
89. What goes around comes around. Usually said with some satisfaction, when someone's unkindness finally catches up with them.
90. Two wrongs don't make a right. Revenge doesn't undo the first harm.
91. People who live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones. Don't criticize faults you share.
92. The road to hell is paved with good intentions. Meaning well isn't enough.
93. Murder will out. Serious wrongs come to light eventually. (Geoffrey Chaucer, The Canterbury Tales, late 1300s: “Mordre wol out.”)
94. Physician, heal thyself. Fix your own faults before correcting others. (Luke 4:23, King James Bible.)
95. A soft answer turns away wrath. A calm reply defuses anger. (Proverbs 15:1, King James Bible: “A soft answer turneth away wrath.”)
96. Those who live by the sword die by the sword. Violence comes back on those who use it. (Matthew 26:52, King James Bible: “all they that take the sword shall perish with the sword.”)
97. What's done is done. You can't undo the past, so move on. (Lady Macbeth, in Shakespeare's Macbeth, Act 3, Scene 2.)
98. Brevity is the soul of wit. Saying it briefly is the cleverest way to say it. (Spoken by Polonius, the most long-winded man in Hamlet, Act 2, Scene 2.)
99. Don't throw the baby out with the bathwater. When fixing something, keep what was good about it.
100. All's well that ends well. A good outcome makes up for a rough road. (An old proverb Shakespeare used as a play title, around 1604.)

Where famous adages come from

A handful of sources account for a surprising share of the adages in everyday English. The dates are those of the source, not the first time anyone said the words.

Franklin is the best-known collector, and also the best example of how adages travel. He wrote only a small share of Poor Richard's sayings himself. By his own guess, as the historian Jill Lepore points out, it was perhaps one in ten. Most of the rest came from earlier books, especially Thomas Fuller's Gnomologia (1732), and Franklin often sharpened the wording on the way.

Attributions like these are easy to get wrong, so check one before you print it. Ask the Strokes Assistant where a saying comes from and it searches the web and answers beside your draft; then confirm the line in the source it names.

How to use adages in your writing

An adage is borrowed language by definition, which is its strength and its risk. Used well it carries a whole worldview in six words. Used carelessly it reads as a cliché. Four ways to use one well:

• Give it to a character. The adages a character reaches for show how they see the world. Polonius in Hamlet sends his son off with a string of maxims, and Sancho Panza in Don Quixote (1605–15) can't stop reeling off proverbs, to his master's despair. A character who answers every problem with “Better safe than sorry” has told you something about her history. Note her sayings in the Voice section of her character profile, and see how to write dialogue for more on voice.
• Twist it. A familiar adage with one part changed makes readers look twice, because they hear the original underneath.
• Use it as shared ground, not as proof. In an essay or a speech, an adage frames a point the audience already half-believes. It can't prove anything, since many adages have an opposite number: “Look before you leap,” but “He who hesitates is lost.”
• Keep it out of plain narration. A neutral narrator who tells the reader that “every cloud has a silver lining” sounds like a greeting card, unless the narrator's voice is built on such sayings. The same words in a character's mouth, said at the wrong moment, can be a scene.

Five twisted adages, written for this guide:

• Rome wasn't built in a day, but someone laid a brick every hour.
• Too many cooks spoil the broth. Too few burn it.
• She had been told to look before she leapt, so she looked for eleven years.
• A watched pot never boils, so he watched the kettle out of spite.
• Curiosity killed the cat, and the cat died knowing.

If an adage keeps turning up in your narration rather than in a character's mouth, it has probably become a crutch. The line between a living saying and a dead one is the same as the line between a useful convention and a tired trope.