English proverbs B

• Bad news travels fast.
• Barking dogs seldom bite.
  • Meaning: People who are busy complaining rarely take more concrete hostile action.
  • Alternate meaning: Those who cast threats will seldom follow through with them
• Barking up the wrong tree.
• Be careful before every step.
• Before criticizing a man, walk a mile in his shoes.
  • Meaning: One should not criticize a person without understanding their situation.
• Beginning is half done.
  • Quoted by Dr. Robert Schuller, West Coast clergyman.
• Beggars can't be choosers.
  • Meaning: Those who are in need of help can't afford to be too demanding.
• Better is the enemy of good.
• Better to have it and not need it than to need it and not have it.
• Better to remain silent and be thought a fool, than to open your mouth and remove all doubt.
  • Variant: Better to remain silent and thought a fool, than to speak and remove all doubt. (often attributed to Abraham Lincoln but taken from Solomon's Proverbs)
• Better late than never.
  • Meaning: It's better to make an effort to keep an appointment than to give up altogether when you discover you will be late.
• Better safe than sorry.
  • Meaning: It is better to take precautions when it's possible that something can go amiss than to regret doing nothing later if something should indeed go wrong.
• Better the devil you know (than the one you don't).
• Beware of the Bear when he tucks in his shirt.
• Beware of the false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing, and inwardly are ravening wolves. (Matthew; bible quote)
• Beware of Greeks bearing gifts.
  • A reference to the Trojan Horse
• Birds of a feather flock together.
  • Variant: Birds of the same feather flock together.
    • Meaning: People who are similar to one another tend to stay together.
• Bitter pills may have blessed effects.
  • Meaning: Things that seem hard to take or handle at first may have positive and beneficial outcomes.
• Blood is thicker than water.
  • Meaning: Bonds between family members are stronger than other relationships.
• Blood will out.
  • Meaning: A person's ancestry or upbringing will eventually show.
• Bloom where you are planted.
  • Meaning: Excel and flourish where you grow up, or where you fit in; be good at what you do.

• A blow with a word strikes deeper than a blow with a sword.
  • Robert Burton cites this traditional proverb in The Anatomy of Melancholy (1621):
    • It is an old saying, "A blow with a word strikes deeper than a blow with a sword:" and many men are as much galled with a calumny, a scurrilous and bitter jest, a libel, a pasquil, satire, apologue, epigram, stage-play or the like, as with any misfortune whatsoever.
      • Part I, Section II, Member IV, Subsection IV
  • Compare: "The pen is mightier than the sword."
  • Contrast: "Sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me."

• Born with a silver spoon in his/her mouth.
  • Meaning: Born in a rich family.
• Boys will be boys.
  • Meaning: Boys are traditionally expected to misbehave, while girls are not.
• Brag is a good Dog, but Holdfast is a better
  • This Proverb is a Taunt upon Braggadoccio's, who talk big, boast, and rattle:
    It is also a Memento for such who make plentiful promises to do well for the
    future but are suspected to want Constancy and Resolution to make
    them good. - Divers Proverbs, Nathan Bailey, 1721 [4]
• Brain is better than brawn.
• Bread is the stuff of life.
• Break the Law as the Law should be beaten.
• Buy the best and you only cry once.