English in everyday life
Proverbs
Explore English sayings from most to least frequent in a published American English corpus. Alternate forms are collected together.
About these frequency groups
Groups use full-form occurrence counts in the Corpus of Contemporary American English (COCA), recorded in 2016–2017. For a proverb with several forms, we use the highest individual count, since adding overlapping forms could count the same occurrence twice.
These are historical American English corpus counts, not estimates of how often everyone uses a saying today. A zero means no full-form match was recorded. The source’s separate familiarity ratings are retained in the data but do not determine this ordering.
We grouped variants, merged reviewed duplicate entries, and preserved existing editorial wording. The source includes historical and dated sayings; inclusion is not an endorsement.
Expressions containing never, including its inflections. Clear word filter
113 entries
Less common
1–9 recorded occurrences
Fools rush in where angels fear to tread
Matching variant: Fools rush in where wise men never go
If you're not the lead dog, the view never changes
It never rains but it pours
Lightning never strikes the same place twice
Lost time is never found again
Never apologize, never explain
Never trust a skinny chef
Never work with children or animals
You never know what you can do until you try
A little insurance never hurt
A quitter never wins, and a winner never quits
Anger is never without reason but seldom with a good one
Barking dogs don't bite
Matching variant: A barking dog never bites
Can't never could do anything
Don't lead with your chin
Matching variant: Never lead with your chin
Don't look back; something might be gaining on you
Matching variant: Never look back; something might be gaining on you
Eavesdroppers never hear any good of themselves
Failure is never final
Hard work never killed anyone
History does not repeat itself, but it rhymes
Matching variant: History never repeats itself, but it rhymes
It's never too late to mend
Misfortunes never come singly
Necessity never made a good bargain
Never hit a man when he's down
Never take a knife to a gunfight
Never try to teach a pig to sing; it wastes your time, and it annoys the pig
Never underestimate the power of a woman
Success is never final
Not observed in this corpus
No full-form matches recorded; this does not mean the proverb is never used
A closed mouth does not get fed
Matching variant: A closed mouth never gets fed
A little dirt never hurt
Broken eggs can never be mended
Can't never did anything
Don't kill time
Matching variant: Never kill time
Don't put all your eggs in one basket
Matching variant: Never put all your eggs in one basket
Don't start a fight you can't finish
Matching variant: Never start a fight but always finish it