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 get, including its inflections. Clear word filter
72 entries
Most common
100 or more recorded occurrences
Common
10–99 recorded occurrences
Nice work if you can get it
Can't we all just get along?
Go along to get along
If you can't stand the heat, get out of the kitchen
The squeaky wheel gets the grease
The rich get richer and the poor get poorer
You can't get there from here
When the going gets tough, the tough get going
You don't get something for nothing
the early bird catches the worm
Those who act promptly have the best chance of success.
Matching variant: The early bird gets the worm
Less common
1–9 recorded occurrences
Be careful what you wish for; you might get it
Things will get worse before they get better
Shit or get off the pot
Lead, follow, or get out of the way
To the victor go the spoils
Matching variant: The victor gets the spoils
Flattery will get you nowhere
If you always do what you've always done, you'll always get what you've always gotten
If you want a friend, get a dog
Don't get mad, get even
Flattery will get you everywhere
Give respect, get respect
Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they aren't out to get you
The harder you work, the luckier you get
The more you put into something, the more you get out
You can't get blood out of a turnip
You never get a second chance to make a first impression
Get along and go along
Life is like a box of chocolates
Matching variant: Life is like a box of chocolates; you never know what you're gonna get
The nail that sticks up must be hammered down
Matching variant: The nail that sticks out gets pounded
Get busy living or get busy dying
It's easier to get forgiveness than permission
Pigs get fat, hogs get slaughtered
Whatever gets you through the night
You get knocked down, you get up
Even a blind squirrel finds a nut
Matching variant: Even a blind squirrel gets a nut once in a while