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
Most common
100 or more recorded occurrences
Common
10–99 recorded occurrences
Some things never change
better late than never
Doing something after a delay is better than not doing it at all.
You never can tell
Never a dull moment
Never say die
Wonders never cease
You never know what will happen
don't judge a book by its cover
appearances can be misleading, so assess things properly
Matching variant: Never judge a book by its cover
Money never sleeps
It never hurts to ask
Less common
1–9 recorded occurrences
Never let them see you sweat
Never give a sucker an even break
The course of true love never did run smooth
don't count your chickens before they hatch
used to warn someone not to assume success before it actually happens
Matching variant: Never count your chickens before they're hatched
Don't bite off more than you can chew
Matching variant: Never bite off more than you can chew
Don't look a gift horse in the mouth
Matching variant: Never look a gift horse in the mouth
Old soldiers never die
Sticks and stones may break my bones
Matching variant: Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me
You're never too old to learn
A woman's work is never done
Elephants never forget
It is better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all
You never get a second chance to make a first impression
a leopard can't change its spots
A person's basic character cannot fundamentally change.
Matching variant: A leopard never changes its spots
Always a bridesmaid, never a bride
If you have to ask, you won't understand
Matching variant: If you have to ask, you'll never know
Life is like a box of chocolates
Matching variant: Life is like a box of chocolates; you never know what you're gonna get