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 only, including its inflections. Clear word filter
47 entries
Common
10–99 recorded occurrences
Money isn't everything
Matching variant: Money isn't the only thing
You only live once
The only thing we have to fear is fear itself
Beauty is only skin deep
Winning isn't everything; it's the only thing
Less common
1–9 recorded occurrences
Only the good die young
The only good Indian is a dead Indian
Man does not live by bread alone
Matching variant: Man does not live by bread only
Only God can make a tree
You are only as sick as your secrets
A chain is only as strong as its weakest link
Only dead fish go with the flow
If you're not the lead dog, the view never changes
Matching variant: The scenery only changes for the lead dog
Only Nixon could go to China
The only difference between men and boys is the price of their toys
There are no small roles, only small actors
You are responsible for you
Matching variant: Only you are responsible for you
Change is the only constant in life
The only place where success comes before work is in a dictionary
There is no such thing as a bad child
Matching variant: There are no bad children, only bad parents
There is no such thing as bad weather, only bad clothing
You only go around once in life
You're only old once
Not observed in this corpus
No full-form matches recorded; this does not mean the proverb is never used
A woman is only a woman, but a good cigar is a smoke
Appearances are only skin deep
Beauty is only skin
Buy the best and you only cry once
Men are only good for one thing
Only fools work
Only suckers work
Quitters quit
Matching variant: Only quitters quit
The only crime is getting caught
The only good pig is a dead pig
The only stupid question is the one you don't ask
The only way to have a friend is to be one
The way up is down
Matching variant: The only way up is down