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 something, including its inflections. Clear word filter
20 entries
Common
10–99 recorded occurrences
Less common
1–9 recorded occurrences
You're never too old to learn
Matching variant: Never too old to try something new
The more you put into something, the more you get out
Anything worth doing is worth doing well
Matching variant: Something worth doing is worth doing well
Don't start something you can't finish
If something sounds too good to be true, it probably is
Don't look back; something might be gaining on you
If you can't say something nice, don't say anything
If you don't stand for something, you will fall for anything
Use your head for something besides a hat rack
Not observed in this corpus
No full-form matches recorded; this does not mean the proverb is never used
A bargain is something you don't need at a price you can't resist
Don't make something out of nothing
Everybody has something to hide
If you love something, let it go; if it comes back to you, it is yours
If you want something done right, do it yourself
If you want something done, ask a busy person
Worry is like a rocking chair; it gives you something to do but doesn't get you anywhere
You get out of life what you put into it
Matching variant: You get out of something what you put into it