P

Pear, get ripe and fall right into my mouth. [You may have to gape a while before it happens.]

Peasant erect is taller than peasant on bended knee.

Pigs might fly if they had wings.

Plan your work for winter and if it turns out to be summer, count it a blessing. [Expect the worst, and any surprise will be a happy one.]

Plant good seed, and don't suffer from hunger.

Plant pears for your heirs.

Planting trees is as blessed an act as raising children.

Poison is poison though it comes in a golden cup.

Poor folks are glad of porridge.

Practice makes perfect.

Praise is not pudding.

Praises fill not the belly.

Prettiness makes no pottage.

Prevention is better than cure.

Prick yourself with a needle first before you stick a darning needle into others.

Prosperity makes friends, adversity tries them.

Proverbs are the children of experience.

Proverbs are the daughters of daily experience.

Put your foot down where you mean to stand.

Put your hand no further than your sleeve will reach. [Spend according to your income.]

Q

Quiet persons are welcome everywhere. [Hardly.]

R

Refrain from getting involved in something that hasn't been well thought out.

Remember the dog and have your stone ready. [If you're going to deal with an aggressive person, you ought to be ready for a fight.]

Remove an old tree and it will wither to death.

Repentance comes too late.

Reversing losses at whatever point will benefit you.* [Used to help folks to take better directions than going down or astray, or taking a wrong path.]

Riches alone make no man happy.

Riches are for spending.

Rumour is a lying jade.

S

Save a stranger from the sea, and he'll turn your enemy.

Say little but to the point. [Speak words straight to the point.]

Say nothing but think the more.

Scratch my back and I'll scratch yours. One good turn deserves another.

Seeing is believing.

Seeing once is better than reading a thousand times.

Seek that which may be found.

Seek truth in meditation, not in mouldy books. Look in the sky to find the moon, not in the pond.

Self-praise is no recommendation.

Serving one's own passions is the greatest slavery.

Shallow streams make the most din.

Sharp vinegar may damage its container [Mod]. (It is said to calm down or moderate a person.)

Sickness shows us what we are.

Silks and satins put out the fire in the chimney.

Slander leaves a score behind it.

Sleep over it.

Sleepless nights shorten one's life.

Slow but sure wins the race.

Some are wise and some are otherwise.

Soon ripe, soon rotten.

Sorrow will pay no debt.

Spare the rod and spoil the child.

Speech is silence, silence is golden.

Step after step the ladder is ascended.

Storm in a walnut shell

Stretch out your legs according to your quilt. [Spend according to your income.]

Stretch your feet according to your blanket. [One often does well to spend within one's means.]

Stretch your feet according to your blanket.

Strike while/when the iron is hot.

Such music, such people.

Suit your comb to your beard, and search and find the one you will be happy with throughout your life.

Sweet things are bad for the teeth.

Sweetness charms the soul.