智者不惑 A wise man is free from perplexities.
無風不起浪 There is no smoke without free(where there is smoke,
there is fire)
為虎作倀 To act as guide to a tiger.
畫蛇添足 To paint the lily.
奇裝異服 A fantastic garb.
孤註壹擲 To put all one's eggs in one basket.
忠言逆耳 Honest advice is unpleasant to the ear.
拋磚引玉 To throw out a minnow to catch a whale.
明辨是非 To distinguish right from wrong.
知足常樂 Happy is he who is content.
知足者富 He who feels contented is rich.
知人知面不知心 It's easy to know men's faces, but not their hearts.
知己知彼百戰百勝 Know your enemy and know yourself.
空中樓閣 Castels in the air.
金科玉律 The golden rule.
雨後春筍 Like bamboo shoots after a spring shower.
勇者不懼 A brave man will not shrink from dangers.
洗心革面 To turn over a new leaf.
美中不足 A fiy in the ointment.
背道而馳 To run counter.
赴湯蹈火 To go through fire and water.
風燭殘年 To have one foot in the grave.
風聲鶴淚草木皆兵 To apprehend danger in every sound.
活到老學到老 It's never too late to learn.
前事不忘後事之師 Remember the past and it will guide your future.
星星之火可以燎原 A single spark can start a prairie fire.
害群之馬 Black sheep.
家醜不外揚 Don't wash your dirty linen in public.
恩威並用 Alternate weakness with severity.
旁觀者清 The outsider sees the best of the game.
時運不濟 To have a bad time.
殊途同歸 All roads lead to Rome.
回頭浪子 The return of a prodigal.
先下手為強 Offence is the best defence(the best defence is
offence.)
同甘***苦 To share one's joys and sorrows.
因時制宜 To act according to circumstances.
有勇無謀 More brave than wise.
有備無患 Good watch prevents misfortune.
有誌者事竟成 Where there's a will, there's a way.
江山易改本性難移 The child is father of the man.
百無壹失 Not a single miss in a hundred times.
百聞不如壹見 To see is to believe.
自力更生 To shift for oneself.
自討苦吃 To make a rod for one's own back
吃得苦中苦方為人上人 If you wish to be the best man, you must be prepared
to suffer the bitterest of the bitter.
弄巧成拙 Overreach oneself; overshoot oneself; overshoot the
mark.
忍無可忍 To be at the end of one's patience.
忘恩負義 To kick down the ladder.
走馬看花 A flying visit.
防患於未然 To nip a thing in the bud.
秀才不出門能知天下事 A scholar does not step outside his gate, yet he knows
the happenings under the sun.
事實勝於雄辯 Facts are most convincing.
來得容易去得快 Easy come, easy fo.
壹言既出,駟馬難追 A word spoken is past recalling.
壹見鐘情 To fall in love at first sight.
壹箭雙?(壹舉兩得) To kill two birds with one stone.
壹寸光陰壹寸金 Time is money.
壹失足成千古恨 The error committed on impulse may turn out to be the
sorrow of a whole life.
壹將功成萬骨枯 What millions died that Caesar might be great.
壹年之計在於春,壹日之計在於晨
Plan your year in spring and your day at dawn.
九死壹生 To have a hair-breadth escape.
人生如夢 Life is but a dream.
人生自古誰無死 Death comes to all men.
人生百歲古來稀 It is seldom that a man lives to be a hundred years old
人定勝天 Man can conquer nature.
三思而後行 Look before your leap.
三句不離本行 To talk shop.
千鈞壹發 To hang by a hair thread.
大智若愚 He who cannot play the fool is not a wise man.
大器晚成 Rome was not built in a day.
山窮水盡 At the end of one's resources.
不告而別 To take French leave.
積少成多 Every little makes a mickle.
錢可通神 Money can move even the gods.
謀事在人成事在天 Man proposes and God disposes.
優勝劣敗 The weakest goes to the wall.
聲東擊西 To look one way and row another.
膾炙人口 In everyone's mouth.
螳臂擋車 To kick against the pricks.
鞠躬盡瘁 To give the last measure of devotion.
聰明反被聰明誤 To suffer for one's wisdom.
舊調重彈 To harp on the same string.
覆水難收 What's done cannot be undone.
轉敗為勝 To convert defeat into victory.
鞭長莫及 Beyond one's grasp.
嚴以責己寬以待人 To be svere with oneself and lenient with others.
鐵石心腸 A heart of steel.
聽天由命 To be guided by destiny.
驕者必敗 Pride goes before a fall.
不戰而屈人之兵 The supreme art of war is to subdue the enemy without
fighting.
不入虎穴,焉得虎子 How can one obtain tiger-cabs without entering the
tiger's lair?
天下烏鴉壹般黑 Crows are black all over the world.
少年老成 To have an old head on young shoulders.
毛遂自薦 To recommand one's own person.
以身作則 To practice what one practices.
以毒攻毒 To set a thief to catch a thief.
以德報怨 To bite the hand that feeds one.
To render good for evil.
以逸待勞 To wait at ease till the enemy is exhausted.
以寡敵眾 To fight against longer odds.
以子之矛,攻子之盾 To turn a person's battery against himself.
四大皆空 All is vanity.
四海之內皆兄弟 All are brothers within the four seas.
打落水狗 To hit a person when he's down.
打鐵趁熱 Strike while the iron is hot.
未雨綢繆 To save against a rainy day.
目不識丁 Not know A from B.
失敗乃成功之母 Failure is the mother of success.
任勞任怨 To bear hardship without complaint.
異想天開 To give loose to one's fancy.
眾誌成城 Union is strength.
趁火打劫 To fish in troubled waters.
量入為出 To cut one's coat according to one's cloth.
陽奉陰違 Ostensible obedience.
集思勝於獨斷 Two heads are better than one.
殺雞焉用牛刀 Take not a musket to kill a butterfly.
跑了和尚跑不了廟 The monk may run away, but the temple can't run with
him.
損人利己 To enrich oneself at others' expense.
置之死地而後生 Put the troops in death ground and they will live.
萬物之靈 The lords of creation.
萬事開頭難 Everything is difficult at the start.
萬無壹失 Not a single miss in a ten thousand times.
落井下石 To hit a person when he's down.
得過且過 To live from hand to mouth.
道高壹尺魔高壹丈 While the priest climbs a foot, the devil climbs ten.
隔墻有耳 Pitchers have ears; walls have ears.
預防勝於治療 Prevention is better than cure.
新官上任三把火 New brooms sweep clean.
塞翁失馬焉知非福 Misfortune might be a blessing in disguise.
路遙知馬力日久見人心 A distant journey tests the strength of a horse and
a long task proves the character of a man.
壽終正寢 To die a natural death ( to die in one's bed)
寡不敵眾 There is no contending against odds.
對牛彈琴 To cast pearls before swine.
禍不單行 Troubles never come singly.
滄海壹粟 A drop in the bucket.
蓋棺論定 Judge none blessed before his death.
飽食終日無所事事 To eat the bread of idleness.
慷他人之慨 To be free with other's money.
遠親不如近鄰 Distant kinsmen mean less than close neighbours.
種瓜得瓜種豆得豆 You must reap what you have sown.
樂極生悲 After joy comes sadness.
熟能生巧 Practice makes perfect.
緩兵之計 A fabian policy.
緣木求魚 To get water from a flint.
適者生存 The survival of the fittest.