Robert Christy, comp. Proverbs, Maxims and Phrases of All Ages. 1887.
Business
A fair exchange brings no quarrel.Danish.
A good customer won’t change his shop, nor a good shop lose its customer once in three years.Chinese.
A man should sell his ware at the rates of the market.
A man without a smiling face must not open a shop.Chinese.
A nimble sixpence is better than a slow shilling.Pawnbroker’s Maxim.
A stock once gotten wealth grows up of its own accord.
A tradesman who gets not loseth.
Able to buy, don’t so buy as to frighten the seller:
Able to sell, don’t so sell as to frighten the buyer.Chinese.
Ask but enough and you may lower the price as you like.
Ask too much to get enough.
At a great bargain make a pause.
At market prices do your trade,
And mutual wrangling you’ll evade.Chinese.
At the first hand buy, at the third let lie.
Bad ware is never cheap.French.
Bad ware must be cried up.German.
Be not too hasty to outbid another.
Better sell for small profits than fail in business.Chinese.
Better sell than live poorly.
Boldness in business is the first, second and third thing.
Business before pleasure.
Business is the salt of life.
Business makes a man as well as tries him.
Business may be troublesome, but idleness is pernicious.
Business neglected is business lost.
Business sweetens pleasure, and labor sweetens rest.
Business to-morrow. (An exclamation of Archias that passed into a proverb, because he lost his life by delaying to open a letter warning him of a conspiracy against his life.)
Business with a stranger is title enough.Benjamin Disraeli.
Buy and sell and live by the loss.
Buy at a market, but sell at home.
By entering all that’s sold or bought,
You’ll escape much anxious afterthought.Chinese.
Despatch is the soul of business.Chesterfield.
Do business, but be not a slave to it.
Drive thy business, let not that drive thee.Franklin.
Entreat the churl and the bargain is broken off.Italian.
Everybody’s business is nobody’s business.
Every man as his business lies.
Every man doth his own business best.
For the buyer a hundred eyes are too few, for the seller one is enough.Italian.
From small profits and many expenses,
Come a whole life of sad consequences.Chinese.
Fuel is not sold in a forest, nor fish on a lake.Chinese.
Having capital to open an eating-house, I dread not the most capacious stomachs.Chinese.
He fattens the mule and starves the horse; i.e., one partner gets rich at the expense of another.Chinese.
He has an eye to business.
He has more business than English ovens at Christmas.
He hath made a good progress in a business that hath thought well of it beforehand.
He that doeth his own business hurteth not his hand.
He that minds his business at home will not be accused of taking part in the fray.Spanish.
He that mindeth not his own business shall never be trusted with mine.Spanish.
He that thinks his business below him will always be above his business.
He that will sell lawn must learn to fold it.
He who does his own business does not soil his fingers.
If a little does not go much cash will not come.Chinese.
If you would not be cheated ask the price at three shops.Chinese.
In business one must be perfectly affable.Chinese.
It is easy to open a shop but hard to keep it open.Chinese.
It is the very life of merchandise to buy cheap and sell dear.Chinese.
Keep thy shop and thy shop will keep thee.Franklin.
Let every man mind his own business and the cows will be well tended.French.
Liked gear is half bought.
Long choosing and cheapening ends in buying nothing or bad wares.German.
Mind no business but your own.Dr. Johnson.
Mind your own business.
One cannot live by selling ware for words.
Pity and compassion spoil business.Meran the Hindu.
That which is everybody’s business is nobody’s business.
To do a good trade wants nothing but resolution; to do a large one nothing but application.Chinese.
Use both such goods and money as suit your market.Chinese.
We can deal with ready money customers: those who want credit may spare their breath.Chinese.
What is every man’s business is no man’s business.
When one cheats up to heaven in the price he asks, you come down to earth in the price you offer.Chinese.
Whenever you go about to trade,
Of showing your silver be afraid.Chinese.
Where much pushing must be made,
There cannot be a lively trade.Chinese.
Who does not ready money clutch,
Of business has not much.Chinese.
Who drives not his business, his business drives.German.
Without business debauchery.
Without capital. Literal: A farmer without an ox, a merchant without capital.Chinese.