Dress up a stick and it does not appear to be a stick.
Насильно мил не будешь.
Love cannot be compelled.
Натерпишься горя — научишься жить.
Adversity makes a man wise, though not rich.
Trouble brings experience and experience brings wisdom.
Натощак неспоро и Богу молиться.
A sharp stomach makes short devotion.
Начиная дело, о конце помышляй.
Think on the end before you begin.
Начни с корня, доберешься и до вершины.
He who would climb the ladder must begin at the bottom.
Нашла коса на камень.
Diamond cuts diamond.
Не боги горшки обжигают, а те же люди.
Whatever man has done, man may do.
Не буди лиха, пока спит тихо.
When sorrow is asleep, wake it not.
Never trouble trouble till trouble troubles you.
It is easier to raise the devil than to lay him.
Не буди спящего пса: пес спит, а ты мимо.
Let sleeping dogs lie.
Wake not a sleeping lion.
He будь овцой, так и волк не съест.
He that makes himself a sheep, shall be eaten by the wolf.
Не было бы счастья, да несчастье помогло.
Bad luck often brings good luck.
Every cloud has a silver lining.
Ill luck is good for something.
Не в бороде честь — борода и у козла есть.
If the beard were all, the goat might preach.
Не в деньгах счастье.
Money is not everything.
Не верь словам, а верь делам.
Saying and doing are two things.
Saying is one thing, and doing another.
Не верь ушам, верь глазам.
It is better to trust the eye than the ear.
Seeing is believing.
Не взлетай высоко — не будешь падать низко.
Up like a rocket, down like a stick.
The higher standing, the lower fall.
Не видав горя, не узнаешь и радости.
Misfortunes tell us what fortune is.
No man better knows what good is than he who has endured evil.
Не видишь — душа мрет, увидишь — с души прет.
Men are best loved furthest off.
Absence makes the heart grow fonder.
Не видишь, так и не бредишь.
What the eye doesn’t see, the heart doesn’t grieve over.