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| It is all preaching in the desert and hammering cold iron. Don Quixote. | 1 |
| It is lost labor to sow where there is no soil. | 2 |
| That which burns thee not cools not. Dutch. | 3 |
| The swallow’s plastering of her nest is labor lost. Chinese. | 4 |
| To look for a needle in a bundle (or bottle) of hay. French, German. | 5 |
| To make a hole in the water. | 6 |
| To make a long harvest of a little corn. | 7 |
| To make one hole by way of stopping up another. French. | 8 |
| To pour water into a sieve. | 9 |
| To wash an ass’s head is but loss of time and soap (or of suds); i.e., to reprove a fool is but lost labor. French. | 10 |
| To wipe up the sea with a sponge. Dutch. | 11 |
| We all labor with one ox (are in the same boat). Modern Greek. | 12 |
| We plough the sand on the sea-shore. Juvenal. | 13 |
| You are lighting a fire in the wind. African. | 14 |
| You are looking for wings on a wolf. Latin. | 15 |
| You are teaching iron to swim. Latin. | 16 |
| You are washing an unburnt brick. Latin. | 17 |
| You count the waves. | 18 |
| You do but water a dead stake. | 19 |
| You may knock a long while against an alder bush before you get a swarm of bees out of it. Danish. | 20 |
| You must walk a long time behind a wild goose before you find an ostrich feather. | 21 |
| You put it together with a hot needle and burnt thread. | 22 |
| You teach the dolphin to swim. Latin. | 23 |
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