Data
Proverbs that show up most in movies
"all hands on deck" appears in the most films on this list: 7. "every man for himself" is second, in 7 films, and "down the hatch" is third, in 6. The rank is how many different films a phrase shows up in, not how many times it is repeated inside one film.
How this count is made
Each rank is the number of different films in the WinkLingo library whose dialogue contains the phrase. A line that comes back inside the same film still counts as one film. Phrases with the same film count are ordered by how many of those lines a person or a model has checked, then by name. Only multi-word expressions already published on the site are included; single words and fragments are left out.
The library now holds 1,000,000+ short clips, 1,000+ films, 2,800+ long-form chapters, and 1,800+ phrase pages. We are scaling to millions of clips and 10,000+ chapters, with new films added every week.
The library figures are refreshed daily. This ranking was generated at 2026-10-13 12:02 UTC.
| Rank | Phrase | Meaning | Films |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | all hands on deck | everyone helps or must help, especially in a difficult situation | 7 |
| 2 | every man for himself | people must take care of themselves and not give or expect any help | 7 |
| 3 | down the hatch | used before drinking sth, especially to express good wishes before drinking alcohol | 6 |
| 4 | safety first | safety is the most important thing | 5 |
| 5 | an eye for an eye | used to say that you should punish sb by doing to them what they have done to you or to sb else | 5 |
| 6 | be easier said than done | to be much more difficult to do than to talk about | 5 |
| 7 | time flies | time seems to pass very quickly | 4 |
| 8 | you can never tell | you can never be sure, for example because things are not always what they appear to be | 4 |
| 9 | birds of a feather | people of the same sort (are found together) | 4 |
| 10 | enough is enough | used when you think that sth should not continue any longer | 4 |
| 11 | it's a small world | 4 | |
| 12 | live and let live | used to say that you should accept other people's opinions and behaviour even though they are different from your own | 3 |
| 13 | money talks | people who have a lot of money have more power and influence than others | 3 |
| 14 | time is money | time is valuable, and should not be wasted | 3 |
| 15 | all work and no play | it is not healthy to spend all your time working; you need to relax too | 3 |
| 16 | better late than never | used especially when you, or sb else, arrive / arrives late, or when sth such as success happens late, to say that this is better than not coming or happening at all | 3 |
| 17 | there's a first time for everything | the fact that sth has not happened before does not mean that it will never happen | 3 |
| 18 | two can play at that game | used to tell sb who has played a trick on you that you can do the same thing to them | 3 |
| 19 | a rolling stone gathers no moss | 2 | |
| 20 | a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush | it is better to keep sth that you already have than to risk losing it by trying to get much more | 2 |
| 21 | actions speak louder than words | what a person actually does means more than what they say they will do | 2 |
| 22 | beggars can't be choosers | people say beggars can't be choosers when there is no choice and sb must be satisfied with what is available | 2 |
| 23 | better safe than sorry | used to say that it is wiser to be too careful than to act too quickly and do sth you may later wish you had not | 2 |
| 24 | let sleeping dogs lie | to avoid mentioning a subject or sth that happened in the past, in order to avoid any problems or arguments | 2 |
| 25 | the die is cast | used to say that an event has happened or a decision has been made that cannot be changed | 2 |
| 26 | a friend in need | 2 | |
| 27 | so far so good | used to say that things have been successful until now and you hope that they will continue to be successful, but you know that the task, etc. is not finished yet | 2 |
| 28 | the more the merrier | the more people or things there are, the better the situation will be or the more fun people will have | 2 |
| 29 | a penny for your thoughts | 2 | |
| 30 | two wrongs don't make a right | used to say that if sb does sth bad to you, the situation will not be improved by doing sth bad to them | 2 |
How to study with this list
- Start with the first ten. Open the phrase, play the line, and say it once out loud.
- The number is a film count, so the top of the list is what you are most likely to hear again in another movie.
- When you want more of the same kind, leave this table and browse that category, or search the clip player for a line you just heard.
Cite this data
Source: WinkLingo, "Proverbs that show up most in movies" (https://winklingo.com/en/data/movie-proverbs), updated 2026-10-13