A dictionary of Proverbs (Oxford Paperback Reference)

leave see LET well alone.
leg see there goes more to MARRIAGE than four bare legs in a bed; everyone STRETCHES his legs according to the length of his coverlet.
leisure see the BUSIEST men have the most leisure; IDLE people have the least leisure; there is LUCK in leisure; MARRY in haste and repent at leisure.
lemon see if LIFE hands you lemons, make lemonade.
LEND your money and lose your friend

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  1474 CAXTON Game of Chess (1883) III. iv. 112 And herof speketh Domas the philosopher and sayth that my frende borrowed money of me And I haue lost my frende and my money attones [simultaneously]. 1600-1 SHAKESPEARE Hamlet I. iii. 75 Neither a borrower nor a lender be; For loan oft loses both itself and friend. 1721 J. KELLY Scottish Proverbs Lend your Money, and lose your Friend. It is not the lending of our Money that loses our Friend; but the demanding it again. 1960 H. SLESAR Enter Murderers xiii. You know what they say about lending money, it’s a sure way to lose friends. "borrowing and lending; friends.
  

lend see also DISTANCE lends enchantment to the view.
lender see neither a BORROWER nor a lender be.
LENGTH begets loathing

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  1742 C. JARVIS Don Quixote II. II. ix. The rest I omit, because length begets loathing. a 1895 F. LOCKER-LAMPSON My Confidences (1896) 43 ‘Length begets loathing.’ I well remember the sultry Sunday evenings when..we simmered through Mr. Shepherd’s long-winded pastorals. "brevity and long-windedness
  

length see also everyone STRETCHES his legs according to the length of his coverlet.
lengthen see as the DAY lengthens, so the cold strengthens.
The LEOPARD does not change his spots
With allusion to JEREMIAH xiii. 23 (AV) Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots? A L. equivalent to this proverb is lupus pilum mutat, non mentem, the wolf changes his coat, not his nature.

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  1546 J. BALE First Examination of Anne Askewe 38 Their olde condycyons wyll they change, whan the blackemorerene change hys skynne, and the catte of the moun- tayne [leopard] her spottes. 1596 SHAKESPEARE Richard II I. i. 174 Rage must be withstood. . . Lions make leopards tame.—Yea, but not change his spots. 1869 A. HENDERSON Latin Proverbs 317 Pardus maculas non deponit, a leopard does not change his spots. 1979 J. SCOTT Clutch of Vipers iv. He always was a dirty old man.. and the leopard doesn’t change his spots. 1997 Washington Times 24 July C16 Although he swears he has changed, leopards don’t usually change their spots, especially those who don’t cooperate in counseling. ■ change; human nature