Good fences make good neighbors

Cultural

Good neighbors respect one another's property. Good farmers, for example, maintain their fences in order to keep their livestock from wandering onto neighboring farms. This proverb appears in the poem “Mending Wall,” by Robert Frost.

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

Good fences make good neighbors, wrote Robert Frost.

From Seattle Times ● Feb. 25, 2020

Thanks, NB As Robert Frost said, "Good fences make good neighbors."

From Washington Post ● Mar. 15, 2011

"Good fences make good neighbors," says a line by Robert Frost.

From Time Magazine Archive

"Good fences make good neighbors" is their motto.

From The Public Domain Enclosing the Commons of the Mind by James Boyle

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Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023