“Una buena capa todo lo tapa” literally means “a good cape covers everything”. In English, we would say “you can’t judge a book by its cover” or “appearances can be deceiving”.

“De botones adentro” literally means “from buttons inward”. Colloquial equivalents in English are” “deep down inside” and “in one’s heart of hearts”.

“No pintar nada” literally means “Not to paint anything”. The colloquial meanings are: “not to fit in”; “to be out of place”; and “to cut no ice”.

“Para este viaje no se necesitan alforjas” literally translates to “for this trip saddlebags are not needed”. The colloquial equivalent is “a fat lot of good that is”.

Here’s a saying that has a very similar counterpart in English: “Los trapos sucios se lavan en casa” literally translates to “the dirty rags are washed at home”. We know this as “don’t wash your dirty linen in public”.

“Ir como alma que lleva el diablo” literally translates to “to go like soul that the devil carries away”. In English we might say “to run like hell”.

Here’s a saying that perhaps illustrates a greater degree of optimism on the part of Spanish people: “cuando una puerta se cierra, cien se abren”. This translates to “when one door closes, a hundred open up”. The equivalent in English is “when one door closes another always opens”.

Soup “sopa” appears in several Spanish idioms and sayings.  “Esta hasta en la sopa” literally translates to “he’s even in the soup”. The idiomatic translation would be “there’s no getting away from him”.

In English, when we’re feeling comfortable or tranquil, we might say “to be as cool as a cucumber”. Spanish employs a different vegetable, as in “estar mas fresco que una lechuga”. The literal translation is “to be cooler than a lettuce”.

I cannot come up with an idiomatic expression in English for “to be able to sleep anywhere”. In Spanish one would say “dormir hasta en el filo de una navaja”, which literally means “to sleep even on the edge of a razor”.