20 Best Riddles Ever

Riddles exercise the brain and help develop different and more flexible ways of thinking. Some are easy, some are difficult, but all of them will give your brain a fun workout.

I have compiled twenty of the best riddles ever for you to work on. Do the mental gymnastics and see how many you can figure out on your own. Answers are found at the bottom of the page. No cheating!

Riddle #1.
Until I am measured I am not known.
Yet how you miss me when I have flown.

Riddle #2.
If you drop me I'm sure to crack,
but give me a smile and I'll always smile back.

Riddle #3.
What always runs but never walks, often murmurs, never talks, has a bed but never sleeps, has a mouth but never eats?

Riddle #4.
It's red, blue, purple and green.
No one can reach it, not even the queen.

Riddle #5.
I am the beginning of the end, and the end of time and space.
I am essential to creation, and I surround every place.

Riddle #6.
The one who makes it always sells it.
The one who buys it never uses it.
The one who uses it never knows he's using it.

Riddle #7.
What's black when you get it, red when you use it, and white when you're done with it?

Riddle #8.
Each morning I appear to lie at your feet.
All day I will follow no matter how fast you run, yet I nearly perish in the midday sun.

Riddle #9.
My life can be measured in hours.
I serve by being devoured.
Thin, I am quick. Fat, I am slow.
Wind is my foe.

Riddle #10.
You've heard me before, yet you hear me again,
Then I die 'til you call me again.

Riddle #11.
What does man love more than life,
Fear more than death or mortal strife.
What the poor have, the rich require,
and what contented men desire.
What the miser spends and the spendthrift saves,
And all men carry to their graves?

Riddle #12.
Three lives have I.
Gentle enough to soothe the skin,
Light enough to caress the sky,
Hard enough to crack rocks.

Riddle #13.
At the sound of me, men may dream or stamp their feet.
At the sound of me, women may laugh or sometimes weep.

Riddle #14.
I build up castles, I tear down mountains.
I make some men blind, I help others to see.

Riddle #15.
Reaching stiffly for the sky, I bare my fingers when it's cold.
In warmth I wear an emerald glove, and in between I dress in gold.

Riddle #16.
Whoever makes it, tells it not.
Whoever takes it, knows it not.
Whoever knows it, wants it not.

Riddle #17.
You saw me where I never was and where I could not be. And yet within that very place, my face you often see.

Riddle #18.
Say my name and I disappear.

Riddle #19.
I drift forever with the current down these long canals they've made.
Tame, yet wild, I run elusive, multitasking to your aid.
Before I came, the world was darker. Colder, sometimes, rougher, true.
But though I might make living easy, I'm good at killing people too.

Riddle #20.
I am always hungry and will die if not fed, whatever I touch will soon turn red.

Riddle #1. Time
Riddle #2. Mirror
Riddle #3. River
Riddle #4. Rainbow
Riddle #5. The letter "E"
Riddle #6. Coffin
Riddle #7. Charcoal
Riddle #8. Shadow
Riddle #9. Candle
Riddle #10. Echo
Riddle #11. Nothing
Riddle #12. Water
Riddle #13. Music
Riddle #14. Sand
Riddle #15. Tree
Riddle #16. Counterfeit money
Riddle #17. Reflection
Riddle #18. Silence
Riddle #19. Electricity
Riddle #20. Fire