Jean de La Fontaine Quotes

Patience and time do more than strength or passion.

A person often meets his destiny on the road he took to avoid it.

Rare as is true love, true friendship is rarer.

Friendship is the shadow of the evening, which increases with the setting sun of life.

Death never takes the wise man by surprise, he is always ready to go.

Every flatterer lives at the expense of him who listens to him.

Man is so made that when anything fires his soul, impossibilities vanish.

All the brains in the world are powerless against the sort of stupidity that is in fashion.

Nothing is more dangerous than a friend without discretion; even a prudent enemy is preferable.

Beware, so long as you live, of judging men by their outward appearance.

It is twice the pleasure to deceive the deceiver.

To live lightheartedly but not recklessly; to be gay without being boisterous; to be courageous without being bold; to show trust and cheerful resignation without fatalism - this is the art of living.

Our destiny is frequently met in the very paths we take to avoid it.

Dressed in the lion's skin, the ass spread terror far and wide.

Sadness flies away on the wings of time.

A hungry stomach cannot hear.

Nothing is so oppressive as a secret: women find it difficult to keep one long; and I know a goodly number of men who are women in this regard.

Nothing weighs on us so heavily as a secret.

Often we find our own destiny on the same roads that we have been avoiding.

In this world we must help one another.

Love cries victory when the tears of a woman become the sole defence of her virtue.

Everyone calls himself a friend, but only a fool relies on it; nothing is commoner than the name, nothing rarer than the thing.

Half of today is better than all of tomorrow.

What God does, He does well.

He knows the universe and does not know himself.

Socrates, when informed of some derogating speeches one had used concerning him behind his back, made only this facetious reply, "Let him beat me too when I am absent.

It is good to be charitable; but to whom? That is the point. As to the ungrateful, there is not one who does not at last die miserable.

Be advised that all flatterers live at the expense of those who listen to them.

The more wary you are of danger, the more likely you are to meet it.

By the work one knows the workman.

Everyone believes very easily whatever they fear or desire.

The finest victory is to conquer one's own heart.

Example is a dangerous lure: where the wasp got through the gnat sticks fast.

Every journalist owes tribute to the evil one.

Imitators are a slavish herd and fools in my opinion.

In every trouble the little ones duck more easily.

Man is ice to truth and fire to falsehood.

I bend, but I do not break.

If you deal with a fox, think of his tricks.

Anyone entrusted with power will abuse it if not also animated with the love of truth and virtue, no matter whether he be a prince, or one of the people.

We become innocent when we are unfortunate.

From a distance it is something; and nearby it is nothing.

One returns to the place one came from.

Le geai pare des plumes du paon. A bluejay in peacock feathers.

By time and toil we sever What strength and rage could never.

One often has need of one inferior to himself.

In everything one must consider the end.

People who make no noise are dangerous.

We risk all in being too greedy.

No favor can win gratitude from a cat.