Jean de La Fontaine

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

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

By the work one knows the workman.

Luck's always to blame.

Everyone believes very easily whatever they fear or desire.

One often has need of one, inferior to himself.

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.

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

Rare as is true love, true friendship is rarer.

I bend and do not break.

Let ignorance talk as it will, learning has its value.

We read on the foreheads of those who are surrounded by a foolish luxury, that fortune sells what she is thought to give.

It is impossible to please all the world and one's father.

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

We must laugh before we are happy, for fear we die before we laugh at all.

A hungry stomach cannot hear.

People who make no noise are dangerous.

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

The argument of the strongest is always the best.

People must help one another; it is nature's law.

Better a living beggar than a buried emperor.

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

There is nothing useless to men of sense.

Nothing is as dangerous as an ignorant friend; a wise enemy is to be preferred.

Patience and time do more than strength or passion.

A pessimist and an optimist, so much the worse; so much the better.

Help thyself and Heaven will help thee.

Sadness flies away on the wings of time.

But the shortest works are always the best.

Every journalist owes tribute to the evil one.

There is no road of flowers leading to glory.

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

The fastidious are unfortunate; nothing satisfies them.

Neither wealth or greatness render us happy.

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

Never sell the bear's skin before one has killed the beast.

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

Everyone has his faults which he continually repeats: neither fear nor shame can cure them.

The strongest passion is fear.

It is a double pleasure to deceive the deceiver.

One returns to the place one came from.

Everyone believes very easily whatever he fears or desires.

It is twice the pleasure to deceive the deceiver.

We like to see others, but don't like others to see through us.

Rather suffer than die is man's motto.

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