Top 100 La Fontaine Sayings

#1. While it is not always profitable to analogize fact to fiction, La Fontaine's fable of the crow, the cheese, and the fox demonstrates that there is a substantial difference between holding a piece of cheese in the beak and putting it in the stomach.

Felix Frankfurter

La Fontaine Sayings #1054294
#2. I was brought up, as a lot of kids are, on 'Aesop's Fables,' 'Brothers Grimm,' 'La Fontaine,' all those sorts of things. Hans Christian Andersen is a hero of mine.

Michael Morpurgo

La Fontaine Sayings #1287844
#3. Let fools the studious despise,
There's nothing lost by being wise.

Jean De La Fontaine

La Fontaine Sayings #2856
#4. Man is so made that when anything fires his soul, impossibilities vanish.

Jean De La Fontaine

La Fontaine Sayings #10521
#5. Never sell the bear's skin before one has killed the beast.

Jean De La Fontaine

La Fontaine Sayings #13464
#6. Everyone calls himself a friend, but only a fool relies on it: nothing is commoner than the name, nothing rarer than the thing.

Jean De La Fontaine

La Fontaine Sayings #18118
#7. I bend and do not break.

Jean De La Fontaine

La Fontaine Sayings #22982
#8. I bend, but I do not break.

Jean De La Fontaine

La Fontaine Sayings #74351
#9. People who make no noise are dangerous.

Jean De La Fontaine

La Fontaine Sayings #77927
#10. One often has need of one, inferior to himself.

Jean De La Fontaine

La Fontaine Sayings #84913
#11. Let ignorance talk as it will, learning has its value.

Jean De La Fontaine

La Fontaine Sayings #110316
#12. Patience and perseverance at lengthAccomplish more than anger or brute strength.

Jean De La Fontaine

La Fontaine Sayings #117664
#13. Patience and time do more than strength or passion.

Jean De La Fontaine

La Fontaine Sayings #123274
#14. To win a race, the swiftness of a dart Availeth not without a timely start

Jean De La Fontaine

La Fontaine Sayings #125883
#15. Beware, so long as you live, or judging men by their outwards appearance.

Jean De La Fontaine

La Fontaine Sayings #142550
#16. Nothing is more dangerous than a friend without discretion; even a prudent enemy is preferable.

Jean De La Fontaine

La Fontaine Sayings #148055
#17. One should oblige everyone to the extent of one's ability. One often needs someone smaller than oneself.

Jean De La Fontaine

La Fontaine Sayings #167561
#18. In every trouble the little ones duck more easily.

Jean De La Fontaine

La Fontaine Sayings #169367
#19. The ruins of a house may be repaired; why cannot those of the face?

Jean De La Fontaine

La Fontaine Sayings #190317
#20. All the brains in the world are powerless against the sort of stupidity that is in fashion.

Jean De La Fontaine

La Fontaine Sayings #192775
#21. The fastidious are unfortunate; nothing satisfies them.

Jean De La Fontaine

La Fontaine Sayings #197917
#22. It is said, that the thing you possess is worth more than two you may have in the future. The one is sure and the other is not.

Jean De La Fontaine

La Fontaine Sayings #201451
#23. In everything we ought to look at the end.

Jean De La Fontaine

La Fontaine Sayings #224796
#24. Neither wealth or greatness render us happy.

Jean De La Fontaine

La Fontaine Sayings #246107
#25. A person often meets his destiny on the road he took to avoid it.

Jean De La Fontaine

La Fontaine Sayings #246715
#26. Be advised that all flatterers live at the expense of those who listen to them.

Jean De La Fontaine

La Fontaine Sayings #249294
#27. We heed no instincts but our own.

Jean De La Fontaine

La Fontaine Sayings #261403
#28. There's nothing sweeter than a real friend:
Not only is he prompt to lend
An angler delicate, he fishes
The very deepest of your wishes,
And spares your modesty the task
His friendly aid to ask.
A dream, a shadow, wakes his fear,
When pointing at the object dear.

Jean De La Fontaine

La Fontaine Sayings #283537
#29. In this world we must help one another.

Jean De La Fontaine

La Fontaine Sayings #292800
#30. We are never content with our lot.

Jean De La Fontaine

La Fontaine Sayings #297010
#31. In short, Luck's always to blame.

Jean De La Fontaine

La Fontaine Sayings #307382
#32. O tyrant love, when held by you,
We may to prudence bid adieu.
[Fr., Amour! Amour! quand tu nous tiens
On peut bien dire, Adieu, prudence.]

Jean De La Fontaine

La Fontaine Sayings #312823
#33. Belgium thinks that however great the peril which a country might have to undergo under the system which we seek to establish here, that country ought to do its duty.

Henri La Fontaine

La Fontaine Sayings #330867
#34. There is no road of flowers leading to glory.

Jean De La Fontaine

La Fontaine Sayings #345700
#35. 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.

Jean De La Fontaine

La Fontaine Sayings #346974
#36. No favor can win gratitude from a cat.

Jean De La Fontaine

La Fontaine Sayings #349420
#37. A cheerful mind is a vigorous mind.

Jean De La Fontaine

La Fontaine Sayings #357101
#38. Everyone has his faults which he continually repeats: neither fear nor shame can cure them.

Jean De La Fontaine

La Fontaine Sayings #375878
#39. Perhaps you are making a cat's paw of me with Phillotson all this time. Upon my word it almost seems so
to see you sitting up there so prim.

Thomas Hardy

La Fontaine Sayings #383216
#40. It is no use running; to set out betimes is the main point.

Jean De La Fontaine

La Fontaine Sayings #410264
#41. Sadness flies away on the wings of time.

Jean De La Fontaine

La Fontaine Sayings #415802
#42. Help thyself and Heaven will help thee.

Jean De La Fontaine

La Fontaine Sayings #430455
#43. He knoweth the universe, and himself he knoweth not.

Jean De La Fontaine

La Fontaine Sayings #431038
#44. We believe easily what we fear of what we desire

Jean De La Fontaine

La Fontaine Sayings #434554
#45. O love, when thou gettest dominion over us, we may bid good-by to prudence.

Jean De La Fontaine

La Fontaine Sayings #436043
#46. There is nothing useless to men of sense.

Jean De La Fontaine

La Fontaine Sayings #464350
#47. The strongest passion is fear.

Jean De La Fontaine

La Fontaine Sayings #485924
#48. What God does, He does well.

Jean De La Fontaine

La Fontaine Sayings #487385
#49. The finest victory is to conquer one's own heart.

Jean De La Fontaine

La Fontaine Sayings #492965
#50. Better to suffer than to die.

Jean De La Fontaine

La Fontaine Sayings #521210
#51. Rare as is true love, true friendship is rarer.

Jean De La Fontaine

La Fontaine Sayings #523940
#52. The worst time is always the present.

Jean De La Fontaine

La Fontaine Sayings #528433
#53. You've tried to reform what will not learn. Shut doors on traits that you wish were dead; They will open a window and return.

Jean De La Fontaine

La Fontaine Sayings #535171
#54. Un auteur ga te tout quand il veut trop bien faire. An author spoils everything when he wants too much to do good.

Jean De La Fontaine

La Fontaine Sayings #538808
#55. International institutions ought to be, as the national ones in democratic countries, established by the peoples and for the peoples.

Henri La Fontaine

La Fontaine Sayings #588482
#56. By time and toil we sever What strength and rage could never.

Jean De La Fontaine

La Fontaine Sayings #615137
#57. It is impossible to please all the world and one's father.

Jean De La Fontaine

La Fontaine Sayings #711130
#58. Imitators are a slavish herd and fools in my opinion.
[Fr., C'est un betail servile et sot a mon avis
Que les imitateurs.]

Jean De La Fontaine

La Fontaine Sayings #717152
#59. One should stick to the sort of thing for which one was made; I tried to be an herbalist, Whereas I should keep to the butchers trade.

Jean De La Fontaine

La Fontaine Sayings #717670
#60. I don't believe that Nature's powers
Have tied her hands or pinioned ours,
By marking on the heavenly vault
Our fate without mistake or fault.
That fate depends on conjunctions
Of places, persons, times, and tracks,
And not on the functions
Of more or less of quacks.

Jean De La Fontaine

La Fontaine Sayings #717979
#61. 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.

Jean De La Fontaine

La Fontaine Sayings #726325
#62. To hell with pleasure that's haunted by fear.

Jean De La Fontaine

La Fontaine Sayings #733550
#63. Love cries victory when the tears of a woman become the sole defence of her virtue.

Jean De La Fontaine

La Fontaine Sayings #746922
#64. We like to see others, but don't like others to see through us.

Jean De La Fontaine

La Fontaine Sayings #754237
#65. We ought to consider the end in everything.

Jean De La Fontaine

La Fontaine Sayings #760464
#66. Every newspaper editor owes tribute to the devil.

Jean De La Fontaine

La Fontaine Sayings #763038
#67. Rather suffer than die is man's motto.

Jean De La Fontaine

La Fontaine Sayings #783300
#68. We love good looks rather than what is practical, Though good looks may prove destructive.

Jean De La Fontaine

La Fontaine Sayings #792120
#69. A hungry stomach cannot hear.

Jean De La Fontaine

La Fontaine Sayings #808716
#70. Help yourself, and Heaven will help you.

Jean De La Fontaine

La Fontaine Sayings #813119
#71. What a wonderful thing it is to have a good friend. He identifies your innermost desires, and spares you the embarrassment of disclosing them to him yourself.

Jean De La Fontaine

La Fontaine Sayings #824084
#72. Dressed in the lion's skin, the ass spread terror far and wide.

Jean De La Fontaine

La Fontaine Sayings #835271
#73. He knows the universe and does not know himself.

Jean De La Fontaine

La Fontaine Sayings #835481
#74. We ought never to scoff at the wretched, for who can be sure of continued happiness?

Jean De La Fontaine

La Fontaine Sayings #838258
#75. People must help one another; it is nature's law.

Jean De La Fontaine

La Fontaine Sayings #847655
#76. Foxes are all tail, and women all tongue.

Jean De La Fontaine

La Fontaine Sayings #862215
#77. Peoples will be as before, the sheep sent to the slaughterhouses or to the meadows as it pleases the shepherds.

Henri La Fontaine

La Fontaine Sayings #867288
#78. What is denominated discretion in man we call cunning in brutes.

Jean De La Fontaine

La Fontaine Sayings #893496
#79. Everyone believes very easily whatever he fears or desires.

Jean De La Fontaine

La Fontaine Sayings #905400
#80. The more wary you are of danger, the more likely you are to meet it.

Jean De La Fontaine

La Fontaine Sayings #923398
#81. Nothing weighs more than a secret.

Jean De La Fontaine

La Fontaine Sayings #930965
#82. Rogues are always found out in some way. Whoever is a wolf will act like a wolf, that is most certain.

Jean De La Fontaine

La Fontaine Sayings #936422
#83. If every man works at that for which nature fitted him, the cows will be well tended.

Jean De La Fontaine

La Fontaine Sayings #1004314
#84. Men of all ages have the same inclinations, over which reason exercises no control. Thus, wherever men are found, there are follies, ay, and the same follies.

Jean De La Fontaine

La Fontaine Sayings #1043923
#85. La raison du plus fort est toujours la meilleure. The reason of the strongest is always the best.

Jean De La Fontaine

La Fontaine Sayings #1049585
#86. A hare is not caught with a drum.

Jean De La Fontaine

La Fontaine Sayings #1067769
#87. Une ample Come die a' cent actes divers, Et dont la sce' ne est l'Univers. A grand comedy in one hundred different acts, On the stage of the universe.

Jean De La Fontaine

La Fontaine Sayings #1074864
#88. The best laid plot can injure its maker, and often a man's perfidy will rebound on himself.

Jean De La Fontaine

La Fontaine Sayings #1084190
#89. From a distance it is something; and nearby it is nothing.

Jean De La Fontaine

La Fontaine Sayings #1136559
#90. A pessimist and an optimist, so much the worse; so much the better.

Jean De La Fontaine

La Fontaine Sayings #1140086
#91. The argument of the strongest is always the best.

Jean De La Fontaine

La Fontaine Sayings #1153518
#92. It is twice the pleasure to deceive the deceiver.

Jean De La Fontaine

La Fontaine Sayings #1154310
#93. Neither blows from pitchfork, nor from the lash, can make him change his ways.
[Fr., Coups de fourches ni d'etriveres,
Ne lui font changer de manieres.]

Jean De La Fontaine

La Fontaine Sayings #1161974
#94. But a rascal of a child (that age is without pity).
[Fr., Mais un pripon d'enfant (cet age est sans pitie).

Jean De La Fontaine

La Fontaine Sayings #1164569
#95. Habit, to which all of us are more or less slaves.

Jean De La Fontaine

La Fontaine Sayings #1166047
#96. Nothing weighs on us so heavily as a secret.

Jean De La Fontaine

La Fontaine Sayings #1175842
#97. One returns to the place one came from.

Jean De La Fontaine

La Fontaine Sayings #1187640
#98. All roads lead to Rome, but our antagonists think we should choose different paths.

Jean De La Fontaine

La Fontaine Sayings #1242644
#99. Beware, so long as you live, of judging men by their outward appearance.

Jean De La Fontaine

La Fontaine Sayings #1245091
#100. Every editor of newspapers pays tribute to the devil.

Jean De La Fontaine

La Fontaine Sayings #1249846

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