Jean de La Fontaine quotes:
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Rare as is true love, true friendship is rarer.
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Sadness flies away on the wings of time.
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Patience and time do more than strength or passion.
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Friendship is the shadow of the evening, which increases with the setting sun of life.
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A person often meets his destiny on the road he took to avoid it.
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Better a living beggar than a buried emperor.
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Beware, so long as you live, of judging men by their outward appearance.
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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.
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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.]
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Dressed in the lion's skin, the ass spread terror far and wide.
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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.
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Everyone calls himself a friend, but only a fool relies on it; nothing is commoner than the name, nothing rarer than the thing.
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Nothing is more dangerous than a friend without discretion; even a prudent enemy is preferable.
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Help yourself, and Heaven will help you.
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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.
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Un auteur ga" te tout quand il veut trop bien faire. An author spoils everything when he wants too much to do good.
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Religious contention is the devil's harvest.
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It is twice the pleasure to deceive the deceiver.
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Let ignorance talk as it will, learning has its value.
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People who make no noise are dangerous.
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Example is a dangerous lure: where the wasp got through the gnat sticks fast.
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Every flatterer lives at the expense of him who listens to him.
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Be advised that all flatterers live at the expense of those who listen to them.
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Gentleness succeeds better than violence.
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People must help one another; it is nature's law.
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Death never takes the wise man by surprise, he is always ready to go.
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We must laugh before we are happy, for fear we die before we laugh at all.
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We read on the foreheads of those who are surrounded by a foolish luxury, that fortune sells what she is thought to give.
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We risk all in being too greedy.
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In this world we must help one another.
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One returns to the place one came from.
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A hungry stomach cannot hear.
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Imitators are a slavish herd and fools in my opinion.
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Blind fortune pursues inconsiderate rashness. [Fr., Fortune aveugle suit aveugle hardiesse.]
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Lynx-eyes toward our equals, and moles to ourselves. [Fr., Lynx envers nos pareils, et taupes envers nous.]
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Rather suffer than die is man's motto.
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Every newspaper editor owes tribute to the devil. [Fr., Tout faiseur de journaux doit tribut au Malin.]
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Man is so made that when anything fires his soul, impossibilities vanish.
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Patience and perseverance at lengthAccomplish more than anger or brute strength.
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The best laid plot can injure its maker, and often a man's perfidy will rebound on himself.
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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.
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It is no use running; to set out betimes is the main point.
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La raison du plus fort est toujours la meilleure. The reason of the strongest is always the best.
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Rogues are always found out in some way. Whoever is a wolf will act like a wolf, that is most certain.
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All roads lead to Rome, but our antagonists think we should choose different paths.
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Help thyself and Heaven will help thee.
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Everyone believes very easily whatever he fears or desires.
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He is very foolish who aims at satisfying all the world and his father.
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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.
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Everyone has his faults which he continually repeats: neither fear nor shame can cure them.
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Neither wealth or greatness render us happy.
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The strongest passion is fear.
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To win a race, the swiftness of a dart Availeth not without a timely start
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Every journalist owes tribute to the evil one.
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Man is ice to truth and fire to falsehood.
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The fastidious are unfortunate; nothing satisfies them.
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Diversity, that is my motto.
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By the work one knows the workman.
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It is a double pleasure to deceive the deceiver.
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All the brains in the world are powerless against the sort of stupidity that is in fashion.
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I bend, but I do not break.
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Our destiny is frequently met in the very paths we take to avoid it.
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How wealthy the gods would be if we remembered the promises we made when we were in danger.
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He knows the universe and does not know himself.
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In every trouble the little ones duck more easily.
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Often we find our own destiny on the same roads that we have been avoiding.
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But every one has a besetting sin to which he returns.
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The finest victory is to conquer one's own heart.
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Women keep no secrets, and I know many men, who are women in this regard.
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There is no road of flowers leading to glory.
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Half of today is better than all of tomorrow.
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If you deal with a fox, think of his tricks.
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What God does, He does well.
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Sensible people find nothing useless.
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Love cries victory when the tears of a woman become the sole defence of her virtue.
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It is impossible to please all the world and one's father.
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The argument of the strongest is always the best.
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We ought never to scoff at the wretched, for who can be sure of continued happiness?
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The fastidious are unfortunate: nothing can satisfy them. [Lat., Les delicats sont malheureux, Rien ne saurait les satisfaire.]
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Let fools the studious despise, There's nothing lost by being wise.
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One should oblige everyone to the extent of one's ability. One often needs someone smaller than oneself.
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In everything one must consider the end.
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A pessimist and an optimist, so much the worse; so much the better.
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Everyone believes very easily whatever they fear or desire.
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The more wary you are of danger, the more likely you are to meet it.
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Le geai pare des plumes du paon. A bluejay in peacock feathers.
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Silent people are dangerous; others are not so. [Fr., Les gens sans bruit sont dangereux; Il n'en est pas ainsi des autres.]
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O love, when thou gettest dominion over us, we may bid good-by to prudence.
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Sensible people find nothing useless. [Fr., Il n'est rien d'inutile aux personnes de sens.]
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We become innocent when we are unfortunate.
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A mountain in labour shouted so loud that everyone, summoned by the noise, ran up expecting that she would be delivered of a city bigger than Paris; she brought forth a mouse.
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By time and toil we sever What strength and rage could never.
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But the shortest works are always the best.
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Nothing is as dangerous as an ignorant friend; a wise enemy is to be preferred.
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I bend and do not break.
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Nothing weighs more than a secret.
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Learn that every flatterer Lives at the flattered listeners cost.
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No path of flowers leads to glory.
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Rely only on yourself; it is a common proverb.
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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.
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We love good looks rather than what is practical, Though good looks may prove destructive.
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No favor can win gratitude from a cat.
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We believe no evil till the evil's done
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In everything we ought to look at the end.
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What is denominated discretion in man we call cunning in brutes.
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Better to suffer than to die.
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As sheepish as a fox captured by a fowl. [Fr., Honteux comme un renard qu'une poule aurait pris.]
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Every one turns his dreams into realities as far as he can; man is cold as ice to the truth, hot as fire to falsehood.
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It is double pleasure to deceive the deceiver. [Fr., Car c'est double plaisir de tromper le trompeur.]
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In short, luck's always to blame.
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A hare is not caught with a drum.
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A cheerful mind is a vigorous mind.
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Foxes are all tail, and women all tongue.
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The good, we do it; the evil, that is fortune; man is always right, and destiny always wrong.
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Habit, to which all of us are more or less slaves.
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Let us not overstrain our talents, lest we do nothing gracefully.
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From a distance it is something; and nearby it is nothing.
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To hell with pleasure that's haunted by fear.
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Such gluttony second to none Almost ended fatally When a bone choked a wolf as he gulped what he ate
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Let us not overstrain our talents, lest we do nothing gracefully: a clown, whatever he may do, will never pass for a gentleman. [Fr., Ne forcons point notre talent; Nous ne ferions rien avec grace: Jamais un lourdaud, quoi qu'il fasse, Ne saurit passer pour galant.]