JEAN DE LA FONTAINE

Neither wealth or greatness render us happy.

Better a living beggar than a buried emperor.

Rare as is true love, true friendship is rarer.

Sadness flies away on the wings of time.

There is nothing useless to men of sense.

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

People who make no noise are dangerous.

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

Rather suffer than die is man's motto.

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

A hungry stomach cannot hear.

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.

Every journalist owes tribute to the evil one.

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

The fastidious are unfortunate; nothing satisfies them.

Help thyself and Heaven will help thee.

Luck's always to blame.

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

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

One often has need of one, inferior to himself.

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

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

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

One returns to the place one came from.

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