Jean de La Fontaine

Jean de La Fontaine is the most famous French fabulist and probably the most widely read French poet of the 17th century.

Sourced

• People must help one another; it is nature's law.
  • "L'Ane et le Chien", as quoted in On a Darkling Plain (1995) by Richard Lee Byers, p. 94

• Everyone calls himself a friend, but only a fool relies on it; nothing is commoner than the name, nothing rarer than the thing.
  • "Parole de Socrate", as quoted in The Wordsworth Book of Humorous Quotations (1998), edited by C. Robertson

• Everyone believes very easily whatever they fear or desire.
  • As quoted in Subcontact : Slap the Face of Fear and Wake Up Your Subconscious‎ (2001) by Dian Benson, p. 149
  • Variant: Everyone believes very easily whatever he fears or desires.

• 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.
  • As quoted in From Grandmother with Love (2005) by Becky Kelly and Patrick Regan, p. 53

Fables (1668–1679)

• L'histoire, encore que mensongère,
  Contient des vérités qui servent de leçons.
  Tout parle en mon ouvrage, et même les poissons.
  Ce qu'ils disent s'adresse à tout tant que nous sommes;
  Je me sers d'animaux pour instruire les hommes.
  • History some truths contains, which well may serve
    For lessons. In my work you will observe
    Ev'ry thing speaks — yea e'en the very fish —
    And what they say, to ev'ry man a dish
    Serves up; and I of animals make choice
    That men may get instruction from their voice.
  • Book I (1668), Dedication "To Monseigneur the Dauphin"

• Je vais t'entretenir de moindres aventures,
  Te tracer en ces vers de légères peintures;
  Et si de t'agréer je n'emporte le prix,
  J'aurai du moins d'honneur de l'avoir entrepris.
  • For thee I'll trace in verses which I write
    Some sketches, paintings which indeed are light,
    And if the prize of pleasing thee I do not bear away,
    At least, the honour I shall have of having tried I say.
  • Book I (1668), Dedication "To Monseigneur the Dauphin"

• La fourmi n'est pas prêteuse;
  C'est là son moindre défaut.
  • The ant is no lender; that is the least of her faults.
  • Book I (1668), fable 1.

• Apprenez que tout flatteur
  Vit aux dépens de celui qui l'écoute.
  • Be advised that all flatterers live at the expense of those who listen to them.
  • Book I (1668), fable 2. Variant translations: Learn now that every flatterer lives at the cost of those who give him credit.
    In exchange for your cheese I will give you a piece of advice for the future — Do not trust flatterers.
    Every flatterer lives at the expense of him who listens to him.

• Nous n'écoutons d'instincts que ceux qui sont les nôtres,
  Et ne croyons le mal que quand il est venu.
  • 'Tis thus we heed no instincts but our own;
    Believe no evil till the evil's done.
  • Book I (1668), fable 8

• La raison du plus fort est toujours la meilleure.
  • The opinion of the strongest is always the best.
  • Variant: The argument of the strongest is always the best.
  • Book I (1668), fable 10

• Plutôt souffrir que mourir,
  C'est la devise des hommes.
  • Better to suffer than to die: that is mankind's motto.
  • Variant: Rather suffer than die is man's motto.
  • Book I (1668), fable 16

• A l'oeuvre on connaît l'artisan.
  • By the work one knows the workman.
  • Book I (1668), fable 21 (The Hornets And The Bees)
  • Variant: The artist by his work is known.

• Je plie, et ne romps pas.
  • I bend but do not break.
  • Book I (1668), fable 22

• Les délicats sont malheureux:
  Rien ne saurait les satisfaire.
  • The fastidious are unfortunate; nothing satisfies them.
  • Book II (1668), fable 1

• Il faut, autant qu'on peut, obliger tout le monde:
  On a souvent besoin d'un plus petit que soi.
  • One should oblige everyone to the extent of one's ability. One often needs someone smaller than oneself.
  • Variant: One often has need of one inferior to himself.
  • Book II (1668), fable 11

• Patience et longueur de temps
  Font plus que force ni que rage.
  • Patience and time do more than strength or passion.
  • Book II (1668), fable 11

• C'est double plaisir de tromper le trompeur.
  • It is a double pleasure to deceive the deceiver.
  • Book II (1668), fable 15
  • Variant: It is twice the pleasure to deceive the deceiver.

• [On] est bien fou de cerveau
  Qui prétend contenter tout le monde et son père.
  • It is impossible to please all the world and one's father.
  • Book III (1668), fable 1

• En toute chose il faut considérer la fin.
  • In everything one must consider the end.
  • Book III (1668), fable 5

• There is nothing useless to men of sense: clever people turn everything to account.
  • Book V (1668), fable 2

• Il ne faut jamais
  Vendre la peau de l'ours qu'on ne l'ait mis par terre.
  • Never sell the bear's skin before one has killed the beast.
  • Book V (1668), fable 20

• De la peau du lion l'â s'étant vêtu,
  Était craint partout à la ronde.
  • Dressed in the lion's skin, the ass spread terror far and wide.
  • Book V (1668), fable 21

• Garde-toi, tant que tu vivras,
  De juger les gens sur la mine.
  • Beware, as long as you live, of judging people by appearances.
  • Book VI (1668), fable 5

• Rien ne sert de courir; il faut partir à point.
  • To win a race, the swiftness of a dart availeth not without a timely start.
  • Book VI (1668), fable 10

• Aide-toi, le ciel t'aidera.
  • Help thyself and Heaven will help thee.
  • Book VI (1668), fable 17

• Sur les ailes du Temps la tristesse s'envole.
  • On the wings of Time grief flies away.
  • Variant: Sadness flies away on the wings of time.
  • Book VI (1668), fable 21

• L’enseigne fait la chalandise.
  • The sign brings customers.
  • Book VII (1678–1679), fable 16

• Plus fait douceur que violence.
  • Kindness effects more than severity.
  • Book VI (1678-1679), fable 3

• La mort ne surprend point le sage:
  Il est toujours prêt à partir.
  • Death never takes the wise man by surprise, he is always ready to go.
  • Book VIII (1678-1679), fable 1

• Rien ne pèse tant qu'un secret.
  • Nothing weighs on us so heavily as a secret.
  • Book VIII (1678-1679), fable 6

• Rien n'est si dangereux qu'un ignorant ami;
  Mieux vaudrait un sage ennemi.
  • Nothing is as dangerous as an ignorant friend; a wise enemy is to be preferred.
  • Variant: Nothing is more dangerous than a friend without discretion; even a prudent enemy is preferable.
  • Book VIII (1678-1679), fable 10

• On rencontre sa destinée
  Souvent par des chemins qu’on prend pour l’éviter.
  • Our destiny is frequently met in the very paths we take to avoid it.
  • Book VIII (1678–1679), fable 16 (The Horoscope)
  • Variant: A person often meets his destiny on the road he took to avoid it.

• Laissez dire les sots: le savoir a son prix.
  • Let ignorance talk as it will, learning has its value.
  • Book VIII (1678-1679), fable 19

• Les gens sans bruit sont dangereux.
  • People who make no noise are dangerous.
  • Book VIII (1678–1679), fable 23

• L'homme est ainsi bâti: Quand un sujet l'enflamme
  L'impossibilité disparaît à son âme.
  • Man is so made that when anything fires his soul, impossibilities vanish.
  • Book VIII (1678-1679), fable 25

• Il connaît l’univers, et ne se connaît pas.
  • He knows the universe, and himself he does not know.
  • Book VIII (1678–1679), fable 26

• Ventre affamé n'a point d'oreilles.
  • A hungry stomach cannot hear.
  • Book IX (1678–1679), fable 18

Misattributed

• We must laugh before we are happy, for fear we die before we laugh at all.
  • Jean de La Bruyère, in Du Coeur