In short, Luck's always to blame.
— Jean de La Fontaine
We must laugh before we are happy, for fear we die before we laugh at all.
It is impossible to please all the world and one's father.
A hungry stomach cannot hear.
Luck's always to blame.
Better a living beggar than a buried emperor.
There is no road of flowers leading to glory.
Everyone has his faults which he continually repeats: neither fear nor shame can cure them.
One returns to the place one came from.
Nothing is more dangerous than a friend without discretion; even a prudent enemy is preferable.
Death never takes the wise man by surprise, he is always ready to go.
A pessimist and an optimist, so much the worse; so much the better.
Everyone believes very easily whatever they fear or desire.
Nothing is as dangerous as an ignorant friend; a wise enemy is to be preferred.
We like to see others, but don't like others to see through us.
Rare as is true love, true friendship is rarer.
Everyone calls himself a friend, but only a fool relies on it; nothing is commoner than the name, nothing rarer than the thing.
Dressed in the lion's skin, the ass spread terror far and wide.
Let ignorance talk as it will, learning has its value.
Help thyself and Heaven will help thee.
Rather suffer than die is man's motto.
It is a double pleasure to deceive the deceiver.
There is nothing useless to men of sense.
Sadness flies away on the wings of time.
We read on the foreheads of those who are surrounded by a foolish luxury, that fortune sells what she is thought to give.
The fastidious are unfortunate; nothing satisfies them.
Neither wealth or greatness render us happy.
The argument of the strongest is always the best.
By the work one knows the workman.
Patience and time do more than strength or passion.
People who make no noise are dangerous.
Be advised that all flatterers live at the expense of those who listen to them.
Never sell the bear's skin before one has killed the beast.
But the shortest works are always the best.
I bend and do not break.
The strongest passion is fear.
People must help one another; it is nature's law.
Friendship is the shadow of the evening, which increases with the setting sun of life.
One often has need of one, inferior to himself.
Every flatterer lives at the expense of him who listens to him.
It is twice the pleasure to deceive the deceiver.
Every journalist owes tribute to the evil one.
Beware, so long as you live, of judging men by their outward appearance.
Man is so made that when anything fires his soul, impossibilities vanish.
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.
A person often meets his destiny on the road he took to avoid it.
