Jean De La Fontaine Quotes

Rare as is true love, true friendship is rarer.

A person often meets his destiny on the road he took to avoid it.

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

Sadness flies away on the wings of time.

Everyone believes very easily whatever he fears or desires.

Beware, so long as you live, of judging men by their outward appearance.

Nothing weighs on us so heavily as a secret.

Patience and time do more than force and rage.

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

To hell with pleasure that's haunted by fear.

Death never takes the wise man by surprise; He is always ready to go.

Often we find our own destiny on the same roads that we have been avoiding.

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

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

Apprenez que tout flatteur Vit aux dépens de celui qui l'écoute : Cette leçon vaut bien un fromage, sans doute. Flatterers thrive on fools' credulity. The lesson's worth a cheese, don't you agree?

Every newspaper editor owes tribute to the devil.

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.

The best laid plot can injure its maker, and often a man's perfidy will rebound on himself.

In everything one must consider the end.

Beware, so long as you live, or judging men by their outwards appearance.

Todos los cerebros del mundo son impotentes contra cualquier estupidez que esté de moda.

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.

A menudo encontramos nuestro destino por los caminos que tomamos para evitarlo.

Habit,to which all of us are more or less slaves.

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.

A foolish friend may cause more woe Than could, indeed, the wisest foe.

Patience and time do more than strength or passion.

Quand l'abſurde eſt outré, on lui fait trop d'honneur De vouloir par raiſon, combattre ſon erreur: Enchérir eſt plus court, ſans s'échauffer la bile.

Не все погибли от нее, но пострадали все. ("Животные, заболевшие чумой")

Ich gönnte keinem andern," fuhr er fort zu lügen, "Ein solch olympisch Schlemmerglück, Nur dir, mein liebster Freund, allein. Geniesse dies mit vollen Zügen.

Tout flatteur vit aux dépens de celui qui l’écoute.

This gentleman, with knowing air, Survey'd

Rien n'est si dangereux qu'un ignorant ami; Mieux vaudrait un sage ennemi.

S'il fallait condamner Tous les ingrats qui sont au monde, A qui pourrait-on pardonner?

trincasse, a tagarela Foi valer-se

vigoroso

Raça por mim tão amada, Desta feita morrerás!» Júpiter daí a nada Fez-se menos ferrabrás.

No está cubierto de flores el camino a la gloria

Laiſſez dire les ſots, le ſavoir a ſon prix.

Oft trifft man sein Schicksal auf Wegen, die man eingeschlagen hatte, um ihm zu entgehen. (Jean de La Fontaine)

A person often meets his destiny on the road he took to avoid it." -Jean de La Fontaine    

Man is so made that when anything fires his soul, impossibilities vanish. —JEAN DE LA FONTAINE

Il ouvre un large bec, laisse tomber sa proie. Le Renard s'en saisit, et dit : "Mon bon Monsieur, Apprenez que tout flatteur Vit aux dépens de celui qui l'écoute : Cette leçon vaut bien un fromage, sans doute.

Le fabricateur souverain nous créa besaciers tous de même manière, tant ceux du temps passé que du temps d’aujourd’hui : Il fit pour nos défauts la poche de derrière, Et celle de devant pour les défauts d’autrui.

We ought never to mock the wretched, for who can be sure of being always happy?

Le vent déracina celui de qui le ciel était voisin et dont les pieds touchaient à l'empire des mots.

Amants, heureux amants, voulez-vous voyager? Que ce soit aux rives prochaines; Soyez-vous l'un à l'autre un monde toujours beau, Toujours divers, toujours nouveau; Tenez-vous lieu de tout, comptez pour rien le reste.

La Cigale, ayant chanté Tout l'Été, Se trouva fort dépourvue Quand la bise fut venue. Pas un seul petit morceau De mouche ou de vermisseau. Elle alla crier famine Chez la Fourmi sa voisine, La priant de lui prêter Quelque grain pour subsister Jusqu'à la saison nouvelle. Je vous paierai, lui dit-elle, Avant l'Oût, foi d'animal, Intérêt et principal. La Fourmi n'est pas prêteuse ; C'est là son moindre défaut. « Que faisiez-vous au temps chaud ? Dit-elle à cette emprunteuse. - Nuit et jour à tout venant Je chantais, ne vous déplaise. - Vous chantiez ? j'en suis fort aise. Eh bien ! dansez maintenant. »

Il Consiglio dei Topi Un Gatto, che diceano il Mangialardo, facea dei Topi un così gran macello, e tanti nell’avello n’avea sospinti e sbigottiti tanti, che i pochi vivi ancora non osavano il muso cacciar fuora. Quatti nei buchi sen morian di fame, tanta paura avean di quel, non gatto, ma carnefice infame. Un giorno tuttavia, colto il momento che il gatto andò a far visita all’amante e stette in alto tutta la giornata, si radunano i Topi a parlamento. Il presidente ch’era una persona di gran senno, propose, e parve bello a tutti il suo consiglio, che si attaccasse al gatto un campanello, un campanel che suona e dia l’avviso ai topi di fuggire, quando il nemico accenna di venire. - Bravo, bene, benissimo! – Ciascuno approva la mozione. Ma quando si trattò di sceglier quello che attaccare doveva il campanello, non si trovò nessuno. O fossi matto… io no… fossi corbello… Vedendo ch’era chiacchiera perduta, il presidente leva la seduta. Ho veduto qualche altro parlamento, (non di topi) e qualche altra commissione che venne alla precisa conclusione. A ciarlar son bravi in cento, ma diverso è ben l’affare quando trattasi di fare.

Anlaşalım, La Fontaine Beyefendi. Ben sizi seçerek okuyacağıma, sizi seveceğime, masallarınızdan ders alacağıma söz veriyorum; çünkü bunların amaçları konusunda yanılgıya düşmeyeceğimi umuyorum. Ama öğrencime gelince, izin verin de, dörtte birini bile anlayamayacağı şeyleri ona öğretmenin uygun olacağını, anlayabildiği şeylerde de hiçbir zaman yanılamayacağını ve hileye bakarak bu konuda kusurunu düzeltecek yerde, hileciye bakarak kendini ona göre yetiştirmeyeceğini siz bana tanıtlayıncaya dek ona masallarınızdan bir tekini bile öğretmeyeyim.

The other evening, in that cafe-cabaret in the Rue de la Fontaine, where I had run aground with Tramsel and Jocard, who had taken me there to see that supposedly-fashionable singer... how could they fail to see that she was nothing but a corpse? Yes, beneath the sumptuous and heavy ballgown, which swaddled her and held her upright like a sentry-box of pink velvet trimmed and embroidered with gold - a coffin befitting the queen of Spain - there was a corpse! But the others, amused by her wan voice and her emaciated frame, found her quaint - more than that, quite 'droll'... Droll! that drab, soft and inconsistent epithet that everyone uses nowadays! The woman had, to be sure, a tiny carven head, and a kind of macabre prettiness within the furry heap of her opera-cloak. They studied her minutely, interested by the romance of her story: a petite bourgeoise thrown into the high life following the fad which had caught her up - and neither of them, nor anyone else besides in the whole of that room, had perceived what was immediately evident to my eyes. Placed flat on the white satin of her dress, the two hands of that singer were the two hands of a skeleton: two sets of knuckle-bones gloved in white suede. They might have been drawn by Albrecht Durer: the ten fingers of an evil dead woman, fitted at the ends of the two overlong and excessively thin arms of a mannequin... And while that room convulsed with laughter and thrilled with pleasure, greeting her buffoonery and her animal cries with a dolorous ovation, I became convinced that her hands no more belonged to her body than her body, with its excessively high shoulders, belonged to her head... The conviction filled me with such fear and sickness that I did not hear the singing of a living woman, but of some automaton pieced together from disparate odds and ends - or perhaps even worse, some dead woman hastily reconstructed from hospital remains: the macabre fantasy of some medical student, dreamed up on the benches of the lecture-hall... and that evening began, like some tale of Hoffmann, to turn into a vision of the lunatic asylum. Oh, how that Olympia of the concert-hall has hastened the progress of my malady!

Rare as is true love, true friendship is rarer.

Man is so made that when anything fires his soul, impossibilities vanish. JEAN DE LA FONTAINE, French poet

Rare as is true love, true friendship is rarer.” — Jean de La Fontaine

Ya lo decía el escritor Jean de la Fontaine "la verguenza de confesar el primer error, hace cometer muchos otros

Nothing weighs on us so heavily as a secret.” —Jean de La Fontaine

Chain! Chain you! What! Run you not, then, just where you please, and when?” “Not always, sir; but what of that?” “Enough for me, to spoil your fat! It ought to be a precious price which could to servile chains entice; for me, I’ll shun them while I’ve wit.” So ran Sir Wolf, and runneth yet.

A man often meets his destiny on the road he took to avoid it -- Jean de La Fontaine

A person often meets his destiny on the road he took to avoid it. —Jean de La Fontaine

Nothing weighs on us so heavily as a secret. —Jean de La Fontaine, French poet (1621–1695)

A menudo encontramos nuestro destino por los caminos que tomamos para evitarlo. Jean de la Fontaine

Art poétique Mozart sans poids entre deux pleurs a tant aimé le monde qu'il y laissa frémir la place de Dieu parmi les rires. À peigner si amoureusement la plate-bande terrestre et nos passions, il écrivit entre nos ruses et le plaisir le nom imprononçable. La cruauté continuait d'aller auprès de masques et d'amandes. Divin Mozart : d'inexplicables perles volaient sous le nuage, une fontaine heureuse nous comblait. À être si bien lavés, nous nous sentions bénis au centre du sarcasme, ce qui n'empêchait pas la morsure sans rouerie de la mort de nous accompagner de son imperceptible méthode. Quand nous reviendrions plus tard de ces voyages de brumes de vivants, il nous faudrait encore subir l'ordre et le droit de la jubilation et ce serait aidés de guirlandes de roseaux mortels rajeunis par le vent. Je les reçus noués à un sanglot qui reprenait l'heure et le tact de notre premier baiser. [in « Autre Sud, Poésie d'aujourd'hui : Roumanie - France : Voix croisées », 2005, p. 98]

A person often meets his destiny on the road they took to avoid it.