A hungry stomach cannot hear.
Jean de La Fontaine

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

A pessimist and an optimist, so much the worse; so much the better.
Jean de La Fontaine

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.
Jean de La Fontaine

Be advised that all flatterers live at the expense of those who listen to them.
Jean de La Fontaine

Better a living beggar than a buried emperor.
Jean de La Fontaine

Beware, so long as you live, of judging men by their outward appearance.
Jean de La Fontaine

But the shortest works are always the best.
Jean de La Fontaine

By the work one knows the workman.
Jean de La Fontaine

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


Dressed in the lion's skin, the ass spread terror far and wide.
Jean de La Fontaine

Every flatterer lives at the expense of him who listens to him.
Jean de La Fontaine

Every journalist owes tribute to the evil one.
Jean de La Fontaine

Everyone believes very easily whatever they fear or desire.
Jean de La Fontaine

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

Everyone has his faults which he continually repeats: neither fear nor shame can cure them.
Jean de La Fontaine

Friendship is the shadow of the evening, which increases with the setting sun of life.
Jean de La Fontaine

Help thyself and Heaven will help thee.
Jean de La Fontaine

I bend and do not break.
Jean de La Fontaine

In short, Luck's always to blame.
Jean De La Fontaine