C.N. Douglas, comp. Forty Thousand Quotations: Prose and Poetical. 1917.
La Fontaine
A hare is not caught with a drum.
Better a living beggar than a buried emperor.
Blind fortune pursues inconsiderate rashness.
But every one has a besetting sin to which he returns.
Diversity, that is my motto.
Every editor of newspapers pays tribute to the devil.
Every one turns his dreams into realities as far as he can; man is cold as ice to the truth, hot as fire to falsehood.
Example is a dangerous lure; where the wasp got through the gnat sticks fast.
Foxes are all tail, and women all tongue.
Friendship is the shadow of the evening, which strengthens with the setting sun of life.
From a distance it is something; and nearby it is nothing.
Gentleness succeeds better than violence.
Habit, to which all of us are more or less slaves.
If every man works at that for which nature fitted him, the cows will be well tended.
It is a double pleasure to deceive the deceiver.
It is good to be charitable; but to whom? That is the point. As to the ungrateful, there is not one who does not at last die miserable.
It is of no use running; to set out betimes is the main point.
It is said, that the thing you possess is worth more than two you may have in the future. The one is sure and the other is not. (A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.)
Let us not overstrain our talents, lest we do nothing gracefully: a clown, whatever he may do, will never pass for a gentleman.
Love cries victory when the tears of a woman become the sole defence of her virtue.
Lynx-eyed toward our equals, and moles to ourselves.
Men of all ages have the same inclinations, over which reason exercises no control. Thus, wherever men are found, there are follies, ay, and the same follies.
No flowery road leads to glory.
Nothing is more dangerous than a friend without discretion; even a prudent enemy is preferable.
Nothing is so oppressive as a secret; women find it difficult to keep one long; and I know a goodly number of men who are women in this regard.
O love, when thou gettest dominion over us, we may bid good-by to prudence.
Our condition never satisfies us; the present is always the worst. Though Jupiter should grant his request to each, we should continue to importune him.
Patience and time do more than strength or passion.
Rare as is true love, true friendship is rarer.
Religious contention is the devil’s harvest.
Rogues are always found out in some way. Whoever is a wolf will act like a wolf, that is most certain.
Socrates, when informed of some derogating speeches one had used concerning him behind his back, made only this facetious reply, “Let him beat me too when I am absent.”
Still people are dangerous.
The fastidious are unfortunate; nothing can satisfy them.
The good, we do it; the evil, that is fortune; man is always right, and destiny always wrong.
The reasoning of the strongest is always the best.
The ruins of a house may be repaired; why cannot those of the face?
We believe easily what we fear or what we desire.
We ought to consider the end in everything.
We read on the forehead of those who are surrounded by a foolish luxury that Fortune sells what she is thought to give.
What is denominated discretion in man we call cunning in brutes.