Quotes from Jean de La Fontaine

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.

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

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

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

In everything one must consider the end.

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

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

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

The argument of the strongest is always the best.

Religious contention is the devil's harvest.

A pessimist and an optimist, so much the worse; so much the better.

Help yourself, and Heaven will help you.

Sadness flies away on the wings of time.

Rare as is true love, true friendship is rarer.

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

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.

He is very foolish who aims at satisfying all the world and his father.

The strongest passion is fear.

To hell with pleasure that's haunted by fear!

Cats know not how to pardon.

Better to suffer than to die.

We are never content with our lot.

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