Jean de La Fontaine (1621–95) was a French poet and man of letters who chose to work in relatively unexplored genres—the fable and the verse tale, for example. His fables, compared to those of Aesop and the Pañcatantra, rank among the greatest masterpieces of French literature.
Born in Château-Thierry, Champagne, La Fontaine dedicated himself to studying the old writers and to verse writing. In 1654, he published a verse translation of Terence’s play Eunuchus, and then went to Paris, where the French finance minister Nicolas Fouquet became his benefactor.
La Fontaine’s Fables choisies, mises en vers (1668–94; Fables, 1804) comprise 12 books of some 240 fables. They were drawn from oriental, classical, and contemporary sources. Beyond children’s literature, they embrace the sophisticated satire of conventional wisdom and morality.
In 1683, La Fontaine was elected to the Académie Française.
More: Wikipedia • READ: Works by Jean de La Fontaine
In everything one must consider the end.
—Jean de La Fontaine
Topics: Goals, Aspirations
One often has need of one, inferior to himself.
—Jean de La Fontaine
Topics: Inferiority
Everyone has his faults which he continually repeats: neither fear nor shame can cure them.
—Jean de La Fontaine
Topics: Faults, Mistakes
It is impossible to please all the world and one’s father.
—Jean de La Fontaine
Topics: Father
In short, luck’s always to blame.
—Jean de La Fontaine
Topics: Luck
We only listen to those instincts which are our own, and only give credit to the evil when it has befallen us.
—Jean de La Fontaine
We risk all in being too greedy.
—Jean de La Fontaine
Topics: Blessings, Gratitude, Appreciation
Patience and the passage of time do more than strength and fury.
—Jean de La Fontaine
Topics: Patience
Everyone has a wallet behind for his own failings, and one before for the failings of others.
—Jean de La Fontaine
To live lightheartedly but not recklessly; to be gay without being boisterous; to be courageous without being bold; to show trust and cheerful resignation without fatalism—this is the art of living.
—Jean de La Fontaine
Topics: Life and Living
Patience and time do more than strength or passion.
—Jean de La Fontaine
Topics: Patience, Time
One returns to the place one came from.
—Jean de La Fontaine
Topics: Home
Friendship is the shadow of the evening, which strengthens with the setting sun of life.
—Jean de La Fontaine
Topics: Friends, Friendship
We are never content with our lot.
—Jean de La Fontaine
Topics: Blessings, Gratitude, Appreciation
One should stick to the sort of thing for which one was made; I tried to be an herbalist, whereas I should keep to the butcher’s trade.
—Jean de La Fontaine
Topics: Talents, Abilities, Work
He is very foolish who aims at satisfying all the world and his father.
—Jean de La Fontaine
Topics: Satisfaction
Let ignorance talk as it will, learning has its value.
—Jean de La Fontaine
Topics: One liners, Learning
Lynx-eyed to our neighbors, and moles to ourselves.
—Jean de La Fontaine
Topics: Judgment
Even if misfortune is only good for bringing a fool to his senses, it would still be just to deem it good for something.
—Jean de La Fontaine
Topics: Adversity, Difficulties
Nothing weighs on us so heavily as a secret.
—Jean de La Fontaine
Topics: Secrets
Nothing is more dangerous than a friend without discretion; even a prudent enemy is preferable.
—Jean de La Fontaine
Topics: Friendship, Judgment, Judging
Luck’s always to blame.
—Jean de La Fontaine
Topics: Luck
We always take credit for the good and attribute the bad to fortune.
—Jean de La Fontaine
Topics: Success & Failure, Achievement
What a wonderful thing it is to have a good friend. He identities your innermost desires, and spares you the embarrassment of disclosing them to him yourself.
—Jean de La Fontaine
Topics: Candor, Friendship
Rare as is true love, true friendship is rarer.
—Jean de La Fontaine
Topics: Friends, Friendship
Neither wealth or greatness render us happy.
—Jean de La Fontaine
Topics: Greatness & Great Things, Greatness
It is twice the pleasure to deceive the deceiver.
—Jean de La Fontaine
Topics: Deception/Lying, Deception
Everyone believes very easily whatever they fear or desire.
—Jean de La Fontaine
Topics: Belief, Desire
Help yourself, and Heaven will help you.
—Jean de La Fontaine
Topics: Prayer, Independence, Self-reliance
The fastidious are unfortunate; nothing satisfies them.
—Jean de La Fontaine
Topics: Facts
Any one 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
The more wary you are of danger, the more likely you are to meet it.
—Jean de La Fontaine
Topics: Optimism, Positive Attitudes
The worst time is always the present.
—Jean de La Fontaine
Topics: The Past
To hell with pleasure that’s haunted by fear.
—Jean de La Fontaine
Topics: Anxiety, Fear
A pessimist and an optimist, so much the worse; so much the better.
—Jean de La Fontaine
Topics: Attitude
A person often meets his destiny on the road he took to avoid it.
—Jean de La Fontaine
Topics: Self-Discovery, Fate
By the work one knows the workmen.
—Jean de La Fontaine
Topics: Quality, Work
It is of no use running; to set out betimes is the main point.
—Jean de La Fontaine
Topics: Punctuality, Haste
Man is so made that when anything fires his soul, impossibilities vanish
—Jean de La Fontaine
Topics: Soul
In this world we must help one another.
—Jean de La Fontaine
Topics: Service, Helping
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