Top 100 Jean de La Fontaine Quotes (2025 Update)

1. “Patience and time do more than strength or passion.”

— Jean de La Fontaine

Featured in: Time Quotes, Patience Quotes, Passion Quotes

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

— Jean de La Fontaine

Featured in: Destiny Quotes

3. “I bend, but I do not break.”

— Jean de La Fontaine

4. “Help yourself, and Heaven will help you.”

— Jean de La Fontaine

5. “Patience et longueur de temps Font plus que force ni que rage. Patience and longevity Are worth more than force and rage.”

— Jean de La Fontaine

6. “There is no road of flowers leading to glory.”

— Jean de La Fontaine

7. “A cheerful mind is a vigorous mind.”

— Jean de La Fontaine

8. “Our destiny is frequently met in the very paths we take to avoid it.”

— Jean de La Fontaine

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

— Jean de La Fontaine

10. “All roads lead to Rome, but our antagonists think we should choose different paths.”

— Jean de La Fontaine

11. “Death never takes the wise man by surprise, he is always ready to go.”

— Jean de La Fontaine

12. “Rare as is true love, true friendship is rarer.”

— Jean de La Fontaine

13. “Sadness flies away on the wings of time.”

— Jean de La Fontaine

14. “If you deal with a fox, think of his tricks.”

— Jean de La Fontaine

15. “Man is so made that when anything fires his soul, impossibilities vanish.”

— Jean de La Fontaine

16. “We risk all in being too greedy.”

— Jean de La Fontaine

17. “Never sell the bear’s skin before one has killed the beast.”

— Jean de La Fontaine

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

— Jean de La Fontaine

19. “By the work one knows the workman.”

— Jean de La Fontaine

20. “People who make no noise are dangerous.”

— Jean de La Fontaine

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

— Jean de La Fontaine

22. “Half of today is better than all of tomorrow.”

— Jean de La Fontaine

23. “In everything one must consider the end.”

— Jean de La Fontaine

24. “A hungry stomach cannot hear.”

— Jean de La Fontaine

25. “All the brains in the world are powerless against the sort of stupidity that is in fashion.”

— Jean de La Fontaine

26. “Dressed in the lion’s skin, the ass spread terror far and wide.”

— Jean de La Fontaine

27. “Man is ice to truth and fire to falsehood.”

— Jean de La Fontaine

28. “Better a living beggar than a buried emperor.”

— Jean de La Fontaine

29. “Rely only on yourself; it is a common proverb.”

— Jean de La Fontaine

30. “By time and toil we sever What strength and rage could never.”

— Jean de La Fontaine

31. “Patience and perseverance at lengthAccomplish more than anger or brute strength.”

— Jean de La Fontaine

32. “Sensible people find nothing useless.”

— Jean de La Fontaine

33. “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

34. “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

35. “The fastidious are unfortunate; nothing satisfies them.”

— Jean de La Fontaine

36. “Diversity, that is my motto.”

— Jean de La Fontaine

37. “What God does, He does well.”

— Jean de La Fontaine

38. “A hare is not caught with a drum.”

— Jean de La Fontaine

39. “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.”

— Jean de La Fontaine

40. “Gentleness succeeds better than violence.”

— Jean de La Fontaine

41. “We are never content with our lot.”

— Jean de La Fontaine

42. “Rogues are always found out in some way. Whoever is a wolf will act like a wolf, that is most certain.”

— Jean de La Fontaine

43. “Nothing weighs on us so heavily as a secret.”

— Jean de La Fontaine

44. “Nothing is more dangerous than a friend without discretion; even a prudent enemy is preferable.”

— Jean de La Fontaine

45. “It is twice the pleasure to deceive the deceiver.”

— Jean de La Fontaine

46. “We become innocent when we are unfortunate.”

— Jean de La Fontaine

47. “Religious contention is the devil’s harvest.”

— Jean de La Fontaine

48. “Every journalist owes tribute to the evil one.”

— Jean de La Fontaine

49. “We ought to consider the end in everything.”

— Jean de La Fontaine

50. “But every one has a besetting sin to which he returns.”

— Jean de La Fontaine