Jean de La Fontaine

Jean de La Fontaine

16 quotes

The French fabulist and poet Jean de La Fontaine is someone whose pithy observations have become part of everyday conversation. Their thinking spans from Fear to Friendship, revealing a mind that refused to stay in one lane. Our collection holds 22 quotes from Jean de La Fontaine, each offering a different angle on Fear, Friendship, Work, Truth, and Time. To get a sense of their style, try: "Beware, so long as you live, of judging men by their outward appearance."

“Let ignorance talk as it will, learning has its value.”

— Jean de La Fontaine

Learning

All Quotes by Jean de La Fontaine

“It is impossible to please all the world and one's father.”

— Jean de La Fontaine

Dad

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

— Jean de La Fontaine

Patience

“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

Power

“Sadness flies away on the wings of time.”

— Jean de La Fontaine

Sad

“Everyone has his faults which he continually repeats: neither fear nor shame can cure them.”

— Jean de La Fontaine

Fear

“Everyone believes very easily whatever they fear or desire.”

— Jean de La Fontaine

Fear

“The strongest passion is fear.”

— Jean de La Fontaine

Fear

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

— Jean de La Fontaine

Men

“By the work one knows the workman.”

— Jean de La Fontaine

Art

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

— Jean de La Fontaine

Death

“People must help one another it is nature's law.”

— Jean de La Fontaine

Nature

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

— Jean de La Fontaine

Friendship

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

— Jean de La Fontaine

Friendship

“We must laugh before we are happy, for fear we die before we laugh at all.”

— Jean de La Fontaine

Fear

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

— Jean de La Fontaine

Future

“Let ignorance talk as it will, learning has its value.”

— Jean de La Fontaine

Learning