Quotes & anectdotes from
the wise,
the foolish,
the courageous &
the drunk

Jean de La Fontaine Poet

  • Gender: Male
  • Citizenship: France
  • Born: Jul 8, 1621
  • Died: Apr 13, 1695

Jean de La Fontaine was the most famous French fabulist and one of the most widely read French poets of the 17th century. He is known above all for his Fables, which provided a model for subsequent fabulists across Europe and numerous alternative versions in France, and in French regional languages.

According to Flaubert, he was the only French poet to understand and master the texture of the French language before Victor Hugo. A set of postage stamps celebrating La Fontaine and the Fables was issued by France in 1995.

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

The strongest passion is fear.

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

Rare as is true love, true friendship is rarer.

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

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

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

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

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

Sadness flies away on the wings of time.

Patience and time do more than strength or passion.

Everyone believes very easily whatever they fear or desire.

By the work one knows the workman.

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

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