French Proverb
» Action » “It is better to be the hammer than the anvil.”
» Arrogance » “None are more haughty than a common place person raised to power.”
» Beauty » “Beauty, unaccompanied by virtue, is as a flower without perfume.”
» Belief » “To believe a thing is impossible is to make it so.”
» Busyness » “The man who has nothing to do is always the busiest.”
» Caution » “Don’t dance on a volcano.”
» Churches » “He who is near the Church is often far from God.”
» Conflict » “A good swordsman is not given to quarrel.”
» Contentment » “What makes us discontented with our condition is the absurdly exaggerated idea we have of the happiness of others.”
» Correction » “By continually scolding someone, they in time become accustomed to it and despise your reproof.”
» Crime and Criminals » “Set a thief to catch a thief.”
» Crime and Criminals » “Save a thief from the gallows and he will cut your throat.”
» Destiny » “He that is born to be hanged shall never be drowned.”
» Destiny » “One meets his destiny often in the road he takes to avoid it.”
» Discipline » “Who loves well, chastises well.”
» Divorce » “Divorce is the sacrament of adultery.”
» Doctors » “A surgeon should be young a physician old.”
» Effort » “One may go a long way after one is tired.”
» Elegance » “Nothing is more elegant than ready money!”
» Experience » “I know by my own pot how the others boil.”
» Fame » “Few people rise to our esteem upon closer scrutiny.”
» Farewells » “Partir, c’est mourir un peu. (To leave is to die a little.)”
» Fashion » “Fashion is a tyrant from which there is no deliverance; all must conform to its whimsical.”
» Fathers » “A father is a banker provided by nature.”
» Fear » “People always make the wolf more formidable than he is.”
» Food and Eating » “A good meal ought to begin with hunger.”
» Food and Eating » “Appetite comes with eating; the more one has, the more one would have.”
» Fortune » “Against change of fortune set a brave heart.”
» Gambling » “Gambling is the son of avarice and the father of despair.”
» Gambling » “There are two great pleasures in gambling: that of winning and that of losing.”
» Gifts » “He that parts with his property before his death prepares himself for much suffering.”
» Glutton » “Glutton: one who digs his grave with his teeth.”
» Goals » “No wind is of service to him that is bound for nowhere.”
» Good Deeds » “Those who shine in the second rank, are eclipsed by the first.”
» Government » “In the councils of a state, the question is not so much, what ought to be done? As, what can be done?”
» Grace » “Without grace beauty is an unabated hook.”
» Gratitude » “Gratitude is the heart’s memory.”
» Honesty » “Nothing resembles an honest man more than a cheat.”
» Hope » “He that waits for a dead man’s shoes may long go barefoot.”
» Hope » “Hope is the dream of a soul awake.”
» Intelligence and Intellectuals » “It’s good to be clever, but not to show it.”
» Invention and Inventor » “Fear is a great inventor.”
» Laughter » “Laughing is not always the proof of a mind at ease.”
» Law and Lawyers » “A good lawyer is a bad neighbor.”
» Leaders and Leadership » “When a blind man bears the standard, pity those who follow.”
» Liberty » “Liberty has no crueler enemy than license.”
» Lies and Lying » “Great talker, great liar.”
» Life and Living » “Life is an onion and one cries while peeling it.”
» Love » “In love, there is always one who kisses and one who offers the cheek.”
» Market » “There are more fools among buyers than among sellers.”
» Marriage » “Marriage is the sunset of love.”
» Medicine » “Desperate maladies require desperate remedies.”
» Merit » “Speak little and well if you wish to be esteemed a person of merit.”
» Miracles » “There are no miracles for those that have no faith in them.”
» Misers and Misery » “Penny wise is often pound foolish.”
» Misfortunes » “People will ignore their misfortunes and their interests when they are in competition with their pleasures.”
» Misfortunes » “There is something in the misfortune of our best friends which does not displease us.”
» Nationalities and Nationalism » “The French work to live, but the Swiss live to work.”
» Past » “There is nothing new, but what has become antiquated.”
» Persuasion » “More flies are caught with honey than with vinegar.”
» Prudence » “Never speak of a rope in the family of one who has been hanged.”
» Punctuality » “The while we keep a man waiting, he reflects on our shortcomings.”
» Satisfaction » “When we don’t have what we like, we must like what we have.”
» Self-esteem » “One is rated by others as he rates himself.”
» Sin » “A sin confessed is half forgiven.”
» Skepticism » “Skeptics are never deceived.”
» Speakers and Speaking » “A closed mouth catches no flies.”
» Speakers and Speaking » “He who comes from afar may lie without fear of contradiction as he is sure to be listened to with the utmost attention.”
» Talent » “Everyone according to their talent and every talent according to its work.”
» Tardiness » “People count the faults of those who keep them waiting.”
» Time and Time Management » “Why kill time when one can employ it.”
» Time and Time Management » “Everything passes, everything perishes, everything palls.”
» Time and Time Management » “Life is half spent before one knows what it is.”
» Time and Time Management » “Love makes time pass away and time makes love pass away.”
» Value » “We know the true worth of a thing when we have lost it.”
» Wealth » “It is a wise man who lives with money in the bank, it is a fool who dies that way.”
» Wine » “Nothing equals the joy of the drinker, except the joy of the wine in being drunk.”
» Work » “Work relieves us from three great evils, boredom, vice, and want.”
» Youth » “If youth but had the knowledge and old age the strength.”
