A Collection of Wisdom: Proverbs

French Proverbs

Money is a good servant but a bad master.

One-half of the world laughs at the other half.

After the acting, the wishing is in vain.

It is in hating vice that we strengthen ourselves in the love of virtue.

He that spares vice wrongs virtue.

Vanity has no greater foe than vanity.

The happiness of the human race in this world does not consist in our being devoid of passions, but in our learning to command them.

Many a one is good because he can do no mischief.

Promising and performing are two things.

He is past preaching who does not care to do well.

A great talker is a great liar.

Better be envied than pitied.

Life is half spent before one knows what life is.

A hundred years of idleness are not worth one hour well employed.

Why kill time when one can employ it?

That happens in a moment which may not happen in a thousand years.

A true gentleman will respect woman even in her weakness.

Women will believe any lie that is wrapped in praise.

Do not find fault with what you do not understand.

Courtesy that is all on one side cannot last long.

Do not rely on the label of the bag.

Some think they are done when they are only beginning.

No one will get a bargain he does not ask for.

One barber shaves another.

The arguments of the strongest always have the most weight.

Everyone thinks his own burden is heavy.

Friends are lost by calling too often and by not calling often enough.

If the doctor cures, the sun sees it; but if he kills, the earth hides it.

A small fire that warms you is better than a large one that burns you.

If you want to totally avoid being deceived, get married on February 30th.

It is a double pleasure to deceive the deceiver.

I have so much to do, that I am going to bed.

You cannot be very smart if you have never done anything foolish.

A rich man has more relatives than he knows about.

A good meal should begin with hunger.

When you can’t find peace within yourself, there’s no use looking for it somewhere else.

A great fortune in the hands of a fool is a great misfortune.

Vive la difference.

There are more foolish buyers than foolish sellers.

Set your sail according to the wind.

War is much too serious a matter to be entrusted to the military.

Comparison is not proof.

Tough times don’t last, but tough people do.

Late is worth more than never

Paris was not built/made in a day.

Impossible isn’t French.

To want to forget something is to remember it.

I love my friends—but I love myself more.

You need to break the shell in order to have the almond.

Better to prevent than to cure.

When you rely too much on reason, you end up not relying enough on feeling.

There is no such thing as an insignificant enemy.

A person’s reputation is like his shadow—sometimes it follows and sometimes it precedes him; and sometimes it is smaller and sometimes it is bigger than he is.

The meaning is best known to the speaker.

The common property donkey is the worst saddled.

The only real way someone can stop criticism is to die.

Remember that everyone you ever meet is sure to fear something, to love something, and to have lost something.

Do not talk about a rope in the house of someone whose father was hung.

Example is the greatest of all seducers.

More Proverbs

France has had a significant influence on the world for much of history, and the French language has been and continues to be one of the world’s most widely used languages. France has been continuously inhabited for thousands and thousands of years, and has a very rich culture and history.

One of the most well known aspects of French history is the French Revolution (1787-1799), which led to the rise of Napoleon Bonaparte as France’s emperor. Napoleon, who reigned from 1804 to 1814, expanded the Empire to large boundaries throughout and beyond Europe. However, he and his Empire quickly came crashing down after its brief period of dominance. The Current French Republic was established in 1959.

Some themes of France include wine, dining, wheat, dairy foods, philosophy, literature, poetry, art, music, ballet, architecture (including the Eiffel Tower), tourism, science, Christianity, Jerry Lewis, iron, steel, car manufacturing, technology, and skiing.