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| A fool always finds a greater fool to admire him. | 1 |
| All men are fools, and with every effort they differ only in the degree. | 2 |
| Ces discours sont fort beaux dans un livre—All that would be very fine in a book, i.e., in theory, but not in practice. | 3 |
| Ceux qui parlent beaucoup, ne disent jamais rien—Those who talk much never say anything worth listening to. | 4 |
| Chaque âge a ses plaisirs, son esprit, et ses mœurs—Every age has its pleasures, its style of wit, and its peculiar manners. | 5 |
| Clear conception leads naturally to clear and correct expression. | 6 |
| Il plaît à tout le monde et ne saurait se plaire—He pleases all the world but cannot please himself. Of Molière. | 7 |
| J’évite d’être long, et je deviens obscur—In avoiding to be diffuse, I become obscure. After Horace. | 8 |
| J’appelle un chat un chat, et Rolet un fripon—I call a cat a cat, and Rolet a knave. | 9 |
| La docte antiquité est toujours vénérable, / Je ne la trouve pas cependant adorable—To the learning of antiquity I always pay due veneration, but I do not therefore adore it as sacred. | 10 |
| Le plus sage est celui qui ne pense point l’être—The wisest man is he who does not think he is so. | 11 |
| Le vrai peut quelquefois n’être pas vraisemble—What is true may sometimes seem unlike truth. | 12 |
| Nature always leaps to the surface, and manages to show what she is. | 13 |
| Pauvres gens, je les plains; car on a pour les fous / Plus de pitié que de courroux—Poor people, I pity them; for one always entertains for fools more pity than anger. On disappointed authors. | 14 |
| Pour soutenir les droits que le ciel autorise, / Abîme tout plutôt; c’est l’esprit de l’église—To maintain your rights granted by Heaven, let everything perish rather than yield; this is the spirit of the Church. | 15 |
| Qu’heureux est le mortel qui, du monde ignoré, / Vit content de soi-même en un coin retiré!—How happy the man who, unknown to the world, lives content with himself in some nook apart! | 16 |
| Qui ne sait se borner, ne sut jamais écrire—He who cannot limit himself will never know how to write. | 17 |
| Rien n’est beau que le vrai; le vrai seul est aimable—Nothing is beautiful but the true; the true alone is lovely. | 18 |
| Rien ne peut arrêter sa vigilante audace. / L’été na point de feux, l’hiver n’a point de glace—Nothing can check his watchful daring. For him the summer has no heat, the winter no ice. Of Louis XIV. | 19 |
| Tant de fiel entre-t-il dans l’âme des dévôts?—Can so much gall find access in devout souls? | 20 |
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| Tel excelle à rimer qui juge sottement—Some excel in rhyme who reason foolishly. | 21 |
| Tel vous semble applaudir, qui vous raille et vous joue; / Aimez qu’on vous conseille, et non pas qu’on vous loue—Such a one seems to applaud, while he is really ridiculing you; attach yourself to those who advise you rather than to those who praise. | 22 |
| Tel, en vous lisant, admire chaque trait, / Qui dans le fond de l’âme vous craint et vous hait—Such a one, in reading your work, admires every line, but, at the bottom of his soul, he fears and hates you. | 23 |
| This world is full of fools, and he who would not wish to see one must not only shut himself up alone, but must also break his looking-glass. | 24 |
| Tous les hommes sont foux, et malgré tous leurs soins, / Ne diffèrent entr’eux, que du plus ou du moins—All men are fools, and notwithstanding all their care, they differ but in degree. | 25 |
| Tout éloge imposteur blesse une âme sincère—Praise undeservedly bestowed wounds an honest heart. | 26 |
| Tout doit tendre au bon sens: mais pour y parvenir / Le chemin est glissant et pénible a tenir—Everything ought to lead to good sense; but in order to attain to it, the road is slippery and difficult to walk in. | 27 |
| Un dîner réchauffé ne valut jamais rien—A dinner warmed up again was never worth anything. | 28 |
| Un fat quelque fois ouvre un avis important—A simpleton often suggests a significant bit of advice. | 29 |
| Un sot trouve toujours un plus sot qui l’admire—Every fool finds a greater to admire him. | 30 |
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