Fontaine Quotes & Sayings

A hare is not caught with a drum. — Jean De La Fontaine

He knows the universe and does not know himself. — Jean De La Fontaine

As soon as he thinks about the record, he's finished. The secret is to put it out of your mind. — Just Fontaine

We ought to consider the end in everything. — Jean De La Fontaine

The argument of the strongest is always the best. — Jean De La Fontaine

Though Mrs. Fontaine smiled, I couldn't help but wonder if she'd sized me up and found me lacking. — Beth Hoffman

We carve our destinies blindfolded, with sharp knives. — Claire Fontaine

But a rascal of a child (that age is without pity).
[Fr., Mais un pripon d'enfant (cet age est sans pitie). — Jean De La Fontaine

Sometimes, we have to give birth to our children twice ... Once your child becomes the "garbage" other parents are afraid of, you never look at any teen, or yourself, the same again. All you see is the child they once were. — Claire Fontaine

Often we find our own destiny on the same roads that we have been avoiding. — Jean De La Fontaine

The finest victory is to conquer one's own heart. — Jean De La Fontaine

I was shocked and saddened to learn of the passing of my sister, Joan Fontaine, and my niece, Deborah, and I appreciate the many kind expressions of sympathy that we have received. — Olivia De Havilland

Be advised that all flatterers live at the expense of those who listen to them. — Jean De La Fontaine

I know that for every mother, there is always the possibility of three in your relationship with your daughter. You, your daughter the way she is, and your daughter the way you want her to be. I learned the hard way ten years ago that that kind of control is an illusion and a barrier. — Claire Fontaine

Love cries victory when the tears of a woman become the sole defence of her virtue. — Jean De La Fontaine

Gentleness succeeds better than violence. — Jean De La Fontaine

Still people are dangerous. — Jean De La Fontaine

Friendship is the shadow of the evening, which increases with the setting sun of life. — Jean De La Fontaine

And if we folks have a motto, it's this: 'Don't holler - smile and bide your time.' We've survived a passel of things that way, smiling and biding our time, and we've gotten to be experts at surviving. — Margaret Mitchell

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

Nothing is so oppressive as a secret: women find it difficult to keep one long; and I know a goodly number of men who are women in this regard. — Jean De La Fontaine

[Samantha Dunn] wrote that when God wants your attention, first He throws feathers. After that, He starts throwing bricks. — Claire Fontaine

Accountability is not about blame, it's not about being wrong, it is about owning the choices you've made, or are making, that create the results you have in your life. And you do create everything in your life. — Claire Fontaine

It is a custom often practiced by seafaring people to throw a bottle overboard, with a paper, stating the time and place at which it is done. In the absence of other information as to currents, that afforded by these mute little navigators is of great value. — Matthew Fontaine Maury

If you keep marrying as I do, you learn everybody's hobby. — Joan Fontaine

What was the payoff? It obviously kept me in my cozy zone of being in control, being a good mother, with a good daughter. Most of all, I realize, is that it allowed me to maintain the lie that she was healed, that Nick hadn't permanently damaged her, that I'd truly saved her. Because if I did, if there was no lasting residue of him, it meant that the denial that kept me in the marriage long enough for him to hurt her didn't help create the situation she's in now.
The person who I worked hardest to keep safe seems to have been me. — Claire Fontaine

There is a river in the ocean. In the severest droughts it never fails, and in the mightiest floods it never overflows. Its banks and its bottom are of cold water, while its current is of warm. The Gulf of Mexico is its fountain, and its mouth is in the Arctic Sea. It is the Gulf Stream. — Matthew Fontaine Maury

The theater audience is the ultimate teacher, instructing the actor on the degree to which he has executed both the author's and the director's intent. — Joan Fontaine

We are never content with our lot. — Jean De La Fontaine

It's better to be on a soap opera to renew your career and following than to be on any other medium. — Joan Fontaine

A hungry stomach cannot hear. — Jean De La Fontaine

Mia: I was sixteen when I first realized my mom was more concerned about my appearance than I was ... I'll be talking to my mom and realize she hasn't heard a word because she's studying my face to see if the foundation I'm using is a good match for my skin tone. — Mia Fontaine

Peoples will be as before, the sheep sent to the slaughterhouses or to the meadows as it pleases the shepherds. — Henri La Fontaine

Patience and perseverance at lengthAccomplish more than anger or brute strength. — Jean De La Fontaine

Nowadays, as soon as a striker scores three goals, everyone starts asking him about it. — Just Fontaine

Alas! we see that the small have always suffered for the follies of the great.
[Fr., Helas! on voit que de tout temps
Les Petits ont pati des sottises des grands.] — Jean De La Fontaine

Beware, so long as you live, or judging men by their outwards appearance. — Jean De La Fontaine

What is denominated discretion in man we call cunning in brutes. — Jean De La Fontaine

It is impossible to please all the world and one's father. — Jean De La Fontaine

It is said, that the thing you possess is worth more than two you may have in the future. The one is sure and the other is not. — Jean De La Fontaine

She recognizes the cramped handwriting, the internecine, slashing script. She has studied it under the gaze of the Institute Librarian, in locked rooms
she even, in the early, giddy days of her conversion, practiced Fulton's handwriting for hours. Knows the ink ... Here it is now, on the familiar notebook paper Fulton preferred. She tracked down the manufacturer once; they have a plant across the river where they still turn out the Fontaine line. — Colson Whitehead

What a wonderful thing it is to have a good friend. He identifies your innermost desires, and spares you the embarrassment of disclosing them to him yourself. — Jean De La Fontaine

O tyrant love, when held by you,
We may to prudence bid adieu.
[Fr., Amour! Amour! quand tu nous tiens
On peut bien dire, Adieu, prudence.] — Jean De La Fontaine

It's a dangerous thing, to divide yourself, to break off bits of yourself until there's no solid core. We are, after all, just the sum of our total experiences, each one lying beneath us like a brick in the foundation of a house. To be selective, to block out portions, is to destabilize the very ground on which you stand. — Mia Fontaine

Dressed in the lion's skin, the ass spread terror far and wide. — Jean De La Fontaine

I've flown in an international balloon race. I've piloted my own plane. I've ridden to the hounds. I've done a lot of exciting things. — Joan Fontaine

I am blessed to live and work in [France,] a country where women filmmakers are by and large not unfairly treated. So I wouldn't have much to contribute regarding issues faced as a female director. — Anne Fontaine

Nothing is as dangerous as an ignorant friend; a wise enemy is to be preferred. — Jean De La Fontaine

It is no use running; to set out betimes is the main point. — Jean De La Fontaine

Hollywood is still the cradle of many myths, including the one of eternal youth. I find it odd that the very notion of desire, when applied to a woman over 40, is turned into a pathology or a mockery in a number of films. But Hollywood is not the only place to blame, by far. This is just a rendition, possibly magnified by the power of movies, of a general state of things, social, cultural and political. — Anne Fontaine

We become innocent when we are unfortunate. — Jean De La Fontaine

Every newspaper editor owes tribute to the devil. — Jean De La Fontaine

Being a woman, I have found the road rougher than had I been born a man. Different defenses, different codes of ethics, different approaches to problems and personalities are a woman's lot. I have preferred to shun what is known as feminine wiles, the subterfuge of subtlety, reliance on tears and coquetry to shape my way. I am forthright, often blunt. I have learned to be a realist despite my romantic, emotional nature. I have no illusions that age, the rigors of my profession, disappointments, and unfulfilled dreams have not left their mark.

I am proud that I have carved my path on earth almost entirely by my own efforts, proud that I have compromised in my career only when I had no other recourse, when financial or contractual commitments dictated. Proud that I have never been involved in a physical liaison unless I was deeply attracted or in love. Proud that, whatever my worldly goods may be, they have been achieved by my own labors. — Joan Fontaine

Sadness flies away on the wings of time. — Jean De La Fontaine

Every flatterer lives at the expense of him who listens to him. — Jean De La Fontaine

Habit, to which all of us are more or less slaves. — Jean De La Fontaine

- Child is abused, perpetrator threatens to hurt mother. Child feels protective of mother.
- Struggle to escape perp reinforces feelings of mutual protection. It's Mom and I against the world.
- Something necessary at the time later creates "enmeshment." Child doesn't see her actions as separate from mother. Even during normal adolescent individuation. But
- Normal individuation doesn't happen in abuse survivors. They don't feel normal, so they
- Act out in unhealthy or self-destructive ways, which creates
- Fear and pain for mother, which creates
- Guilt for child who still feels responsible for mother's emotional health.
- Child seeks release from the guilt and from not feeling normal, which leads to
- Escape to the world of other not normal people, where mother can't see her child self-destruct, which leads to
"The bad news. — Claire Fontaine

Nor did I grasp the capacity of love's absence to destroy, that my lack of love for myself made my own life unbearable. You take someone whose life experiences have taught them they're worthless, string them out on drugs, and you have one miserable person. How could I have given what I didn't have? It's hard to value another life when you view your own as dispensable, hard to understand how you can have so great an effect on someone else when you don't think you matter. — Mia Fontaine

What God does, He does well. — Jean De La Fontaine

We risk all in being too greedy. — Jean De La Fontaine

Such gluttony second to none
Almost ended fatally
When a bone choked a wolf as he gulped what he ate — Jean De La Fontaine

Better to suffer than to die. — Jean De La Fontaine

The strongest passion is fear. — Jean De La Fontaine

From the moment she'd first seen him in the Fontaine ballroom, she'd been lost. The passionate kiss a week later had destroyed her. Even now she could feel the heat of his expert lips against hers, and the remembrance of his taste made her mouth water. — Sylvia Day

Every physical fact, every expression of nature, every feature of the earth, the work of any and all of those agents which make the face of the world what it is, and as we see it, is interesting and instructive. Until we get hold of a group of physical facts, we do not know what practical bearings they may have, though right-minded men know that they contain many precious jewels, which science, or the expert hand of philosophy will not fail top bring out, polished, and bright, and beautifully adapted to man's purposes. — Matthew Fontaine Maury

All roads lead to Rome, but our antagonists think we should choose different paths. — Jean De La Fontaine

Neither wealth or greatness render us happy. — Jean De La Fontaine

I don't believe that Nature's powers
Have tied her hands or pinioned ours,
By marking on the heavenly vault
Our fate without mistake or fault.
That fate depends on conjunctions
Of places, persons, times, and tracks,
And not on the functions
Of more or less of quacks. — Jean De La Fontaine

Even if misfortune is only good for bringing a fool to his senses, it would still be just to deem it good for something. — Jean De La Fontaine

Let ignorance talk as it will, learning has its value. — Jean De La Fontaine

One returns to the place one came from. — Jean De La Fontaine

To win a race, the swiftness of a dart Availeth not without a timely start — Jean De La Fontaine

Belgium thinks that however great the peril which a country might have to undergo under the system which we seek to establish here, that country ought to do its duty. — Henri La Fontaine

There will always be some who dilute the gospel to attract a crowd, but not everyone who wants to be contemporary does that. You can tell those who do because they leave out critical parts of the message, such as the uniqueness of Christ, that he's the only way, the fact that we are saved by grace through faith, or the reality of heaven and hell. Those who compromise on nonnegotiables think they're being relevant, but they become irrelevant because they have nothing to offer. Their message becomes increasingly weak and void of the power to transform people's lives. — Leon Fontaine

Never sell the bear's skin before one has killed the beast. — Jean De La Fontaine

Well, Ms. Fontaine, you look damn good for a dead woman."
Her response was to narrow her eyes, arch a brow. "If that's some sort of cop humor, I'm afraid you'll have to translate. — Nora Roberts

We believe no evil till the evil's done — Jean De La Fontaine

My sister is a very peculiar lady. When we were young, I wasn't allowed to talk to her friends. Now I'm not allowed to talk to her children, nor are they permitted to see me. This is the nature of the lady. Doesn't bother me at all. — Joan Fontaine

But every one has a besetting sin to which he returns. — Jean De La Fontaine

We believe easily what we fear of what we desire — Jean De La Fontaine

Okay; they've got to be kids - but why girls?" Fontaine asked. "People are even more protective about little girls." Tenenbaum winced and turned back to the microscope, muttering, "For some reason girls take sea-slug implant better than boys." Fontaine wondered what little boy they'd experimented on to determine that and what had become of him. But he didn't really care. He didn't. And in fact - there was one place that could supply children for all sorts of things. "So - just girls, eh? That's okay; that'll just be fewer bunks in the orphanage. — John Shirley

We tell our daughters we don't trust them in a thousand ways. We don't consciously mean to, but we steal their confidence in their own strength by stealing their pain. And their confidence in our strength by saying we aren't strong enough to see them struggle. — Claire Fontaine

Marriage, as an institution, is as dead as the dodo bird. — Joan Fontaine

A pessimist and an optimist, so much the worse; so much the better. — Jean De La Fontaine

To live lightheartedly but not recklessly; to be gay without being boisterous; to be courageous without being bold; to show trust and cheerful resignation without fatalism - this is the art of living. — Jean De La Fontaine

No path of flowers leads to glory. — Jean De La Fontaine

People must help one another; it is nature's law. — Jean De La Fontaine

I could see where I'd mistaken drama and conflict for life, which meant years of living reactively instead of generatively, a life I let be determined by circumstances and the choices of others. We like to think life happens to us, but pretty much everything in your life is there because you wanted it, even if unconsciously. Results, I have learned, don't lie. — Claire Fontaine

Luck's always to blame. — Jean De La Fontaine

By the work one knows the workman. — Jean De La Fontaine

Death never takes the wise man by surprise; He is always ready to go. — Jean De La Fontaine

Goodness knows, I tried. But I think it's virtually impossible for the right kind of man to be married to a movie star. — Joan Fontaine

If you deal with a fox, think of his tricks. — Jean De La Fontaine

Our condition never satisfies us; the present is always the worst. Though Jupiter should grant his request to each, we should continue to importune him. — Jean De La Fontaine

My relationship with God has evolved as well. I no longer rail or beg or sass back. I was standing on a bluff over the ocean the other day and suddenly laughed out loud as I realized what an illusion that was, what an impossibility. That would assume a relationship between a "me" and "Other," a separation. There is no otherness; to be separate from God is to be separate from myself, from life itself. What I've been looking for, I'm looking with. — Claire Fontaine

My record of 13 goals in the World Cup finals still stands. — Just Fontaine

Beware, so long as you live, of judging men by their outward appearance. — Jean De La Fontaine

Our destiny is frequently met in the very paths we take to avoid it. — Jean De La Fontaine

While it is not always profitable to analogize fact to fiction, La Fontaine's fable of the crow, the cheese, and the fox demonstrates that there is a substantial difference between holding a piece of cheese in the beak and putting it in the stomach. — Felix Frankfurter

I married first, won the Oscar before Olivia (sister Olivia de Havilland) did, and if I die first, she'll undoubtedly be livid because I beat her to it! — Joan Fontaine