| |
| Ah! il n’y a plus d’enfants—Ah! there are no children now-a-days! | 1 |
| Ah! pour être dévot, je n’en suis pas moins homme—Though I am a religious man, I am not therefore the less a man. | 2 |
| Du côté de la barbe est la toute-puissance—The male alone has been appointed to bear rule. | 3 |
| En mariage, comme ailleurs, contentement passe richesse—In marriage, as in other states, contentment is better than riches. | 4 |
| Faire prose sans le savoir—To speak prose without knowing it. | 5 |
| Grammar knows how to lord it over kings, and with high hand make them obey. | 6 |
| Guenille, si l’on veut; ma guenille m’est chère—Call it a rag, if you please; my rag is dear to me. | 7 |
| Il y a fagots et fagots—There is a difference between one faggot and another. | 8 |
| Il y a plus de quarante ans que je dis de la prose sans que j’en susse rien—I have been speaking prose forty years without knowing it. | 9 |
| In marriage, as in other things, contentment excels wealth. | 10 |
| Je prends mon bien où je le trouve—I take my own where I find it. | 11 |
| L’ami du genre humain n’est point du tout mon fait—He who is the friend of every one has no interest for me. | 12 |
| L’impromptu est justement la pierre de touche de l’esprit—Impromptu is precisely the touchstone of wit. | 13 |
| La grammaire, qui sait régenter jusqu’aux rois—Grammar, that knows how to lord it even over kings. | 14 |
| La naissance n’est rien où la vertu n’est pas—Birth is nothing where virtue is not. | 15 |
| Le chemin est long du projet à la close—The road is a long one from the projection of a thing to its accomplishment. | 16 |
| Le monde, chère Agnès, est une étrange chose—The world, dear Agnes, is a queer concern. | 17 |
| Les envieux mourront, mais non jamais l’envie—The envious will die, but envy never will. | 18 |
| Nous avons changé tout cela—We have changed all that. | 19 |
| Nul n’aura de l’esprit, / Hors nous et nos amis—No one shall have wit except ourselves and our friends. | 20 |
| |
|
|
| |
| On est aisément dupé par ce qu’on aime—We are easily duped by those we love. | 21 |
| One can bear to be rebuked, but not to be laughed at. | 22 |
| Par ma foi! l’âge ne sert de guère / Quand on n’a pas cela—By my faith, age serves but little if one has not that (brains). | 23 |
| Par un prompt désespoir souvent on se marie, / Qu’on s’en repent après tout le temps de sa vie—We often marry in despair, so that we repent of it all our life after. | 24 |
| Passez-moi la rhubarbe et je vous passerai le séné—Pass you me the rhubarb, and I will pass you the senna, i.e., shut your eyes to my faults, and I will to yours. | 25 |
| Quand on se fait entendre on parle toujours bien—We always speak well when we manage to be understood. | 26 |
| Quand sur une personne on prétend se régler / C’est par les beaux côtés qu’il lui faut ressembler—When we aspire to imitate any one, it is after his fine qualities we must fashion ourselves. | 27 |
| Reasoning banishes reason. | 28 |
| The envious will die, but envy never. | 29 |
| The less we deserve good fortune, the more we hope for it. | 30 |
| The more powerful the obstacle, the more glory we have in overcoming it; and the difficulties with which we are met are the maids of honour which set off virtue. | 31 |
| Un gentilhomme qui vit mal est un monstre dans la nature—A nobleman who leads a degraded life is a monster in nature. | 32 |
| Unreasonable haste is the direct road to error. | 33 |
| Vous êtes orfèvre, Monsieur Josse!—You are a goldsmith, Monsieur Josse! i.e., an interested party. | 34 |
| What a delight to have a husband beside you, were it only to salute you when you sneeze, and say “God bless you!” | 35 |
| |
