Les+citations+et+proverbes+français









Liberté, égalité, fraternité, trois mots magnifiques, n'est-ce pas ? Trois mots qui forment le cœur de la Révolution. Trois mots qui, si nous avions su les cultiver, auraient changé la face du monde.

[|Les proverbes - 9 Beautiful French Proverbs]

These French proverbs //in italics // are followed by their English equivalents, and then their literal translations "in quotation marks."

//Autres temps, autres mœurs. // Times change. "Other times, other customs."

//Bien mal acquis ne profite jamais. // Ill gotten ill spent. "Goods poorly gotten never profit."

//Chacun voit midi à sa porte. // to each his own. "Everyone sees noon at his door."

//En tout pays, il y a une lieue de mauvais chemin. // There will be bumps in the smoothest roads. "In every country there is a league of bad road."

//<span style="color: #191919; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue',Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline;">Entre l'arbre et l'écorce il ne faut pas mettre le doigt. // <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #191919; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue',Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Caught between a rock and a hard place. <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #191919; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue',Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">"Between the tree and the bark one shouldn't put a finger."

//<span style="color: #0099cc; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue',Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline;">[|Une hirondelle ne fait pas le printemps.] // <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #191919; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue',Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">One swallow doesn't make a summer. <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #191919; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue',Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">"One swallow doesn't make spring."

//<span style="color: #191919; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue',Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline;">Il faut casser le noyau pour avoir l'amande. // <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #191919; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue',Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">No pain no gain. <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #191919; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue',Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">"You need to break the shell to have the almond."

//<span style="color: #191919; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue',Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline;">Mieux vaut prévenir que guérir. // <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #191919; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue',Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Prevention is better than cure. <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #191919; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue',Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">"Better to prevent than to cure."

//<span style="color: #191919; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue',Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline;">Mieux vaut tard que jamais. // <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #191919; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue',Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Better late than never. <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #191919; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue',Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">"Late is worth more than never."

//<span style="color: #191919; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue',Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline;">On ne fait pas d'omelette sans casser des œufs. // <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #191919; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue',Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">You can't make an omelette without breaking eggs.

//<span style="color: #0099cc; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue',Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline;">[|On ne peut pas avoir le beurre et l'argent du beurre.] // <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #191919; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue',Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">You can't have your cake and eat it too. <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #191919; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue',Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">"You can't have the butter and the money from [selling] the butter."

//<span style="color: #191919; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue',Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline;">Paris ne s'est pas fait en un jour. // <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #191919; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue',Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Rome wasn't built in a day. <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #191919; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue',Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">"Paris wasn't made in a day."

//<span style="color: #191919; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue',Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline;">Les petits ruisseaux font les grandes rivières. // <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #191919; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue',Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Tall oaks from little acorns grow. <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #191919; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue',Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">"The little streams make the big rivers."

//<span style="color: #191919; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue',Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline;">Quand le vin est tiré, il faut le boire. // <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #191919; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue',Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Once the first step is taken there's no going back. <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #191919; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue',Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">"When the wine is drawn, one must drink it."

//<span style="color: #191919; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue',Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline;">Tant va la cruche à l'eau qu'à la fin elle se casse. // <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #191919; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue',Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Enough is enough. <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #191919; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue',Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">"So often the pitcher goes to the water that in the end it breaks."

//<span style="color: #0099cc; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue',Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline;">[|Tourner sept fois sa langue dans sa bouche] // <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #191919; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue',Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">to think long and hard before speaking. <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #191919; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue',Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">"To turn one's tongue in one's mouth seven times."

//<span style="color: #191919; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue',Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline;">Vouloir, c'est pouvoir. // <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #191919; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue',Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Where there's a will, there's a way. <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #191919; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue',Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">"To want, that is to be able."