To quote Jean de La Fontaine over and over

A hungry stomach cannot hear.

By the work one knows the workman.

I bend and do not break.

In short, Luck is always to blame.

It is impossible to please all the world and one's father.

The strongest passion is fear. 

Everyone believes very easily whatever they fear or desire.

Everyone has his faults which he continually repeats: neither fear nor shame can cure them.

Everyone calls himself a friend, but only a fool relies on it; nothing is commoner than the name, nothing rarer than the thing.

Help thyself and Heaven will help thee

Man is so made that when anything fires his soul, impossibilities vanish.

Never sell the bear's skin before one has killed the beast.

A person often meets his destiny on the road he took to avoid it.