“La mort, ou le succes.”
Duché. Absolon, Act III., Sc. I.—(Achitophel.)
“Death or success.”
“La mort, sans phrase.”
Attributed to the Abbé Sieyéis, in the National Convention, 16th Jan., 1793.1
“Death, without another word.”
“La mouche du coche.”
Proverbial expression, having its origin in La Fontaine’s Fable
(VIL, 9) " Le Coche et la Mouche ".
“The fly on the wheel.”
“La multitude des lois est dans un état ce qu’est le grand nombre de médecins, signe de maladie et de faiblesse.”
“A multiplicity of laws is, in a state, like a large number of doctors, a sign
of sickness and weakness.”
“La naissance n’est rien ou la vertu n’est pas.”
“Birth counts for nothing where no virtue is.”
“La nature est la grande lyre,
Le poete est l’archet divin!”
“’Tis nature is the mighty lyre,
The poet is the bow divine.”
“La nature fait le merite, et la fortune le met a l’oeuvre.”
“Nature produces merit, and fortune sets it to work.”
“La nature, qui a etabli les differents degres de force et de foiblesse
parmi les hommes, a encore souvent egale la foiblesse et la force
par le desespoir.”
“Nature, which has allotted to men different degrees of strength and
weakness, has often, by means of despair, rendered weakness the
equal of strength.”
“La nature vous a traits en vraie mére passionnée, et vous en etes
l’enfant gate.”
“Nature has behaved to you like a truly devoted mother, and has made a
spoilt child of you.”
“La ou la chfevre est liee, il faut bien qu’elle y broute.”
“Where the goat is tethered she must browse.”
1 According to the Moniteur Officiel of 19th Jan., 1793 (p. 102), Syeyes (sic) gave his vote in the words "La mort". He himself denied having added the words "sans phrase".
