Oliver Twist — Chapter 42 in French
By Charles Dickens
« Ainsi, c’était vous qui étiez votre ami, n’est-ce pas ? "And so it was you that was your own friend, was it?" dit Claypole, autrement Bolter, quand en vertu du traité passé entre eux, il se fut rendu le lendemain à la maison du juif. asked Mr. Claypole, otherwise Bolter, when, by virtue of the compact entered into between them, he had removed next day to the Jew's house. Par Dieu ! je m’en étais bien douté hier soir ! "'Cod, I thought as much last night!"
— Tout homme est son propre ami, mon cher, dit Fagin, de son regard le plus insinuant. "Every man's his own friend, my dear," replied Fagin, with his most insinuating grin. On n’en a jamais de meilleur que soi-même ! "He hasn't as good a one as himself anywhere."
— Excepté quelquefois pourtant, répliqua Maurice Bolter, prenant des airs d’homme du monde. "Except sometimes," replied Morris Bolter, assuming the air of a man of the world. Il y a des gens qui n’ont pas de plus grands ennemis qu’eux-mêmes, vous savez. "Some people are nobody's enemies but their own, yer know."
— Ne croyez pas ça, dit le juif. "Don't believe that," said the Jew. Quand un homme est son ennemi, c’est parce qu’il est beaucoup trop son ami. "When a man's his own enemy, it's only because he's too much his own friend, not because he's careful for every body but himself. Bah ! bah ! Pooh! pooh! Bah ! bah ! Il n'y a pas ça dans la nature. There ain't such a thing in nature."