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Upon which the Wolf seized him and ate him up, saying, “Well! I won’t remain supperless, even though you refute every one of my imputations.” The tyrant will always find a pretext for his tyranny.
It is wise to turn circumstances to good account.
In serving the wicked, expect no reward, and be thankful if you escape injury for your pains.
He is wise who is warned by the misfortunes of others.
No one truly forgets injuries in the presence of him who caused the injury.
Harm seek, harm find.
“Forbear,” said the Miller to him, “harping on what was of yore, for it is the common lot of mortals to sustain the ups and downs of fortune.”
Example is more powerful than precept.
Avoid a remedy that is worse than the disease.
The least outlay is not always the greatest gain.
the Lion undertook to distribute the prey, and for this purpose divided it into three shares. “I will take
the first share,” he said, “because I am King: and the second share, as a partner with you in the chase: and the third share (believe me) will be a source of great evil to you, unless you willingly resign it to me, and set off as fast as you can.” Might makes right.
We must make friends in prosperity if we would have their help in adversity.
In quarreling about the shadow we often lose the substance.
In a change of government the poor change nothing beyond the name of their master.
Count the cost before you commit yourselves.
No one can be a friend if
you know not whether to trust or distrust him.
Two blacks do not make
one white.
Fine feathers don’t make fine birds.
Thus the earth, the air, and the water alike refused shelter to a murderer.
Try before you trust.
The Miller, His Son, and Their Ass
the funniest one yet
The Flea replied, “O my dear sir, pray spare my life, and destroy me not, for I cannot possibly do you much harm.” The Man, laughing, replied, “Now you shall certainly die by mine own hands, for no evil, whether it be small or large, ought to be tolerated.”
The safeguards of virtue are hateful to those with evil intentions.
“That I might attain your royal hand, there is nothing that I would not have promised, however much I knew that I must fail in the performance.”
Some of these fables had, no doubt, in the first instance, a primary and private interpretation. On the first occasion of their being composed
they were intended to refer to some passing event, or to some individual acts of wrong-doing. Thus, the fables of the “Eagle and the Fox” and of the “Fox and Monkey” are supposed to have been written by Archilochus, to avenge the injuries done him by Lycambes. So also the fables of the “Swollen Fox” and of the “Frogs asking a King” were spoken by Aesop for the immediate purpose of reconciling the inhabitants of Samos and Athens to their respective rulers, Periander and Pisistratus; while the fable of the “Horse and Stag” was composed to caution the inhabitants of Himera against granting a
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to have reference to the contemplated union of Livia, the daughter of Drusus, with Sejanus the favourite, and minister of Trajan. These fables, however, though thus originating in special events, and designed at first to meet special circumstances, are so admirably constructed as to be fraught with lessons of general utility, and of universal application.
Aesop - political writer, not only storyteller
“Speculum Sapientiae,”
