Aesop Quotes

This fable shows that ornaments of the spirit are preferable to a beautiful body.

Sometimes the slow ones blame the active for the delay.

Wealth unused might as well not exist.

No act of kindness is ever wasted.

The fly sat upon the axel-tree of the chariot-wheel and said, 'What a dust do I raise!'

"The Fox and the Goat By an unlucky chance a Fox fell into a deep well from which he could not get out. A Goat passed by shortly afterwards, and asked the Fox what he was doing down there. "Oh, have you not heard?" said the Fox; "there is going to be a great drought, so I jumped down here in order to be sure to have water by me. Why don't you come down too?" The Goat thought well of this advice, and jumped down into the well. But the Fox immediately jumped on her back, and by putting his foot on her long horns managed to jump up to the edge of the well. "Good-bye, friend," said the Fox, "remember next time, "Never trust the advice of a man in difficulties."

A hungry Wolf was prowling about in search of food. By and by, attracted by the cries of a Child, he came to a cottage. As he crouched beneath the window, he heard the Mother say to the Child, “Stop crying, do! or I’ll throw you to the Wolf.” Thinking she really meant what she said, he waited there a long time in the expectation of satisfying his hunger. In the evening he heard the Mother fondling her Child and saying, “If the naughty Wolf comes, he shan’t get my little one: Daddy will kill him.” The Wolf got up in much disgust and walked away: “As for the people in that house,” said he to himself, “you can’t believe a word they say.

Having tasted the honeycomb, he threw down his axe, and looking on the tree as sacred, took great care of it.

"Tush, child, tush," said the old Frog, "that was only Farmer White's Ox. It isn't so big either; he may be a little bit taller than I, but I could easily make myself quite as broad; just you see." So he blew himself out, and blew himself out, and blew himself out. "Was he as big as that?" asked he.

A Man and a Lion were companions on a journey, and in the course of conversation they began to boast about their prowess, and each claimed to be superior to the other in strength and courage. They were still arguing with some heat when they came to a cross-road where there was a statue of a Man strangling a Lion. “There!” said the Man triumphantly, “look at that! Doesn’t that prove to you that we are stronger than you?” “Not so fast, my friend,” said the Lion: “that is only your view of the case. If we Lions could make statues, you may be sure that in most of them you would see the Man underneath.” There are two sides to every question.

Enemies' promises were made to be broken.

Necessity is the mother of invention.

Never trust the advice of a man in difficulties.

Expect no reward when you serve the wicked, and be thankful if you escape injury for your pain

Danger sometimes comes from a source that is least suspected.