Top 261 Quotes & Sayings by Aesop - Page 2

The greatest kindness will not bind the ungrateful.

Facts speak plainer than words

Those who return evil for good should not expect the kindness of others to last long.

It is one thing to conceive a good plan, and another to execute it

He who plots to hurt others often hurts himself.

Adversity tests the sincerity of friends

One story sounds good until another is told

Acquaintance softens prejudice.

None but those who work are entitled to eat.

Those who assume a character which does not belong to them, only make themselves ridiculous.

Most arguments are useless.

Vices are their own punishment

Appearances often are deceiving.

You can fool people some of the time, but you can't fool them all of the time.

Kindness is more persuasive than force.

Be satisfied with what you have.

Every man should be content to mind his own business.

Pride goes before destruction.

Betray a friend, and you'll often find you have ruined yourself.

He is not to be trusted as a friend who illtreats his own family.

A crust in comfort is better than a feast in fear.

If you wish me well, do not stand pitying me, but lend me some succour as fast as you can; for pity is but cold comfort when one is up to the chin in water, and within a hair's breadth of starving or drowning.

Do nothing without regard to the consequences.

Always stop to think whether your fun may be the cause of another's unhappiness

Bad as any government may be, it is seldom worse than anarchy.

Great determination can overcome most odds.

In a crisis, give help first and then advice.

Love can tame the wildest.

Fine clothes may disguise, but silly words will disclose a fool

In serving the wicked, expect no reward, and be thankful if you escape injury for your pains.

What a splendid head, yet no brain.

Notoriety is often mistaken for fame.

Don't be in a hurry to change one evil for another.

In critical moments even the very powerful have need of the weakest.

Our mere anticipations of life outrun its realities.

It is easier to become entangled with an enemy than to disentangle oneself afterwards.

If words suffice not, blows must follow.

A wild boar was sharpening his tusks upon the trunk of a tree in the forest when a fox came by and asked, Why are you doing that, pray? The huntsmen are not out today and there are no other dangers at hand that I can see. True, my friend, replied the Boar, but the instant my life is in danger, I shall need to use my tusks. There will be no time to sharpen them then.

The tyrant will always find a pretext for his tyranny.

Once a wolf, always a wolf.

Faithful are the wounds of a friend; but the kisses of an enemy are deceitful.

Don't neglect the future in times of plenty, for tomorrow you may need what you wasted today.

He that is hard to please, may get nothing in the end.

To be well prepared for war is the best guarantee of peace.

A farmer who had a quarrelsome family called his sons and told them to lay a bunch of sticks before him. Then, after laying the sticks parallel to one another and binding them, he challenged his sons, one after one, to pick up the bundle and break it. They all tried, but in vain. Then, untying the bundle, he gave them the sticks to break one by one. This they did with the greatest ease. Then said the father, "Thus, my sons, as long as you remain united, you are a match for anything, but differ and separate, and you are undone".

Liars often set their own traps.

Little by little does the trick.

Those who cry the loudest are not always the ones who are hurt the most

It pays to be prepared.

An oak and a reed were arguing about their strength. When a strong wind came up, the reed avoided being uprooted by bending and leaning with the gusts of wind. But the oak stood firm and was torn up by the roots.

A person's true nature will reveal itself despite disguise.

In union there is strength.

There are many statues of men slaying lions, but if only the lions were sculptors there might be quite a different set of statues.

A man is known by the company he keeps

Labour is the source of every blessing.

It is possible to have too much of a good thing.

Distrust unsolicited advice.

Poverty with security is better than plenty in the midst of fear and uncertainty.

The great do not always prevail.

Zeal should not outrun discretion.