Aesop Quotes – List Obsession

Last Updated on 20 June 2024

Morals from Aesop’s Fables (c. 620 BCE – 564 BCE)

Acquaintance softens prejudices.
Advice prompted by selfishness should not be heeded.
Attempt not impossibilities.
Avoid a remedy that is worse than the disease.
Avoid even appearances of danger.
The basest ingratitude is that which injures those who serve us.
Be not hasty to envy the condition of others.
Be not in haste to believe what is said in anger or thoughtlessness.
Because we are like the great in one respect, we must not think we are like them in all.
Better a little in safety, than an abundance surrounded by danger.
Better be wise by the misfortunes of others than by your own.
Better poverty without care, than riches with.
Better to have no friend at all than a foolish one.
Beware of unequal matches. Alliances prompted by ambition often prove fatal.
A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.
Birds of a feather flock together.
By endeavoring to please everybody, one succeeds in pleasing nobody.
By too much attention to danger, we may fall victims to it.
Change not friends for foes.
Change of habit cannot alter Nature.
The conspicuous run the greatest risk.
Counsel without help is useless.
Count not your chickens before they are hatched.
The covetous are poor givers.
Covetousness overreaches itself.
Critics are not always to be depended upon.
Cure a boaster by putting his words to the test.
Danger sometimes comes from a source that is least suspected.
The desire for imaginary benefits often involves the loss of present blessings.
Dignity cannot afford to quarrel with its inferiors.
Distance exaggerates dangers.
Disunited families are easily injured by others.
Do not attempt too much at once.
Do not be in a hurry to change one evil for another.
Do not presume to teach your elders.
Do not rely on a boaster.
Do nothing without a regard to the consequences.
Don’t make much ado about nothing.
Economy may be carried too far.
Equals make the best friends.
Every man for him trade.
Every man should be content to mind his own business.
Every one should keep his own colors.
Everyone has his trade.
Everyone to his taste: one man’s meat is another man’s poison, and one mans poison is another man’s meat; what is rejected by one person may be valued very highly by another.
Evil companions bring more hurt than profit.
An evil mind will show in evil action, sooner or later.
Evil tendencies are shown in early life.
Example is more powerful than precept.
A fair face is of little use without sense.
False confidence often leads into danger.
Fine feathers don’t make fine birds.
Fine weather friends are not worth much.
Flattery is a dangerous weapon in the hands of the enemy.
Flattery is not a proof of admiration.
The grateful heart will always find opportunities to show its gratitude.
The greatest braggarts are the greatest cowards.
The greedy man and the miser cannot enjoy their gains.
Happy is the man who learns from the misfortunes of others.
Harm hatch, harm catch.
He that submits his principles to the influences and caprices of opposite parties will end in having no principles at all.
He who incites strife is as guilty as they who strive.
He who listens to flattery is not wise, for it has no good purpose
He who offers bribes needs watching, for his intentions are not honest.
He who once begins to tell falsehoods is obliged to tell others to make them appear true, and, sooner or later, they will get him into trouble.
He who proclaims himself ready to buy up his enemies will never want a supply of them.
He who seeks to injure others often injures only himself.
He who slights his friends when they are not needed must not expect them to serve him when he needs them.
He who stops to parley with temptation, will be very likely to yield.
He who will steal a part will steal the whole.
Hope not to succeed in borrowed plumes.
Hospitality is a virtue, but should be wisely exercised; we may by thoughtlessness entertain foes instead of friends.
Hypocritical speeches are easily seen through.
Idleness brings want.
If men had all they wished, they would be often ruined.
If we nourish evil, it will sooner or later turn upon us.
If words suffice not, blows must follow.
If you wish to do a service, do it right.
Impossible things we cannot hope to attain, and it is of no use to try.
In injuring others we are apt to receive greater injury.
In quarreling about the shadow, we often lose the substance.
In serving the wicked, expect no reward, and be thankful if you escape injury for your pains.
In union is strength.
In yielding the rights of others, we may endanger our own.
Incentive spurs effort.
Inconsiderate and ill-matched alliances generally end in ruin; and the man who compasses the destruction of his neighbor is often caught in his own snare.
Invitations prompted by selfishness are not to be accepted.
It does no good to deny those who make false accusations knowingly.
It is absurd to ape our betters.
It is easy to kick a man that is down.
It is hard to forget injuries in the presence of him who caused the injury.
It is not wise to be too greedy.
It is not wise to hold too exalted an opinion of one’s self.
It is safer to be among friends than enemies.
It is too late to whet the sword when the trumpet sounds to draw it.
It is wise to turn circumstances to good account.
It shows an evil disposition to take advantage of a friend in distress.
It sometimes happens that one man has all the toil, and another all the profit.
Keep to your place, if you would succeed.
Kindness to the ungrateful and the vicious is thrown away.
Laziness often prepares a burden for its own back.
Let every one stick to his own element.
Let those who propose be willing to perform.
Like will draw like.
A little common sense is often of more value than much cunning.
The lives of the idle can best be sacrificed.
Look before you leap.
A man is known by the company he keeps.
A man who can strike from a distance is no pleasant neighbor.
A man who talks for both sides is not to be trusted by either.
The memory of a good deed lives.
Men are too apt to condemn in others the very things they practice themselves
Men of evil reputation, when they perform a good deed, fail to get credit for it.
Men often fall into the trap which they prepare for others.
Might makes right.
Misfortune tests the sincerity of friends.
The misfortunes arising from a man’s own misconduct are the hardest to bear.
A mother’s love blinds her to many imperfections.
Much wants more, and loses all.
Necessity is the mother of invention.
Nip evil in the bud.
No arguments will give courage to the coward.
No disguise will hide one’s true character.
No one is too weak to do good.
No one should be blamed for his infirmities.
Nothing can compensate us for the loss of our liberty.
One story is good, till another is told.
One thief is no better than another.
Our insignificance is often the cause of our safety.
Our mere anticipations of life outrun its realities.
People are not to be judged by their coats.
Perseverance is surer than swiftness.
Persuasion is better than Force.
The perverse generally come to harm.
Pleasures are heightened by abstinence.
The poor and the weak are often made to suffer for the follies of the great.
Pride goes before destruction.
Professions are best tested by deeds.
Promises of a suitor must be taken with caution.
Retribution is certain.
Revile not things beyond your reach.
The same measures will not suit all circumstances.
Self-help is the best help.
The smaller the mind, the greater the conceit.
Some men despise their best blessings because they come without cost.
Stoop to conquer.
Strangers should avoid those who quarrel among themselves.
The strong are apt to settle all questions by the rule of might.
Sweet words may deliver us from peril, when harsh words would fail.
That which we are anxious to find, we are sometimes even more anxious to escape from, when we have succeeded in finding it.
There are no friends whom you know not whether to trust or to distrust.
There is always some vulnerable part in the strongest armor.
There is no believing a liar, even when he speaks the truth.
They are not wise who take to themselves the credit due to others.
They who assue a character will betray themselves by their actions.
A thief cannot be trusted, even by another thief.
Those who achieve notoriety often mistake it for fame.
Those who are caught are not always the most guilty.
Those who are not able to roam should stay at home.
Those who attempt to act in disguise are apt to overdo it.
Those who cannot take care of their own, should not be entrusted with the care of another’s property.
Those who do not know their right place must be taught it.
Those who enter by the back stairs must not complain if they are thrown out by the window.
Those who neglect their old friends for the sake of new ones, are rightly served if they lose both.
Those who practice cunning must expect to suffer by it.
Those who practice deceit must expect to be shunned.
Those who pretend that they can mend others should first mend themselves, and then they will be more readily believed.
Those who stir up enmities are not to be trusted.
Those who strive are often watched by others who will take advantage of their defeat to benefit themselves
Those who suffer most cry out the least.
Those who try to entrap others are sometimes caught by their own schemes.
Those who would sacrifice their friends to save themselves are not entitled to mercy.
To aid the vicious is to become a partner in their guilt.
To enjoy our blessings, we must have freedom.
Traitors must expect treachery.
Two blacks do not make one white.
Two sureties are better than one.
The tyrant is never safe from those whom he oppresses.
The tyrant will always find a pretext for his tyranny, and it is useless for the innocent to try by reasoning to get justice, when the oppressor intends to be unjust.
Unlawful acts to escape trials only increase our troubles.
The value is in the worth, not in the number.
The vices we teach may be practiced against us.
We are encouraged by seeing others that are worse off than ourselves.
We do not always like to be taken at our word.
We had better bear our troubles bravely than try to escape them.
We must make friends in prosperity, if we would have their help in adversity.
We should never look so high as to miss seeing the things that are around us.
We should not deprive others of blessings because we cannot enjoy them ourselves.
We should not permit our ambition to lead us beyond the limits of our power.
We should not think wholly of ourselves, and we should remember that life is uncertain.
We should not wait till a person is dead, to give him our respect.
The weak often revenge themselves on those who use them ill, even though they be the more powerful.
What is most truly valuable is often underrated.
What is safety to one is not always safety to another.
What we do in sport often makes great trouble for others.
Whatever you do, do with all your might.
When a coward is found out, his pretensions of valor are useless.
When we throw off rulers or dependants, who have already made the most of us, we do but, for the most part, lay ourselves open to others. who will make us bleed, yet more freely.
When you seek to change your condition, be sure that you can better it.
Where one may live, another may starve.
Who acts in haste repents at leisure.
Zeal should not outrun discretion.