Top 300 Aesop Quotes (2024 Update)
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201. “We learn from the things we suffer.”

— Aesop

202. “Acquaintance softens prejudice.”

— Aesop

203. “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.”

— Aesop

204. “The safeguards of virtue are hateful to the evil disposed.”

— Aesop

205. “No arguments will give courage to the coward.”

— Aesop

206. “The loiterer often imputes delay to his more active friend.”

— Aesop

207. “Our mere anticipations of life outrun its realities.”

— Aesop

208. “Affairs are easier of entrance than of exit; and it is but common prudence to see our way out before we venture in.”

— Aesop

209. “Time and place often give advantage to the weak over the strong.”

— Aesop

210. “There can be little liking where there is no likeness.”

— Aesop

211. “If we really want something done, it is best to do it ourselves.”

— Aesop

212. “Be content with what nature made you, or run the risk of earning contempt by trying to be what you’re not.”

— Aesop

213. “Conceit may bring about one’s own downfall.”

— Aesop

214. “None but those who work are entitled to eat.”

— Aesop

215. “AN ASS having heard some Grasshoppers chirping, was highly enchanted; and, desiring to possess the same charms of melody, demanded what sort of food they lived on to give them such beautiful voices. They replied, “The dew.” The Ass resolved that he would live only upon dew, and in a short time died of hunger.”

— Aesop

216. “The injuries we do and those we suffer are seldom weighed in the same scales.”

— Aesop

217. “It is foolish to try to imitate the skills of others.”

— Aesop

218. “Try before you trust.”

— Aesop

219. “The cat always leaves a mark on his friend.”

— Aesop

220. “All men are more concerned to recover what they lose than to acquire what they lack.”

— Aesop

221. “The Fawn and His Mother A YOUNG FAWN once said to his Mother, “You are larger than a dog, and swifter, and more used to running, and you have your horns as a defense; why, then, O Mother! do the hounds frighten you so?” She smiled, and said: “I know full well, my son, that all you say is true. I have the advantages you mention, but when I hear even the bark of a single dog I feel ready to faint, and fly away as fast as I can.” No arguments will give courage to the coward.”

— Aesop

222. “People often grudge others what they cannot enjoy themselves.”

— Aesop

223. “Your words, O Hares! are good; but they lack both claws and teeth such as we have.”

— Aesop

224. “The Tortoise never for a moment stopped, but went on with a slow but steady pace straight to the end of the course.”

— Aesop

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

— Aesop

226. “If you are a friend, why do you bite me so hard? If an enemy, why do you fawn on me?”

— Aesop

227. “The Oxen and the Axle-Trees A HEAVY WAGON was being dragged along a country lane by a team of Oxen. The Axle-trees groaned and creaked terribly; whereupon the Oxen, turning round, thus addressed the wheels: “Hullo there! why do you make so much noise? We bear all the labor, and we, not you, ought to cry out.” Those who suffer most cry out the least.”

— Aesop

228. “If you don’t want to lose, you should wait for the right opportunity.”

— Aesop

229. “Forbear harping on what was of yore, for it is the common lot of mortals to sustain the ups and downs of fortune.”

— Aesop

230. “Pleasure bought with pains, hurts.”

— Aesop

231. “He collected audiences around him, and flourished and exhibited and harangued.”

— Aesop

232. “All of us, the great and the little have need of each other.”

— Aesop

233. “He who shares the danger ought to share the prize.”

— Aesop

234. “It is absurd to ape our betters.”

— Aesop

235. “I don’t mind having to die now, for I see that he is the cause of my death is about to share the same fate.”

— Aesop

236. “No one truly forgets injuries in the presence of him who caused the injury.”

— Aesop

237. “We should use our judgment before coming to a decision.”

— Aesop

238. “A SWALLOW, returning from abroad and especially fond of dwelling with men, built herself a nest in the wall of a Court of Justice and there hatched seven young birds. A Serpent gliding past the nest from its hole in the wall ate up the young unfledged nestlings. The Swallow, finding her nest empty, lamented greatly and exclaimed: “Woe to me a stranger! that in this place where all others’ rights are protected, I alone should suffer wrong.”

— Aesop

239. “Don’t take it so much to heart, my friend; put a brick into the hole, and take a look at it every day: you won’t be any worse off than before, for even when you had your gold it was of no earthly use to you.”

— Aesop

240. “We should find out as much as possible about someone before coming into conflict with him.”

— Aesop

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

— Aesop

242. “Hope not to succeed in borrowed plumes.”

— Aesop

243. “Your birthday is the vintage of your wine; the mark that warns you of your future.”

— Aesop

244. “We like other people to show themselves to us as they really are.”

— Aesop

245. “If these town gods can’t detect the thieves who steal from their own temples, it’s hardly likely they’ll tell me who stole my spade.”

— Aesop

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

— Aesop

247. “A consciousness of misfortunes arising from a man’s own misconduct aggravates their bitterness.”

— Aesop

248. “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.”

— Aesop

249. “The North Wind and the Sun.”

— Aesop

250. “If you had half as much brains as you have beard, you would have looked before you leaped.”

— Aesop