Aesop's Fables
Quotes and highlights from Aesop's Fables by Aesop — 11 passages I marked up while reading (January 2021 – August 2024). Everything below is taken straight from my Kindle, unedited and in the order I read it.
What this book keeps circling back tobird, mouse, goose, rich and without.
All 11 highlights
“I thought those Grapes were ripe, but I see now they are quite sour.”
A Man and his Wife had the good fortune to possess a Goose which laid a Golden Egg every day. Lucky though they were, they soon began to think they were not getting rich fast enough, and, imagining the bird must be made of gold inside, they decided to kill it in order to secure the whole store of precious metal at once. But when they cut it open they found it was just like any other goose. Thus, they neither got rich all at once, as they had hoped, nor enjoyed any longer the daily addition to their wealth. Much wants more and loses all.
If you are wise you won’t be deceived by the innocent airs of those whom you have once found to be dangerous.
Notoriety is often mistaken for fame.
The Fuller thanked him, but replied, “I couldn’t think of it, sir: why, everything I take such pains to whiten would be blackened in no time by your charcoal.”
who is going to bell the cat?”
“But I’m not a mouse,” said the Bat; “I’m a bird.” “Why, so you are,” said the Weasel; and he too let the Bat go. Look and see which way the wind blows before you commit yourself.
The Crow was hugely flattered by this, and just to show the Fox that she could sing she gave a loud caw. Down came the cheese, of course, and the Fox, snatching it up, said, “You have a voice, madam, I see: what you want is wits.”
“Well, anyhow,” said the Wolf, “I’m not going without my dinner”: and he sprang upon the Lamb and devoured it without more ado.
One swallow does not make summer.
THE MOUSE, THE FROG, AND THE HAWK
What I've written around this
Where these ideas turn up in my own work.
- PlagueWe are like a plague sweeping the earth, tearing apart the very environment that allows us to live.
- Chapter 2
- On the Midjourney whole-body scanner
Read alongside
Other books on the shelf that cover similar ground.
I write about what I read — medicine, technology, and what holds up across centuries — in Side Effects. The essays live in the archive, and the rest of the shelf is on Book Notes.