The Eagle and the Arrow

An eagle was soaring through the air when suddenly it heard the whizz of an arrow, and felt itself wounded unto death.

Slowly it fluttered down to earth, with its lifeblood pouring out of it.

Looking down upon the arrow with which it had been pierced, it found that the haft of the arrow had been feathered with one of its own plumes.

"Alas!" it cried as it died.

"We often give our enemies the means of our own destruction."

From Aesop's Fables, Joseph Jacobs, ed by Charles W. Eliot c. 1937

The Dog and the Wolf

The wisdom from a child's story:

A gaunt wolf was almost dead from hunger when he happened to meet a house-dog who was passing by. "Ah cousin," said the dog, "I know how it would be; your irregular life will soon be the ruin of you. Why do you not work steadily as I do, and get your food regularly given to you?"

"I would have no objection," said the wolf, "if I could only get a place."

"I will easily arrange that for you," said the dog. "Come with me to my master and you shall share my work."

So the wolf and the dog went towards the town together. On the way there the wolf noticed that the hair on a certain part of the dog's neck was very much worn away, so he ask him how that came about.

"Oh it is nothing," said the dog. "That is only the place where the collar is put on at night to keep me chained up; it chafes a bit, but one soon gets used to it."

"Is that all?" said the wolf. "Then good-bye to you, Master Dog."

The moral?
Better to starve free than be a fat slave

From Aesop's Fables, Joseph Jacobs, ed by Charles W. Eliot c. 1937