Aesop Quotes

There's an old saying in Tennessee — I know it's in Texas, probably in Tennessee — that says, fool me once, shame on — shame on you. Fool me — you can't get fooled again.

I was so gullible as a kid.

I like being innocent, but know now when I am being taken for a ride.

But we're born as children and we look at the world with open eyes... And we don't judge and we don't betray. We're not jealous. We're not envious. We're not even weary, which is a danger also as kids. They have to learn a certain amount of awareness.

Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.

Never trust sheep.

One of the common failings among honorable people is a failure to appreciate how thoroughly dishonorable some other people can be, and how dangerous it is to trust them.

Never let a fool kiss you, or a kiss fool you.

Be on guard against your friends.

When the fox preacheth then beware your geese.

When you grow up, people don't speak the truth. You can see, when you trust people, you help them.

No wise man ever thought that a traitor should be trusted.

Note that venerable proverb: Children and fools always speak the truth. The deduction is plain: adults and wise persons never speak it.

Do not put your trust in rivers, men who carry weapons, beasts with claws or horns, women, and members of a royal family.

It is not difficult to deceive the first time, for the deceived possesses no antibodies; unvaccinated by suspicion, she overlooks lateness, accepts absurd excuses, permits the flimsiest patching to repair great rents in the quotidian.

Be innocent, wise and ninety-five.

And oft, though wisdom wake, suspicion sleeps At wisdom's gate, and to simplicity Resigns her charge, while goodness thinks no ill Where no ill seems.

Still anyone who trusts a serpent deserves its bite. The wise see a creature for what it is, not what it says it may be.

People who wish to numb our caution in dealing with them by means of flattery are employing a dangerous expedient, like a sleeping draught, which, if it does not put us to sleep, keeps us all the more awake.

Never trust he who trusts everyone.

Fool me once, shame on - shame on you. Fool me - you can't get fooled again.

Dissimulation, even the most innocent in its nature, is ever productive of embarrassment; whether the design is evil or not artifice is always dangerous and almost inevitably disgraceful.

If your skin is crawling, pay attention. If something doesn’t feel right, pay attention. If the hairs on the back of your neck prickle, if your gut clenches up, if a wave of wrongness washes over you, if your heart starts beating faster, pay, pay, pay attention. Do not second-guess yourself or rationalize anything that impedes your safety. Our instincts are the animal inside of our humanness, warning us of danger.

None is so wise, but the foole overtakes him.

A man, well, he'll walk right into Hell with both eyes open. But even the devil can't fool a dog.