A farmer who had a quarrelsome family called his sons and told them to lay a bunch of sticks before him. Then, after laying the sticks parallel to one another and binding them, he challenged his sons, one after one, to pick up the bundle and break it. They all tried, but in vain. Then, untying the bundle, he gave them the sticks to break one by one. This they did with the greatest ease. Then said the father, "Thus, my sons, as long as you remain united, you are a match for anything, but differ and separate, and you are undone".

It is easy to be brave from a safe distance.

We can easily represent things as we wish them to be.

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

Thinking to get at once all the gold the goose could give, he killed it and opened it only to find-nothing.

The little reed, bending to the force of the wind, soon stood upright again when the storm had passed over.

Every man carries two bags about him, one in front and one behind, and both are full of faults. The bag in front contains his neighbors' faults, the one behind his own. Hence it is that men do not see their own faults, but never fail to see those of others.