“Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.” Leonardo da Vinci. Adopted by Steve Jobs.
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A Scorpion needed to cross a pond. Seeing a Frog, the Scorpion asked the Frog for a ride to the other side.
“But, you will sting me,” said the Frog. “Certainly not!” answered the Scorpion, “Why should I do that? We should both drown in the process!”
This seemed to make common sense to the Frog, so the Frog allowed the Scorpion to jump onto the Frog’s back for the ride across the pond.
Lo and behold, halfway across, the Scorpion stung the Frog.
“Why did you do it? Why did you sting me?” queried the Frog in desperation, “Now we shall both die!”
“Well,” said the Scorpion, “I did it because I am a Scorpion, and I sting Frogs!”
Moral of the Story: Beware the nature of a thing, which will define its behavior, sooner or later.
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Introduction – The Essential Aesop – Epilogue
Related Articles: Hiring on Hope – The Business of Aesop™ No. 90 – The Cat-Maiden; The Essential Aesop: Epilogue; Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death! – Abridgment Series
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Why We Loved It: This is one of the favorites, and reduces to the essential purpose of wisdom itself: prediction. Wisdom is all about tendencies and predictions, as explained in The Essential Aesop: Epilogue. Aesop’s lesson reminds us to acknowledge that the deeper is the nature of thing, the more likely that it will act in accordance with that nature.
When the subject of wisdom is applied to human beings, predictive success is necessarily a function of how well there is an understanding of human nature, human tendencies. Sometimes, it is understanding the general rules of human nature, and sometimes it is about understanding the particular implementation of those rules in one human being.
Irrespectively, hope tends to confuse the assessment, and weakness tends to cause the subject’s action to divert from any stated lofty intention. Hope and weakness conjoin to wreak their havoc.
The wisest persons tend to have the deepest understanding of human nature, stepping out of hope, understanding weakness, and thereby clearly assessing a context, which is why they have gained their reputations.
“But what is government itself, but the greatest of all reflections on human nature? If men were angels, no government would be necessary. If angels were to govern men, neither external nor internal controls on government would be necessary.” ~James Madison (Father of the Constitution)
“Mankind soon learn to make interested uses of every right and power which they possess, or may assume….Nor should our assembly be deluded by the integrity of their own purposes, and conclude that these unlimited powers will never be abused, because themselves are not disposed to abuse them. They should look forward to a time, and that not a distant one, when a corruption in this, as in the country from which we derive our origin, will have seized the heads of government, and be spread by them through the body of the people; when they will purchase the voices of the people, and make them pay the price. Human nature is the same on every side of the Atlantic, and will be alike influenced by the same causes. The time to guard against corruption and tyranny, is before they shall have gotten hold of us. It is better to keep the wolf out of the fold, than to trust to drawing his teeth and talons after he shall have entered.” ~Thomas Jefferson, Notes on Virginia II, Correspondence 1782-1786
“The strife of the election is but human nature practically applied to the facts in the case. What has occurred in this case must ever occur in similar cases. Human nature will not change.” ~Abraham Lincoln
“But, Jesus would not trust himself to them because he knew them all, and did not need anyone to testify about human nature. He himself understood it well.” ~Jesus ONE®: 372
“It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer, or the baker that we expect our dinner, but from their regard to their own interest.” ~Adam Smith, The Wealth of Nations
“I purposely avoided all political disquisition; nor shall I now avail myself of those advantages, which the sacred cause of my country, of liberty, and of human nature, give me over you; much less shall I stoop to retort and invective; but the intelligence you say you have received from our army requires a reply…” George Washington (in replying to his enemy, General Gage)
“It is natural to man to indulge in the illusions of hope. We are apt to shut our eyes against a painful truth, and listen to the song of that siren till she transforms us into beasts….I have but one lamp by which my feet are guided, and that is the lamp of experience. I know of no way of judging of the future but by the past. And judging by the past, I wish to know what there has been in conduct to justify those hopes with which gentlemen have been pleased to solace themselves….Let us not deceive ourselves. There is no longer any room for hope….They tell us, sir, that we are weak. But when shall we be stronger? Will it be the next week, or the next year? Shall we acquire the means of effectual resistance by lying supinely on our backs and hugging the delusive phantom of hope, until our enemies shall have bound us hand and foot? Gentlemen may cry, ‘Peace, Peace’—but there is no peace. The war is actually begun! Why stand we here idle? What is it that gentlemen wish? What would they have? Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!” ~Patrick Henry
“So in regard to wealth. Go on in confidence, study the rules, and above all things, study human nature for ‘the proper study of mankind is man,’ and you will find that while expanding the intellect and the muscles, your enlarged experience will enable you every day to accumulate more and more principal, which will increase itself by interest and otherwise, until you arrive at a state of independence.” ~P.T. Barnum, The Art of Money Getting
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© 2013 Arnold Zegarelli and Gregg Zegarelli, Esq. Gregg can be contacted through LinkedIn. Arnold Zegarelli can be contacted through Facebook.
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