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Aesop's Fables, translated by Laura Gibbs (2002)

200. THE FIR TREE AND THE BRAMBLE BUSH
Perry 304 (Babrius 64)

The fir tree and the bramble bush were quarrelling with one another. The fir tree sang her own praises at length. 'I am beautiful and attractively tall. I grow straight up, a neighbour to the clouds. I supply the hall's roof and the ship's keel. How can you compare yourself, you mere thorn, to such a tree as myself?' The bramble bush then said to the tree, 'Just remember the axes which are always chopping away at you! Then even you can understand that it is better to be a bramble bush.'
A famous man has more glory than lesser people, but he is also exposed to greater dangers.


Source: Aesop's Fables. A new translation by Laura Gibbs. Oxford University Press (World's Classics): Oxford, 2002.
NOTE: New cover, with new ISBN, published in 2008; contents of book unchanged.