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

255. THE FOX AND THE GRAPES
Perry 15 (Phaedrus 4.3)

Driven by hunger, a fox tried to reach some grapes hanging high on the vine. Although she leaped with all her strength, she couldn't manage to reach the grapes. As she went away, the fox remarked, 'Oh, you aren't even ripe yet! I don't need any sour grapes.'
People who speak disparagingly of things that they cannot attain would do well to apply this instructive little story to their own lives.

Note: For a version of this fable involving a mouse, see Fable 256 (following).

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.