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Fox is a common name for many species of carnivorous mammals belonging to the Canidae family, and particularly the twelve "true foxes", of which the red fox is the most prevalent. Foxes are small to medium-sized canids (slightly smaller than the domestic dog), characterized by possessing a long narrow snout, and a bushy tail (or brush).
- πόλλ' οἶδ' ἀλώπηξ, ἐχῖνος ἓν μέγα
- The fox knows many things, but the hedgehog knows one big thing.
- Archilochus, Fragments, as quoted in The Hedgehog and the Fox (1953) by Isaiah Berlin
- Variant translations:
- The fox knows many things; the hedgehog one great thing.
- The fox knows many tricks; the hedgehog one good one.
- The fox knows many tricks; and the hedgehog only one; but that is the best one of all.
- The fox knows many things, but the hedgehog knows one big thing.
- There iz this difference between genius and common sense in a fox: Common sense is governed by circumstances, but circumstances is governed by genius.
- Josh Billings, "The Fox", The complete works of Josh Billings (1873, 1876), p. 116
- Variant: There is this difference between genius and common sense in a fox: Common sense is governed by circumstances, but circumstances is governed by genius.
- Transliterated by Donald Day, ed., Uncle Sam's Uncle Josh or, Josh Billings on practically everything (1953), p. 120.
- Let's be perfectly clear, shall we. The fox is not a little orange puppy dog with doe eyes and a waggly tail. It's a disease-ridden wolf with the morals of a psychopath and the teeth of a great white shark.
- Jeremy Clarkson (2005), The World According to Clarkson, p. 161.
- With foxes we must play the fox.
- Criminal Minds (2005), episode 1.7, "The Fox", by "Gideon" (Dr. Thomas Fuller).
- Many Foxes grow grey, but few grow good.
- Benjamin Franklin, Poor Richard's Almanack (1749).
- A fox should not be of the jury at a goose's trial.
- Thomas Fuller, Proverbs (1732), p. 116.
- To make women learned, and foxes tame, hath the same operation, which teacheth them to steale more cuningly, but the possibility is not equall, for when it doth one good, it doth twenty harme.
- Attributed to James I of England; reported in Thomas Overbury, Edward Francis Rimbault, The Miscellaneous Works in Prose and Verse of Sir Thomas Overbury (1856), p. 261.
- The foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests; but the Son of man hath not where to lay his head.
- Jesus, The Gospel of Matthew, 8:20 (KJV).
- And honoured among foxes and pheasants by the gay house
Under the new made clouds and happy as the heart was long,
In the sun born over and over,
I ran my heedless ways.- Dylan Thomas, Fern Hill (1946), St. 5.
- Join the company of lions rather than assume the lead among foxes.
- Talmud, Aboth. IV. 20.
- An election is coming: Universal peace is declared and the foxes have a sincere interest in prolonging the lives of the poultry.
- George Eliot, reported in The Works of George Eliot (1900), p. 73.
- A prince must imitate the fox and the lion, for the lion cannot protect himself from traps, and the fox cannot defend himself from wolves. One must therefore be a fox to recognize traps, and a lion to frighten wolves.
- Niccolo Machiavelli, The Prince.
- You will catch the fox with cunning, and the wolf with courage.
- Albanian Proverb, reported in Victor S. M. De Guinzbourg, Wit and wisdom of the United Nations (1961), p. 67.
The Reynard Cycle
- Now when the king had assembled all his subjects together, there was no one absent save Reynard the Fox, against whom many grievous accusations were laid.
- The King taking a straw from the ground, pardoned the fox of all his trespasses which either he or his father had ever committed. If the fox now began to smile, it was no wonder; the sweetness of life required it: yet he fell down before the King and Queen, and humbly thanked them for mercy.
Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922)
Quotes reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 293.
- Multa novit vulpes, verum echinus unum magnum.
- The fox has many tricks, the hedgehog only one.
- Erasmus, Adagia.
- Tar-baby ain't sayin' nuthin', en brer Fox, he lay low.
- Joel Chandler Harris, "Tar-Baby Story", Legends of the Old Plantation, Ch XII.
- Take us the foxes, the little foxes, that spoil the vines (...)
- Song of Solomon, II 15.
- Honteux comme un renard qu'une poule aurait pris.
- As sheepish as a fox captured by a fowl.
- Jean de La Fontaine, Fables, I 18.
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