- The expression means that it is better to be satisfied with whatever meagre possession you have now, than to wait for the promise of greater things tomorrow that might not materialise.
- This everyday expression comes from one of Aesop's Fables, ‘The Hawk and the Nightingale’. Aesop lived between c. 620-560 BCE.
Aesop’s Fable ‘The Hawk and the Nightingale’
- In the Fable, the Hawk captures a Nightingale, who pleads to be let go on the basis of being too small to be eaten now, and to wait until it has grown bigger.
- The Hawk declines the offer on the basis that a small meal now is better than the promise of a larger meal later.
Everyday Expressions that come from Aesop