Pride comes before a fall

  • This everyday expression means people who act in a self important way, risk being made to look very foolish.
  • The expression comes from one of Aesop's Fables, ‘The Eagle and the Cockerels’. Aesop lived between c. 620-560 BCE.

Aesop Fable ‘The Eagle and the Cockerels’

  • Two Cockerels were fighting in a farmyard and eventually one of them won.
  • The loser hid in a corner, whilst the winner flew onto the top of the chicken house, and crowing as loud as his voice could, told the whole world about his victory.
  • An Eagle passing overhead, hearing the Cockerel crowing, dived down and carried him off to his lair.
  • The moral of the story is that pride comes before a fall.

 

Everyday Expressions that come from Aesop
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