A fox was walking along the bank of a river when he saw a school of fish swimming to and fro. “Who are you fleeing from?” he asked.

“From the nets the men are throwing at us,” replied the fish.

“Perhaps you would like to come up on dry land, so that you and I can live together, just like my ancestors lived with yours?” asked the fox.

The fish answered, “You—whom they call the shrewdest of all animals—are nothing but a fool. If we are afraid in the only place we can stay alive, how much more afraid will we be in a place where we will surely die?!”

-- Babylonian Talmud Berachot 61b

NOTES