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Jean de la Fontaine on discretion

One trait, two names — depending on who has it

“What is called discretion in men is called cunning in animals.” Jean de la Fontaine, the 17th-century fabulist who spent a career putting human behavior in animals’ mouths, catches the double standard in a single line — the same careful self-interest earns praise in a person and suspicion in a fox. A neat little indictment of how we grade the very same trait by who is showing it.

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