THE HARE AND THE TORTOISE

In this fable, perhaps Aesop’s best known, a hare kept mocking a tortoise for being slow. One day the tortoise, tired of the hare showing off, challenged him to a race and the hare accepted. The tortoise set off, moving slowly but steadily. The hare soon left the tortoise behind and, confident of winning, took a nap midway through the race. When he awoke, however, he found that his competitor, crawling slowly but steadily, had arrived before him. The fable’s moral is that diligence and perseverance can trump talent when it fails to work hard.