# "The fox knows many things, but the hedgehog knows one big thing" - Which is? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [March 8, 2009, 9:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-fox-knows-many-things-but-the-hedgehog-knows-one-big-thing-which-is/488722 "2009-03-08T09:13:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![gigi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a587f6/32.png) [@gigi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gigi)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2009, 6:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-fox-knows-many-things-but-the-hedgehog-knows-one-big-thing-which-is/488722/21 "2009-03-10T18:40:54Z")
> [@Arkcon](#): > > The hedgehog did his Ron Jeremy impersonation What a wonderful sentence. ---
**Author:** ![Arnold\_Winkelried](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Arnold\_Winkelried](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arnold_Winkelried)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2009, 7:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-fox-knows-many-things-but-the-hedgehog-knows-one-big-thing-which-is/488722/22 "2009-03-10T19:02:25Z")
> [@Arkcon](#): > > I thought that was one of Aseop’s 'tho. I don’t remember that from Aesop. Aesop does have a fable called [The Fox and the Hedgehog](http://www.gutenberg.org/files/21/21-h/21-h.htm#2H_4_0182) but the point of that fable is totally different than the subject of the OP. ---
**Author:** ![RedSwinglineOne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/a9adbd/32.png) [@RedSwinglineOne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RedSwinglineOne)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2009, 7:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-fox-knows-many-things-but-the-hedgehog-knows-one-big-thing-which-is/488722/23 "2009-03-10T19:40:43Z")
The Fox and the Cat A Fox was boasting to a Cat of its clever devices for escaping its enemies. “I have a whole bag of tricks,” he said, “which contains a hundred ways of escaping my enemies.” “I have only one,” said the Cat; “but I can generally manage with that.” Just at that moment they heard the cry of a pack of hounds coming towards them, and the Cat immediately scampered up a tree and hid herself in the boughs. “This is my plan,” said the Cat. “What are you going to do?” The Fox thought first of one way, then of another, and while he was debating the hounds came nearer and nearer, and at last the Fox in his confusion was caught up by the hounds and soon killed by the huntsmen. Miss Puss, who had been looking on, said: **"Better one safe way than a hundred on which you cannot reckon."** ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2009, 11:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-fox-knows-many-things-but-the-hedgehog-knows-one-big-thing-which-is/488722/24 "2009-03-10T23:22:11Z")
Incidentally, it’s very unlikely that Berlin learned about Archilochus by reading through all of ancient Greek literature and finding the fragment of his writing where the saying is mentioned. It’s much more likely that he learned the saying by reading it in Erasmus’s collection of sayings or in something that quoted from Erasmus: > **[Adagia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adagia)** > > Adagia (singular adagium) is the title of an annotated collection of Greek and Latin proverbs, compiled during the Renaissance by Dutch humanist Desiderius Erasmus Roterodamus. Erasmus' collection of proverbs is "one of the most monumental ... ever assembled" (Speroni, 1964, p. 1). > The first edition, titled Collectanea Adagiorum, was published in Paris in 1500, in a slim quarto of around eight hundred entries. By 1508, after his stay in Italy, Erasmus had expanded the collection (now called Ad... Erasmus was a Dutch Renaissance writer who produced a giant collection of sayings drawn from the ancient Romans and Greeks. Like many Renaissance thinkers, he thought that they were the source of all good knowledge. His collection of Greek and Roman sayings was very influential in popularizing many ancient proverbs in modern times. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-fox-knows-many-things-but-the-hedgehog-knows-one-big-thing-which-is/488722.md?page=1)