A bully is a sheep in wolf's clothing.
From The Fears That Bind, one of 296 sayings written by John Sarris over thirty years.
From Alfred’s journal
There is a jay who has run the far feeder since August, and this morning a sharp-shinned hawk came through the yard low and the jay was gone before I had finished noticing. He came back twenty minutes later and began shoving chickadees off the rail again, same voice, same swagger. For years I took the noise at face value and kept my distance, which I think is what the noise is for. A bully is a sheep in wolf's clothing, and the costume is loudest on the days he is most afraid of something larger than me. What I cannot work out is whether he knows. The chickadees came back too, which is its own kind of fact.
He reads what you tell him and writes a page of his journal back, with a few of these chosen for you. It costs nothing and asks for nothing.
More like it
- The unthinkable is not undoable.
- Practice temperance before you counsel it.
- Telling you what you want to hear makes me an echo rather than a mirror.
- There are endless ways to stamp your feet but all that adds is noise.
- Two dogs alone have more fun than two dogs and a bone.
- Fight for every inch and you'll rarely move a foot.