Here’s a good fable from Jean de La Fontaine:

A Rat, in quite a foolish way,
Crept from his hole between a Lion’s paws;
The king of animals showed on that day
His royalty, and never snapped his jaws.
The kindness was not unrepaid;
Yet, who’d have thought a Lion would need aid
From a poor Rat?
Soon after that
The Lion in the forest brake,
In their strong toils the hunters take;
In vain his roars, his frenzy, and his rage.
But Mr. Rat runs up; a mesh or two
Nibbles, and lets the Lion through

Patience and length of time may sever,
What strength and empty wrath could never.

When I was a child, my parents bought me an illustrated book that told this story in modern text. At the time, I took away the merits of showing kindness, and how bigger and stronger wasn’t always better. 

In Jean’s original text, the closing lines about the possibilities that patience, perseverance, and a long-term perspective create are more interesting. They’re not always that obvious, and reveal themselves only through time and precursive faith.