[PW] Charles-Maurice de Talleyrand -Périgord Quote on Lions and Sheep

[Timothy PWEE]

Thanks everyone for their help. I finally tracked down the earliest version
of the maxim to be attributed to the Greek military commander Chabrias by
Plutarch in his work, Sayings of Kings and Commanders:

"He [Chabrias] was wont to say that an army of deer commanded by a lion is
more to be feared than an army of lions commanded by a deer.
- Plutarch. (1931). Moralia: Vol. III (Frank Cole Babbitt, Trans.). Loeb
Classical Library. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

The Internet is full of sites attributing it as an Arab proverb.
Unfortunately, I don't read Arabic and can't confirm that. However, my
colleagues searched a couple of compilations of transationed Arab proverbs
and didn't find anything. Perhaps some brave Arabic-reading w*mb*t will
venture to confirm whether the maxim was actually used in Arabic literature
or whether this one of the famous 'Confucius said' attributions?

With Much Appreciation
Slow
in rainy Singapore