Laudator Temporis Acti

Horace, Epistles 1.1.70-75 (tr. Colin Macleod):

But if the Roman people asked me why
I walk where they do, but do not think like them,
and do not share their tastes or their aversions,
I should reply like the canny fox in the fable
to the sick lion: "Those foot-prints frighten me;
all of them point towards you, and none back."

quod si me populus Romanus forte roget, cur        70
non ut porticibus sic iudiciis fruar isdem,
nec sequar aut fugiam quae diligit ipse vel odit,
olim quod volpes aegroto cauta leoni
respondit, referam: "quia me vestigia terrent,
omnia te adversum spectantia, nulla retrorsum."        75

Aesop, Fables 147 Hausrath, 197 Chambry (tr. Olivia and Robert Temple):

A lion who was getting old and could no longer obtain his food by force decided that he must resort to trickery instead. So he retired to a cave and lay down pretending to be ill. Thus, whenever any animals came to his cave to visit him, he ate them all as they appeared. When many animals had disappeared, a fox figured out what was happening. He went to see the lion but stood at a safe distance outside the cave and asked him how he was. 'Oh, not very well,' said the lion. 'But why don't you come in?' But the fox said: 'I would come inside if I hadn't seen that a lot of footprints are pointing inwards towards your cave but none are pointing out.'

Wise men note the indications of dangers and thus avoid them.

λέων γηράσας καὶ μὴ δυνάμενος δι᾽ ἀλκῆς ἑαυτῷ τροφὴν πορίζειν ἔγνω δεῖν δι᾽ ἐπινοίας τοῦτο πρᾶξαι. καὶ δὴ παραγενόμενος εἴς τι σπήλαιον καὶ ἐνταῦθα κατακλιθεὶς προσεποιεῖτο τὸν νοσοῦντα καὶ οὕτω τὰ παραγενόμενα πρὸς αὐτὸν εἰς ἐπίσκεψιν ζῷα συλλαμβάνων κατήσθιε. πολλῶν δὲ θηρίων καταναλωθέντων ἀλώπηξ τὸ τέχνασμα αὐτοῦ συνεῖσα παρεγένετο καὶ στᾶσα ἄπωθεν τοῦ σπηλαίου ἐπυνθάνετο αὐτοῦ, πῶς ἔχοι. τοῦ δὲ εἰπόντος· «κακῶς» καὶ τὴν αἰτίαν ἐρομένου, δι᾽ ἣν οὐκ εἴσεισιν, ἔφη· "ἀλλ᾽ ἔγωγε εἰσῆλθον ἄν, εἰ μὴ ἑώρων πολλῶν εἰσιόντων ἴχνη, ἐξιόντος δὲ οὐδενός".

οὕτως οἱ φρόνιμοι τῶν ἀνθρώπων ἐκ τεκμηρίων προορώμενοι τοὺς κινδύνους ἐκφεύγουσι.