‎"Friend donkey," he said as they went along, "you, verily, go running after a bunch of thistles, the meagre fare with which I have provided you; but you leave behind the lovely road that is filled with all kinds of most delicate herbs. And thus do all men, scenting out, some of them, the bouquet called Fame which Fortune puts under their nose, others the bouquet of Gain, and yet others the bouquet that is called Love. But at the end of the journey they discover, like you, that they have been pursuing things that are of little account, and that they have left behind all that is worth anything"

- Charles de Coster (The Legend of the Glorious Adventures of Tyl Ulenspiegel in the Land of Flanders and Elsewhere)

Picture: "Landscape with Donkey Rider" by Jan Wijnants (1655-84)