Foxes, when they cannot reach the grapes, say they are not ripe.
Meaning: Those denied what they desire rationalize their rejection rather than admit their inability to obtain it.
Origin: From Aesop's fable of the fox who leaps for grapes hanging out of reach and, failing, walks off declaring they were sour anyway. The Roman poet Phaedrus and later La Fontaine retold it, and it gave English the phrase "sour grapes" for pretending to despise what you cannot have.
More proverbs about Communication
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