“A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.”

This is a well-known English proverb that was derived from the following Aesop fable:

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Aesop Fable 8 – The Hawk and the Nightingale

A nightingale, perched on a tall oak, was singing as usual when a hawk saw her. He was very hungry, so he swooped down upon her and seized her. Seeing herself about to die, the nightingale pleaded to the hawk to let her go, saying she was not a sizable enough meal and would never fill the stomach of a hawk, and that if he were hungry he ought to find some bigger birds. But the hawk replied: ‘I should indeed have lost my senses if I should let go food ready to my hand, for the sake of pursuing birds which are not even seen within sight.’

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Some men are foolish who, in hope of greater things, let those which they have in their grasp escape. Other men are smart or as smart as a hawk to first have the bird in its hand. For example, Warren Buffett once said the following: “A girl in a convertible is worth five in the phone book.”

I agree with both Aesop and Warren Buffett though I do not have a convertible now.