A fox is not taken twice in the same snare

Mnemon

Mnemon

Banned
Persian - 𐎱𐎾𐎿𐎡
Just encountered the phrase here in this thread,
implied comparison using names of animals

Are you familiar with it? Couldn't find it in some online dictionaries I looked the expression up. What does it mean exactly?

Is its meaning along the lines of learning something the hard way?
 
    • Another version of the same idea is:

    Fool me once, shame on you,
    Fool me twice, shame on me!
     
    I think the saying presupposes that, although temporarily caught, the fox escapes; other wise there would be no point in setting the same snare again.
     
    PaulQ said:
    I think the saying presupposes that, although temporarily caught, the fox escapes; other wise there would be no point in setting the same snare again.
    Click to expand...
    The point would be to catch other animals. Trappers don't retire a snare after catching one animal.
     
    It sounds old-fashioned to me too and somehow not acceptable at a time when foxes are protected and possibly snares and traps are forbidden. For the majority of English, maybe British people, foxes and snares are remote references. Foxes are supposed to be cunning animals so the implication is that if you fall for the same trick twice you are stupid.
     
    And my dad used to day, "Any idiot can learn from his own mistakes; a wise man learns from the mistakes of others."

    But I agree with those who say the phrase means "learn from your mistakes".

    (My dog learned not to jump up on the stove when he burned his paw. So this is not a very high bar.)
     
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