“The grasshopper also has a lesson to teach to man. All the summer through it sings, until its belly bursts, and death claims it. Though it knows the fate that awaits it, yet it sings on. So man should do his duty toward God, no matter what the consequences.”

–Louis Ginzberg, Legends of the Jews, vol. 1: From the Creation to Jacob. I really like this twist on the “ant and the grasshopper” fable.