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The camel set out to get him horns and was shorn of his ears.

Camelus desiderans cornua etiam aures perdidit.

Original text (Latin)

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Source, in full

Adagia. Chil, III. Cent. V. 8. heading. Greek proverb from Apostolius, IX. 59 b, VIII. 43. English a free translation of the same from the rendering of the Proverb applied to Baalam by the Rabbis of the Talmud. Sanhedrin. 106 a.

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Failure

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Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Erasmus (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.