Plautus quotes:

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  • Property is unstable, and youth perishes in a moment. Life itself is held in the grinning fangs of Death, Yet men delay to obtain release from the world. Alas, the conduct of mankind is surprising.

  • Courage is what preserves our liberty, safety, life, and our homes and parents, our country and children. Courage comprises all things.

  • He whom the gods love dies young, while he is in health, has his senses and his judgments sound.

  • No guest is so welcome in a friend's house that he will not become a nuisance after three days.

  • I would rather be adorned by beauty of character than jewels. Jewels are the gift of fortune, while character comes from within.

  • Good courage in a bad affair is half of the evil overcome.

  • There's no such thing, you know, as picking out the best woman: it's only a question of comparative badness, brother.

  • Patience is the best remedy for every trouble.

  • Friendship is composed of a single soul inhabiting two bodies.

  • Courage in danger is half the battle. [Lat., Bonus animus in mala re, dimidium est mali.]

  • You must spend money to make money.

  • The day, water, sun, moon, night - I do not have to purchase these things with money.

  • Courage in danger is half the battle.

  • No blessing lasts forever.

  • This is the great fault of wine; it first trips up the feet: it is a cunning wrestler.

  • It does not matter a feather whether a man be supported by patron or client, if he himself wants courage. [Lat., Animus tamen omnia vincit. Ille etiam vires corpus habere facit.]

  • You will stir up the hornets. [Lat., Irritabis crabones.]

  • Courage easily finds its own eloquence.

  • Bad conduct soils the finest ornament more than filth.

  • A contented mind is the best source for trouble.

  • He means well' is useless unless he does well.

  • It well becomes a young man to be modest.

  • The mind is hopeful; success is in God's hands. [Lat., Sperat quidem animus: quo eveniat, diis in manu est.]

  • Good merchandise, even hidden, soon finds buyers.

  • Not by age but by capacity is wisdom acquired.

  • Every man, however wise, needs the advice of some sagacious friend in the affairs of life.

  • As long as she is wise and good, a girl has sufficient dowry.

  • I have taken a wife, I have sold my sovereignty for a dowry. [Lat., Uxorem accepi, dote imperium vendidi.]

  • I know that we women are all justly accounted praters; they say in the present day that there never was in any age such a wonder to be found as a dumb woman. [Lat., Nam multum loquaces merito omnes habemus, Nec mutam profecto repertam ullam esse Hodie dicunt mulierem ullo in seculo.]

  • He that is in love, faith, if he be hungry, is not hungry at all.

  • A good disposition I far prefer to gold; for gold is the gift of fortune; goodness of disposition is the gift of nature. I prefer much rather to be called good than fortunate. [Lat., Bono ingenio me esse ornatam, quam auto multo mavolo. Aurum fortuna invenitur, natura ingenium donum. Bonam ego, quam beatam me esse nimio dici mavolo.

  • Fortune moulds and circumscribes human affairs as she pleases. [Lat., Fortuna humana fingit artatque ut lubet.]

  • Nothing is there more friendly to a man than a friend in need.

  • Nothing but heaven itself is better than a friend who is really a friend.

  • If you are wise, be wise; keep what goods the gods provide you.

  • Drink, live like the Greeks, eat, gorge.

  • Nothing is more wretched than the mind of a man conscious of guilt.

  • One eye-witness is of more weight than ten hearsays. Those who hear, speak of shat they have heard; whose who see, know beyond mistake. [Lat., Pluris est oculatus testis unus, quam auriti decem. Qui audiunt, audita dicunt; qui vident, plane sciunt.]

  • No one can be so welcome a guest that he will not become an annoyance when he has stayed three continuous days in a friend's house. [Lat., Hospes nullus tam in amici hospitium diverti potest, Quin ubi triduum continuum fuerit jam odiosus siet.

  • I suspect that hunger was my mother.

  • To blow and to swallow at the same time is not easy; I cannot at the same time be here and also there. [Lat., Simul flare sorbereque haud facile Est: ego hic esse et illic simul, haud potui.]

  • You love a nothing when you love an ingrate.

  • I much prefer a compliment, even if insincere, to sincere criticism.

  • If you speak insults you will hear them also.

  • If anything is spoken in jest, it is not fair to turn it to earnest.

  • What you lend is lost; when you ask for it back, you may find a friend made an enemy by your kindness. If you begin to press him further, you have the choice of two things--either to lose your loan or lose your friend.

  • Spice a dish with love and it pleases every palate.

  • How bitter it is to reap a harvest of evil for good that you have done! [Lat., Ut acerbum est, pro benefactis quom mali messem metas!]

  • It is customary these days to ignore what should be done in favour of what pleases us.

  • In everything the middle course is best: all things in excess bring trouble to men. [Lat., Modus omnibus in rebus, soror, optimum est habitu; Nimia omnia nimium exhibent negotium hominibus ex se.]

  • The poor man who enters into a partnership with one who is rich makes a risky venture.

  • It wasn't for nothing that the raven was just now croaking on my left hand.

  • In misfortune if you cultivate a cheerful disposition you will reap the advantage of it.

  • Besides that, when elsewhere the harvest of wheat is most abundant, there it comes up less by one-fourth than what you have sowed. There, methinks, it were a proper place for men to sow their wild oats, where they would not spring up. [Lat., Post id, frumenti quum alibi messis maxima'st Tribus tantis illi minus reddit, quam obseveris. Heu! istic oportet obseri mores malos, Si in obserendo possint interfieri.]

  • No man will be respected by others who is despised by his own relatives.

  • Every one can remember that which has interested himself.

  • Riches, rightly used, breed delight.

  • Enemies carry a report in form different from the original.

  • Laws are subordinate to custom.

  • For enemies carry about slander not in the form in which it took its rise . The scandal of men is everlasting; even then does it survive when you would suppose it to be dead.

  • Your tittle-tattlers, and those who listen to slander, by my good will should all be hanged--the former by their tongues, the latter by the ears.

  • Slander-mongers and those who listen to slander, if I had my way, would all be strung up, the talkers by the tongue, the listeners by the ears.

  • Tattletales, and those who listen to their slander, by my good will, should all be hanged. The former by their tongues, the latter by their ears. [Lat., Homines qui gestant, quique auscultant crimina, si meo arbitratu liceat, omnes pendeant gestores linguis, auditores auribus.]

  • It is a tiresome way of speaking, when you should despatch the business, to beat about the bush.

  • Even the whole of life is not sufficient for thorough learning.

  • You little know what a ticklish thing it is to go to law. [Lat., Nescis tu quam meticulosa res sit ire ad judicem.]

  • Because those, who twit others with their faults, should look at home.

  • He whom the gods love dies young, whilst he is full of health, perception, and judgment. [Lat., Quem dii diligunt, Adolescens moritur, dum valet, sentit, sapit.]

  • We can more easily endure that which shames than that which vexes us.

  • This is the great evil in wine, it first seizes the feet; it is a cunning wrestler. [Lat., Magnum hoc vitium vino est, Pedes captat primum; luctator dolosu est.]

  • Let us celebrate the occasion with wine and sweet words.

  • A word to the wise is sufficient

  • A woman without paint is like food without salt.

  • Worthy things happen to the worthy.

  • If you have overcome your inclination and not been overcome by it, you have reason to rejoice.

  • For nobody is curious, who isn't malevolent.

  • How great in number are the little minded men.

  • A mouse does not rely on just one hole.

  • A mouse never entrusts his life to only one hole.

  • Things we do not expect, happen more frequently than we wish.

  • No man is wise enough by himself.

  • The greatest talents often lie buried out of sight.

  • Keep what you have; the known evil is best.

  • A man with courage has every blessing.

  • A well-balanced mind is the best remedy against affliction.

  • A woman finds it much easier to do ill than well. [Lat., Mulieri nimio male facere melius est onus, quam bene.]

  • A woman smells well when she smells of nothing.

  • Ah yes, the gods use us mortals as footballs!

  • All good men and women should be on their guard to avoid guilt, and even the suspicion of it.

  • All men love themselves.

  • Always bring money along with your complaints.

  • And so it happens oft in many instances; more good is done without our knowledge than by us intended. [Lat., Itidemque ut saepe jam in multis locis, Plus insciens quis fecit quam prodens boni.]

  • Are you not accustomed to look at home, when you abuse others?

  • Arrogance is the outgrowth of prosperity.

  • Badly gotten, badly spent. [Lat., Male partum, male disperit.]

  • Confidence begets confidence. Courage, an independent spark from heaven's bright throne, By which the soul stands raised, triumphant, high, alone. Courage in danger is half the battle.

  • Conquered, we conquer.

  • Consider the little mouse, how sagacious an animal it is which never entrusts its life to one hole only.

  • Courage is its own reward.

  • Courage is to take hard knocks like a man when occasion calls.

  • Disgrace is immortal, and living even when one thinks it dead.

  • Do you never look at yourself when you abuse another person?

  • Feast to-day makes fast to-morrow. Lat.

  • Feast to-day makes fast to-morrow. [Lat., Festo die si quid prodegeris, Profesto egere liceat nisi peperceris.]

  • Find me a reasonable lover against his weight in gold.

  • Fire is next akin to smoke.

  • Flame is very near to smoke.

  • Flying without feathers is not easy; my wings have no feathers.

  • Food of Acheron. (Grave.) [Lat., Pabulum Acheruntis.]

  • For I know that many good things have happened to many, when least expected; and that many hopes have been disappointed.

  • Fortitude is a great help in distress.

  • Give assistance, and receive thanks lighter than a feather: injure a man, and his wrath will be like lead.

  • Good things soon find a purchaser.

  • He can do most who has most power.

  • He gains wisdom in a happy way, who gains it by another's experience. [Lat., Feliciter sapit qui alieno periculo sapit.]

  • He is a friend indeed who proves himself a friend in need.

  • He is a friend who, in dubious circumstances, aids in deeds when deeds are necessary.

  • He is hailed a conqueror of conquerors. [Lat., Victor victorum cluet.]

  • He is happy in his wisdom who has learned at another's expense.

  • 'He means well' is useless unless he does well.

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