Plautus Quotes

It is a bitter disappointment when you have sown benefits, to reap injuries.

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

Man is a wolf to man.
[Lat., Homo homini lupus.]

One eye-witness weighs more than ten hearsays - Seeing is believing all the world over.

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

Fire is next akin to smoke.

If you want to do something, do it!

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.

If you do anything well, gratitude is lighter than a feather; if you give offense in anything, people's wrath is as heavy as lead.

Things unhoped for happen oftener than things we desire.

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.]

If you strike the goads with your fists, your hands suffer most.

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

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.]

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.

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.

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

Persevere in virtue and diligence.

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

One eye witness is better than ten hear sayers.

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

Smooth words in place of gifts.
[Lat., Dicta docta pro datis.]

After all, what is money apart from what it can buy?

That's a miserable and cursed word, to say I had, when what I have is nothing.

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

Courage in danger is half the battle.

Find me a reasonable lover against his weight in gold.

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.

A woman smells well when she smells of nothing.

Nothing is more annoying than a tardy friend.
[Lat., Tardo amico nihil est quidquam iniquius.]

Worthy things happen to the worthy.

He who falls in love meets a worse fate than he who leaps from a rock.

How often the highest talent lurks in obscurity.

Ones oldest friend is the best.

Woman is certainly the daughter of Delay personified!

Where there are sheep, the wolves are never very far away.

Let not your expenditure exceed your income.

The prudent man really frames his own fortunes for himself.

Ut saepe summa ingenia in occulto latent (How often the greatest talents are shrouded in obscurity)

To waste one's breath; to pump into a sieve.

That least pleases us which is most urged on us.

The man who masters his own soul will forever be called conqueror of conquerors.

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

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

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.]

It is not without a purpose when a rich man greets a poor one with kindness.

A word to the wise is enough.

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

It is common to forget a man and slight him if his good will cannot help you.

It is difficult to fly without wings.

Love has both its gall and honey in abundance: it has sweetness to the taste, but it presents bitterness also to satiety.

You have eaten a meal dangerously seasoned. [You have laid up a grief in store for yourself.]

Good things soon find a purchaser.

Conquered, we conquer.

To snatch the worm from the trap.

He that would eat the nut must crack the shell.

That man will never be unwelcome to others who makes himself agreeable to his own family.

Know not what you know, and see not what you see.
[Lat., Etiam illud quod scies nesciveris;
Ne videris quod videris.]

A mouse does not rely on just one hole.

It is not fair to treat as serious that which is only said in joke.

If you squander on a holyday, you will want on a workday unless you have been sparing.

It is sheer folly to take unwilling hounds to the chase.

It is good to love in a moderate degree; but it is not good to love to distraction.

Let a man who wants to find abundance of employment procure a woman and a ship: for no two things do produce more trouble if you begin to equip them; neither are these two things ever equipped enough.

I trust no rich man who is officiously kind to a poor man.

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

Women have many faults, but the worst of them all is that they are too pleased with themselves and take too little pains to please the men.

It is easier to begin well than to finish well.

Not by age but by capacity is wisdom acquired.

The fool too late, his substance eaten up, reckons the cost.

Where there are friends there is wealth.

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

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

Never speak ill of an absent friend.

We only appreciate the comforts of life in their loss.

The sea is certainly common to all.

Vulgarity of manners defiles fine garments more than mud.

He who has in due season become rich, unless he saves in due season, will in due season starve.

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

Drink, live like the Greeks, eat, gorge.

Unexpected results are the rule rather than the exception.

A woman without paint is like food without salt.

You must spend money to make money.

Keep what you have got; the known evil is best.
[Lat., Habeas ut nactus; nota mala res optima est.]

I seek the utmost pleasure and the least pain.

Things which you do not hope happen more frequently than things which you do hope.

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

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

Know this, that troubles come swifter than the things we desire.

All men love themselves.

A mouse never entrusts his life to only one hole.

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

Laws are subordinate to custom.

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

It well becomes a young man to be modest.

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

I suspect that hunger was my mother.

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.]

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

It is wretched business to be digging a well just as thirst is mastering you.