The Birds Aristophanes Quotes

The man credited with inventing the comma, colon, and full stop punctuation marks was a librarian of Alexandria called Aristophanes. ~ Aristophanes

By words the mind is winged. ~ Aristophanes

Under every rock lurks a politician. ~ Aristophanes

Under every stone lurks a politician. ~ Aristophanes

I must think of something foolproof for a fool. ~ Aristophanes

You cannot make a crab walk straight. ~ Aristophanes

You will never make the crab walk straight. ~ Aristophanes

A prudent person after all can pick something
Even from an enemy. ~ Aristophanes

Ah! the Generals! they are numerous, but not good for much! ~ Aristophanes

Wise people, even though all laws were abolished, would still lead the same life. ~ Aristophanes

That man is sharp who can say what he wants in a minimum of words. ~ Aristophanes

Quickly, bring me a beaker of wine, so that I may wet my mind and say something clever. ~ Aristophanes

The trickiest thing is the nature of man, apparent in everything. ~ Aristophanes

A man can learn wisdom even from a foe ~ Aristophanes

Do not take a blind guide. ~ Aristophanes

One's country is wherever one does well. ~ Aristophanes

Even from enemies much can be learned by the intelligent,
More in fact than from our friends. ~ Aristophanes

need a poet who can really write. Nowadays it seems like 'many are gone, and those that live are bad'.12 ~ Aristophanes

I was the first to make it understood
that reason could undermine the just premises of the good. ~ Aristophanes

Thou shouldst not decide until thou hast heard what both have to say. ~ Aristophanes

No man is really honest; none of us is above the influence of gain. ~ Aristophanes

Poverty, the most fearful monster that ever drew breath. ~ Aristophanes

better not bring up a lion inside your city,
But if you must, then humour all his moods. ~ Aristophanes

A man should be able to stand up under any disaster for his country's good. ~ Aristophanes

Why, I'd like nothing better than to achieve some bold adventure, worthy of our trip. ~ Aristophanes

The wise learn many things from their enemies. ~ Aristophanes

Comedy too can sometimes discern what is right. ~ Aristophanes

A slave is but half a man. ~ Aristophanes

Open your mind before your mouth ~ Aristophanes

Wealth
the most excellent of all gods. ~ Aristophanes

A man may learn wisdom even from a foe. ~ Aristophanes

I saw a cavalry captain buy vegetable soup on horseback. He carried the whole mess home in his helmet. ~ Aristophanes

Politics, these days, is no occupation
for an educated man, a man of character.
Ignorance and total lousiness are better. ~ Aristophanes

To invoke solely the weaker arguments and yet triumph is an art worth more than a hundred thousand drachmae. ~ Aristophanes

Prayers without wine are perfectly pointless. ~ Aristophanes

An actor should refine public taste. ~ Aristophanes

There is no beast, no rush of fire, like woman so untamed. She calmly goes her way where even panthers would be shamed. ~ Aristophanes

To win the people, always cook them some savoury that pleases them. ~ Aristophanes

It is bad taste for a poet to be coarse and hairy. ~ Aristophanes

I love him, oh! I love him; but he won't let himself be loved. ~ Aristophanes

The truth is forced upon us, very quickly, by a foe. ~ Aristophanes

First listen, my friend, and then you may shriek and bluster. ~ Aristophanes

Comedy is allied to justice. ~ Aristophanes

Today things are better than yesterday. ~ Aristophanes

Lysistrata: To seize the treasury; no more money, no more war. ~ Aristophanes

Let each man exercise the art he knows. ~ Aristophanes

That is what we do each time we see someone who falls in love with evil strategies, until we hurl him into misery, so he may learn to fear the Gods. ~ Aristophanes

It is the compelling power of great thoughts and ideas to engender phrases of equal size. ~ Aristophanes

You cannot teach a crab to walk straight. ~ Aristophanes

A man's homeland is wherever he prospers. ~ Aristophanes

These impossible women! How they do get around us! The poet was right: Can't live with them, or without them. ~ Aristophanes

If a man owes me money, I never seem to forget. But if I do the owing, I somehow never remember. ~ Aristophanes

What can you answer? Now be careful, don't arouse my spite, Or with my slipper I'll take you napping,
faces slapping
Left and right. ~ Aristophanes

Hunger knows no friend but its feeder. ~ Aristophanes

There is no honest man! not one, that can resist the attraction of gold! ~ Aristophanes

If it is necessary for us to do anything [in view of peace], direct us and architect.

πρὸς τάδ' ἡμῖν, εἴ τι χρὴ δρᾶν, φράζε κἀρχιτεκτόνει. ~ Aristophanes

The gods, my dear simple fellow, are a mere expression coined by vulgar superstition. We frown upon such coinage here. ~ Aristophanes

Lysistrata: "Calonice, it's more than I can bear,
I am hot all over with blushes for our sex.
Men say we're slippery rogues--"

Calonice: "And aren't they right? ~ Aristophanes

Woman is adept at getting money for herself and will not easily let herself be deceived; she understands deceit too well herself. ~ Aristophanes

Meton (astronomer in 5th century BC): With the straight ruler I set to work To make the circle four-cornered . ~ Aristophanes

Mix and knead together all the state business as you do for your sausages. To win the people, always cook them some savory that pleases them. ~ Aristophanes

You should not decide until you have heard what both have to say. ~ Aristophanes

Love is simply the name for the desire and the pursuit of the whole. ~ Aristophanes

A truce to idle phrases! ~ Aristophanes

There's no art where there's no fee. ~ Aristophanes

An insult directed at the wicked is not to be censured; on the contrary, the honest man, if he has sense, can only applaud. ~ Aristophanes

A demagogue must be neither an educated nor an honest man; he has to be an ignoramus and a rogue. ~ Aristophanes

Open your mouth and shut your eyes and see what Zeus will send you. ~ Aristophanes

But how should women perform so wise and glorious an achievement, we women who dwell in the retirement of the household, clad in diaphanous garments of yellow silk and long flowing gowns, decked out with flowers and shod with dainty little slippers? ~ Aristophanes

Youth ages, immaturity is outgrown, ignorance can be educated, and drunkenness sobered, but stupid lasts forever. ~ Aristophanes

Shrines! Shrines! Surely you don't believe in the gods. What's your argument? Where's your proof? ~ Aristophanes

It is right that the good should be happy, that the wicked and the impious on the other hand, should be miserable; that is a truth, I believe, which no one will gainsay. ~ Aristophanes

Lewd to the least drop in the tiniest vein, Our sex is fitly food for Tragic Poets, Our whole life's but a pile of kisses and babies. But, hardy Spartan, if you join with me All may be righted yet. O help me, help me. ~ Aristophanes

An ancient tradition declares that every idiot blunder we pass into law will sooner or later redound to Athens' profit. ~ Aristophanes

Love is merely the name for the desire and pursuit of the whole. ~ Aristophanes

Birds, birds, birds, I'm a Pet Shop Boy ~ Killa Kyleon

When men drink wine they are rich, they are busy, they push lawsuits, they are happy, they are friends. ~ Aristophanes

[Y]ou [man] are fool enough, it seems, to dare to war with [woman=] me, when for your faithful ally you might win me easily. ~ Aristophanes

Full of wiles, full of guile, at all times, in all ways, are the children of Men. ~ Aristophanes

LYSISTRATA May gentle Love and the sweet Cyprian Queen shower seductive charms on our bosoms and all our person. If only we may stir so amorous a feeling among the men that they stand firm as sticks, we shall indeed deserve the name of peace-makers among the Greeks. ~ Aristophanes

The swallows, fleeing before the hoopoes, shall have all flocked together in one place, and shall refrain them from all amorous commerce, then will be the end of all the ills of life; yea, and Zeus, which doth thunder in the skies, shall set above what was erst below ... ~ Aristophanes

Atheism or similar charges was not unusual among intellectuals, nor condemned by the masses. The prize-winning plays of Aristophanes were not merely atheist, but made fun of the gods and their prophets and oracles. ~ Benjamin Jowett

How can it ever be right to wreck
A man because he's time by the clock
As an elderly man grizzled and gray,
Who long ago struggled at your side
Mopping the copious
Manly sweat from his brow
When he bravely fought at Marathon
In defense of our city. ~ Aristophanes

Chorus of women: [ ... ] Oh! my good, gallant Lysistrata, and all my friends, be ever like a bundle of nettles; never let you anger slacken; the wind of fortune blown our way. ~ Aristophanes

Characteristics of a popular politician: a horrible voice, bad breeding, and a vulgar manner. ~ Aristophanes

You [demagogues] are like the fishers for eels; in still waters they catch nothing, but if they thoroughly stir up the slime, their fishing is good; in the same way it's only in troublous times that you line your pockets. ~ Aristophanes

Tame birds sing of freedom. Wild birds fly. ~ John Lennon

Look at the orators in our republics; as long as they are poor, both state and people can only praise their uprightness; but once they are fattened on the public funds, they conceive a hatred for justice, plan intrigues against the people and attack the democracy. ~ Aristophanes

Ye Children of Man! whose life is a span, Protracted with sorrow from day to day, Naked and featherless, feeble and querulous, Sickly, calamitous creatures of clay! ~ Aristophanes

Protecting the environment is an obligation, not a choice. ~ Southern African Birds SASOL

Do you dare to accuse wine of clouding the reason? Quote me more marvelous effects than those of wine. Look! when a man drinks, he is rich, everything he touches succeeds, he gains lawsuits, is happy and helps his friends. Come, bring hither quick a flagon of wine, that I may soak my brain and get an ingenious idea. ~ Aristophanes

Birds cough out their lungs, fly with regret to places where their feet no longer freeze in ice. Birds start falling. Bees lie dying. ~ Mary Flanagan

I don't feed the birds because they need me; I feed the birds because I need them. ~ Kathi Hutton

This is what extremely grieves us, that a man who never fought Should contrive our fees to pilfer, on who for his native land Never to this day had oar, or lance, or blister in his hand. ~ Aristophanes

Most of the birds of the Old World can be found here, as Oman is on a strategic route for migrating birds. ~ Saadi

Your lost friends are not dead, but gone before, advanced a stage or two upon that road which you must travel in the steps they trod. ~ Aristophanes

In November, some birds move away and some birds stay. The air is full of good-byes and well-wishes. The birds who are leaving look very serious. No silly spring chirping now. They have long journeys and must watch where they are going. The staying birds are serious, too, for cold times lie ahead. Hard times. All berries will be treasures. ~ Cynthia Rylant

Now when I hear birdsong, I feel an entry to that understory. When I am feeling too squeezed on the ground, exhausted by everything in my care, I look for a little sky. There are always birds flying back and forth, city birds flitting around our human edges, singing their songs. ~ Kyo Maclear, Birds Art Life: A Year Of Observation

It is winter time! Feed the birds! Teach your children to feed the birds! Request your neighbour to feed the birds! Encourage your friends to feed the birds! ~ Mehmet Murat Ildan

When the soldier returns from the wars, even though he has white hair, he very soon finds a young wife. But a woman has only one summer; if she does not make hay while the sun shines, no one will afterwards have anything to say to her, and she spends her days consulting oracles that never send her a husband. ~ Aristophanes