Plautus (Titus Maccius Plautus) Quotes, Quotations, and Sayings

34 Famous Quotes by Plautus (Titus Maccius Plautus)
[1-25]  [26-34]   Next »
“If you strike the goads with your fists, your hands suffer most. [Lat., Si stimulos pugnis caedis manibus plus dolet.]”
Suffering Quotes
Source: Truculentus (IV, 2, 54)
“He is of the race of the mushroom; he covers himself altogether with his head. [Lat., Fungino genere est; capite se totum tegit.]”
Growth Quotes
Source: Trinummus (IV, 2, 9)
“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.]”
Growth Quotes
Source: Trinummus (IV, r, 128)
“The stronger always succeeds. [Lat., Plus potest qui plus valet.]”
Strength Quotes
Source: Truculentus (IV, 3, 30)
“The Bell never rings of itself; unless some one handles or moves it it is dumb. [Lat., Nunquam aedepol temere tinniit tintinnabulum; Nisi quis illud tractat aut movet, mutum est, tacet.]”
Bells Quotes
Source: Trinummus (IV, 2, 162)
“You will stir up the hornets. [Lat., Irritabis crabones.]”
Contention Quotes
Source: Amphitruo (act II, 2, 75)
“If anything is spoken in jest, it is not fair to turn it to earnest. [Lat., Si quid dictum est per jocum, Non aequum est id te serio praevortier.]”
Jesting Quotes
Source: Amphitruo (III, 2, 39)
“I trust no rich man who is officiously kind to a poor man. [Lat., Nemini credo, qui large blandus est dives pauperi.]”
Wealth Quotes
Source: Aulularia (II, 2, 30)
“He who seeks for gain, must be at some expense. [Lat., Necesse est facere sumptum, qui quaerit lucrum.]”
Gain Quotes
Source: Asinaria (I, 3, 65)
“Flame is very near to smoke. [Lat., Flamma fumo est proxima.]”
Fire Quotes
Source: Curculio (act I, 1, 53)
“How often the highest talent lurks in obscurity. [Lat., Ut saepe summa ingenia in occulto latent!]”
Obscurity Quotes
Source: Captivi (I, 2, 62)
“That man is worthless who knows how to receive a favor, but not how to return one. [Lat., Nam improbus est homo qui beneficium scit sumere et reddere nescit.]”
Favors Quotes
Source: Persa (V, 1, 10)
“I suspect that hunger was my mother. [Lat., Famem fuisse suspicor matrem mihi.]”
Hunger Quotes
Source: Stichus (act II, 1, 1)
“He who would eat the kernel, must crack the shell. [Lat., Qui e nuce nucleum esse vult, frangat nucem.]”
Necessity Quotes
Source: Curculio (I, 1, 55)
“You love a nothing when you love an ingrate. [Lat., Nihil amas, cum ingratum amas.]”
Ingratitude Quotes
Source: Persa (II, 2, 46)
“To love is human, it is also human to forgive. [Lat., Humanum amare est, humanum autem ignoscere est.]”
Forgiveness Quotes
Source: Mercator (II, 2, 46)
“I count him lost, who is lost to shame. [Lat., Nam ego illum periisse duco, cui quidem periit pudor.]”
Shame Quotes
Source: Bacchides (III, 3, 80)
“Disgrace is immortal, and living even when one thinks it dead. [Lat., Hominum immortalis est infamia; Etiam tum vivit, cum esse credas mortuam.]”
Disgrace Quotes
Source: Persa (III, 1, 27)
“I esteem death a trifle, if not caused by guilt. [Lat., Dum ne ob male facta peream, parvi aestimo.]”
Guilt Quotes
Source: Captivi (III, 5, 24)
“Nothing is more wretched that the mind of a man conscious of guilt. [Lat., Nihil est miserius quam animus hominis conscius.]”
Guilt Quotes
Source: Mostellaria (act III, 1, 13)
“Because those, who twit others with their faults, should look at home. [Lat., Quia, qui alterum incusat probi, eum ipsum se intueri oportet.]”
Faults Quotes
Source: Truculentus (I, 2, 58)
“Modesty becomes a young man. [Lat., Adolescentem verecundum esse decet.]”
Modesty Quotes
Source: Asinaria (V, 1, 8)
“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.”
Slander Quotes
Source: Persa (act III, sc. 1), (Riley's translation)
“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. [Lat., Homines qui gestant, quique auscultant crimina, Si meo arbitratu liceat, omnes pendeant, Gestores linguis, auditores auribus.]”
Slander Quotes
Source: Pseudolus (I, 5, 12)
“If you speak insults you will hear them also. [Lat., Contumelian si dices, audies.]”
Insult Quotes
Source: Pseudolus (act IV, 7, 77)