Plautus was a Roman playwright and the earliest Roman comic dramatist whose works have survived. He wrote over 130 plays, all of which were comedies, and many of which were adaptations of Greek plays. He is known for his clever and humorous dialogue and for his clever use of stock characters. Following is our collection on famous quotes by Plautus on war, play, comic.
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Top 10 Plautus Quotes
Plautus Quotes About Friends
Plautus Quotes About Friend
Plautus Quotes About Evil
Plautus Quotes About Life
Plautus Quotes About Trouble
Short Plautus Quotes
Life Lessons
Famous Plautus Quotes
Top 10 Plautus Quotes
Nothing but heaven itself is better than a friend who is really a friend.
As long as she is wise and good, a girl has sufficient dowry.
Where there are friends there is wealth.
I have taken a wife, I have sold my sovereignty for a dowry.
[Lat., Uxorem accepi, dote imperium vendidi.]
You love a nothing when you love an ingrate.
Good courage in a bad affair is half of the evil overcome.
Good merchandise, even hidden, soon finds buyers.
Spice a dish with love and it pleases every palate.
The day, water, sun, moon, night -- I do not have to purchase these things with money.
Courage in danger is half the battle.
Plautus inspirational quote
Plautus Image Quotes
As long as she is wise and good, a girl has sufficient dowry. — Plautus
Where there are friends there is wealth. — Plautus
Plautus Short Quotes
'He means well' is useless unless he does well.
Practice yourself what you preach.
The day, water, sun, moon, night - I do not have to purchase these things with money.
No man is wise enough by himself.
Not by age but by capacity is wisdom acquired.
I much prefer a compliment, even if insincere, to sincere criticism.
Nothing is more wretched than the mind of a man conscious of guilt.
The greatest talents often lie buried out of sight.
If you speak insults you will hear them also.
Conquered, we conquer.
Plautus Quotes About Friends
No guest is so welcome in a friend's house that he will not become a nuisance after three days. — Plautus
Every man, however wise, needs the advice of some sagacious friend in the affairs of life. — Plautus
Nothing is there more friendly to a man than a friend in need. — Plautus
One does nothing who tries to console a despondent person with word. A friend is one who aids with deeds at a critical time when deeds are called for. — Plautus
Ones oldest friend is the best. — Plautus
Nothing is more annoying than a tardy friend.
[Lat., Tardo amico nihil est quidquam iniquius.] — Plautus
He is a friend indeed who proves himself a friend in need. — Plautus
Your wealth is where your friends are — Plautus
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. — Plautus
What is thine is mine, and all mine is thine. — Plautus
Plautus Quotes About Friend
He is a friend who, in dubious circumstances, aids in deeds when deeds are necessary. — Plautus
Never speak ill of an absent friend. — Plautus
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. — Plautus
Plautus Quotes About Evil
The evil that we know is best. — Plautus
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!] — Plautus
Keep what you have got; the known evil is best.
[Lat., Habeas ut nactus; nota mala res optima est.] — Plautus
Keep what you have; the known evil is best. — Plautus
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.] — Plautus
Out of many evils the evil which is least is the least of evils.
[Lat., E malis multis, malum, quod minimum est, id minimum est malum.] — Plautus
He who bravely endures evils, in time reaps the reward. — Plautus
Plautus Quotes About Life
Courage is what preserves our liberty, safety, life, and our homes and parents, our country and children. Courage comprises all things. — Plautus
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. — Plautus
Courage easily finds its own eloquence. — Plautus
Consider the little mouse, how sagacious an animal it is which never entrusts its life to one hole only. — Plautus
Even the whole of life is not sufficient for thorough learning. — Plautus
We only appreciate the comforts of life in their loss. — Plautus
He who falls in love meets a worse fate than he who leaps from a rock. — Plautus
Find me a reasonable lover against his weight in gold. — Plautus
Love has both its gall and honey in abundance: it has sweetness to the taste, but it presents bitterness also to satiety. — Plautus
He that's in love, i' faith, even if he is hungry, isn't hungry at all. — Plautus
Plautus Quotes About Trouble
Patience is the best remedy for every trouble. — Plautus
A patient mind is the best remedy for trouble. — Plautus
A contented mind is the best source for trouble. — Plautus
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.] — Plautus
In everything the middle course is the best; everything in excess brings trouble. — Plautus
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. — Plautus
Know this, that troubles come swifter than the things we desire. — Plautus
The man who would be fully employed should procure a ship or a woman, for no two things produce more trouble. — Plautus
Plautus Famous Quotes And Sayings
As long as she is wise and good, a girl has sufficient dowry. — Plautus
Where there are friends there is wealth. — Plautus
There's no such thing, you know, as picking out the best woman: it's only a question of comparative badness, brother. — Plautus
Let us celebrate the occasion with wine and sweet words. — Plautus
Wisdom is not attained by years, but by ability. — Plautus
If you are content, you have enough to live comfortably. — Plautus
You will stir up the hornets.
[Lat., Irritabis crabones.] — Plautus
The poor man who enters into a partnership with one who is rich makes a risky venture. — Plautus
That man is worthless who knows how to receive a favor, but not how to return one. — Plautus
There are occasions when it is undoubtedly better to incur loss than to make gain. — Plautus
The Bell never rings of itself; unless some one handles or moves it it is dumb. — Plautus
No one can be so welcome a guest that he will not annoy his host after three days. — Plautus
Flying without feathers is not easy: my wings have no feathers. — Plautus
I regard that man as lost, who has lost his sense of shame. — Plautus
It is customary these days to ignore what should be done in favour of what pleases us. — Plautus
And one eye-witness weighs
More than ten hear-fays. Seeing is believing,
All the world o'er. — Plautus
This is the great fault of wine; it first trips up the feet: it is a cunning wrestler. — Plautus
Drink, live like the Greeks, eat, gorge. — Plautus
For nobody is curious, who isn't malevolent. — Plautus
In everything the middle road is best. — Plautus
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. — Plautus
Fortitude is a great help in distress. — Plautus
To love is human, it is also human to forgive. — Plautus
A woman without paint is like food without salt. — Plautus
I count him lost, who is lost to shame. — Plautus
Fortune moulds and circumscribes human affairs as she pleases.
[Lat., Fortuna humana fingit artatque ut lubet.] — Plautus
To an honest man, it is an honor to have remembered his duty. — Plautus
It is easy to rule over the good. — Plautus
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.] — Plautus
No man will be respected by others who is despised by his own relatives. — Plautus
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. — Plautus
How often the highest talent lurks in obscurity. — Plautus
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. — Plautus
Flame is very near to smoke. — Plautus
It is a bitter disappointment when you have sown benefits, to reap injuries. — Plautus
It is the nature of the unfortunate to be spiteful, and to envy those who are well to do. — Plautus
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. — Plautus
The man who masters his own soul will forever be called conqueror of conquerors. — Plautus
To a well deserving person God will show favor. To an ill deserving person He will simply be just. — Plautus
Who wishes to give himself an abundance of business let him equip these two things, a ship and a woman. For no two things involve more business, if you have begun to fit them out. Nor are these two things ever sufficiently adorned, nor is any excess of adornment enough for them. — Plautus
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. — Plautus
We can more easily endure that which shames than that which vexes us. — Plautus
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.] — Plautus
Arrogance is the outgrowth of prosperity. — Plautus
Bad conduct soils the finest ornament more than filth. — Plautus
It is a tiresome way of speaking, when you should despatch the business, to beat about the bush. — Plautus
It well becomes a young man to be modest. — Plautus
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.] — Plautus
All good men and women should be on their guard to avoid guilt, and even the suspicion of it. — Plautus
Courage in danger is half the battle.
[Lat., Bonus animus in mala re, dimidium est mali.] — Plautus
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.] — Plautus
We should try to succeed by merit, not by favor. He who does well will always have patrons enough.
[Lat., Virtute ambire oportet, non favitoribus.
Sat habet favitorum semper, qui recte facit.] — Plautus
It is sheer folly to take unwilling hounds to the chase. — Plautus
Disgrace is immortal, and living even when one thinks it dead. — Plautus
Every one can remember that which has interested himself. — Plautus
I count him lost, who is lost to shame.
[Lat., Nam ego illum periisse duco, cui quidem periit pudor.] — Plautus
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. — Plautus
He who seeks for gain, must be at some expense. — Plautus
If you spend a thing you can not have it.
[Lat., Non tibi illud apparere si sumas potest.] — Plautus
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. — Plautus
I trust no rich man who is officiously kind to a poor man. — Plautus
I suspect that hunger was my mother. — Plautus
Do you never look at yourself when you abuse another person? — Plautus
I esteem death a trifle, if not caused by guilt. — Plautus
I would rather be adorned by beauty of character than jewels. Jewels are the gift of fortune, while character comes from within. — Plautus
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.] — Plautus
Enemies carry a report in form different from the original. — Plautus
Modesty becomes a young man.
[Lat., Adolescentem verecundum esse decet.] — Plautus
Feast to-day makes fast to-morrow.
[Lat., Festo die si quid prodegeris,
Profesto egere liceat nisi peperceris.] — Plautus
He whom the Gods love dies young. — Plautus
Life Lessons by Plautus
Plautus teaches us to value friendship and loyalty, as demonstrated in his plays by the strong relationships between his characters.
Plautus also emphasizes the importance of perseverance and resilience, as his characters often face difficult situations and manage to overcome them.
Finally, Plautus encourages us to be mindful of our actions and words, as his characters often suffer from the consequences of their choices.
Citation
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