Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
One must not try to trick misfortune, but resign oneself to it with good grace.
Surely you do not believe in the gods. What's your argument? Where's your proof?
Wise people, even though all laws were abolished, would still lead the same life.
Full of wiles, full of guile, at all times, in all ways, are the children of Men.
You can't have anything else to say: you've poured out every drop of what you know.
Evil events from evil causes spring, And what you suffer flows from what you've done.
Why, I'd like nothing better than to achieve some bold adventure, worthy of our trip.
Quickly, bring me a beaker of wine, so that I may wet my mind and say something clever.
Shall I crack any of those old jokes, master, At which the audience never fail to laugh?
Have you ever, looking up, seen a cloud like to a Centaur, a Part, or a Wolf, or a Bull?
It is the compelling power of great thoughts and ideas to engender phrases of equal size.
It often happens that less depends upon the valor of an army than the skill of the leader.
Characteristics of a popular politician: a horrible voice, bad breeding, and a vulgar manner.
If a man owes me money, I never seem to forget. But if I do the owing, I somehow never remember.
A demagogue must be neither an educated nor an honest man; he has to be an ignoramus and a rogue.
Comedy too can sometimes discern what is right. I shall not please, but I shall say what is true.
Shrines! Shrines! Surely you don't believe in the gods. What's your argument? Where's your proof?
I saw a cavalry captain buy vegetable soup on horseback. He carried the whole mess home in his helmet.
When men drink wine they are rich, they are busy, they push lawsuits, they are happy, they are friends.
To invoke solely the weaker arguments and yet triumph is an art worth more than a hundred thousand drachmae.
These impossible women! How they do get around us! The poet was right: can't live with them, or without them!
These impossible women! How they do get around us! The poet was right: Can't live with them, or without them.
Meton (astronomer in 5th century BC): With the straight ruler I set to work To make the circle four-cornered .
Youth ages, immaturity is outgrown, ignorance can be educated, and drunkenness sobered, but stupid lasts forever.
The gods, my dear simple fellow, are a mere expression coined by vulgar superstition. We frown upon such coinage here.
There is no beast, no rush of fire, like woman so untamed. She calmly goes her way where even panthers would be shamed.
An ancient tradition declares that every idiot blunder we pass into law will sooner or later redound to Athens' profit.
An insult directed at the wicked is not to be censured; on the contrary, the honest man, if he has sense, can only applaud.
[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.
Do not bandy words with your father, nor treat him as a dotard, nor reproach the old man, who has cherished you, with his age.
You vote yourselves salaries out of the public funds and care only for your own personal interests; hence the state limps along.
Woman is adept at getting money for herself and will not easily let herself be deceived; she understands deceit too well herself.
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.
I would treat her like an egg, the shell of which we remove before eating it; I would take off her mask and then kiss her pretty face.
If you strike upon a thought that baffles you, break off from that entanglement and try another, so shall your wits be fresh to start again.
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.
Men of sense often learn from their enemies. It is from their foes, not their friends, that cities learn the lesson of building high walls and ships of war.
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!
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.
Women, you overheated dipsomaniacs, never passing up a chance to wangle a drink, a great boon to bartenders but a bane to us--not to mention our crockery and our woolens!
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.
It should not prejudice my voice that I'm not born a man, if I say something advantageous to the present situation. For I'm taxed too, and as a toll provide men for the nation.
Tis not for us to warn a wilful sinner; We stay him not, but let him run his course, Till by misfortunes rous'd, his conscience wakes, And prompts him to appease th' offended gods.
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.
Weak mortals, chained to the earth, creatures of clay as frail as the foliage of the woods, you unfortunate race, whose life is but darkness, as unreal as a shadow, the illusion of a dream.
When men drink, then they are rich and successful and win lawsuits and are happy and help their friends. Quickly, bring me a beaker of wine, so that I may wet my mind and say something clever.
[Y]ou possess all the attributes of a demagogue; a screeching, horrible voice, a perverse, crossgrained nature and the language of the market-place. In you all is united which is needful for governing.
Does it seem that everything is extravagance in the world, or rather madness, when you watch the way things go? A crowd of rogues enjoy blessings they have won by sheer injustice, while more honest folks are miserable and die of hunger.
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.
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.