Great Throughts Treasury

This site is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Alan William Smolowe who gave birth to the creation of this database.

Plautus, full name Titus Maccius Plautus NULL

Roman Comic Playwright

"This is not the best thing possible, nor what I consider proper ; but it is better than the worst."

"This is the great fault of wine; it first trips up the feet: it is a cunning wrestler."

"To a well deserving person God will show favor. To an ill deserving person He will simply be just."

"To an honest man, it is an honor to have remembered his duty."

"To ask that which is unjust at the hands of the just, is an injustice in itself; to expect that which is just from the unjust, is simple folly."

"To blow and to swallow at the same time is not easy; I cannot at the same time be here and also there."

"To love is human, it is also human to forgive."

"To some purpose is that man wise who gains his wisdom at another's expense."

"Valor?s the best reward ; ?tis valor that surpasses all things else : our liberty, our safety, life, estate, our parents, children, country, are by this preserved, protected : valor everything comprises in itself ; and every good awaits the man who is possess?d of valor."

"We are pouring our words into a sieve, and lose our labor."

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

"Thou my star at the stars are gazing Would I were heaven that I might behold thee with many eyes."

"Tis sweeter far wisdom to gain from other?s woes, than others should learn from ours."

"What is food to one, is to others bitter poison."

"We should try to succeed by merit, not by favor. He who does well will always have patrons enough."

"What is thine is mine, and all mine is thine."

"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."

"Whatever disgrace we may have deserved, it is almost always in our power to re-establish our character."

"When a man reaches the last stage of life, ? without senses or mentality ? they say that he has grown a child again."

"When you ask for it back again, you find a friend made an enemy by your own kindness. If yon begin to press still further ? either you must part with that which you have entrusted, or else you must lose that friend."

"Whene?er a man is quartered at a friend?s, if he but stay three days, his company they will grow weary of."

"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."

"Woe to the vanquished!"

"Woman is certainly the daughter of Delay personified!"

"Women have many faults, but of the many this is the greatest, that they please themselves too much, and give too little attention to pleasing the men."

"Word to the wise is enough."

"You are seeking a knot in a bulrush."

"You cannot eat your cake and have it too, unless you think your money is immortal. The fool too late, his substance eaten up, reckons the cost."

"You little know what a ticklish thing it is to go to law."

"You love a nothing when you love an ingrate."

"You miss the point? The lady that spares her lover spares herself too little."

"You should not speak ill of an absent friend."

"You will stir up the hornets."

"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."