“I call a fig a fig, a spade a spade.”
Menander (-342–-291 BC) Athenian playwright of New Comedy
Unidentified fragment 545 K (K = T. Kock, Comicorum Atticorum Fragmenta, 3 vols. (Leipzig 1880/8)), as translated in Menander: The Principal Fragments (1921) by Francis Greenleaf Allinson.
“At times discretion should be thrown aside, and with the foolish we should play the fool.”
Menander (-342–-291 BC) Athenian playwright of New Comedy
Those Offered for Sale, fragment 421.
“It is not white hair that engenders wisdom.”
Menander (-342–-291 BC) Athenian playwright of New Comedy
Unidentified fragment 639.
“Marriage, if one will face the truth, is an evil, but a necessary evil.”
Menander (-342–-291 BC) Athenian playwright of New Comedy
Unidentified fragment 651.
“The man who runs may fight again.”
Menander (-342–-291 BC) Athenian playwright of New Comedy
Variant translation: The man who runs away will fight again.
Monosticha.
“The truth sometimes not sought for comes forth to the light.”
Menander (-342–-291 BC) Athenian playwright of New Comedy
The Girl Who Gets Flogged, fragment 422.
“Whom the gods love dies young.”
Menander (-342–-291 BC) Athenian playwright of New Comedy
[Epigramatic] Sentences, 425
He whom the gods love dies young.
The Double Deceiver, frag. 4.
Variant: ὃν οἱ θεοὶ φιλοῦσιν, ἀποθνῄσκει νέος.
Source: Menander: The Plays and Fragments
“To say more than what's necessary
I don't think is appropriate for a man.”
Knemon.<br>Variant translation: I don't hold with people saying more than they need; but there is one thing more, my child, that I'd like you to know. I just want to say a few things to you about life, and the way people behave. You know, if we were all kind to one another, there'd be no need for law courts, there'd be no arresting people and putting them into prison, and there would be no more war. Everyone would have his little bit, and be content. But maybe you like modern ways better? Well, live that way, then! This difficult and bad-tempered old man will soon be out of the way.<br> As translated by William Geoffrey Arnott http://www.rhapsodes.fll.vt.edu/menander.htm. <br class="br">Dyskolos <br class="br">Context: To say more than what's necessary<br>I don't think is appropriate for a man. Except know this, child —<br>for I wish to tell you a little about me and my character —<br>if everyone were like me there wouldn't be law courts,<br>and they wouldn't take them away to prisons,<br>and there wouldn't be wars, but having goods in measure each man would be happy.<br>But perhaps those things are more pleasing. Act that way.<br>This difficult and grouchy old man will be out of your way.
Gorgias.
Dyskolos
Context: Even if you were a softy, you took the mattock, you dug,
you were willing to work. In this part he most shows himself a man,
whoever tolerates making himself equal to another,
rich to poor. For this man will bear a change of fortune
with self-control. You have given a sufficient proof of your character.
I wish only that you remain as you are.
“We live, not as we wish to, but as we can.”
Menander (-342–-291 BC) Athenian playwright of New Comedy
Lady of Andros, fragment 50.
“Conscience is a God to all mortals.”
Menander (-342–-291 BC) Athenian playwright of New Comedy
Monosticha.
“O holy simplicity!”
O sancta simplicitas!
Jan Hus (1369–1415) Czech linguist, religion writer, theologist, university educator and science writer
Quoted in The Routledge Dictionary of Latin Quotations (2005) by Jon R. Stone, p. 188
Spoken by Hus as he was being burned at the stake and saw an elderly peasant adding wood to the fire
Jan Hus (1369–1415) Czech linguist, religion writer, theologist, university educator and science writer
Source: A Companion to Jan Hus (2015), p. 194.
“It is better to die well, than to live wrongly (…) who is afraid of death loses the joy of life; truth prevails all, prevails who is killed, because no adversity can harm him, who is not dominated by injustice.”
Melius est bene mori, quam male vivere (...) qui mortem metuit, amittit gaudia vitae; super omnia vincit veritas, vincit, qui occiditur, quia nulla ei nocet adversitas, si nulla ei dominatur iniquitas.
Jan Hus (1369–1415) Czech linguist, religion writer, theologist, university educator and science writer
Quoted in John Huss: His Life, Teachings and Death, After Five Hundred Years (1915) by David Schley Schaff, p. 58.
Jan Hus in Letter to Christian of Prachatice, probably the most influential of his quotes, first adopted as the motto by Hussite warriors, centuries later this motto was inscribed on the banner of the Presidents of the Czechoslovakia and now (in Czech translation) is inscribed on the banner of the President of the Czech Republic.
Jan Hus (1369–1415) Czech linguist, religion writer, theologist, university educator and science writer
Source: A Companion to Jan Hus (2015), p. 225.
Jan Hus (1369–1415) Czech linguist, religion writer, theologist, university educator and science writer
Source: A Companion to Jan Hus (2015), p. 231.
Jan Hus (1369–1415) Czech linguist, religion writer, theologist, university educator and science writer
Jan Hus (1415); quoted in: Encyclopaedia Britannica: A Dictionary of Arts, Sciences, and General Literature, Volume 12, 1891, p. 401
Jan Hus (1369–1415) Czech linguist, religion writer, theologist, university educator and science writer
Source: A Companion to Jan Hus (2015), pp. 190-191.
