Plautus Quotes

“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. (translator Thornton)”
Non tibi illud apparere, si sumas, potest, nisi tu immortale rere esse argentum tibi. Sero atque stulte, prius quod cautum oportuit, postquam comedit rem, post rationem putat.

“In one hand he is carrying a stone, while he shows the bread with the other.”
Altera manu fert lapidem, panem ostentot altera

“He gains wisdom in a happy way, who gains it by another’s experience.”
Feliciter is sapit, qui alieno periculo sapit.

“These things are not for the best, nor as I think they ought to be; but still they are better than that which is downright bad. (translator Henry Thomas Riley)”
Non optuma haec sunt neque ut ego aequom censeo : verum meliora sunt quam quae deterruma.

“Nor do I hold that every kind of gain is always serviceable. Gain, I know, has render’d many great. But there are times when loss should be preferr’d to gain. (translator Thornton)”
Non ego omnino lucrum omne esse utile homini existimo. Scio ego, multos jam lucrum luculentos homines reddidit. Est etiam, ubi profecto damnum praestet facere, quam lucrum.

“I say, Libanus, what a poor devil a chap in love is!”

“Love is very fruitful both of honey and gall.”
Amor et melle et felle est faecundissimus.

“He whom the gods protect : the youth is dying whilst he is in health, and has his senses and his judgment sound.”
Quem di diligent, adolescens moritur, dum valet, sentit, sapit.

“If you are wise, be wise; keep what goods the gods provide you.”
[S}i sapias, sapias : habeus quod di dant boni.

“Practice yourself what you preach.”
[F]acias ipse quod faciamus nobis suades.

“Our best support and succor in distress is fortitude of mind.”
In re mala animo si bono utare, adjuvat.

“To blow and swallow at the same moment is not easy.”

“You are seeking a knot in a bulrush.”

“That expression, "He means well," is useless unless he does well.”
Nequam illud verbum‘st, Bene vult, nisi qui bene facit.

“If you are but content, you have enough to live upon with comfort.”
Si animus est aequus tibi, satis habes, qui bene vitam colas.

“Courage in danger is half the battle.”
Bonus animus in mala re, dimidium est mali.

“It was not for nothing that the raven was just now croaking on my left hand.”

“He who would eat the kernel, must crack the shell.”
Qui e nuce nucleum esse vult, frangat nucem.

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

“Nothing so wretched as a guilty conscience.”
Nihil est miserius, quam animus hominis conscius.

“The chap that endures hard knocks like a man enjoys a soft time later on.”

“The valiant profit more
Their country, than the finest cleverest speakers.”

“Each man reaps on his own farm.”

“Fish and guests in three days are stale.”
Quasi piscis itidem est amator lenae: nequam est nisi recens.

“According as men thrive, their friends are true; if their affairs go to wreck, their friends sink with them. Fortune finds friends.”
Ut cuique homini res parata est, firmi amici sunt : si res labat, itidem amici collabascunt. Res amicos invenit.

“For true it is, good oft befalls us when we least expect it. And true it is, that when we trust in hope, we’re often disappointed.”
Nam multa praeter spem, scio, multis bona evenisse. At ego etiam qui speraverint, spem decepisse multos.

“Valour’s the best reward; ‘tis valour that surpasses all things else : our liberty, our safety, life, estate, our parents, children, country, are by this preserved, protected : valour everything comprises in itself; and every good awaits the man who is possess’d of valour. (translator Thornton)”
[V]irtus praemium est optimum ; virtus omnibus remus anteit profecto : libertas salus vita res et parentes, patria et prognati tutantur, servantur : virtus omnia in sese habet, omnia adsunt bona quem penest virtus.

“Patience, then, is the best remedy against affliction.”
Animus aequus optimus est aerumnae condimentum.

“Drink! live like the Greeks! eat! gorge!. (translator unknown)”
Bibite ! pergraecamini ! Este ! effercite vos !

“You should not speak ill of an absent friend.”
Ne male loquare absenti amico.

“Not by age but by capacity is wisdom acquired.”
Non aetate, verum ingenio apiscitur sapientia.

“Man is no man, but a wolf, to a stranger.”
Lupus est homo homini, non homo, quom qualis sit non novit.

“Keep what you’ve got; the evil that we know is best. (translator Thornton)”
Habeus ut nactus ; nota mala res optima’st.

“No blessing lasts forever.”
Nulli est homini perpetuum bonum.

“Conquer by means of true virtue.”

“For what is idly got is idly spent.”
Male partum, male disperit.

“Things we hope not for oftener come to pass than things we wish for. (translated by Thornton)”
Insperata accidunt magis saepe quam que speres.

“For him I reckon lost who’s lost to shame.”
Nam ego illum periisse duco, cui quidem periit pudor.

“For what is yours is mine, and mine is yours.”
Quod tuum’st, meum’st; omne meum est autem tuum.

“Oh, are not the pleasures in life, in this daily round, trifling compared with the pains!”
Satin parva res est voluptatum in vita atque in aetate agunda praequam quod molestum est?

“But ne’ertheless reflect, the little mouse, how sage a brute it is! Who never trusts its safety to one hole : for when it finds one entrance is block’d up, it has secure some other outlet.”
Cogito, mus pusillus quam sit sapiens bestia, aetatem qui uni cubili nunquam committit suam : quia si unum ostium obsideatur, aliud perfugium gerit.

“The face that thou shalt smite in earnest is bound thereafter to be boneless.”

“Whene’er a man is quartered at a friend’s, if he but stay three days, his company they will grow weary of. (translator Thornton)”
Hospes nullus tam in amici hospitium divorti potest, quin, ubi triduum continuum fuerit, jam odiosis siet.

“One eyewitness weighs more than ten hearsays. Seeing is believing, all the world over.”
Pluris est oculatus testis unus, quam auriti decem. Qui audiunt, audita dicunt: qui vident, plane sciunt.

“It is better to learn from the mistakes of others than that others should learn from you.”
Te de aliis, quam alios de te suaviu’st.

“Conquered, we conquer”
Victi vicimus

“Ne male loquare absenti amico.”

“In re mala animo si bono utare, adjuvat.”

“I had a regular battle with the dunghill-cock.”