Works
Famous 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.
Trinummus, Act II, scene 4, lines 12
Trinummus (The Three Coins)
“In one hand he is carrying a stone, while he shows the bread with the other.”
Altera manu fert lapidem, panem ostentot altera
Alternate translation: And so he thinks to ‘tice me like a dog, by holding bread in one hand, and a stone, ready to knock my brains out, in the other.
Aulularia, Act II, sc. 2, line 18
Cf. Jesus, [Matthew, 7:9, KJV]: "Or what man is there of you, whom if his son ask bread, will he give him a stone?"
Aulularia (The Pot of Gold)
“He gains wisdom in a happy way, who gains it by another’s experience.”
Feliciter is sapit, qui alieno periculo sapit.
Mercator, Act IV, scene 7, line 40
Mercator (The Merchant)
“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.
Trinummus, Act II, sc. 2, line 111; reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919).
Alternate translation : This is not the best thing possible, nor what I consider proper ; but it is better than the worst. (translator A. H. Evans)
Trinummus (The Three Coins)
“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.
Captivi, Act II, scene 2, line 75.
Variant translation: There are occasions when it is undoubtedly better to incur loss than to make gain. (translation by Henry Thomas Riley)
Captivi (The Prisoners)
Plautus Quotes about love
“I love truth, and wish to have it always spoken to me : I hate a liar. (translated by Thornton)”
Ego verum amo, verum vol mihi dici : mendacem odi.
Mostellaria, Act I, scene 3, line 26
Mostellaria (The Haunted House)
“I say, Libanus, what a poor devil a chap in love is!”
Asinaria, Act III, scene 3.
Asinaria (The One With the Asses)
“Love is very fruitful both of honey and gall.”
Amor et melle et felle est faecundissimus.
Cistellaria, Act I, scene 1, line 70
Cistellaria (The Casket)
Plautus Quotes about God
“Man proposes, God disposes. (translated by Thornton)”
Sperat quidem animus : quo eveniat, diis in manu est
Bacchides Act I, scene 2, line 36.
Variant translation: The mind is hopeful : success is in God’s hands. (translator unknown)
Bacchides (The Bacchises)
“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.
Bacchides Act IV, scene 7, line 18.
Variant translation: He whom the gods love dies young. (translator unknown)
Derived from Menander's The Double Deceiver; but only the Plautine version was known until the rediscovery of Menander in the 20th century; sometimes translated as "favor" instead of "love".
Bacchides (The Bacchises)
“If you are wise, be wise; keep what goods the gods provide you.”
[S}i sapias, sapias : habeus quod di dant boni.
Rudens, Act IV, sc. 7, line 3; reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919).
Variant translation: [A] word to the wise! Keep what the Gods have given you. (translation by Cleveland King Chase)
Rudens (The Rope)
Plautus: Trending quotes
“He’s a friend indeed who proves himself a friend in need.”
Nihil agit, qui diffidentem verbis solatus suis. Is est amicus, qui in re dubia te juvat, ubi re est opus.
Epidicus, Act I, sc. 2, line 9.
Epidicus
Context: The man that comforts a desponding friend with words alone, does nothing. He’s a friend indeed who proves himself a friend in need.
“Practice yourself what you preach.”
[F]acias ipse quod faciamus nobis suades.
Asinaria, Act III, scene 3, line 54 (line 644 of full Latin text).
Variant translation: Do you then yourself do that which you would be suggesting to us to do. (translator Henry Thomas Riley, 1912)
Asinaria (The One With the Asses)
“Our best support and succor in distress is fortitude of mind.”
In re mala animo si bono utare, adjuvat.
Captivi, Act II, scene 1, line 8
Variant translation: The best assistance in distress is fortitude of soul. (translator unknown)
Captivi (The Prisoners)
Plautus Quotes
“A word to the wise is enough.”
Dictum sapienti sat est.
Persa, Act IV, scene 7, line 19
Variant translation: A sentence is enough for a sensible man. (translator unknown)
More commonly found as Verbum sapienti (same meaning) and abbreviated to verb. sap. ; proverbially, “A word to the wise is sufficient”
Persa (The Persian)
“To blow and swallow at the same moment is not easy.”
Act III, sc. 2, line 104; reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919).
Mostellaria (The Haunted House)
“You are seeking a knot in a bulrush.”
Menæchmi, Act II, sc. 1, line 22; reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919). A proverbial expression implying a desire to create doubts and difficulties where there really were none. It occurs in Terence, the "Andria", act v. sc. 4, 38; also in Ennius, "Saturæ", 46.
Menaechmi (The Brothers Menaechmus)
“That expression, "He means well," is useless unless he does well.”
Nequam illud verbum‘st, Bene vult, nisi qui bene facit.
Trinummus, Act II, sc. 4, line 37.
Trinummus (The Three Coins)
“If you are but content, you have enough to live upon with comfort.”
Si animus est aequus tibi, satis habes, qui bene vitam colas.
Aulularia, Act II, sc. 2, line 10
Aulularia (The Pot of Gold)
“Courage in danger is half the battle.”
Bonus animus in mala re, dimidium est mali.
Pseudolus, Act I, scene 5, line 37
Pseudolus
“It was not for nothing that the raven was just now croaking on my left hand.”
Aulularia, Act iv, sc. 3, 1; reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919). Referenced in "That raven on yon left-hand oak/(Curse on his ill-betiding croak!)/Bodes me no good", John Gay, 'Fables, Part I, The Farmer’s Wife and the Raven.
Aulularia (The Pot of Gold)
“He who would eat the kernel, must crack the shell.”
Qui e nuce nucleum esse vult, frangat nucem.
Curculio, Act I, scene 1, line 55
Curculio (The Weevil)
“You miss the point? The lady that spares her lover spares herself too little.”
Asinaria, Act I, scene 3.
Asinaria (The One With the Asses)
“Nothing so wretched as a guilty conscience.”
Nihil est miserius, quam animus hominis conscius.
Act III, scene i, line 13.
Variant translation: Nothing is more wretched than the mind of a man conscious of guilt. (translator unknown)
Mostellaria (The Haunted House)
“The chap that endures hard knocks like a man enjoys a soft time later on.”
Asinaria, Act II, scene 2.
Asinaria (The One With the Asses)
“The valiant profit more
Their country, than the finest cleverest speakers.”
Truculentus, Act II, scene ii
Truculentus
“Each man reaps on his own farm.”
Act III, sc. 2, line 112; reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919).
Mostellaria (The Haunted House)
“Fish and guests in three days are stale.”
Quasi piscis itidem est amator lenae: nequam est nisi recens.
Source: Asinaria (The One With the Asses), Act I, scene 3. http://books.google.com/books?id=fo0QAAAAIAAJ&q=%22Quasi+piscis+itidem+est+amator+lenae+nequam+est+nisi+recens%22&pg=PA63#v=onepage
“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.
Variant translation: According as men thrive, their friends are true; if fortune fails, friends likewise disappear. Prosperity finds friends. (translator unknown)
Stichus (The Parasite Rebuffed)
“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.
Rudens, Act II, scene 3, line 69
Rudens (The Rope)
“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.
Amphitryon, Act II, scene 2, line 16.
Variant translation: Courage is the very best gift of all; courage stands before everything, it does, it does! It is what maintains and preserves our liberty, safety, life, and our homes and parents, our country and children. Courage comprises all things: a man with courage has every blessing.
Amphitryon
“Patience, then, is the best remedy against affliction.”
Animus aequus optimus est aerumnae condimentum.
Rudens, Act II, sc. v, line 71.
Variant translation: Patience is the best remedy for every trouble. (translation by Henry Thomas Riley)
Rudens (The Rope)
“Drink! live like the Greeks! eat! gorge!. (translator unknown)”
Bibite ! pergraecamini ! Este ! effercite vos !
Mostellaria, Act I, scene 1, lines 61-62
Mostellaria (The Haunted House)
“You should not speak ill of an absent friend.”
Ne male loquare absenti amico.
Trinummus, Act IV, sc. 2, line 81.
Trinummus (The Three Coins)
“Not by age but by capacity is wisdom acquired.”
Non aetate, verum ingenio apiscitur sapientia.
Trinummus, Act II, sc. 2, line 88.
Trinummus (The Three Coins)
“Man is no man, but a wolf, to a stranger.”
Lupus est homo homini, non homo, quom qualis sit non novit.
Asinaria, Act II, scene 4 (line 495 of full Latin text).
Variant translation: A man is a wolf rather than a man to another man, when he hasn't yet found out what he's like.
Often quoted as "Homo homini lupus" [A man is a wolf to another man].
Asinaria (The One With the Asses)
“Keep what you’ve got; the evil that we know is best. (translator Thornton)”
Habeus ut nactus ; nota mala res optima’st.
Trinummus, Act I, scene 2, lines 25
Trinummus (The Three Coins)
“No blessing lasts forever.”
Nulli est homini perpetuum bonum.
Curculio, Act I, scene 3, line 32
Curculio (The Weevil)
“For what is idly got is idly spent.”
Male partum, male disperit.
Poenulus, Act IV, sc. 2, line 22
Poenulus (The Little Carthaginian)
“Things we hope not for oftener come to pass than things we wish for. (translated by Thornton)”
Insperata accidunt magis saepe quam que speres.
Act I, scene 3, line 42.
Variant translation: Things which you do not hope happen more frequently than things which you do hope. (translator unknown)
Mostellaria (The Haunted House)
“For him I reckon lost who’s lost to shame.”
Nam ego illum periisse duco, cui quidem periit pudor.
Bacchides Act III, scene 3, line 80.
Variant translation: I regard that man as lost, who has lost his sense of shame. (translator unknown)
Bacchides (The Bacchises)
“For what is yours is mine, and mine is yours.”
Quod tuum’st, meum’st; omne meum est autem tuum.
Trinummus, Act II, sc. 2, line 47.
Trinummus (The Three Coins)
“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?
Amphitryon, Act II, scene 2.
Amphitryon
“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.
Truculentus, Act IV, sc. iv, line 15.
Variant translation: Consider the little mouse, how sagacious an animal it is which never entrusts its life to one hole only. (translator unknown)
Truculentus
“The face that thou shalt smite in earnest is bound thereafter to be boneless.”
Amphitryon, Act I, scene 1.
Amphitryon
“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.
Miles Gloriosus, Act III, scene 1, line 146.
Variant translation: No guest is so welcome in a friend's house that he will not become a nuisance after three days. (translator unknown)
Miles Gloriosus (The Swaggering Soldier)
“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.
Truculentus, Act II, sc. 6, line 8.
Truculentus
“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.
Persa, Act IV, scene 3, line 70
Variant translation: ’Tis sweeter far wisdom to gain from other’s woes, than others should learn from ours. (translation by Bonnell Thornton)
Persa (The Persian)
“Conquered, we conquer”
Victi vicimus
Casina, Act II, scene viii, line 74
Casina (The Lot Drawers)
“Ne male loquare absenti amico.”
You should not speak ill of an absent friend.
Trinummus, Act IV, sc. 2, line 81.
Trinummus (The Three Coins)
“In re mala animo si bono utare, adjuvat.”
Our best support and succor in distress is fortitude of mind. (translator Thornton)
Captivi, Act II, scene 1, line 8
Variant translation: The best assistance in distress is fortitude of soul. (translator unknown)
Captivi (The Prisoners)
“I had a regular battle with the dunghill-cock.”
Aulularia, Act III, sc. 4, 13; reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919).
Aulularia (The Pot of Gold)
