“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)”

— Plautus , Captivi

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)

Original

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.

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "Nor do I hold that every kind of gain is always serviceable. Gain, I know, has render’d many great. But there are times…" by Plautus?

Plautus 54

Roman comic playwright of the Old Latin period -254–-184 BC

Related quotes

“There's no great loss without some small gain.”

Laura Ingalls Wilder Little House on the Prairie

Source: Little House on the Prairie (1935), Ch. 25; said by Ma, after Pa lost the corn crop to blackbirds but brought home some of the birds for dinner.

“The gain to the winner is always less than the loss to the loser.”

Ian Fleming book Live and Let Die

Source: Live and Let Die

“Our world was created with a sense of order. For every loss, there is a gain. Sometimes we are so blinded by the loss that we don't see the gain, don't recognize the gift.”

Debbie Macomber (1948) American writer

“Why should I stay? Nor seed nor fruit have I,
But, sprung at once to beauty’s perfect round,
Nor loss nor gain nor change in me is found,—
A life-complete in death-complete to die.”

John B. Tabb (1845–1909) American poet

The Bubble, as quoted in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919).

“Every joy is gain
And gain is gain, however small.”

Robert Browning Paracelsus

Part 4.
Paracelsus (1835)

“My loss may shine yet goodlier than your gain
When time and God give judgment.”

Algernon Charles Swinburne (1837–1909) English poet, playwright, novelist, and critic

Faliero, Act V. Sc. 2.
Marino Faliero (1885)
Context: Farewell, and peace be with you if it may.
I have lost, ye have won this hazard: yet perchance
My loss may shine yet goodlier than your gain
When time and God give judgment. If there be
Truth, true is this, that I desired the right
And ye with hands as red sustain the wrong
As mine had been in triumph. Have your will:
And God send each no bitterer end than mine.