“I call a fig a fig, a spade a spade.”

— Menander

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.

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update Oct. 2, 2023. History

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Menander18

Athenian playwright of New Comedy -342–-291 BC

Leo Strauss book Thoughts on Machiavelli

Source: Thoughts on Machiavelli (1958), p. 50

“These Macedonians," said he, "are a rude and clownish people, that call a spade a spade.”

Plutarch (46–127) ancient Greek historian and philosopher

39 Philip
Apophthegms of Kings and Great Commanders

“I am not a man of etiquette, I don't know manners. I simply call a spade a fucking spade, because that's what it is.”

Rajneesh (1931–1990) Godman and leader of the Rajneesh movement

From Darkness to Light

“Sometimes a person has to point fingers, disclose double standards, call a spade a spade.”

Bernice King (1963) American minister, daughter of Martin Luther King, Jr.

“I hate vulgar realism in literature. The man who would call a spade a spade should be compelled to use one.”

Oscar Wilde book The Picture of Dorian Gray

Source: The Picture of Dorian Gray

“I saw my life branching out before me like the green fig tree in the story. From the tip of every branch, like a fat purple fig, a wonderful future beckoned and winked. One fig was a husband and happy home and children, and another fig was a famous poet and another fig was a brilliant professor, and another fig was Ee Gee, the amazing editor, and another fig was Constantin and Socrates and Attila and a pack of other lovers with queer names and offbeat professions, and another fig was an Olympic lady crew champion, and beyond and above these figs were many more figs I couldn't quite make out.”

Sylvia Plath book The Bell Jar

Source: The Bell Jar (1963), Ch.7

“Cecily. This is no time for wearing the shallow mask of manners. When I see a spade I call it a spade.
Gwendolen. [Satirically. ] I am glad to say that I have never seen a spade. It is obvious that our social spheres have been widely different.”

Oscar Wilde The Importance of Being Earnest

Source: The Importance of Being Earnest

“Me? I'm loyal and honest, and I'm a good person. I call a spade a spade. Money doesn't make me; I make money. Without money, I'd be the same person.”

Floyd Mayweather Jr. (1977) American boxer

2010s, 2015, Interview with Jim Gray (September 2015)

“What capital I give for the spade merely replaces what the manufacturer had already invested in the expectation that the spade would be needed.”

William Stanley Jevons The Theory of Political Economy

Source: The Theory of Political Economy (1871), Chapter VII, Theory of Capital, p. 188.

“I'll give you leave to call me anything, if you don't call me "spade."”

Jonathan Swift (1667–1745) Anglo-Irish satirist, essayist, and poet

Polite Conversation (1738), Dialogue 2

“I call a fig a fig, a spade a spade.”

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