Aristophanes Quotes

To invoke solely the weaker arguments and yet triumph is an art worth more than a hundred thousand drachmae.

There is no beast, no rush of fire, like woman so untamed. She calmly goes her way where even panthers would be shamed.

Open your mouth and shut your eyes and see what Zeus will send you.

Shall I crack any of those old jokes, master, At which the audience never fail to laugh?

A man's homeland is wherever he prospers.

[Y]ou [man] are fool enough, it seems, to dare to war with [woman=] me, when for your faithful ally you might win me easily.

Under every stone lurks a politician.

To win the people, always cook them some savoury that pleases them.

Love is simply the name for the desire and the pursuit of the whole.

A demagogue must be neither an educated nor an honest man; he has to be an ignoramus and a rogue.

An actor should refine public taste.

One must not try to trick misfortune, but resign oneself to it with good grace.

Evil events from evil causes spring.

I was the first to make it understood
that reason could undermine the just premises of the good.

Characteristics of a popular politician: a horrible voice, bad breeding, and a vulgar manner.

Even if you persuade me, you won't persuade me.

You cannot make a crab walk straight.

A slave is but half a man.

The old are in a second childhood.

A truce to idle phrases!

I saw a cavalry captain buy vegetable soup on horseback. He carried the whole mess home in his helmet.

I must think of something foolproof for a fool.

Do not bandy words with your father, nor treat him as a dotard, nor reproach the old man, who has cherished you, with his age.

Prayers without wine are perfectly pointless.

Lysistrata: To seize the treasury; no more money, no more war.

Words give wings to the mind and make a man soar to heaven.

I would treat her like an egg, the shell of which we remove before eating it; I would take off her mask and then kiss her pretty face.

Shrines! Shrines! Surely you don't believe in the gods. What's your argument? Where's your proof?

Open your mind before your mouth

Old age is but a second childhood.

Even from enemies much can be learned by the intelligent,
More in fact than from our friends.

Hunger knows no friend but its feeder.

You should not decide until you have heard what both have to say.

Thou shouldst not decide until thou hast heard what both have to say.

Wealth
the most excellent of all gods.

Quickly, bring me a beaker of wine, so that I may wet my mind and say something clever.

Wise people, even though all laws were abolished, would still lead the same life.

A man can learn wisdom even from a foe

It often happens that less depends upon the valor of an army than the skill of the leader.

Children have a master to teach them, grown-ups have the poets.

A man should be able to stand up under any disaster for his country's good.

Woman is adept at getting money for herself and will not easily let herself be deceived; she understands deceit too well herself.

First listen, my friend, and then you may shriek and bluster.

There's no art where there's no fee.

Full of wiles, full of guile, at all times, in all ways, are the children of Men.

Have you ever, looking up, seen a cloud like to a Centaur, a Part, or a Wolf, or a Bull?

One bush, they say, can never hide two thieves.

Under every rock lurks a politician.

Chorus of old men: How true the saying: 'Tis impossible to live with the baggages, impossible to live without 'em.

Your lost friends are not dead, but gone before, advanced a stage or two upon that road which you must travel in the steps they trod.

When men drink wine they are rich, they are busy, they push lawsuits, they are happy, they are friends.

Ignorance can be cured, but stupidity is forever

That is what we do each time we see someone who falls in love with evil strategies, until we hurl him into misery, so he may learn to fear the Gods.

Meton (astronomer in 5th century BC): With the straight ruler I set to work To make the circle four-cornered .

A fox is subtlety itself.

You can't have anything else to say: you've poured out every drop of what you know.

You will never make the crab walk straight.

You cannot teach a crab to walk straight.

If a man owes me money, I never seem to forget. But if I do the owing, I somehow never remember.

Comedy too can sometimes discern what is right.

What unlooked-for things do happen, to be sure, in a long life!

If you strike upon a thought that baffles you, break off from that entanglement and try another, so shall your wits be fresh to start again.

These impossible women! How they do get around us! The poet was right: Can't live with them, or without them.

Mix and knead together all the state business as you do for your sausages. To win the people, always cook them some savory that pleases them.

It is the compelling power of great thoughts and ideas to engender phrases of equal size.

Why, I'd like nothing better than to achieve some bold adventure, worthy of our trip.

Politics, these days, is no occupation
for an educated man, a man of character.
Ignorance and total lousiness are better.

That man is sharp who can say what he wants in a minimum of words.

Ah! the Generals! they are numerous, but not good for much!

MEN Ah cursed drab, what have you brought this water for? WOMEN What is your fire for then, you smelly corpse? Yourself to burn?

Comedy is allied to justice.

A prudent person after all can pick something
Even from an enemy.

The truth is forced upon us, very quickly, by a foe.

An insult directed at the wicked is not to be censured; on the contrary, the honest man, if he has sense, can only applaud.

The gods, my dear simple fellow, are a mere expression coined by vulgar superstition. We frown upon such coinage here.

Poverty, the most fearful monster that ever drew breath.

What can you answer? Now be careful, don't arouse my spite, Or with my slipper I'll take you napping,
faces slapping
Left and right.

Let each man exercise the art he knows.

It is from their foes, not their friends, that cities learn the lesson of building high walls

No man is really honest; none of us is above the influence of gain.

need a poet who can really write. Nowadays it seems like 'many are gone, and those that live are bad'.12

The wise learn many things from their enemies.

The trickiest thing is the nature of man, apparent in everything.

To plunder, to lie, to show your arse, are three essentials for climbing high.

A man may learn wisdom even from a foe.

Do not take a blind guide.

There is no honest man! not one, that can resist the attraction of gold!

Love is merely the name for the desire and pursuit of the whole.

Today things are better than yesterday.

By words the mind is winged.

Youth ages, immaturity is outgrown, ignorance can be educated, and drunkenness sobered, but stupid lasts forever.

High thoughts must have high language.

It is bad taste for a poet to be coarse and hairy.

You vote yourselves salaries out of the public funds and care only for your own personal interests; hence the state limps along.

The love of wine is a good man's failing.

How can I study from below, that which is above?

Times change. The vices of your age are stylish today.

Old age is second childhood.

An ancient tradition declares that every idiot blunder we pass into law will sooner or later redound to Athens' profit.