Aristophanes Quotes

89 Sourced Quotes

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.

Aristophanes
Hierocles: You will never make the crab walk straight.

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

Aristophanes
Come now, ye men, in nature darkling, like to the race of leaves, of little might, figures of clay, shadowy feeble tribes, wingless creatures of a day, miserable mortals, dream-like men.

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

Aristophanes
[Wealth], the most excellent of all the gods.

Aristophanes
A man may learn wisdom even from a foe.

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

Aristophanes
Strepsiades: But come, by the Earth, is not Zeus, the Olympian, a god?
Socrates: What Zeus? Do not trifle. There is no Zeus.

Aristophanes
Unjust Discourse: To invoke solely the weaker arguments and yet triumph is a talent worth more than a hundred thousand drachmae.

Aristophanes
Somewhere, what with all these clouds, and all this air, There must be a rare name, somewhere... How do you like "Cloud-Cuckoo-Land"?

Aristophanes
There's nothing worse in the world than shameless woman—save some other woman.

Aristophanes
Epops: Come let me see, what shall the name be for our city?
Euelpides: Hence, from the clouds, and these meteoric regions, some all-swelling name.
Pisthetaerus: Would you Cloud-cuckoo-land?

Aristophanes
This is what extremely grieves us, that a man who never fought Should contrive our fees to pilfer, one who for his native land Never to this day had oar, or lance, or blister in his hand.

Aristophanes
Vortex reigns, having expelled Zeus.

Aristophanes
I am amazed that anyone who has made a fortune should send for his friends.

Aristophanes
By words the mind is winged

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

Aristophanes
On the nightingale:
Lord Zeus, listen to the little bird's voice; he has filled the whole thicket with honeyed song.

Aristophanes
Under every stone lurks a politician.

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

Aristophanes
Yet I have not been seen frequenting the wrestling school intoxicated with success and trying to seduce young boys; but I took all my theatrical gear and returned straight home. I pained folk but little and caused them much amusement; my conscience rebuked me for nothing. Hence both grown men and youths should be on my side and I likewise invite the bald to give me their votes; for, if I triumph, everyone will say, both at table and at festivals, Carry this to the bald man, give these cakes to the bald one, do not grudge the poet whose talent shines as bright as his own bare skull the share he deserves.

Aristophanes
Blest the man who possesses a
Keen intelligent mind.

Aristophanes
Informer: My friend, I am asking you for wings, not for words.
Pisthetaerus: It's just my words that gives you wings.
Informer: And how can you give a man wings with your words?
Pisthetaerus: They all start this way. [...]
Informer: So that words give wings?
Pisthetaerus: Undoubtedly; words give wings to the mind and make a man soar to heaven. Thus I hope that my wise words will give you wings to fly to some less degrading trade.

Aristophanes
[We] must look beneath every stone, lest it conceal some orator ready to sting us.

Aristophanes
Mankind, fleet of life, like tree leaves, weak creatures of clay, unsubstantial as shadows, wingless, ephemeral, wretched, mortal and dreamlike.

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

Aristophanes
Haven't you sometimes seen a cloud that looked like a centaur? Or a leopard perhaps? Or a wolf? Or a bull?

Aristophanes
Man is a truly cunning creature.

Aristophanes