Plautus Quotes

56 Sourced Quotes

And so it happens oft in many instances; more good is done without our knowledge than by us intended.
[Lat., Itidemque ut saepe jam in multis locis,
Plus insciens quis fecit quam prodens boni.]

Plautus
According as men thrive, their friends are true ; if their affairs go to wreck, their friends sink with them. Fortune finds friends.

Plautus
To blow and swallow at the same moment is not easy.

Plautus
Things which you do not hope happen more frequently than things which you do hope.

Plautus
Nothing is more wretched than the mind of a man conscious of guilt.

Plautus
Whenever a man is quartered at a friend's, if he but stay three days, his company they will grow weary of.

Plautus
Practice yourself what you preach.

Plautus
For him I reckon lost who's lost to shame.

Plautus
Keep what you've got; the evil that we know is best.

Plautus
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.

Plautus
Without feathers it isn't easy to fly: my wings have got no feathers.
[Lat., Sine pennis volare hau facilest: meae alae pennas non habent.]
[Alt., Flying without feathers is not easy; my wings have no feathers.]

Plautus
In one hand he is carrying a stone, while he shows the bread with the other.

Plautus
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 preferred to gain.

Plautus
That expression, "He means well," is useless unless he does well.

Plautus
The face that thou shalt smite in earnest is bound thereafter to be boneless.

Plautus
He is a friend who, in dubious circumstances, aids in deeds when deeds are necessary.

Plautus
He who would eat the kernel, must crack the shell.

Plautus
No guest is so welcome in a friend's house that he will not become a nuisance after three days.

Plautus
Keep what you have got; the known evil is best.
[Lat., Habeas ut nactus; nota mala res optima est.]

Plautus
Patience, then, is the best remedy against affliction.

Plautus
Oh, are not the pleasures in life, in this daily round, trifling compared with the pains!

Plautus
The mind is hopeful: success is in God's hands.

Plautus
But nevertheless 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.

Plautus
Consider the little mouse, how sagacious an animal it is which never entrusts its life to one hole only.

Plautus
For enemies carry about slander not in the form in which it took its rise. The scandal of men is everlasting; even then does it survive when you would suppose it to be dead.

Plautus