Aristophanes Quotes & Sayings

The old are in a second childhood. — Aristophanes

A slave is but half a man. — Aristophanes

Under every rock lurks a politician. — Aristophanes

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

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

Hunger knows no friend but its feeder. — Aristophanes

The swallows, fleeing before the hoopoes, shall have all flocked together in one place, and shall refrain them from all amorous commerce, then will be the end of all the ills of life; yea, and Zeus, which doth thunder in the skies, shall set above what was erst below ... — Aristophanes

Evil events from evil causes spring. — Aristophanes

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

Women, you overheated dipsomaniacs, never passing up a chance to wangle a drink, a great boon to bartenders but a bane to us
not to mention our crockery and our woolens! — Aristophanes

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

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

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

Only by being suspended aloft, by dangling my mind in the heavens and mingling my rare thought with the ethereal air, could I ever achieve strict scientific accuracy in my survey of the vast empyrean. Had I pursued my inquiries from down there on the ground, my data would be worthless. The earth, you see, pulls down the delicate essence of thought to its own gross level. — Aristophanes

Let each man exercise the art he knows. — Aristophanes

A truce to idle phrases! — Aristophanes

But how should women perform so wise and glorious an achievement, we women who dwell in the retirement of the household, clad in diaphanous garments of yellow silk and long flowing gowns, decked out with flowers and shod with dainty little slippers? — Aristophanes

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

Chorus of old men: If we give them the least hold over us, 'tis all up! their audacity will know no bounds! We shall see them building ships, and fighting sea-fights like Artemisia; nay if they want to mount and ride as cavalry, we had best cashier the knights, for indeed women excel in riding, and have a fine, firm seat for the gallop. Just think of all those squadrons of Amazons Micon has painted for us engaged in hand-to-hand combat with men. — Aristophanes

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

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

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

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

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

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

An actor should refine public taste. — Aristophanes

Lysistrata: "Calonice, it's more than I can bear,
I am hot all over with blushes for our sex.
Men say we're slippery rogues--"

Calonice: "And aren't they right? — Aristophanes

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

You cannot make a crab walk straight. — Aristophanes

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

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

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

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. — Aristophanes

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

A man may learn wisdom even from a foe. — Aristophanes

MAGISTRATE
Don't men grow old?
LYSISTRATA
Not like women. When a man comes home
Though he's grey as grief he can always get a girl.
There's no second spring for a woman. None.
She can't recall it, nobody wants her, however
She squanders her time on the promise of oracles,
It's no use ... — Aristophanes

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

High thoughts must have high language. — Aristophanes

[Y]ou possess all the attributes of a demagogue; a screeching, horrible voice, a perverse, crossgrained nature and the language of the market-place. In you all is united which is needful for governing. — Aristophanes

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

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

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

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

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

[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. — Aristophanes

LYSISTRATA May gentle Love and the sweet Cyprian Queen shower seductive charms on our bosoms and all our person. If only we may stir so amorous a feeling among the men that they stand firm as sticks, we shall indeed deserve the name of peace-makers among the Greeks. — Aristophanes

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

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

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

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

Prayers without wine are perfectly pointless. — Aristophanes

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

Do you dare to accuse wine of clouding the reason? Quote me more marvelous effects than those of wine. Look! when a man drinks, he is rich, everything he touches succeeds, he gains lawsuits, is happy and helps his friends. Come, bring hither quick a flagon of wine, that I may soak my brain and get an ingenious idea. — Aristophanes

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

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

Ye Children of Man! whose life is a span, Protracted with sorrow from day to day, Naked and featherless, feeble and querulous, Sickly, calamitous creatures of clay! — Aristophanes

You will never make the crab walk straight. — Aristophanes

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

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

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

It is right that the good should be happy, that the wicked and the impious on the other hand, should be miserable; that is a truth, I believe, which no one will gainsay. — Aristophanes

Today things are better than yesterday. — Aristophanes

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

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

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

Poverty, the most fearful monster that ever drew breath. — Aristophanes

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

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. — Aristophanes

You [demagogues] are like the fishers for eels; in still waters they catch nothing, but if they thoroughly stir up the slime, their fishing is good; in the same way it's only in troublous times that you line your pockets. — Aristophanes

A man's homeland is wherever he prospers. — Aristophanes

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

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. — Aristophanes

It should not prejudice my voice that I'm not born a man, if I say something advantageous to the present situation. For I'm taxed too, and as a toll provide men for the nation. — Aristophanes

Lewd to the least drop in the tiniest vein, Our sex is fitly food for Tragic Poets, Our whole life's but a pile of kisses and babies. But, hardy Spartan, if you join with me All may be righted yet. O help me, help me. — Aristophanes

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

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

I must think of something foolproof for a fool. — Aristophanes

The wise learn many things from their enemies. — Aristophanes

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

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

Wealth
the most excellent of all gods. — Aristophanes

Under every stone lurks a politician. — Aristophanes

Comedy is allied to justice. — Aristophanes

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

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

Do not take a blind guide. — Aristophanes

A man can learn wisdom even from a foe — Aristophanes

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. — Aristophanes

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

By words the mind is winged. — Aristophanes

Open your mind before your mouth — Aristophanes

Calonice: My dear Lysistrata, just what is this matter you've summoned us women to consider.What's up? Something big?
Lysistrata: Very big.
Calonice: (interested) Is it stout too?
Lysistrata: (smiling) Yes, indeed
both big and stout.
Calonice: What? And the women still haven't come?
Lysistrata: It's not what you suppose; they'd come soon enough for that. — Aristophanes

Old age is but a second childhood. — Aristophanes

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

Look at the orators in our republics; as long as they are poor, both state and people can only praise their uprightness; but once they are fattened on the public funds, they conceive a hatred for justice, plan intrigues against the people and attack the democracy. — Aristophanes

Does it seem that everything is extravagance in the world, or rather madness, when you watch the way things go? A crowd of rogues enjoy blessings they have won by sheer injustice, while more honest folks are miserable and die of hunger. — Aristophanes

Ignorance can be cured, but stupidity is forever — Aristophanes

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

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

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