Aristophanes Quotes - Page 3

You cannot make a crab walk straight.

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

Today things are better than yesterday.

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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.

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.

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

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

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

Tis not for us to warn a wilful sinner; We stay him not, but let him run his course, Till by misfortunes rous'd, his conscience wakes, And prompts him to appease th' offended gods.

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Old age is but a second childhood.

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

If I get clear of my debts, I care not though men call me bold, glib of tongue, audacious, impudent, shameless, a fabricator of falsehoods, inventor of words, practised in lawsuits, a pettifogger, a rattle, a fox, a sharper, a knave, a dissembler, a slippery fellow, an imposter, a rogue that deserves the cat-o-nine-tails, a blackguard, a twister, a licker-up of hashes; they call all this when they meet me, if they please, I care not.