Plautus Quotes - Page 8

Smooth words in place of gifts. [Lat., Dicta docta pro datis.]

Man proposes, God disposes.

That which you know, know not; and that which you see, see not.

Little do you know what a gloriously uncertain thing law is.

To waste one's breath; to pump into a sieve.

He who is most on his guard is often himself taken in.

To snatch the worm from the trap.

You will not be a chip the richer.

Fire is next akin to smoke.

It is sheer folly to take unwilling hounds to the chase.

Good things soon find a purchaser.

Your piping-hot lie is the best of lies.

He who accuses another of wrong should look well into his own conduct.

The evil that we know is best.

If you say hard things you must expect to hear them in return.

You have eaten a meal dangerously seasoned. [You have laid up a grief in store for yourself.]

I know that we women are all justly accounted praters; they say in the present day that there never was in any age such a wonder to be found as a dumb woman. [Lat., Nam multum loquaces merito omnes habemus, Nec mutam profecto repertam ullam esse Hodie dicunt mulierem ullo in seculo.]

I've seen many men avoid the region of good advice before they were really near it.

Ones oldest friend is the best.

Man's fortune is usually changed at once; life is changeable. [Lat., Actutum fortunae solent mutarier; varia vita est.]

Wine is a cunning wrestler.

You little know what a ticklish thing it is to go to law. [Lat., Nescis tu quam meticulosa res sit ire ad judicem.]

A good disposition I far prefer to gold; for gold is the gift of fortune; goodness of disposition is the gift of nature. I prefer much rather to be called good than fortunate.

The man who masters his own soul will forever be called conqueror of conquerors.

Besides that, when elsewhere the harvest of wheat is most abundant, there it comes up less by one-fourth than what you have sowed. There, methinks, it were a proper place for men to sow their wild oats, where they would not spring up.