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Do not bandy words with your father, nor treat him as a dotard, nor reproach the old man, who has cherished you, with his age.

Aristophanes

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

Enemy Force Truth
You 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

Character Government Language Nature Need Voice
These impossible women! How they do get around us! The poet was right: can’t live with them, or without them!
ARISTOPHANES

Impossible Live Poet Right Woman
It is bad taste for a poet to be coarse and hairy.
ARISTOPHANES

Coarse Poet Taste
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

Justice Long Ourselves People
Men of sense often learn from their enemies. It is from their foes, not their friends, that cities learn the lesson of building high walls and ships of war.
ARISTOPHANES

Friendship Wall War
The gods, my dear simple fellow, are a mere expression coined by vulgar superstition. We frown upon such coinage here.
ARISTOPHANES

Expression God Simplicity
To win the people, always cook them some savoury that pleases them.
ARISTOPHANES

People Promise Winning
If a man owes me money, I never seem to forget. But if I do the owing, I somehow never remember.
ARISTOPHANES

Debt Funny Men Money Owing
To invoke solely the weaker arguments and yet triumph is an art worth more than a hundred thousand drachmae.
ARISTOPHANES

Argument Art Success
How can I study from below, that which is above?
ARISTOPHANES

Deep Philosophy Study
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

Blessing Death Honesty Mad Misery World
You cannot teach a crab to walk straight.
ARISTOPHANES

Animal Teaching Walk Yourself
A demagogue must be neither an educated nor an honest man; he has to be an ignoramus and a rogue.
ARISTOPHANES

Education Honest Men
Old age is second childhood.
ARISTOPHANES

Age Childhood Old Age One Liner
Children have a master to teach them, grown-ups have the poets.
ARISTOPHANES

Children Learning Poet

Do not bandy words with your father, nor treat him as a dotard, nor reproach the old man, who has cherished you, with his age.

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Do not bandy words with your father, nor treat him as a dotard, nor reproach the old man, who has cherished you, with his age.

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Popular Authors

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