Plautus Quotes

To a well deserving person God will show favor. To an ill deserving person He will simply be just.

Every man, however wise, needs the advice of some sagacious friend in the affairs of life.

Man’s fortune is usually changed at once; life is changeable.

In misfortune if you cultivate a cheerful disposition you will reap the advantage of it.

It is the nature of the unfortunate to be spiteful, and to envy those who are well to do.

In everything the middle course is the best; everything in excess brings trouble.

You must spend money, if you wish to make money.

If you are wise, be wise; keep what goods the gods provide you.

Poverty is a thorough instructress in all the arts.

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

I have taken a wife, I have sold my sovereignty for a dowry.

The evil that we know is best.

Give assistance, and receive thanks lighter than a feather: injure a man, and his wrath will be like lead.

It is a great plague to be too handsome a man.

Nothing but heaven itself is better than a friend who is really a friend.

If anything is spoken in jest, it is not fair to turn it to earnest.

And so it happens oft in many instances; more good is done without our knowledge than by us intended.

You will stir up the hornets.

There are games in which it is better to lose than win.

He gains wisdom in a happy way, who gains it by another’s experience.

I am myself my own commander.

The man who would be fully employed should procure a ship or a woman, for no two things produce more trouble.

If you do anything well, gratitude is lighter than a feather; if you give offense in anything, people’s wrath is as heavy as lead.

He who has in due season become rich, unless he saves in due season, will in due season starve.

Every one can remember that which has interested himself.

The gods give that man some profit to whom they are propitious.

If you have overcome your inclination and not been overcome by it, you have reason to rejoice.