Aristophanes Quotes

Comedy is allied to justice.

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

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.

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

Youth ages, immaturity is outgrown, ignorance can be educated, and drunkenness sobered, but stupid lasts forever.

The old are in a second childhood.

A man's homeland is wherever he prospers.

Thou shouldst not decide until thou hast heard what both have to say.

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

The wise learn many things from their enemies.

Your lost friends are not dead, but gone before, advanced a stage or two upon that road which you must travel in the steps they trod.

Quickly, bring me a beaker of wine, so that I may wet my mind and say something clever.

Open your mind before your mouth

A man may learn wisdom even from a foe.

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

Lysistrata: Oh, Calonicé, my heart is on fire; I blush for our sex. Men will have it we are tricky and sly...Calonicé: And they are quite right, upon my word!Lysistrata: Yet, look you, when the women are summoned to meet for a matter of the last importance, they lie abed instead of coming.Calonicé: Oh, they will come, my dear; but 'tis not easy you know, for a woman to leave the house. One is busy pottering about her husband; another is getting the servant up; a third is putting her child asleep or washing the brat or feeding it.

You cannot make a crab walk straight.

[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.

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

Old age is but a second childhood.

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

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

When men drink, then they are rich and successful and win lawsuits and are happy and help their friends. Quickly, bring me a beaker of wine, so that I may wet my mind and say something clever.

Chorus of women: [...] Oh! my good, gallant Lysistrata, and all my friends, be ever like a bundle of nettles; never let you anger slacken; the wind of fortune blown our way.

[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.

You're mistaken; men of sense often learn much from their enemies. Prudence is the best safeguard. This principle cannot be learnt from a friend: but an enemy extorts it immediately. It is from their foes and not their friends, that cities learn the lesson of building high walls and ships of war. And this lesson saves their children, their homes, and their properties.

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

Under every stone lurks a politician.

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

High thoughts must have high language.

The children now love luxury; they have bad manners, contempt for authority; they show disrespect for elders and love chatter in place of exercise. Children are now tyrants, not the servants of their households. They no longer rise when elders enter the room. They contradict their parents, chatter before company, gobble up dainties at the table, cross their legs, and tyrannize their teachers.

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.

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

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

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.

Weak mortals, chained to the earth, creatures of clay as frail as the foliage of the woods, you unfortunate race, whose life is but darkness, as unreal as a shadow, the illusion of a dream.

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

By words the mind is winged.

Evil events from evil causes spring.

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

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

Surely you do not believe in the gods. What's your argument? Where's your proof?

Comedy too can sometimes discern what is right. I shall not please, but I shall say what is true.

Ignorance can be cured, but stupidity is forever

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.

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.

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

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