Plautus
Plautus
Titus Maccius Plautus, commonly known as Plautus, was a Roman playwright of the Old Latin period. His comedies are the earliest Latin literary works to have survived in their entirety. He wrote Palliata comoedia, the genre devised by the innovator of Latin literature, Livius Andronicus. The word Plautine /ˈplɔːtaɪn/ refers to both Plautus's own works and works similar to or influenced by his...
NationalityRoman
ProfessionPlaywright
riches delight used
Riches, rightly used, breed delight.
affair fortune mould
Fortune moulds and circumscribes human affairs as she pleases. [Lat., Fortuna humana fingit artatque ut lubet.]
beauty men handsome
It is a great plague to be too handsome a man. [Lat., Nimia est miseria nimis pulchrum esse hominem.]
moving dumb bells
The Bell never rings of itself; unless some one handles or moves it it is dumb. [Lat., Nunquam aedepol temere tinniit tintinnabulum; Nisi quis illud tractat aut movet, mutum est, tacet.]
arrogance prosperity
Arrogance is the outgrowth of prosperity.
smooth
Smooth words in place of gifts. [Lat., Dicta docta pro datis.]
gossip ears tongue
Tattletales, and those who listen to their slander, by my good will, should all be hanged. The former by their tongues, the latter by their ears. [Lat., Homines qui gestant, quique auscultant crimina, si meo arbitratu liceat, omnes pendeant gestores linguis, auditores auribus.]
spring men oats
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. [Lat., Post id, frumenti quum alibi messis maxima'st Tribus tantis illi minus reddit, quam obseveris. Heu! istic oportet obseri mores malos, Si in obserendo possint interfieri.]
ignorance knows
Know not what you know, and see not what you see. [Lat., Etiam illud quod scies nesciveris; Ne videris quod videris.]
blow ego easy
To blow and to swallow at the same time is not easy; I cannot at the same time be here and also there. [Lat., Simul flare sorbereque haud facile Est: ego hic esse et illic simul, haud potui.]
luck desire happens
Things unhoped for happen oftener than things we desire.
trying favors succeed
We should try to succeed by merit, not by favor. He who does well will always have patrons enough. [Lat., Virtute ambire oportet, non favitoribus. Sat habet favitorum semper, qui recte facit.]
men excess trouble
In everything the middle course is best: all things in excess bring trouble to men. [Lat., Modus omnibus in rebus, soror, optimum est habitu; Nimia omnia nimium exhibent negotium hominibus ex se.]
men modesty young
Modesty becomes a young man. [Lat., Adolescentem verecundum esse decet.]