Aristophanes
Aristophanes
Aristophanes, son of Philippus, of the deme Kydathenaion, was a comic playwright of ancient Athens. Eleven of his forty plays survive virtually complete. These, together with fragments of some of his other plays, provide the only real examples of a genre of comic drama known as Old Comedy, and are used to define it...
NationalityGreek
ProfessionPoet
men wicked honest
An insult directed at the wicked is not to be censured; on the contrary, the honest man, if he has sense, can only applaud.
air essence data
Only by being suspended aloft, by dangling my mind in the heavens and mingling my rare thought with the ethereal air, could I ever achieve strict scientific accuracy in my survey of the vast empyrean. Had I pursued my inquiries from down there on the ground, my data would be worthless. The earth, you see, pulls down the delicate essence of thought to its own gross level.
believe hands wicked
It is right that the good should be happy, that the wicked and the impious on the other hand, should be miserable; that is a truth, I believe, which no one will gainsay.
blind guides
Do not take a blind guide.
wine men busy
When men drink wine they are rich, they are busy, they push lawsuits, they are happy, they are friends.
work circles four
Meton (astronomer in 5th century BC): With the straight ruler I set to work To make the circle four-cornered .
habit crabs walks
You cannot make a crab walk straight.
laughter laughing cracks
Shall I crack any of those old jokes, master, At which the audience never fail to laugh?
care salary vote
You vote yourselves salaries out of the public funds and care only for your own personal interests; hence the state limps along.
children poet masters
Children have a master to teach them, grown-ups have the poets.
spring evil causes
Evil events from evil causes spring.
study
How can I study from below, that which is above?
children wall war
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.
comedy sometimes please
Comedy too can sometimes discern what is right. I shall not please, but I shall say what is true.