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
father men age
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.
wealth excellent
Wealth--the most excellent of all gods.
habit crabs walks
You cannot make a crab walk straight.
dream race darkness
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.
truth-is foe
The truth is forced upon us, very quickly, by a foe.
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.
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.
law athens idiot
An ancient tradition declares that every idiot blunder we pass into law will sooner or later redound to Athens' profit.
country men able
A man should be able to stand up under any disaster for his country's good.
home vegetables soup
I saw a cavalry captain buy vegetable soup on horseback. He carried the whole mess home in his helmet.
friendship wall war
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.
thinking break-off trying
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.
god simple expression
The gods, my dear simple fellow, are a mere expression coined by vulgar superstition. We frown upon such coinage here.
lying climbing arses
To plunder, to lie, to show your arse, are three essentials for climbing high.