Aristophanes Quotes

Aristophanes Quote: Let each man exercise the art he knows.

By words the mind is winged.

Aristophanes (Birds, 414 BCE)

Let each man exercise the art he knows.

Aristophanes (The Wasps, 422 BCE)

You cannot teach a crab to walk straight.

Aristophanes (Peace, 421 BCE)

High thoughts must have high language.

Aristophanes (The Frogs, 405 BCE)

The wise learn many things from their foes.

Aristophanes (Birds, 414 BCE)

The old are in a second childhood.

Aristophanes (The Clouds, 423 BCE)

Hunger knows no friend but its feeder.

Aristophanes (The Wasps, 422 BCE)

Under every stone lurks a politician.

Aristophanes (Thesmophoriazusae also known as The Poet and the Women, 411 BCE)

Evil events from evil causes spring.

Aristophanes (The Clouds, 423 BCE)

Men of sense often learn from their enemies.

Aristophanes (Birds, 414 BCE)

A man's homeland is wherever he prospers.

Aristophanes (Plutus, 388 BCE)

Man is a truly cunning creature.

Aristophanes (Birds, 414 BCE)

They love, they hate, but cannot do without him.

Aristophanes

Wise men, though all laws were abolished, would lead the same lives.

Aristophanes

Full of wiles, full of guile, at all times, in all ways, Are the children of Men.

Aristophanes (Birds, 414 BCE)

Open your mouth and shut your eyes and see what Zeus will send you.

Aristophanes

Bring me a sword; If I am worsted in this debate, I shall fall on the blade.

Aristophanes (The Wasps, 422 BCE)

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

Aristophanes (The Knights, 424 BCE)



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

Aristophanes (The Frogs, 405 BCE)

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

Aristophanes (The Frogs, 405 BCE)

Shrines! Shrines! Surely you don't believe in the gods. What's your argument? Where's your proof?

Aristophanes (The Knights, 424 BCE)

I pained folk but little and caused them much amusement; my conscience rebuked me for nothing.

Aristophanes (Peace, 421 BCE)

One must not try to trick misfortune, but resign oneself to it with good grace.

Aristophanes (Thesmophoriazusae also known as The Poet and the Women, 411 BCE)

You have all the characteristics of a popular politician: a horrible voice, bad breeding, and a vulgar manner.

Aristophanes (The Knights, 424 BCE)

These impossible women! How they do get around us! The poet was right: Can't live with them, or without them.

Aristophanes (Lysistrata, 411 BCE)

It is from their foes, not their friends, that cities learn the lesson of building high walls and ships of war.

Aristophanes (Birds, 414 BCE)

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.

Aristophanes (The Clouds, 423 BCE)

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.

Aristophanes (The Wasps, 422 BCE)

Look! when a man drinks, he is rich, everything he touches succeeds, he gains lawsuits, is happy and helps his friends. Come, bring hither quick a flagon of wine, that I may soak my brain and get an ingenious idea.

Aristophanes (The Knights, 424 BCE)

When the soldier returns from the wars, even though he has white hair, he very soon finds a young wife. But a woman has only one summer; if she does not make hay while the sun shines, no one will afterwards have anything to say to her, and she spends her days consulting oracles that never send her a husband.

Aristophanes (Lysistrata, 411 BCE)

Aristophanes Biography

Born: 448 BCE
Died: 380 BCE

Aristophanes was an ancient Greek comic playwright. Aristophanes is commonly known as the Father of Comedy.

Notable Works

Plutus (388 BCE)
The Frogs
(405 BCE)
The Poet and the Woman
(411 BCE)
Lysistrata (411 BCE)
Birds (414 BCE)
Peace (421 BCE)
The Wasps (422 BCE)
The Clouds
(423 BCE)
The Knights (424 BCE)

Misattributed Quotes

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.
Antipathes, (a comic poet, who lived during and after Aristophanes. Between 408 BCE - 334 BCE)

Related Authors

Aeschylus
Aesop
Democritus
Herodotus
Pythagoras
Socrates
Thucydides
Xenophon