Aristophanes Quotes

Politics these days in no occupation for an honest man ... neither educated nor honest, he has to be an ignoramus & a rogue.

EL HOMBRE - ...No estamos acostumbrados a dar; solo nos gusta recibir, en lo cual imitamos a los dioses. Para convencerte, no tienes más que mirarles a las manos; sus imágenes, cuando les pedimos dones y mercedes, nos alargan las manos vueltas hacia arriba; no en actitud de dar sino de recibir.

Leader of the Chorus: 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. (tr. O'Neill 1938, Perseus)

A man may learn wisdom even from a foe.

Open your mind before your mouth

The trickiest thing is the nature of man, apparent in everything.

Blepsidemus: There is no honest man! not one, that can resist the attraction of gold! (tr. O'Neill 1938, Perseus)

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.

I love him, oh! I love him; but he won't let himself be loved.

Our origin is very much older than that of the dwellers of Mount Olympus… And what important services do not the birds render to mortals? … Through us you will know the winds and the seasons, summer, winter and the temperate months. We shall not withdraw ourselves to the highest clouds like Zeus, but shall be among you and shall give to you and to your children and to the children of your children health and wealth, long life, peace, youth, laughter, songs and feasts. … Is it not the most priceless gift of all to be winged?

Strep. Socrates! My little Socrates!
Socrates. Why callest thou me, thou creature of a day?
Strep. First tell me, I beseech you, what are you doing.
Soc. I am walking in the air, and speculating about the
sun.
Strep. And so you look down upon the gods from your
basket, and not from the earth?
Soc. For I should not have rightly discovered things
celestial if I had not suspended the intellect, and
mixed the thought in a subtle form with its kindred air.
But if, being on the ground, I speculated from below on
things above, I should never have discovered them. For
the earth forcibly attracts to itself the meditative
moisture. Water-cresses also suffer the very same thing.
Strep. What do you say? Does meditation attract the
moisture to the water-cresses? Come then, my little
Socrates, descend to me, that you may teach me those
things, for the sake of which I have come.

All we have to do is idly sit
indoors
With smooth roses powdered
on our cheeks,
Our bodies burning naked
through the fold
Of shining Amorgos' silk
and meet the men
With our dear Venus-plats
plucked trim and neat.
Their stirring love will rise
up furiously,
They'll beg our arms to
open. That's our time!
We'll disregard their knocking
beat them off
And they will soon be rabid
for a Peace
I'm sure of it.

Queste donne micidiali, non si può vivere nè con loro nè senza di loro.

Demosthenes: A demagogue must be neither an educated nor an honest man; he has to be an ignoramus and a rogue. (tr. O'Neill 1938, Perseus)

Just Cause: [Learn] not to contradict your father in anything; nor by calling him Iapetus, to reproach him with the ills of age, by which you were reared in your infancy. (tr. Hickie 1853, vol. 1, Perseus)