Plautus (c.250–184 BCE) was a great Roman comic dramatist. His works, such as Rudens, loosely adapted from Greek New Comedy, established a truly Roman drama in the Latin language.
Born in Sarsina, Umbria, he probably went to Rome while still young and learned his mastery of the most idiomatic Latin. He found work in connection with the stage and then started a business in foreign trade. However, it failed, and he returned to Rome in such poverty that he had to work for a baker, turning a hand mill.
Plautus borrowed his plots mainly from the New Attic Comedy, which dealt with a social life to exclude politics. His plays show close familiarity with seafaring life and adventure and intimate knowledge of all the details of buying and selling and bookkeeping.
About 130 plays were attributed to him in the time of the grammarian Aulus Gellius, who believed most of them to be the work of earlier dramatists revised and improved by Plautus. Scholar Marcus Terentius Varro limited the genuine comedies to 21, and these so-called ‘Varronian comedies’ are now extant, the Vidularia (‘The Rucksack Play’) being fragmentary.
More: Wikipedia • READ: Works by Plautus (Titus Maccius Plautus)
To a well deserving person God will show favor. To an ill deserving person He will simply be just.
—Plautus (Titus Maccius Plautus)
Topics: Kindness
Nothing but heaven itself is better than a friend who is really a friend.
—Plautus (Titus Maccius Plautus)
Topics: Friendship, Heaven
What is thine is mine, and all mine is thine.
—Plautus (Titus Maccius Plautus)
Topics: Friendship
No one can be so welcome a guest that he will not annoy his host after three days.
—Plautus (Titus Maccius Plautus)
This is the great fault of wine; it first trips up the feet: it is a cunning wrestler.
—Plautus (Titus Maccius Plautus)
Topics: Alcoholism, Alcohol
Wisdom is not attained by years, but by ability.
—Plautus (Titus Maccius Plautus)
Topics: Wisdom
Nothing is there more friendly to a man than a friend in need.
—Plautus (Titus Maccius Plautus)
Topics: Friends and Friendship
Your wealth is where your friends are.
—Plautus (Titus Maccius Plautus)
Topics: Mistakes, Friendship, Failures
No man is wise enough by himself.
—Plautus (Titus Maccius Plautus)
Topics: Friendship, Wisdom
One does nothing who tries to console a despondent person with word. A friend is one who aids with deeds at a critical time when deeds are called for.
—Plautus (Titus Maccius Plautus)
Topics: Help, Aid, Assistance
He whom the Gods love dies young, while he is in health, has his senses and his judgments sound.
—Plautus (Titus Maccius Plautus)
Topics: Dying, Death
One eye witness is better than ten hear sayers.
—Plautus (Titus Maccius Plautus)
Topics: Gossip
Let us celebrate the occasion with wine and sweet words.
—Plautus (Titus Maccius Plautus)
Topics: One liners
The great evil of wine is that it first seizes the feet, it is a crafty wrestler.
—Plautus (Titus Maccius Plautus)
Topics: Wine
I esteem death a trifle, if not caused by guilt.
—Plautus (Titus Maccius Plautus)
Topics: One liners, Guilt
Good courage in a bad affair is half of the evil overcome.
—Plautus (Titus Maccius Plautus)
Topics: Courage, Bravery, Evil
Courage is its own reward.
—Plautus (Titus Maccius Plautus)
Topics: Courage
It is easier to begin well than to finish well.
—Plautus (Titus Maccius Plautus)
Topics: Endurance, Resolve, Perseverance
Every man, however wise, needs the advice of some sagacious friend in the affairs of life.
—Plautus (Titus Maccius Plautus)
Topics: Friendship, Advice, Wisdom, Friends
Things which you do not hope happen more frequently than things which you do hope.
—Plautus (Titus Maccius Plautus)
Topics: Hope
Courage easily finds its own eloquence.
—Plautus (Titus Maccius Plautus)
Topics: Courage
If you want to do something, do it!
—Plautus (Titus Maccius Plautus)
Ones oldest friend is the best.
—Plautus (Titus Maccius Plautus)
Topics: Friends and Friendship
The man who masters his own soul will forever be called conqueror of conquerors.
—Plautus (Titus Maccius Plautus)
Topics: Discipline, Self-Control
Flying without feathers is not easy; my wings have no feathers.
—Plautus (Titus Maccius Plautus)
Topics: Flying
Courage in danger is half the battle.
—Plautus (Titus Maccius Plautus)
Topics: Warfare, Courage, Bravery, Danger
I seek the utmost pleasure and the least pain.
—Plautus (Titus Maccius Plautus)
Topics: Goals, Blessings, Aspirations
Slander-mongers and those who listen to slander, if I had my way, would all be strung up, the talkers by the tongue, the listeners by the ears.
—Plautus (Titus Maccius Plautus)
Topics: Insults, Slander
He who seeks for gain, must be at some expense.
—Plautus (Titus Maccius Plautus)
Topics: Value
The greatest talents often lie buried out of sight.
—Plautus (Titus Maccius Plautus)
Topics: Talent
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