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)
The greatest talents often lie buried out of sight.
—Plautus (Titus Maccius Plautus)
Topics: Talent
The man who masters his own soul will forever be called conqueror of conquerors.
—Plautus (Titus Maccius Plautus)
Topics: Self-Control, Discipline
Patience is the best remedy for every trouble.
—Plautus (Titus Maccius Plautus)
Topics: Difficulty, Patience, One liners
Courage easily finds its own eloquence.
—Plautus (Titus Maccius Plautus)
Topics: Courage
He who seeks for gain, must be at some expense.
—Plautus (Titus Maccius Plautus)
Topics: Value
Laws are subordinate to custom.
—Plautus (Titus Maccius Plautus)
Topics: Custom
No man is wise enough by himself.
—Plautus (Titus Maccius Plautus)
Topics: Wisdom, Friendship
Wisdom is not attained by years, but by ability.
—Plautus (Titus Maccius Plautus)
Topics: Wisdom
A patient mind is the best remedy for trouble.
—Plautus (Titus Maccius Plautus)
Topics: Patience
Let deeds match words.
—Plautus (Titus Maccius Plautus)
Topics: Action
Where there are friends there is wealth.
—Plautus (Titus Maccius Plautus)
Topics: Wealth
Courage is its own reward.
—Plautus (Titus Maccius Plautus)
Topics: Courage
The day, water, sun, moon, night—I do not have to purchase these things with money.
—Plautus (Titus Maccius Plautus)
Topics: Money
No blessing lasts forever
—Plautus (Titus Maccius Plautus)
Topics: Blessings
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: Evil, Courage, Bravery
Things which you do not hope happen more frequently than things which you do hope.
—Plautus (Titus Maccius Plautus)
Topics: Hope
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
All good men and women should be on their guard to avoid guilt, and even the suspicion of it.
—Plautus (Titus Maccius Plautus)
Topics: Guilt
One eye witness is better than ten hear sayers.
—Plautus (Titus Maccius Plautus)
Topics: Gossip
He is happy in his wisdom who has learned at another’s expense.
—Plautus (Titus Maccius Plautus)
Topics: Wisdom
Nothing is more wretched that the mind of a man conscious of guilt.
—Plautus (Titus Maccius Plautus)
Topics: Guilt
That man is wise to some purpose who gains his wisdom at the expense and from the experience of another.
—Plautus (Titus Maccius Plautus)
Topics: Experience
I would rather be adorned by beauty of character than jewels. Jewels are the gift of fortune, while character comes from within.
—Plautus (Titus Maccius Plautus)
Topics: Fortune, Character
It is easy to rule over the good.
—Plautus (Titus Maccius Plautus)
Topics: Government
Courage is to take hard knocks like a man when occasion calls.
—Plautus (Titus Maccius Plautus)
Topics: Difficulty, Courage
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
Nothing is there more friendly to a man than a friend in need.
—Plautus (Titus Maccius Plautus)
Topics: Friends and Friendship
He whom the Gods love dies young, while he is in health, has his senses and his judgments sound.
—Plautus (Titus Maccius Plautus)
Topics: Death, Dying
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