John Bartlett (1820–1905). Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. 1919.
Plautus 254-184 BC John Bartlett
| 1 | |
| What is yours is mine, and all mine is yours. 1 | |
| Trinummus. Act ii. Sc. 2, 48. (329.) | |
| 2 | |
| Not by years but by disposition is wisdom acquired. | |
| Trinummus. Act ii. Sc. 2, 88. (367.) | |
| 3 | |
| These things are not for the best, nor as I think they ought to be; but still they are better than that which is downright bad. | |
| Trinummus. Act ii. Sc. 2, 111. (392.) | |
| 4 | |
| He whom the gods favour dies in youth. 2 | |
| Bacchides. Act iv. Sc. 7, 18. (816.) | |
| 5 | |
| You are seeking a knot in a bulrush. 3 | |
| Menæchmi. Act ii. Sc. 1, 22. (247.) | |
| 6 | |
| In the one hand he is carrying a stone, while he shows the bread in the other. 4 | |
| Aulularia. Act ii. Sc. 2, 18. (195.) | |
| 7 | |
| I had a regular battle with the dunghill-cock. | |
| Aulularia. Act iii. Sc. 4, 13. (472.) | |
| 8 | |
| It was not for nothing that the raven was just now croaking on my left hand. 5 | |
| Aulularia. Act iv. Sc. 3, 1. (624.) | |
| 9 | |
| There are occasions when it is undoubtedly better to incur loss than to make gain. | |
| Captivi. Act ii. Sc. 2, 77. (327.) | |
| 10 | |
| Patience is the best remedy for every trouble. 6 | |
| Rudens. Act ii. Sc. 5, 71. | |
| 11 | |
| If you are wise, be wise; keep what goods the gods provide you. | |
| Rudens. Act iv. Sc. 7, 3. (1229.) | |
| 12 | |
| Consider the little mouse, how sagacious an animal it is which never entrusts its life to one hole only. 7 | |
| Truculentus. Act iv. Sc. 4, 15. (868.) | |
| 13 | |
| Nothing is there more friendly to a man than a friend in need. 8 | |
| Epidicus. Act iii. Sc. 3, 44. (425.) | |
| 14 | |
| Things which you do not hope happen more frequently than things which you do hope. 9 | |
| Mostellaria. Act i. Sc. 3, 40. (197.) | |
| 15 | |
| To blow and swallow at the same moment is not easy. | |
| Mostellaria. Act iii. Sc. 2, 104. (791.) | |
| 16 | |
| Each man reaps on his own farm. | |
| Mostellaria. Act iii. Sc. 2, 112. (799.) |
| Note 1. See Shakespeare, Measure for Measure, Quotation 37. [back] |
| Note 2. See Wordsworth, Quotation 148. [back] |
| Note 3. A proverbial expression implying a desire to create doubts and difficulties where there really were none. It occurs in Terence, the “Andria,” act v. sc. 4, 38; also in Ennius, “Saturæ,” 46. [back] |
| Note 4. What man is there of you, whom if his son ask bread, will he give him a stone?—Matthew vii. 9. [back] |
| Note 5. See Gay, Quotation 21. [back] |
| Note 6. Patience is a remedy for every sorrow.—Publius Syrus: Maxim 170. [back] |
| Note 7. See Chaucer, Quotation 30. [back] |
| Note 8. A friend in need is a friend indeed.—Hazlitt: English Proverbs. [back] |
| Note 9. The unexpected always happens.—A common proverb. [back] |