A man’s homeland is wherever he prospers.

Even if you persuade me, you won’t persuade me.

Chorus of women: […] Oh! my good, gallant Lysistrata, and all my friends, be ever like a bundle of nettles; never let you anger slacken; the wind of fortune blown our way.

The wise learn many things from their enemies.

Magistrate: What do you propose to do then, pray?Lysistrata: You ask me that! Why, we propose to administer the treasury ourselvesMagistrate: You do?Lysistrata: What is there in that a surprise to you? Do we not...

Comedy too can sometimes discern what is right.

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

Magistrate: May I die a thousand deaths ere I obey one who wears a veil!Lysistrata: If that’s all that troubles you, here take my veil, wrap it round your head, and hold your tounge. Then...

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...

Characteristics of a popular politician: a horrible voice, bad breeding, and a vulgar manner.

High thoughts must have high language.

Lysistrata: To seize the treasury; no more money, no more war.

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

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.

[Y]ou [man] are fool enough, it seems, to dare to war with [woman=] me, when for your faithful ally you might win me easily.

Lysistrata: Oh, Calonicé, my heart is on fire; I blush for our sex. Men will have it we are tricky and sly…Calonicé: And they are quite right, upon my word!Lysistrata: Yet, look you, when the...

You cannot teach a crab to walk straight.

Hunger knows no friend but its feeder.

To win the people, always cook them some savoury that pleases them.

Chorus of old men: If we give them the least hold over us, ’tis all up! their audacity will know no bounds! We shall see them building ships, and fighting sea-fights like Artemisia; nay if...

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

Love is simply the name for the desire and the pursuit of the whole.

[Y]ou possess all the attributes of a demagogue; a screeching, horrible voice, a perverse, crossgrained nature and the language of the market-place. In you all is united which is needful for governing.

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

A man may learn wisdom even from a foe.

Wise people, even though all laws were abolished, would still lead the same life.

You [demagogues] are like the fishers for eels; in still waters they catch nothing, but if they thoroughly stir up the slime, their fishing is good; in the same way it’s only in troublous times...

Chorus of old men: How true the saying: ‘Tis impossible to live with the baggages, impossible to live without ’em.

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

You should not decide until you have heard what both have to say.

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

Let each man exercise the art he knows.

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

Open your mind before your mouth

Under every stone lurks a politician.

Evil events from evil causes spring.

Atheism or similar charges was not unusual among intellectuals, nor condemned by the masses. The prize-winning plays of Aristophanes were not merely atheist, but made fun of the gods and their prophets and oracles.