I am somewhat embarrassed to admit that I have only recently discovered Menander, the ancient Greek writer of comedies. An enormous number of one-liners are attributed to him and, as it turns out, I’ve been quoting him all of my life without knowing it. Frequently this takes the form of my quoting somebody who was quoting somebody else who was quoting Menander. So, for example, Julius Caesar’s statement, “the die is cast”, is actually Plutarch quoting Caesar who was apparently quoting Menander. In Greek no less! In the Greek the statement is closer to “Let the games begin!”
I can’t help suspect that just as practically any wise saying in the Middle East was once attributed to Solomon a huge number of epigrams from varying sources in the Greek world are attributed to Menander. If he only actually wrote a tenth of the things that have been attributed to him, Menander must have been the cleverest guy who ever lived. For example:
The man who runs may fight again.
has come down to us as “He who fights and runs away, may live to fight another day.”.
I’m adding Menander to my roster of the humorists from whom I’ll draw quotations to feature here.
