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Chorus: Under every stone lurks a politician.
(tr. in Bartlett 1968, p. 91 or Archive.org)
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Thesmophoriazusae, line 529-530
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A play on the Greek proverb "Under every stone lurks a scorpion.". In context, "orator" was a synonym for "politician".

 

Aristophanes

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Chorus [of Birds]: Full of wiles, full of guile, at all times, in all ways, are the children of Men.
(tr. in Bartlett 1968, p. 91 or Archive.org)

 

Aristophanes

 

Epops: Yet, certainly, the wise learn many things from their enemies; for caution preserves all things. From a friend you could not learn this, but your foe immediately obliges you to learn it. For example, the states have learned from enemies, and not from friends, to build lofty walls, and to possess ships of war. And this lesson preserves children, house, and possessions.
Chorus [leader]: It is useful, as it appears to me, to hear their arguments first; for one might learn some wisdom even from one's foes.
(tr. Hickie 1853, vol. 1, p. 322; l. 375 identical in SEA 1838, p. 236, and in Bartlett 1968, p. 91 or Archive.org)

 

Aristophanes

 

No one's keeping track — no one's making of an archive of these "unimportant" things, you know… but now we have an archive … and in a way, the second there's many, it becomes proof of something, something that's so unspecific — that it's — that it's lively — to me that's really alive — that kind of half nauseous, half beautiful feeling.

 

Miranda July

 

Chorus: [We] must look beneath every stone, lest it conceal some orator ready to sting us.
(tr. O'Neill 1938, Perseus)

 

Aristophanes

 

Chorus: O suitably attired in leather boots
Head of a traveller, wherefore seeking whom
Whence by what way how purposed art thou come
To this well-nightingaled vicinity?
My object in inquiring is to know.
But if you happen to be deaf and dumb
And do not understand a word I say,
Nod with your hand to signify as much.
Alcmaeon: I journeyed hither a Boeotian road.
Chorus: Sailing on horseback or with feet for oars?
Alcmaeon: Plying by turns my partnership of legs.
Chorus: Beneath a shining or a rainy Zeus?
Alcmaeon: Mud's sister, not himself, adorns my shoes.
Chorus: To learn your name would not displease me much.
Alcmaeon: Not all that men desire do they attain.

 

A. E. Housman