Quote #189029
The day, water, sun, moon, night - I do not have to purchase these things with money.
Plautus
About This Quote
This quote needs no introduction—at least for now. We're working on adding more context soon.
Interpretation
The line contrasts the necessities and wonders of the natural world—daylight, water, the sun and moon, the cycle of night—with the realm of commerce. Its point is that the most fundamental goods are not commodities: they come freely, outside the market, and thus set a limit to what money can meaningfully claim to control. Read in Plautine terms, it also works as a comic-moral jab at greed and acquisitiveness: a reminder that even the poor possess access to what sustains life, while the rich cannot “buy” the basic order of nature. The sentiment anticipates later commonplaces about nature’s gifts being beyond price.




