Property is unstable, and youth perishes in a moment. Life itself is held in the grinning fangs of Death, Yet men delay to obtain release from the world. Alas, the conduct of mankind is surprising.

The lines voice a stark, almost philosophical memento mori: wealth is precarious, youth vanishes quickly, and human life is perpetually exposed to death. The speaker’s surprise is directed at a paradox in human behavior—despite knowing how fragile and brief life is, people still postpone decisive action, moral reform, or the “release” that would free them from worldly entanglements (whether understood as spiritual liberation, withdrawal from ambition, or simply living with urgency). Attributed to Plautus, the sentiment is notable because it sounds more like tragic or moralizing reflection than comic intrigue, suggesting either a gnomic aside within a play or a later moralizing translation/paraphrase of a Plautine passage.