The Wit and Wisdom of Cato the Elder V

Marcus Porcius Cato the Elder (234BC-149BC) was a piece of work  Gotta love him.  Who else would toss a senator out of the Senate for embracing his wife in public while making jokes about his own "thundering" love life?  Plutarch explains in his Life of Cato the Elder:

[After having been elected Censor in 184BC] Cato expelled another senator who was thought to have good prospects for the consulship, namely, [Manius] Manilius, because he embraced his wife in open day before the eyes of his daughter.  For his own part, he [Cato] said, he never embraced his wife unless it thundered loudly; and it was a pleasantry of his to remark that he was a happy man when it thundered.

 For earlier installments of The Wit and Wisdom of Cato the Elder, see here.

The Wit and Wisdom of Cato the Elder IV

On extravagance:

"How can we expect to save a city, where people are prepared to pay more for a fish than for an ox?"

The Wit and Wisdom of Cato the Elder III

On a man notorious for his dissolute and disreputable life:

"That man's mother thinks of it as a curse, not a blessing, if anyone prays that her son should survive her."

The Wit and Wisdom of Cato the Elder II

On women:

"All mankind rule their wives, we Romans rule all mankind, and our wives rule us."

The Wit and Wisdom of Cato the Elder I

Arguing against a law for the free distribution of corn:

"It is difficult, my fellow citizens, to argue with the belly, for it has no ears."