ἄρχω ~ ἄρξω ~ ἦρξα (verb): begin; rule
νεκρός ~ νεκροῦ (noun m.): corpse, dead man
οὖς ~ ὠτός (noun n.): ear
ζήω ~ ζήσω ~ ἔζησα (verb): be alive, live
ἀδύνατος ~ ἀδυνάτου (adj. masc.): unable, impossible
Δαπανῶν ἄρχου.
Νεκρὸν μαστίζεις.
Κηρὸν τοῖς ὠσὶν ἐπαλειφεις.
Τὸ ζῆν ἀλύπως ἀνδρός ἐστιν εὐτυχοῦς.
Οὐ λέγειν δεινός, ἀλλὰ σιγᾶν ἀδύνατος.
Δαπανῶν ἄρχου.
Keep control of your expenditures.
Note the middle imperative, ἄρχου, and the verb takes a genitive complement: δαπανῶν. This is another one of the so-called Delphic maxims recorded by Stobaeus.
Νεκρὸν μαστίζεις.
Your flogging a dead man.
This is one of the "adynata" attributed to Plutarch. You're not going to accomplish anything by flogging someone who's dead or, metaphorically, you are arguing with someone who is never going to change their mind. Compare the English saying, "beating a dead horse."
Κηρὸν τοῖς ὠσὶν ἐπαλειφεις.
You're smearing wax into your ears.
The idea is that you are preparing yourself not to listen to something that might be dangerous for you to hear. The allusion is to the hero Odysseus and how he had his men put wax in their ears in order not to be lured by the song of the Sirens.
Τὸ ζῆν ἀλύπως ἀνδρός ἐστιν εὐτυχοῦς.
It's a lucky man who lives without sorrow.
Literally in the Greek: it is of a lucky man to live without sorrow. It's a pessimistic sort of saying: you might not be happy exactly, but you're lucky if you can manage to live without sorrow. This is another of the "one-liners" (monostichs) of Menander, so it is in iambic meter:
Τὸ ζῆν | ἀλύ||πως ἀν|δρός ἐσ||τιν εὐ|τυχοῦς.
Οὐ λέγειν δεινός, ἀλλὰ σιγᾶν ἀδύνατος.
Not terrific at speaking, but not able to keep quiet.
The phrase is a rebuke to someone who is a poor speaker but who nevertheless keeps on talking. The saying is quoted in Aulus Gellius' Attic Nights, which is a useful source for Greek proverbs, as you might have guessed from the title.
And here's a random proverb and a random LOLCat too:
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