Plutarch Quotes
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Cicero called Aristotle a river of flowing gold, and said of Plato's Dialogues, that if Jupiter were to speak, it would be in language like theirs.
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No man ever wetted clay and then left it, as if there would be bricks by chance and fortune.
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To be ignorant of the lives of the most celebrated men of antiquity is to continue in a state of childhood all our days.
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Pompey had fought brilliantly and in the end routed Caesar's whole force... but either he was unable to or else he feared to push on. Caesar said to his friends: 'Today the enemy would have won, if they had had a commander who was a winner.'
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A soldier told Pelopidas, 'We are fallen among the enemies.' Said he, 'How are we fallen among them more than they among us?'
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Pittacus said, 'Every one of you hath his particular plague, and my wife is mine; and he is very happy who hath this only'.
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Real excellence, indeed, is most recognized when most openly looked into.
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The obligations of law and equity reach only to mankind; but kindness and beneficence should be extended to the creatures of every species, and these will flow from the breast of a true man, as streams that issue from the living fountain.
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Lamachus chid a captain for a fault; and when he had said he would do so no more, 'Sir,' said he, 'in war there is no room for a second miscarriage.' Said one to Iphicrates, 'What are ye afraid of?' 'Of all speeches,' said he, 'none is so dishonourable for a general as ‘I should not have thought of it.''
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It is a thing of no great difficulty to raise objections against another man's oration,-nay, it is a very easy matter; but to produce a better in its place is a work extremely troublesome.
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Pyrrhus said, 'If I should overcome the Romans in another fight, I were undone.'
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All men whilst they are awake are in one common world: but each of them, when he is asleep, is in a world of his own.
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Courage stands halfway between cowardice and rashness, one of which is a lack, the other an excess of courage.
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We are more sensible of what is done against custom than against Nature.
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Once when Phocion had delivered an opinion which pleased the people,… he turned to his friend and said, 'Have I not unawares spoken some mischievous thing or other?'
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Prosperity is no just scale; adversity is the only balance to weigh friends.
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Anacharsis coming to Athens, knocked at Solon's door, and told him that he, being a stranger, was come to be his guest, and contract a friendship with him; and Solon replying, 'It is better to make friends at home,' Anacharsis replied, 'Then you that are at home make friendship with me.'
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Being summoned by the Athenians out of Sicily to plead for his life, Alcibiades absconded, saying that that criminal was a fool who studied a defence when he might fly for it.
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What is bigger than an elephant? But this also is become man's plaything, and a spectacle at public solemnities; and it learns to skip, dance, and kneel.
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Diogenes the Cynic, when a little before his death he fell into a slumber, and his physician rousing him out of it asked him whether anything ailed him, wisely answered, 'Nothing, sir; only one brother anticipates another,-Sleep before Death.'
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Have in readiness this saying of Solon, 'But we will not give up our virtue in exchange for their wealth.'
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About Pontus there are some creatures of such an extempore being that the whole term of their life is confined within the space of a day; for they are brought forth in the morning, are in the prime of their existence at noon, grow old at night, and then die.
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'And this,' said Cæsar, 'you know, young man, is more disagreeable for me to say than to do.'
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Lampis, the sea commander, being asked how he got his wealth, answered, 'My greatest estate I gained easily enough, but the smaller slowly and with much labour.'