Plutarch Quotes
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As those persons who despair of ever being rich make little account of small expenses, thinking that little added to a little will never make any great sum.
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As in the case of painters, who have undertaken to give us a beautiful and graceful figure, which may have some slight blemishes, we do not wish then to pass over such blemishes altogether, nor yet to mark them too prominently. The one would spoil the beauty, and the other destroy the likeness of the picture.
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Prosperity has this property, it puffs up narrow Souls, makes them imagine themselves high and mighty, and look down upon the World with Contempt; but a truly noble and resolved Spirit appears greatest in Distress, and then becomes more bright and conspicuous.
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There is never the body of a man, how strong and stout soever, if it be troubled and inflamed, but will take more harm and offense by wine being poured into it.
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That we may consult concerning others, and not others concerning us.
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He shall fare well who confronts circumstances aright.
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Demosthenes overcame and rendered more distinct his inarticulate and stammering pronunciation by speaking with pebbles in his mouth.
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Empire may be gained by gold, not gold by empire. It used, indeed, to be a proverb that 'It is not Philip, but Philip's gold that takes the cities of Greece.'
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What we achieve inwardly will change outer reality.
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A warrior carries his shield for the sake of the entire line.
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It is no disgrace not to be able to do everything; but to undertake, or pretend to do, what you are not made for, is not only shameful, but extremely troublesome and vexatious.
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The saying of old Antigonus, who when he was to fight at Andros, and one told him, 'The enemy's ships are more than ours,' replied, 'For how many then wilt thou reckon me?'
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Lycurgus being asked why he, who in other respects appeared to be so zealous for the equal rights of men, did not make his government democratical rather than oligarchical, "Go you," replied the legislator, "and try a democracy in your own house.
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We ought to give our friend pain if it will benefit him, but not to the extent of breaking off our friendship; but just as we make use of some biting medicine that will save and preserve the life of the patient. And so the friend, like a musician, in bringing about an improvement to what is good and expedient, sometimes slackens the chords, sometimes tightens them, and is often pleasant, but always useful.
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Know how to listen, and you will profit even from those who talk badly.
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Whenever anything is spoken against you that is not true, do not pass by or despise it because it is false; but forthwith examine yourself, and consider what you have said or done that may administer a just occasion of reproof.
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Fortune had favoured me in this war that I feared, the rather, that some tempest would follow so favourable a gale.
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To Harmodius, descended from the ancient Harmodius, when he reviled Iphicrates a shoemaker's son for his mean birth, 'My nobility,' said he, 'begins in me, but yours ends in you.'
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Concerning the dead nothing but good shall be spoken. [Lat., De mortuis nil nisi bonum.]
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Talkativeness has another plague attached to it, even curiosity; for praters wish to hear much that they may have much to say.
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When Demosthenes was asked what were the three most important aspects of oratory, he answered, 'Action, Action, Action.'
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If Nature be not improved by instruction, it is blind; if instruction be not assisted by Nature, it is maimed; and if exercise fail of the assistance of both, it is imperfect.
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The crowns of kings do not prevent those who wear them from being tormented sometimes by violent headaches.
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To make no mistakes is not in the power of man; but from their errors and mistakes the wise and good learn wisdom for the future.