Plutarch Quotes
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Among real friends there is no rivalry or jealousy of one another, but they are satisfied and contented alike whether they are equal or one of them is superior.
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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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It is circumstance and proper measure that give an action its character, and make it either good or bad.
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So very difficult a matter is it to trace and find out the truth of anything by history.
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Both Empedocles and Heraclitus held it for a truth that man could not be altogether cleared from injustice in dealing with beasts as he now does.
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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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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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He who reflects on another man's want of breeding, shows he wants it as much himself.
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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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I am whatever was, or is, or will be; and my veil no mortal ever took up.
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Anacharsis said a man's felicity consists not in the outward and visible favours and blessings of Fortune, but in the inward and unseen perfections and riches of the mind.
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If we traverse the world, it is possible to find cities without walls, without letters, without kings, without wealth, without coin, without schools and theatres; but a city without a temple, or that practiseth not worship, prayer, and the like, no one ever saw.
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That we may consult concerning others, and not others concerning us.
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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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What we achieve inwardly will change outer reality.
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Custom is almost a second nature.
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τὸ μὲν ἁμαρτεῖν μηδὲν ἐν πράγμασι μεγάλοις μεῖζον ἢ κατ' ἄνθρωπόν ἐστι...
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When another is asked a question, take special care not to interrupt to answer it yourself.
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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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The state of life is most happy where superfluities are not required and necessities are not wanting.
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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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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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Demosthenes told Phocion, 'The Athenians will kill you some day when they once are in a rage.' 'And you,' said he, 'if they are once in their senses.'
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The same intelligence is required to marshal an army in battle and to order a good dinner. The first must be as formidable as possible, the second as pleasant as possible, to the participants.