Plutarch Quotes
-
Character is simply habit long continued.
-
So very difficult a matter is it to trace and find out the truth of anything by history.
-
Cato requested old men not to add the disgrace of wickedness to old age, which was accompanied with many other evils.
-
Books delight to the very marrow of one's bones. They speak to us, consult with us, and join with us in a living and intense intimacy.
-
He who reflects on another man's want of breeding, shows he wants it as much himself.
-
Water and our necessary food are the only things that wise men must fight for.
-
Poverty is never dishonourable in itself, but only when it is a mark of sloth, intemperance, extravagance, or thoughtlessness. When, on the other hand, it is the handmaid of a sober, industrious, righteous, and brave man, who devotes all his powers to the service of the people, it is the sign of a lofty spirit that harbours no mean thoughts.
-
The crowns of kings do not prevent those who wear them from being tormented sometimes by violent headaches.
-
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.
-
He shall fare well who confronts circumstances aright.
-
When one is transported by rage, it is best to observe attentively the effects on those who deliver themselves over to the same passion.
-
I am whatever was, or is, or will be; and my veil no mortal ever took up.
-
Concerning the dead nothing but good shall be spoken. [Lat., De mortuis nil nisi bonum.]
-
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.
-
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.
-
Medicine to produce health must examine disease; and music, to create harmony must investigate discord.
-
Socrates said, 'Bad men live that they may eat and drink, whereas good men eat and drink that they may live.'
-
When another is asked a question, take special care not to interrupt to answer it yourself.
-
Not by lamentations and mournful chants ought we to celebrate the funeral of a good man, but by hymns; for, ion ceasing to be numbered with mortals, he enters upon the heritage of a diviner life. Since he is gone where he feels no pain, let us not indulge in too much grief. The soul is incapable of death. And he, like a bird not long enough in his cage to become attached to it, is free to fly away to a purer air. . . . Since we cherish a trust like this, let our outward actions be in accord with it, and let us keep our hearts pure and our minds calm.
-
When Eudæmonidas heard a philosopher arguing that only a wise man can be a good general, 'This is a wonderful speech,' said he; 'but he that saith it never heard the sound of trumpets.'
-
What we achieve inwardly will change outer reality.
-
Anger turns the mind out of doors and bolts the entrance.
-
Nature without learning is like a blind man; learning without Nature, like a maimed one; practice without both, incomplete. As in agriculture a good soil is first sought for, then a skilful husbandman, and then good seed; in the same way nature corresponds to the soil, the teacher to the husbandman, precepts and instruction to the seed.
-
For ease and speed in doing a thing do not give the work lasting solidity or exactness of beauty.