Plutarch Quotes
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To find fault is easy; to do better may be difficult.
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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.
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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.
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The man who first brought ruin upon the Roman people was he who pampered them by largesses and amusements.
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Euripides was wont to say, 'Silence is an answer to a wise man.'
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He shall fare well who confronts circumstances aright.
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Demosthenes, when taunted by Pytheas that all his arguments "smelled of the lamp," replied, "Yes, but your lamp and mine, my friend, do not witness the same labours.
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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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Menenius Agrippa concluded at length with the celebrated fable: 'It once happened that all the other members of a man mutinied against the stomach, which they accused as the only idle, uncontributing part in the whole body, while the rest were put to hardships and the expense of much labour to supply and minister to its appetites.'
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When I myself had twice or thrice made a resolute resistance unto anger, the like befell me that did the Thebans; who, having once foiled the Lacedaemonians (who before that time had held themselves invincible), never after lost so much as one battle which they fought against them.
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Alexander wept when he heard from Anaxarchus that there was an infinite number of worlds; and his friends asking him if any accident had befallen him, he returns this answer: 'Do you not think it a matter worthy of lamentation that when there is such a vast multitude of them, we have not yet conquered one?'
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Like watermen, who look astern while they row the boat ahead.
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He that first started that doctrine, that knavery is the best defense against a knave, was but an ill teacher, advising us to commit wickedness to secure ourselves.
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The whole life of man is but a point of time; let us enjoy it.
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Said Periander, 'Hesiod might as well have kept his breath to cool his pottage.'
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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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He who reflects on another man's want of breeding, shows he wants it as much himself.
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Using the proverb frequently in their mouths who enter upon dangerous and bold attempts, 'The die is cast,' he took the river.
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Statesmen are not only liable to give an account of what they say or do in public, but there is a busy inquiry made into their very meals, beds, marriages, and every other sportive or serious 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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He made one of Antipater's recommendation a judge; and perceiving afterwards that his hair and beard were coloured, he removed him, saying, 'I could not think one that was faithless in his hair could be trusty in his deeds.'
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They fought indeed and were slain, but it was to maintain the luxury and the wealth of other men.
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Vultures are the most righteous of birds: they do not attack even the smallest living creature.
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The pilot cannot mitigate the billows or calm the winds.