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'T is a wise saying, Drive on your own track.
Plutarch -
Themistocles said that he certainly could not make use of any stringed instrument; could only, were a small and obscure city put into his hands, make it great and glorious.
Plutarch
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Pythias once, scoffing at Demosthenes, said that his arguments smelt of the lamp.
Plutarch -
For many, as Cranton tells us, and those very wise men, not now but long ago, have deplored the condition of human nature, esteeming life a punishment, and to be born a man the highest pitch of calamity; this, Aristotle tells us, Silenus declared when he was brought captive to Midas.
Plutarch -
Cato requested old men not to add the disgrace of wickedness to old age, which was accompanied with many other evils.
Plutarch -
When Demosthenes was asked what was the first part of oratory, he answered, 'Action;' and which was the second, he replied, 'Action;' and which was the third, he still answered, 'Action.'
Plutarch -
Fortune had favoured me in this war that I feared, the rather, that some tempest would follow so favourable a gale.
Plutarch -
Rome was in the most dangerous inclination to change on account of the unequal distribution of wealth and property, those of highest rank and greatest spirit having impoverished themselves by shows, entertainments, ambition of offices, and sumptuous buildings, and the riches of the city having thus fallen into the hands of mean and low-born persons. So that there wanted but a slight impetus to set all in motion, it being in the power of every daring man to overturn a sickly commonwealth.
Plutarch
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When malice is joined to envy, there is given forth poisonous and feculent matter, as ink from the cuttle-fish.
Plutarch -
A Spartan woman, as she handed her son his shield, exhorted him saying, "As a warrior of Sparta come back with your shield or on it."
Plutarch -
Eat not thy heart; which forbids to afflict our souls, and waste them with vexatious cares.
Plutarch -
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.
Plutarch -
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.
Plutarch -
I confess myself the greatest coward in the world, for I dare not do an ill thing.
Plutarch
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When asked why he parted with his wife, Cæsar replied, 'I wished my wife to be not so much as suspected.'
Plutarch -
He said they that were serious in ridiculous matters would be ridiculous in serious affairs.
Plutarch -
As it is in the proverb, played Cretan against Cretan.
Plutarch -
Lamentation is the only musician that always, like a screech-owl, alights and sits on the roof of any angry man.
Plutarch -
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.
Plutarch -
A warrior carries his shield for the sake of the entire line.
Plutarch
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Thus our judgments, if they do not borrow from reason and philosophy a fixity and steadiness of purpose in their acts, are easily swayed and influenced by the praise or blame of others, which make us distrust our own opinions.
Plutarch -
Democritus said, words are but the shadows of actions.
Plutarch -
When a man's struggle begins within oneself, the man is worth something.
Plutarch -
For ease and speed in doing a thing do not give the work lasting solidity or exactness of beauty.
Plutarch