Plutarch Quotes
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Nor is drunkenness censured for anything so much as its intemperate and endless talk.
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To one that promised to give him hardy cocks that would die fighting, 'Prithee,' said Cleomenes, 'give me cocks that will kill fighting.'
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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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Like the man who threw a stone at a bitch, but hit his step-mother, on which he exclaimed, 'Not so bad!'
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It is a high distinction for a homely woman to be loved for her character rather than for beauty.
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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.'
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Anger turns the mind out of doors and bolts the entrance.
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Vultures are the most righteous of birds: they do not attack even the smallest living creature.
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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."
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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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The pilot cannot mitigate the billows or calm the winds.
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Cæsar said to the soothsayer, 'The ides of March are come;' who answered him calmly, 'Yes, they are come, but they are not past.'
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Evidence of trust begets trust, and love is reciprocated by love.
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νήπιος, ὃς τὰ ἕτοιμα λιπὼν ἀνέτοιμα διώκει
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Alexander esteemed it more kingly to govern himself than to conquer his enemies.
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When a man's struggle begins within oneself, the man is worth something.
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For the rich men without scruple drew the estate into their own hands, excluding the rightful heirs from their succession; and all the wealth being centred upon the few, the generality were poor and miserable. Honourable pursuits, for which there was no longer leisure, were neglected; the state was filled with sordid business, and with hatred and envy of the rich.
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Even a nod from a person who is esteemed is of more force than a thousand arguments or studied sentences from others.
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Themistocles being asked whether he would rather be Achilles or Homer, said, 'Which would you rather be,-a conqueror in the Olympic games, or the crier that proclaims who are conquerors?'
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Why does pouring oil on the sea make it clear and calm? Is it for that the winds, slipping the smooth oil, have no force, nor cause any waves?
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Pythias once, scoffing at Demosthenes, said that his arguments smelt of the lamp.
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Silence at the proper season is wisdom, and better than any speech.
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I, for my own part, had much rather people should say of me that there neither is nor ever was such a man as Plutarch, than that they should say, 'Plutarch is an unsteady, fickle, froward, vindictive, and touchy fellow.'
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When one asked him what boys should learn, 'That,' said he, 'which they shall use when men.'