Plutarch Quotes
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When malice is joined to envy, there is given forth poisonous and feculent matter, as ink from the cuttle-fish.
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Socrates... said he was not an Athenian or a Greek, but a citizen of the world.
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He who cheats with an oath acknowledges that he is afraid of his enemy, but that he thinks little of God.
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And Archimedes, as he was washing, thought of a manner of computing the proportion of gold in King Hiero's crown by seeing the water flowing over the bathing-stool. He leaped up as one possessed or inspired, crying, 'I have found it! Eureka!'
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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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Water continually dropping will wear hard rocks hollow.
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If any man think it a small matter, or of mean concernment, to bridle his tongue, he is much mistaken; for it is a point to be silent when occasion requires, and better than to speak, though never so well.
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Children are to be won to follow liberal studies by exhortations and rational motives, and on no account to be forced thereto by whipping.
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For ease and speed in doing a thing do not give the work lasting solidity or exactness of beauty.
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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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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.
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The belly has no ears.
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If you hate your enemies, you will contract such a vicious habit of mind that it will break out upon those who are your friends, or those who are indifferent to you.
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Friendship requires a steady, constant, and unchangeable character, a person that is uniform in his intimacy.
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Evidence of trust begets trust, and love is reciprocated by love.
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Knowledge of divine things for the most part, as Heraclitus says, is lost to us by incredulity.
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When Alexander asked Diogenes whether he wanted anything, 'Yes,' said he, 'I would have you stand from between me and the sun.'
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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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What All The World Knows Water is the principle, or the element, of things. All things are water.
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While Leonidas was preparing to make his stand, a Persian envoy arrived. The envoy explained to Leonidas the futility of trying to resist the advance of the Great King's army and demanded that the Greeks lay down their arms and submit to the might of Persia. Leonidas laconically told Xerxes, "Come and get them.
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What we achieve inwardly will change outer reality.
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Antiphanes said merrily that in a certain city the cold was so intense that words were congealed as soon as spoken, but that after some time they thawed and became audible; so that the words spoken in winter articulated next summer.
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When one asked him what boys should learn, 'That,' said he, 'which they shall use when men.'
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Archimedes had stated, that given the force, any given weight might be moved; and even boasted that if there were another earth, by going into it he could remove this.