Plutarch Quotes
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Water continually dropping will wear hard rocks hollow.
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Anger turns the mind out of doors and bolts the entrance.
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It is not reasonable that he who does not shoot should hit the mark, nor that he who does not stand fast at his post should win the day, or that the helpless man should succeed or the coward prosper.
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Evidence of trust begets trust, and love is reciprocated by love.
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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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Knowledge of divine things for the most part, as Heraclitus says, is lost to us by incredulity.
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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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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.
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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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After he routed Pharnaces Ponticus at the first assault, he wrote thus to his friends: 'I came, I saw, I conquered.'
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Socrates... said he was not an Athenian or a Greek, but a citizen of the world.
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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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For ease and speed in doing a thing do not give the work lasting solidity or exactness of beauty.
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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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It is a high distinction for a homely woman to be loved for her character rather than for beauty.
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Friendship requires a steady, constant, and unchangeable character, a person that is uniform in his intimacy.
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The belly has no ears.
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Immoderate grief is selfish, harmful, brings no advantage to either the mourner or the mourned, and dishonors the dead.
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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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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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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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A remorseful change of mind renders even a noble action base, whereas the determination which is grounded on knowledge and reason cannot change even if its actions fail.
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The usual disease of princes, grasping covetousness, had made them suspicious and quarrelsome neighbors.
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The generous mind adds dignity to every act, and nothing misbecomes it.