Plutarch Quotes
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It is wise to be silent when occasion requires, and better than to speak, though never so well.
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'You speak truth,' said Themistocles; 'I should never have been famous if I had been of Seriphus; nor you, had you been of Athens'.
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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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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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As Athenodorus was taking his leave of Cæsar, 'Remember,' said he, 'Cæsar, whenever you are angry, to say or do nothing before you have repeated the four-and-twenty letters to yourself.'
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The generous mind adds dignity to every act, and nothing misbecomes it.
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Poverty is never dishonourable in itself, but only when it is a mark of sloth, intemperance, extravagance, or thoughtlessness. When, on the other hand, it is the handmaid of a sober, industrious, righteous, and brave man, who devotes all his powers to the service of the people, it is the sign of a lofty spirit that harbours no mean thoughts.
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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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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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Said Periander, 'Hesiod might as well have kept his breath to cool his pottage.'
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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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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.
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Socrates... said he was not an Athenian or a Greek, but a citizen of the world.
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It is indeed a desirable thing to be well-descended, but the glory belongs to our ancestors.
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Be ruled by time, the wisest counsellor of all.
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Water continually dropping will wear hard rocks hollow.
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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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The whole life of man is but a point of time; let us enjoy it.
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Epaminondas is reported wittily to have said of a good man that died about the time of the battle of Leuctra, 'How came he to have so much leisure as to die, when there was so much stirring?'
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One made the observation of the people of Asia that they were all slaves to one man, merely because they could not pronounce that syllable No.
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So also it is good not always to make a friend of the person who is expert in twining himself around us; but, after testing them, to attach ourselves to those who are worthy of our affection and likely to be serviceable to us.
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Speech is like cloth of Arras opened and put abroad, whereby the imagery doth appear in figure; whereas in thoughts they lie but as packs.
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Are you not ashamed to mix tame fruits with blood and slaughter? You are indeed wont to call serpents, leopards, and lions savage creatures; but yet yourselves are defiled with blood, and come nothing behind them in cruelty. What they kill is their ordinary nourishment, but what you kill is your better fare.