Plutarch Quotes
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Using the proverb frequently in their mouths who enter upon dangerous and bold attempts, 'The die is cast,' he took the river.
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Vultures are the most righteous of birds: they do not attack even the smallest living creature.
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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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It is indeed a desirable thing to be well-descended, but the glory belongs to our ancestors.
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The superstitious man wishes he did not believe in gods, as the atheist does not, but fears to disbelieve in them.
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When a man's eyes are sore his friends do not let him finger them, however much he wishes to, nor do they themselves touch the inflammation: But a man sunk in grief suffers every chance comer to stir and augment his affliction like a running sore; and by reason of the fingering and consequent irritation it hardens into a serious and intractable evil.
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The belly has no ears.
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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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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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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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The pilot cannot mitigate the billows or calm the winds.
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Water continually dropping will wear hard rocks hollow.
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Courage and wisdom are, indeed, rarities amongst men, but of all that is good, a just man it would seem is the most scarce.
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Demosthenes, when taunted by Pytheas that all his arguments "smelled of the lamp," replied, "Yes, but your lamp and mine, my friend, do not witness the same labours.
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The whole life of man is but a point of time; let us enjoy it.
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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.
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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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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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The same intelligence is required to marshal an army in battle and to order a good dinner. The first must be as formidable as possible, the second as pleasant as possible, to the participants.
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Cato the elder wondered how that city was preserved wherein a fish was sold for more than an ox.
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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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Be ruled by time, the wisest counsellor of all.
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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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Memory: what wonders it performs in preserving and storing up things gone by - or rather, things that are.