Plutarch Quotes
-
Agesilaus was very fond of his children; and it is reported that once toying with them he got astride upon a reed as upon a horse, and rode about the room; and being seen by one of his friends, he desired him not to speak of it till he had children of his own.
-
Playing the Cretan with the Cretans (i.e. lying to liars).
-
Caesar's wife should be above suspicion.
-
Thrasyllus the Cynic begged a drachm of Antigonus. 'That,' said he, 'is too little for a king to give.' 'Why, then,' said the other, 'give me a talent.' 'And that,' said he, 'is too much for a Cynic (or, for a dog) to receive.'
-
There are two sentences inscribed upon the Delphic oracle, hugely accommodated to the usages of man's life: 'Know thyself,' 68 and 'Nothing too much;' and upon these all other precepts depend.
-
Cato used to assert that wise men profited more by fools than fools by wise men; for that wise men avoided the faults of fools, but that fools would not imitate the good examples of wise men.
-
If you declare that you are naturally designed for such a diet, then first kill for yourself what you want to eat. Do it, however, only through your own resources, unaided by cleaver or cudgel or any kind of ax.
-
Nothing exists in the intellect that has not first gone through the senses.
-
The flatterer's object is to please in everything he does; whereas the true friend always does what is right, and so often gives pleasure, often pain, not wishing the latter, but not shunning it either, if he deems it best.
-
It is the usual consolation of the envious, if they cannot maintain their superiority, to represent those by whom they are surpassed as inferior to some one else.
-
Spintharus, speaking in commendation of Epaminondas, says he scarce ever met with any man who knew more and spoke less.
-
A friend should be like money, tried before being required, not found faulty in our need.
-
There is no stronger test of a person's character than power and authority, exciting as they do every passion, and discovering every latent vice.
-
Knavery is the best defense against a knave.
-
Nor let us part with justice, like a cheap and common thing, for a small and trifling price.
-
It was the saying of Bion, that though the boys throw stones at frogs in sport, yet the frogs do not die in sport but in earnest.
-
There is no debt with so much prejudice put off as that of justice.
-
What All The World Knows Water is the principle, or the element, of things. All things are water.
-
It was not important how many enemies there are, but where the enemy is.
-
Poverty is dishonorable, not in itself, but when it is a proof of laziness, intemperance, luxury, and carelessness; whereas in a person that is temperate, industrious, just and valiant, and who uses all his virtues for the public good, it shows a great and lofty mind.
-
Phocion compared the speeches of Leosthenes to cypress-trees. 'They are tall,' said he, 'and comely, but bear no fruit.'
-
Words will build no walls.
-
Cato instigated the magistrates to punish all offenders, saying that they that did not prevent crimes when they might, encouraged them. Of young men, he liked them that blushed better than those who looked pale.
-
Cicero said loud-bawling orators were driven by their weakness to noise, as lame men to take horse.