Plutarch Quotes
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Nothing made the horse so fat as the king's eye.
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He is a fool who leaves things close at hand to follow what is out of reach.
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Philip being arbitrator betwixt two wicked persons, he commanded one to fly out of Macedonia and the other to pursue him.
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Xenophanes said, 'I confess myself the greatest coward in the world, for I dare not do an ill thing.'
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As Cæsar was at supper the discourse was of death,-which sort was the best. 'That,' said he, 'which is unexpected.'
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Grief is natural; the absence of all feeling is undesirable, but moderation in grief should be observed, as in the face of all good or evil.
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The worship most acceptable to God comes from a thankful and cheerful heart.
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According to the proverb, the best things are the most difficult.
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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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It is no great wonder if in long process of time, while fortune takes her course hither and thither, numerous coincidences should spontaneously occur. If the number and variety of subjects to be wrought upon be infinite, it is all the more easy for fortune, with such an abundance of material, to effect this similarity of results.
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Wisdom is neither gold, nor silver, nor fame, nor wealth, nor health, nor strength, nor beauty.
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Anaximander says that men were first produced in fishes, and when they were grown up and able to help themselves were thrown up, and so lived upon the land.
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If I were not Alexander, I would be Diogenes.
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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.
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Athenodorus says hydrophobia, or water-dread, was first discovered in the time of Asclepiades.
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Had I a careful and pleasant companion that should show me my angry face in a glass, I should not at all take it ill; to behold man's self so unnaturally disguised and dishonored will conduce not a little to the impeachment of anger.
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A lover's soul lives in the body of his mistress.
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Nor let us part with justice, like a cheap and common thing, for a small and trifling price.
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It was not important how many enemies there are, but where the enemy is.
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τοῖς ἐγρηγορόσιν ἕνα καὶ κοινὸν κόσμον εἶναι, τῶν δὲ κοιμωμένων ἕκαστον εἰς ἴδιον ἀποστρέφεσθαι
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Distressed valor challenges great respect, even from an enemy.
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... being perpetually charmed by his familiar siren, that is, by his geometry, he neglected to eat and drink and took no care of his person; that he was often carried by force to the baths, and when there he would trace geometrical figures in the ashes of the fire, and with his finger draws lines upon his body when it was anointed with oil, being in a state of great ecstasy and divinely possessed by his science.
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Not by lamentations and mournful chants ought we to celebrate the funeral of a good man, but by hymns, for in ceasing to be numbered with mortals he enters upon the heritage of a diviner life.
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In his house he had a large looking-glass, before which he would stand and go through his exercises.