Plutarch Quotes
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Ought a man to be confident that he deserves his good fortune, and think much of himself when he has overcome a nation, or city, or empire; or does fortune give this as an example to the victor also of the uncertainty of human affairs, which never continue in one stay? For what time can there be for us mortals to feel confident, when our victories over others especially compel us to dread fortune, and while we are exulting, the reflection that the fatal day comes now to one, now to another, in regular succession, dashes our joy.
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For it was not so much that by means of words I came to a complete understanding of things, as that from things I somehow had an experience which enabled me to follow the meaning of words.
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Themistocles said to Antiphales, 'Time, young man, has taught us both a lesson'.
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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.
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Phocion compared the speeches of Leosthenes to cypress-trees. 'They are tall,' said he, 'and comely, but bear no fruit.'
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To do an evil action is base; to do a good action without incurring danger is common enough; but it is the part of a good man to do great and noble deeds, though he risks every thing.
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For water continually dropping will wear hard rocks hollow.
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There is no debt with so much prejudice put off as that of justice.
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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.
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A friend should be like money, tried before being required, not found faulty in our need.
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For man is a plant, not fixed in the earth, nor immovable, but heavenly, whose head, rising as it were from a root upwards, is turned towards heaven.
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A fool cannot hold his tongue.
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Knavery is the best defense against a knave.
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Neither blame or praise yourself.
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I have heard that Tiberius used to say that that man was ridiculous, who after sixth years, appealed to a physician.
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Xenophon says that there is no sound more pleasing than one's own praises.
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As small letters hurt the sight, so do small matters him that is too much intent upon them; they vex and stir up anger, which begets an evil habit in him in reference to greater affairs.
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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.
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Note that the eating of flesh is not only physically against nature, but it also makes us spiritually coarse and gross by reason of satiety and surfeit.
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For my part, I had rather be the first man among these fellows than the second man in Rome.
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Character is inured habit.
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The conduct of a wise politician is ever suited to the present posture of affairs. Often by foregoing a part he saves the whole, and by yielding in a small matter secures a greater.
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Friendship is the most pleasant of all things, and nothing more glads the heart of man.
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To please the many is to displease the wise.