Plutarch Quotes
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The wildest colts make the best horses.
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Justice makes the life of such as are in prosperity, power and authority the life of a god, and injustice turns it to that of a beast.
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Xenophon says that there is no sound more pleasing than one's own praises.
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It is a true proverb, that if you live with a lame man, you will learn a limp.
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To please the many is to displease the wise.
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It is not the most distinguished achievements that men's virtues or vices may be best discovered; but very often an action of small note. An casual remark or joke shall distinguish a person's real character more than the greatest sieges, or the most important battles.
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When one told Plistarchus that a notorious railer spoke well of him, 'I 'll lay my life,' said he, 'somebody hath told him I am dead, for he can speak well of no man living.'
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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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...To the Dolphin alone, beyond all other, nature has granted what the best philosophers seek: friendship for no advantage.
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Pythagoras, when he was asked what time was, answered that it was the soul of this world.
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Abstruse questions must have abstruse answers.
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Man is neither by birth nor disposition a savage, nor of unsocial habits, but only becomes so by indulging in vices contrary to his nature.
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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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When Hermodotus in his poems described Antigonus as the son of Helios, 'My valet-de-chambre,' said he, 'is not aware of this.'
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Lysander said, 'Where the lion's skin will not reach, it must be pieced with the fox's.'
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Why does pouring Oil on the Sea make it Clear and Calm? Is it that the winds, slipping the smooth oil, have no force, nor cause any waves?
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The poor go to war, to fight and die for the delights, riches, and superfluities of others.
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It is no flattery to give a friend a due character; for commendation is as much the duty of a friend as reprehension.
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But being overborne with numbers, and nobody daring to face about, stretching out his hands to heaven, [Romulus] prayed to Jupiter to stop the army, and not to neglect but maintain the Roman cause, now in extreme danger. The prayer was no sooner made, than shame and respect for their king checked many; the fears of the fugitives changed suddenly into confidence.
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Most people do not understand until old age what Plato tells them when they are young.