Plutarch Quotes
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Philosophy is an act of living.
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To conduct great matters and never commit a fault is above the force of human nature.
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'And this,' said Cæsar, 'you know, young man, is more disagreeable for me to say than to do.'
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Remember what Simonides said,-that he never repented that he had held his tongue, but often that he had spoken.
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Though others before him had triumphed three times, Pompeius, by having gained his first triumph over Libya, his second over Europe, and this the last over Asia, seemed in a manner to have brought the whole world into his three triumphs.
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It is not histories I am writing, but lives; and in the most glorious deeds there is not always an indication of virtue or vice, indeed a small thing like a phrase or a jest often makes a greater revelation of a character than battles where thousands die.
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If you light upon an impertinent talker, that sticks to you like a bur, to the disappointment of your important occasions, deal freely with him, break off the discourse, and pursue your business.
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The richest soil, if uncultivated, produces the rankest weeds.
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The most glorious exploits do not always furnish us with the clearest discoveries of virtue or vice in men.
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He who least likes courting favour, ought also least to think of resenting neglect; to feel wounded at being refused a distinction can only arise from an overweening appetite to have it.
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Authority and place demonstrate and try the tempers of men, by moving every passion and discovering every frailty.
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Since, during storms, flames leap from the humid vapors and dark clouds emit deafening noises, is it surprising the lightning, when it strikes the ground, gives rise to truffles, which do not resemble plants?
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As those that pull down private houses adjoining to the temples of the gods, prop up such parts as are contiguous to them; so, in undermining bashfulness, due regard is to be had to adjacent modesty, good-nature and humanity.
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The first evil those who are prone to talk suffer, is that they hear nothing.
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As Meander says, 'For our mind is God;' and as Heraclitus, 'Man's genius is a deity.'
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He (Cato) used to say that in all his life he never repented but of three things. The first was that he had trusted a woman with a secret; the second that he had gone by sea when he might have gone by land; and the third, that had passed one day without having a will by him.
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As to Caesar, when he was called upon, he gave no testimony against Clodius, nor did he affirm that he was certain of any injury done to his bed. He only said, He had divorced Pompeia because the wife of Caesar ought not only to be clear of such a crime, but of the very suspicion of it.
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Character is long-standing habit.
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Wickedness is a wonderfully diligent architect of misery, of shame, accompanied with terror, and commotion, and remorse, and endless perturbation.
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Reason speaks and feeling bites.
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Nature without learning is blind, learning apart from nature is fractional, and practice in the absence of both is aimless.
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There are two sentences inscribed upon the Ancient oracle... "Know thyself" and "Nothing too much"; and upon these all other precepts depend.
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Julius Caesar divorced his wife Pompeia, but declared at the trial that he knew nothing of what was alleged against her and Clodius. When asked why, in that case, he had divorced her, he replied: Because I would have the chastity of my wife clear even of suspicion.
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Solon being asked, namely, what city was best to live in. That city, he replied, in which those who are not wronged, no less than those who are wronged, exert themselves to punish the wrongdoers.