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To conduct great matters and never commit a fault is above the force of human nature.
Plutarch -
It is a difficult thing for a man to resist the natural necessity of mortal passions.
Plutarch
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The most glorious exploits do not always furnish us with the clearest discoveries of virtue or vice in men.
Plutarch -
As Meander says, 'For our mind is God;' and as Heraclitus, 'Man's genius is a deity.'
Plutarch -
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.
Plutarch -
Someone praising a man for his foolhardy bravery, Cato, the elder, said, ''There is a wide difference between true courage and a mere contempt of life.
Plutarch -
Philosophy is an act of living.
Plutarch -
Authority and place demonstrate and try the tempers of men, by moving every passion and discovering every frailty.
Plutarch
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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.
Plutarch -
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.
Plutarch -
The richest soil, if uncultivated, produces the rankest weeds.
Plutarch -
Our nature holds so much envy and malice that our pleasure in our own advantages is not so great as our distress at others'.
Plutarch -
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.
Plutarch -
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?
Plutarch
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Character is long-standing habit.
Plutarch -
The first evil those who are prone to talk suffer, is that they hear nothing.
Plutarch -
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.
Plutarch -
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.
Plutarch -
Wickedness is a wonderfully diligent architect of misery, of shame, accompanied with terror, and commotion, and remorse, and endless perturbation.
Plutarch -
Nature without learning is blind, learning apart from nature is fractional, and practice in the absence of both is aimless.
Plutarch
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Wise men are able to make a fitting use even of their enmities.
Plutarch -
Reason speaks and feeling bites.
Plutarch -
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.
Plutarch -
The whole of life is but a moment of time. It is our duty, therefore to use it, not to misuse it.
Plutarch