Plutarch Quotes
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'I will show,' said Agesilaus, 'that it is not the places that grace men, but men the places.'
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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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For the wise man, every day is a festival.
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A prating barber asked Archelaus how he would be trimmed. He answered, 'In silence.'
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Reason speaks and feeling bites.
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Wise men are able to make a fitting use even of their enmities.
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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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Instead of using medicine, better fast today.
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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.
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It were better to have no opinion of God at all than such a one as is unworthy of him; for the one is only belief - the other contempt.
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Socrates thought that if all our misfortunes were laid in one common heap, whence every one must take an equal portion, most persons would be contented to take their own and depart.
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The real destroyer of the liberties of the people is he who spreads among them bounties, donations and benefits.
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So long as he was personally present, [Alcibiades] had the perfect mastery of his political adversaries; calumny only succeeded in his absence.
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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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The giving of riches and honors to a wicked man is like giving strong wine to him that hath a fever.
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The first man . . . ventured to call food and nourishment the parts that had a little before bellowed and cried, moved and lived. How could his eyes endure the slaughter when throats were slit and hides flayed and limbs torn from limb? How could his nose endure the stench? How was it that the pollution did not turn away his taste, which made contact with the sores of others and sucked juices and serums from mortal wounds?
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It is part of a good man to do great and noble deeds, though he risk everything.
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Our senses through ignorance of Reality, falsely tell us that what appears to be, is. FEAR = False Evidence Appearing Real.
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As bees extract honey from thyme, the strongest and driest of herbs, so sensible men often get advantage and profit from the most awkward circumstances.
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A physician, after he had felt the pulse of Pausanias, and considered his constitution, saying, 'He ails nothing,' 'It is because, sir,' he replied, 'I use none of your physic.'
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For the mind does not require filling like a bottle, but rather, like wood, it only requires kindling to create in it an impulse to think independently and an ardent desire for the truth.
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Nothing is harder to direct than a man in prosperity; nothing more easily managed that one is adversity.
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Did you not know, then, that to-day Lucullus sups with Lucullus?
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Being conscious of having done a wicked action leaves stings of remorse behind it, which, like an ulcer in the flesh, makes the mind smart with perpetual wounds; for reason, which chases away all other pains, creates repentance, shames the soul with confusion, and punishes it with torment.