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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.
Plutarch -
The real destroyer of the liberties of the people is he who spreads among them bounties, donations and benefits.
Plutarch
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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.
Plutarch -
When Anaxagoras was told of the death of his son, he only said, "I knew he was mortal." So we in all casualties of life should say "I knew my riches were uncertain, that my friend was but a man." Such considerations would soon pacify us, because all our troubles proceed from their being unexpected.
Plutarch -
A prating barber asked Archelaus how he would be trimmed. He answered, 'In silence.'
Plutarch -
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.
Plutarch -
The giving of riches and honors to a wicked man is like giving strong wine to him that hath a fever.
Plutarch -
Did you not know, then, that to-day Lucullus sups with Lucullus?
Plutarch
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Instead of using medicine, better fast today.
Plutarch -
Antisthenes says that in a certain faraway land the cold is so intense that words freeze as soon as they are uttered, and after some time then thaw and become audible, so that words spoken in winter go unheard until the next summer.
Plutarch -
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?
Plutarch -
Cato said, 'I had rather men should ask why my statue is not set up, than why it is.'
Plutarch -
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.
Plutarch -
The measure of a man's life is the well spending of it, and not the length.
Plutarch
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It is a true proverb, that if you live with a lame man, you will learn to limp.
Plutarch -
When Philip had news brought him of divers and eminent successes in one day, 'O Fortune!' said he, 'for all these so great kindnesses do me some small mischief.'
Plutarch -
'Young men,' said Cæsar, 'hear an old man to whom old men hearkened when he was young.'
Plutarch -
A human body in no way resembles those that were born for ravenousness; it hath no hawk's bill, no sharp talon, no roughness of teeth, no such strength of stomach or heat of digestion, as can be sufficient to convert or alter such heavy and fleshy fare.
Plutarch -
He who first called money the sinews of the state seems to have said this with special reference to war.
Plutarch -
Riches for the most part are hurtful to them that possess them.
Plutarch
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Said Scopas of Thessaly, 'We rich men count our felicity and happiness to lie in these superfluities, and not in those necessary things.'
Plutarch -
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.
Plutarch -
When Darius offered him ten thousand talents, and to divide Asia equally with him, 'I would accept it,' said Parmenio, 'were I Alexander.' 'And so truly would I,' said Alexander, 'if I were Parmenio.' But he answered Darius that the earth could not bear two suns, nor Asia two kings.
Plutarch -
For the wise man, every day is a festival.
Plutarch