Plutarch Quotes
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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.
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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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Do not speak of your happiness to one less fortunate than yourself.
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Of the land which the Romans gained by conquest from their neighbours, part they sold publicly, and turned the remainder into common; this common land they assigned to such of the citizens as were poor and indigent, for which they were to pay only a small acknowledgment into the public treasury. But when the wealthy men began to offer larger rents, and drive the poorer people out, it was enacted by law that no person whatever should enjoy more than five hundred acres of ground.
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I would rather excel in the knowledge of what is excellent, than in the extent of my power and possessions.
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A healer of others, himself diseased.
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Themistocles said that a man's discourse was like to a rich Persian carpet, the beautiful figures and patterns of which can be shown only by spreading and extending it out; when it is contracted and folded up, they are obscured and lost.
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He who first called money the sinews of the state seems to have said this with special reference to war.
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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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What sort of tree is there which will not, if neglected, grow crooked and unfruitful; what but Will, if rightly ordered, prove productive and bring its fruit to maturity? What strength of body is there which will not lose its vigor and fall to decay by laziness, nice usage, and debauchery?
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Hesiod might as well have kept his breath to cool his pottage.
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The old proverb was now made good, 'the mountain had brought forth a mouse.'
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After the battle in Pharsalia, when Pompey was fled, one Nonius said they had seven eagles left still, and advised to try what they would do. 'Your advice,' said Cicero, 'were good if we were to fight jackdaws.'
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The whole of life is but a moment of time. It is our duty, therefore to use it, not to misuse it.
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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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It is easy to utter what has been kept silent, but impossible to recall what has been uttered.
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'Young men,' said Cæsar, 'hear an old man to whom old men hearkened when he was young.'
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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.
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It is a true proverb, that if you live with a lame man, you will learn to limp.
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A good man will take care of his horses and dogs, not only while they are young, but when old and past service.
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The authors of great evils know best how to remove them.
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Time is the wisest of all counselors.
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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.
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It is the admirer of himself, and not the admirer of virtue, that thinks himself superior to others.