Plutarch Quotes
-
The general himself ought to be such a one as can at the same time see both forward and backward.
-
Demosthenes overcame and rendered more distinct his inarticulate and stammering pronunciation by speaking with pebbles in his mouth.
-
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.
-
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.
-
The human heart becomes softened by hearing of instances of gentleness and consideration.
-
An old doting fool, with one foot already in the grave.
-
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.
-
Hesiod might as well have kept his breath to cool his pottage.
-
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.
-
The mind is not a vessel to be filled but a fire to be kindled.
-
It is part of a good man to do great and noble deeds, though he risk everything.
-
They fought indeed and were slain, but it was to maintain the luxury and the wealth of other men.
-
Where two discourse, if the anger of one rises, he is the wise man who lets the contest fall.
-
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.
-
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.
-
Sometimes small incidents, rather than glorious exploits, give us the best evidence of character. So, as portrait painters are more exact in doing the face, where the character is revealed, than the rest of the body, I must be allowed to give my more particular attention to the marks of the souls of men.
-
Nothing is harder to direct than a man in prosperity; nothing more easily managed that one is adversity.
-
He who first called money the sinews of the state seems to have said this with special reference to war.
-
For the correct analogy for the mind is not a vessel that needs filling, but wood that needs igniting.
-
I confess myself the greatest coward in the world, for I dare not do an ill thing.
-
Nature without learning is blind, learning apart from nature is fractional, and practice in the absence of both is aimless.
-
'Young men,' said Cæsar, 'hear an old man to whom old men hearkened when he was young.'
-
The most perfect soul, says Heraclitus, is a dry light, which flies out of the body as lightning breaks from a cloud.
-
Time is the wisest of all counselors.