Plutarch Quotes
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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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He who first called money the sinews of the state seems to have said this with special reference to war.
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A healer of others, himself diseased.
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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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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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Hesiod might as well have kept his breath to cool his pottage.
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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.'
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Riches for the most part are hurtful to them that possess them.
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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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The old proverb was now made good, 'the mountain had brought forth a mouse.'
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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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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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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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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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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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'Young men,' said Cæsar, 'hear an old man to whom old men hearkened when he was young.'
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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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It is a true proverb, that if you live with a lame man, you will learn to limp.
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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.
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Themistocles replied that a man's discourse was like to a rich Persian carpet, the beautiful figures and patterns of which can only be shown by spreading and extending it out; when it is contracted and folded up, they are obscured and lost.
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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.'