Plutarch Quotes
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For he who gives no fuel to fire puts it out, and likewise he who does not in the beginning nurse his wrath and does not puff himself up with anger takes precautions against it and destroys it.
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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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'Young men,' said Cæsar, 'hear an old man to whom old men hearkened when he was young.'
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A healer of others, himself diseased.
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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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Where two discourse, if the anger of one rises, he is the wise man who lets the contest fall.
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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 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 part of a good man to do great and noble deeds, though he risk everything.
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The old proverb was now made good, 'the mountain had brought forth a mouse.'
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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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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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Riches for the most part are hurtful to them that possess them.
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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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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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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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Blinded as they are to their true character by self-love, every man is his own first and chiefest flatterer, prepared, therefore, to welcome the flatterer from the outside, who only comes confirming the verdict of the flatterer within.
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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.'
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The very spring and root of honesty and virtue lie in good education.
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The measure of a man's life is the well spending of it, and not the length.
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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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Hesiod might as well have kept his breath to cool his pottage.
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He [Caesar] loved the treason, but hated the traitor.