Plutarch Quotes
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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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The human heart becomes softened by hearing of instances of gentleness and consideration.
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Eurybiades lifting up his staff as if he were going to strike, Themistocles said, 'Strike, if you will; but hear'.
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Painting is silent poetry, and poetry is painting that speaks.
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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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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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He [Caesar] loved the treason, but hated the traitor.
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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 most perfect soul, says Heraclitus, is a dry light, which flies out of the body as lightning breaks from a cloud.
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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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He who owns a hundred sheep must fight with fifty wolves.
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We rich men count our felicity and happiness to lie in these superfluities, and not in those necessary things.
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Foreign lady once remarked to the wife of a Spartan commander that the women of Sparta were the only women in the world who could rule men. "We are the only women who raise men," the Spartan lady replied.
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Music, to create harmony, must investigate discord.
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Silence is an answer to a wise man.
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The very spring and root of honesty and virtue lie in good education.
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It is not reasonable that he who does not shoot should hit the mark, nor that he who does not stand fast at his post should win the day, or that the helpless man should succeed or the coward prosper.
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Politics is not like an ocean voyage or a military campaign... something which leaves off as soon as reached. It is not a public chore to be gotten over with. It is a way of life.
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They are wrong who think that politics is like an ocean voyage or a military campaign, something to be done with some particular end in view, something which leaves off as soon as that end is reached. It is not a public chore, to be got over with. It is a way of life. It is the life of a domesticated political and social creature who is born with a love for public life, with a desire for honor, with a feeling for his fellows; and it lasts as long as need be.
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Eat not thy heart; which forbids to afflict our souls, and waste them with vexatious cares.
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Come back with your shield - or on it.
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As soft wax is apt to take the stamp of the seal, so are the minds of young children to receive the instruction imprinted on them.
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'These Macedonians,' said he, 'are a rude and clownish people, that call a spade a spade.'
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By these criteria let Alexander also be judged! For from his words, from his deeds, and from the instruction' which he imparted, it will be seen that he was indeed a philosopher.