Plutarch Quotes
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He [Caesar] loved the treason, but hated the traitor.
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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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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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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.
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Perseverance is more prevailing than violence; and many things which cannot be overcome when they are together, yield themselves up when taken little by little.
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For the correct analogy for the mind is not a vessel that needs filling, but wood that needs igniting.
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An old doting fool, with one foot already in the grave.
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I am all that hath been, and is, and shall be; and my veil no mortal has hitherto raised.
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Anacharsis said a man's felicity consists not in the outward and visible favours and blessings of Fortune, but in the inward and unseen perfections and riches of the mind.
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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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Those who aim at great deeds must also suffer greatly.
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The authors of great evils know best how to remove them.
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And when the physician said, 'Sir, you are an old man,' 'That happens,' replied Pausanias, 'because you never were my doctor.'
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Go on, my friend, and fear nothing; you carry Cæsar and his fortunes in your boat.
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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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Where the lion's skin will not reach, you must patch it out with the fox's.
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The abuse of buying and selling votes crept in and money began to play an important part in determining elections. Later on, this process of corruption spread to the law courts. And then to the army, and finally the Republic was subjected to the rule of emperors.
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But for the sake of some little mouthful of flesh we deprive a soul of the sun and light, and of that proportion of life and time it had been born into the world to enjoy.
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He who owns a hundred sheep must fight with fifty wolves.
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Agesilaus being invited once to hear a man who admirably imitated the nightingale, he declined, saying he had heard the nightingale itself.
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Let us carefully observe those good qualities wherein our enemies excel us; and endeavor to excel them, by avoiding what is faulty, and imitating what is excellent in them.
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Music, to create harmony, must investigate discord.
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We ought to regard books as we do sweetmeats, not wholly to aim at the pleasantest, but chiefly to respect the wholesomest; not forbidding either, but approving the latter most.
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Fate, however, is to all appearance more unavoidable than unexpected.