Plutarch Quotes
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Mothers ought to bring up and nurse their own children; for they bring them up with greater affection and with greater anxiety, as loving them from the heart, and so to speak, every inch of them.
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Of all the disorders in the soul, envy is the only one no one confesses to.
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He [Caesar] loved the treason, but hated the traitor.
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'These Macedonians,' said he, 'are a rude and clownish people, that call a spade a spade.'
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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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'T is a wise saying, Drive on your own track.
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Music, to create harmony, must investigate discord.
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They fought indeed and were slain, but it was to maintain the luxury and the wealth of other men.
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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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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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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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Seeing the lightest and gayest purple was then most in fashion, he would always wear that which was the nearest black; and he would often go out of doors, after his morning meal, without either shoes or tunic; not that he sought vain-glory from such novelties, but he would accustom himself to be ashamed only of what deserves shame, and to despise all other sorts of disgrace.
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Children ought to be led to honorable practices by means of encouragement and reasoning, and most certainly not by blows and ill treatment.
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He is a fool who lets slip a bird in the hand for a bird in the bush.
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When some were saying that if Cæsar should march against the city they could not see what forces there were to resist him, Pompey replied with a smile, bidding them be in no concern, 'for whenever I stamp my foot in any part of Italy there will rise up forces enough in an instant, both horse and foot.'
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When Demosthenes was asked what was the first part of oratory, he answered, 'Action;' and which was the second, he replied, 'Action;' and which was the third, he still answered, 'Action.'
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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.'
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Antagoras the poet was boiling a conger, and Antigonus, coming behind him as he was stirring his skillet, said, 'Do you think, Antagoras, that Homer boiled congers when he wrote the deeds of Agamemnon?' Antagoras replied, 'Do you think, O king, that Agamemnon, when he did such exploits, was a peeping in his army to see who boiled congers?'
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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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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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Lying is a most disgraceful vice; it first despises God, and then fears men.