Plutarch Quotes
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Lying is a most disgraceful vice; it first despises God, and then fears men.
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The very spring and root of honesty and virtue lie in good education.
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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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I do not think that shoemaker a good workman that makes a great shoe for a little foot.
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He who owns a hundred sheep must fight with fifty wolves.
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Eat not thy heart; which forbids to afflict our souls, and waste them with vexatious cares.
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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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Forgetfulness transforms every occurrence into a non-occurrence.
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Such power I gave the people as might do, Abridged not what they had, now lavished new, Those that were great in wealth and high in place My counsel likewise kept from all disgrace. Before them both I held my shield of might, And let not either touch the other's right.
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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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I don't need a friend who changes when I change and who nods when I nod; my shadow does that much better.
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Men who marry wives very much superior to themselves are not so truly husbands to their wives as they are unawares made slaves to their position.
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Were it only to learn benevolence to humankind, we should be merciful to other creatures.
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While Leonidas was preparing to make his stand, a Persian envoy arrived. The envoy explained to Leonidas the futility of trying to resist the advance of the Great King's army and demanded that the Greeks lay down their arms and submit to the might of Persia. Leonidas laconically told Xerxes, "Come and get them.
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Nothing is cheap which is superfluous, for what one does not need, is dear at a penny.
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The omission of good is no less reprehensible than the commission of evil.
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Fate, however, is to all appearance more unavoidable than unexpected.
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The whole life of man is but a point of time; let us enjoy it, therefore, while it lasts, and not spend it to no purpose.
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When one is transported by rage, it is best to observe attentively the effects on those who deliver themselves over to the same passion.
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Lycurgus the Lacedæmonian brought long hair into fashion among his countrymen, saying that it rendered those that were handsome more beautiful, and those that were deformed more terrible. To one that advised him to set up a democracy in Sparta, "Pray," said Lycurgus, "do you first set up a democracy in your own house."
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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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What meal is not expensive? That for which no animal is put to death. … one participating of feeling, of seeing, of hearing, of imagination, and of intellection; which each animal hath received from Nature for the acquiring of what is agreeable to it, and the avoiding what is disagreeable.
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Let a prince be guarded with soldiers, attended by councillors, and shut up in forts; yet if his thoughts disturb him, he is miserable.
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Scilurus on his death-bed, being about to leave four-score sons surviving, offered a bundle of darts to each of them, and bade them break them. When all refused, drawing out one by one, he easily broke them,-thus teaching them that if they held together, they would continue strong; but if they fell out and were divided, they would become weak.