Plutarch Quotes
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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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Nature and wisdom never are at strife.
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As those persons who despair of ever being rich make little account of small expenses, thinking that little added to a little will never make any great sum.
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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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That we may consult concerning others, and not others concerning us.
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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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Empire may be gained by gold, not gold by empire. It used, indeed, to be a proverb that 'It is not Philip, but Philip's gold that takes the cities of Greece.'
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Medicine to produce health must examine disease; and music, to create harmony must investigate discord.
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Were it only to learn benevolence to humankind, we should be merciful to other creatures.
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Character is simply habit long continued.
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He said they that were serious in ridiculous matters would be ridiculous in serious affairs.
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Both Empedocles and Heraclitus held it for a truth that man could not be altogether cleared from injustice in dealing with beasts as he now does.
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Among real friends there is no rivalry or jealousy of one another, but they are satisfied and contented alike whether they are equal or one of them is superior.
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The omission of good is no less reprehensible than the commission of evil.
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Whenever anything is spoken against you that is not true, do not pass by or despise it because it is false; but forthwith examine yourself, and consider what you have said or done that may administer a just occasion of reproof.
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Socrates said, 'Bad men live that they may eat and drink, whereas good men eat and drink that they may live.'
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Prosperity has this property, it puffs up narrow Souls, makes them imagine themselves high and mighty, and look down upon the World with Contempt; but a truly noble and resolved Spirit appears greatest in Distress, and then becomes more bright and conspicuous.
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There is never the body of a man, how strong and stout soever, if it be troubled and inflamed, but will take more harm and offense by wine being poured into it.
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Custom is almost a second nature.
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We ought to give our friend pain if it will benefit him, but not to the extent of breaking off our friendship; but just as we make use of some biting medicine that will save and preserve the life of the patient. And so the friend, like a musician, in bringing about an improvement to what is good and expedient, sometimes slackens the chords, sometimes tightens them, and is often pleasant, but always useful.
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To Harmodius, descended from the ancient Harmodius, when he reviled Iphicrates a shoemaker's son for his mean birth, 'My nobility,' said he, 'begins in me, but yours ends in you.'
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The general himself ought to be such a one as can at the same time see both forward and backward.
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When the candles are out all women are fair.
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To one commending an orator for his skill in amplifying petty matters, Agesilaus said, 'I do not think that shoemaker a good workman that makes a great shoe for a little foot.'