Plutarch Quotes
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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.'
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Time which diminishes all things increases understanding for the aging.
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Ease and speed in doing a thing do not give the work lasting solidity or exactness of beauty.
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When the candles are out all women are fair.
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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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The human heart becomes softened by hearing of instances of gentleness and consideration.
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Demosthenes, when taunted by Pytheas that all his arguments "smelled of the lamp," replied, "Yes, but your lamp and mine, my friend, do not witness the same labours.
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Euripides was wont to say, 'Silence is an answer to a wise man.'
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Learn to be pleased with everything, with wealth so far as it makes us beneficial to others; with poverty, for not having much to care for; and with obscurity, for being unenvied.
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Education and study, and the favors of the muses, confer no greater benefit on those that seek them than these humanizing and civilizing lessons, which teach our natural qualities to submit to the limitations prescribed by reason, and to avoid the wildness of extremes.
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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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When he was in great prosperity, and courted by many, seeing himself splendidly served at his table, he turned to his children and said: 'Children, we had been undone, if we had not been undone'.
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The measure of a man is the way he bears up under misfortune.
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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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Nature and wisdom never are at strife.
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Silence at the proper season is wisdom, and better than any speech.
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Custom is almost a second nature.
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When Demosthenes was asked what were the three most important aspects of oratory, he answered, 'Action, Action, Action.'
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The saying of old Antigonus, who when he was to fight at Andros, and one told him, 'The enemy's ships are more than ours,' replied, 'For how many then wilt thou reckon me?'
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The talkative listen to no one, for they are ever speaking. And the first evil that attends those who know not to be silent is that they hear nothing.
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Like the man who threw a stone at a bitch, but hit his step-mother, on which he exclaimed, 'Not so bad!'
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Lying is a most disgraceful vice; it first despises God, and then fears men.
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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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Of all the disorders in the soul, envy is the only one no one confesses to.