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| Plutarch: born AD 46 died AD 120 was a Greek philosopher, scholar, and historian. |
Quotes by Plutarch
Agesilaus being invited once to hear a man who admirably imitated the nightingale, he declined, saying he had heard the nightingale itself.A Roman divorced from his wife, being highly blamed by his friends, who demanded, “Was she not chaste? Was she not fair? Was she not fruitful?” holding out his shoe, asked them whether it was not new and well made. Yet, added he, none of you can tell where it pinches me.
As Caesar was at supper the discourse was of death, which sort was the best. “That,” said he, “which is unexpected.”
Cato used to assert that wise men profited more by fools than fools by wise men; for that wise men avoided the faults of fools, but that fools would not imitate the good examples of wise men.
Children are to be won to follow liberal studies by exhortations and rational motives, and on no account to be forced thereto by whipping.
The most glorious exploits do not always furnish us with the clearest discoveries of virtue or vice in men.
He preferred an honest man that wooed his daughter, before a rich man. “I would rather,” said Themistocles, “have a man that wants money than money that wants a man.”
He said they that were serious in ridiculous matters would be ridiculous in serious affairs.
It is a true proverb, that if you live with a lame man you will learn to halt.
It is circumstance and proper measure that give an action its character, and make it either good or bad.
It is indeed desirable to be well descended, but the glory belongs to our ancestors.
Moral good is a practical stimulus; it is no sooner seen than it inspires an impulse to practice.
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.
The very spring and root of honesty and virtue lie in the felicity of lighting on good education.
Pythagoras, when he was asked what time was, answered that it was the soul of this world.
When Eudaemonidas heard a philosopher arguing that only a wise man can be a good general, “This is a wonderful speech,” said he; “but he that sayeth it never heard the sound of trumpets.”
Statesmen are not only liable to give an account of what they say or do in public, but there is a busy inquiry made into their very meals, beds, marriages, and every other sportive or serious action.
There are two sentences inscribed upon the Delphic oracle, hugely accommodated to the usages of man’s life: “Know thyself” and “Nothing too much;” and upon these all other precepts depend.
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.”
The measure of a man’s life is the well spending of it, and not the length.
There is no debt with so much prejudice put off as that of justice.
We are more sensible of what is done against custom than against Nature.
The present offers itself to our touch for an instance in time and then eludes the senses.
In human life there is constant change of fortune: and it is unreasonable to expect an exemption from the common fate. Life itself decays, and all things are daily changing.
