Plutarch Quotes (116 Quotes)


    (Solon) being asked, namely, what city was best to live in, That city, he replied, in which those who are not wronged, no less than those who are wronged, exert themselves to punish the wrongdoers

    The man who first brought ruin upon the Roman people was he who pampered them by largesses and amusements.

    To do an evil act is base. To do a good one without incurring danger, is common enough. But it is part of a good man to do great and noble deeds though he risks everything in doing them.

    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.

    As geographers, Sosius, crowd into the edges of their maps parts of the world which they do not know about, adding notes in the margin to the effect that beyond this lies nothing but sandy deserts full of wild beasts, and unapproachable bogs.


    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.

    When the candles are out all women are fair.

    Good birth is a fine thing, but the merit is our ancestors.

    Rest is the sweet sauce of labor.

    The measure of a man is way he bears up under misfortune

    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.'

    Also the two-edged tongue of mighty Zeno, who, Say what one would, could argue it untrue

    If you live with a cripple, you will learn to limp

    The first evil those who are prone to talk suffer, is that they hear nothing.

    I don't need a friend who changes when I change and who nods when I nod; my shadow does that much better.

    The real destroyer of the liberties of the people is he who spreads among them bounties, donations and benefits.

    There are two sentences inscribed upon the Ancient oracle Know thyself and Nothing too much and upon these all other precepts depend.

    To make no mistakes is not in the power of man; but from their errors and mistakes the wise and good learn wisdom for the future.

    Let us carefully observe those good qualities wherein our enemies excel us; and endeavor to excel them, by avoiding what is faulty, and imitating what is excellent in them.

    It is better to have no opinion of God at all than such as one as is unworthy of him for the one is only unbelief - the other is contempt

    All men whilst they are awake are in one common world: but each of them, when he is asleep, is in a world of his own.

    The omission of good is no less reprehensible than the commission of evil.

    It is no disgrace not to be able to do everything but to undertake or pretend to do what you are not made for, is not only shameful, but extremely troublesome and vexatious.

    Authority and place demonstrate and try the tempers of men, by moving every passion and discovering every frailty.

    Character is simply habit long continued.

    Painting is silent poetry, and poetry is painting that speaks.

    about Theseus, began the saying He is a second Hercules.

    about Archimedes ... being perpetually charmed by his familiar siren, that is, by his geometry, he neglected to eat and drink and took no care of his person that he was often carried by force to the baths, and when there he would trace geometrical figures in the ashes of the fire, and with his finger draw lines upon his body when it was anointed with oil, being in a state of great ecstasy and divinely possessed by his science.

    A sage thing is timely silence, and better than any speech.

    If I were not Alexander, I would be Diogenes.

    Philosophy is the art of living.

    Prosperity has this property it puffs up narrow souls, makes them imagine themselves high and mighty, and leads them to look down upon the world with contempt but a truly noble spirit appears greatest in distress and then becomes more bright and c

    When the strong box contains no more both friends and flatterers shun the door.

    A traveller at Sparta, standing long upon one leg, said to a Lacedaemonian, 'I do not believe you can do as much.' 'True,' said he, 'but every goose can.'

    God is the brave man's hope, and not the coward's excuse

    A few vices are sufficient to darken many virtues.

    Medicine, to produce health, has to examine disease.

    The wildest colts make the best horses.


    Do not speak of your happiness to one less fortunate than yourself.

    In words are seen the state of mind and character and disposition of the speaker.

    Abstruse questions must have abstruse answers.

    If all the world were just, there would be no need of valor

    Said Scopas of Thessaly, 'We rich men count our felicity and happiness to lie in these superfluities, and not in those necessary things.'

    Custom is almost second nature.

    Poverty is not dishonorable in itself, but only when it comes from idleness, intemperance, extravagance, and folly.

    Not by lamentations and mournful chants ought we to celebrate the funeral of a good man, but by hymns, for in ceasing to be numbered with mortals he enters upon the heritage of a diviner life.

    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.

    He who reflects on another man's want of breeding, shows he wants it as much himself

    That state of life is most happy where superfluities are not required and necessities are not wanting.


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