Plutarch quotes: wise famous quotes, sayings and quotations by Plutarch

Plutarch Famous Quotes & Sayings

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Demosthenes told Phocion, "The Athenians will kill you some day when they once are in a rage." "And you," said he, "if they are once in their senses.

Reason speaks and feeling bites

Why does pouring Oil on the Sea make it Clear and Calm? Is it that the winds, slipping the smooth oil, have no force, nor cause any waves?

Cato requested old men not to add the disgrace of wickedness to old age, which was accompanied with many other evils.

It is easy to utter what has been kept silent, but impossible to recall what has been uttered.

Music, to create harmony, must investigate discord.

Were it only to learn benevolence to humankind, we should be merciful to other creatures.

The human heart becomes softened by hearing of instances of gentleness and consideration.

No man ever wetted clay and then left it, as if there would be bricks by chance and fortune.

I do not think that shoemaker a good workman that makes a great shoe for a little foot.

It is part of a good man to do great and noble deeds, though he risk everything.

There is no perfecter endowment in man than political virtue.

Spintharus, speaking in commendation of Epaminondas, says he scarce ever met with any man who knew more and spoke less.

A Spartan, seeing a man taking up a collection for the gods, said that he did not think much of gods who were poorer than himself.

I am all that hath been, and is, and shall be; and my veil no mortal has hitherto raised.

Our nature holds so much envy and malice that our pleasure in our own advantages is not so great as our distress at others'.

What can they suffer that do not fear to die?

Xenophon says that there is no sound more pleasing than one's own praises.

When Demaratus was asked whether he held his tongue because he was a fool or for want of words, he replied, A fool cannot hold his tongue.

A mind is not a vessel to be filled, but a fire to be lighted.

Words will build no walls.

Cicero called Aristotle a river of flowing gold, and said of Plato's Dialogues, that if Jupiter were to speak, it would be in language like theirs.

Know how to listen, and you will profit even from those who talk badly.

Character is simply habit long continued.

When men are arrived at the goal, they should not turn back.

The whole like of a man is but a point of time; let us enjoy it.

Wickedness frames the engines of her own torment. She is a wonderful artisan of a miserable life.

Fate, however, is to all appearance more unavoidable than unexpected.

Oh, what a world full of pain we create, for a little taste upon the tongue.

Phocion compared the speeches of Leosthenes to cypress-trees. "They are tall," said he, "and comely, but bear no fruit.

That we may consult concerning others, and not others concerning us.

The ripeness of adolescence is prodigal in pleasures, skittish, and in need of a bridle.

Nature and wisdom never are at strife.

Zeno first started that doctrine, that knavery is the best defence against a knave.

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

Plato used to say to Xenocrates the philosopher, who was rough and morose, Good Xenocrates, sacrifice to the Graces.

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

When malice is joined to envy, there is given forth poisonous and feculent matter, as ink from the cuttle-fish.

The present offers itself to our touch for only an instant of time and then eludes the senses.

Hesiod might as well have kept his breath to cool his pottage.

Nor let us part with justice, like a cheap and common thing, for a small and trifling price.

Pythias once, scoffing at Demosthenes, said that his arguments smelt of the lamp.

Talkativeness has another plague attached to it, even curiosity; for praters wish to hear much that they may have much to say.

An old doting fool, with one foot already in the grave.

I would rather excel in the knowledge of what is excellent, than in the extent of my power and possessions.

To please the many is to displease the wise.

As Meander says, "For our mind is God;" and as Heraclitus, "Man's genius is a deity.

Friendship requires a steady, constant, and unchangeable character, a person that is uniform in his intimacy.

Philosophy is an act of living.

Rather I fear on the contrary that while we banish painful thoughts we may banish memory as well.

What, did you not know, then, that to-day Lucullus dines with Lucullus?

The poor go to war, to fight and die for the delights, riches, and superfluities of others.

Silence is an answer to a wise man.

Courage and wisdom are, indeed, rarities amongst men, but of all that is good, a just man it would seem is the most scarce.

Distressed valor challenges great respect, even from an enemy.

I confess myself the greatest coward in the world, for I dare not do an ill thing.

I have heard that Tiberius used to say that that man was ridiculous, who after sixth years, appealed to a physician.

Let a prince be guarded with soldiers, attended by councillors, and shut up in forts; yet if his thoughts disturb him, he is miserable.

What we achieve inwardly will change outer reality.

A fool cannot hold his tongue.

To conduct great matters and never commit a fault is above the force of human nature.

A few vices are sufficient to darken many virtues.

The very spring and root of honesty and virtue lie in good education.

The most glorious exploits do not always furnish us with the clearest discoveries of virtue or vice in men.

He who first called money the sinews of the state seems to have said this with special reference to war.

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

Concerning the dead nothing but good shall be spoken.
[Lat., De mortuis nil nisi bonum.]

The generous mind adds dignity to every act, and nothing misbecomes it.

Immoderate grief is selfish, harmful, brings no advantage to either the mourner or the mourned, and dishonors the dead.

King Agis said, The Lacedaemonians are not wont to ask how many, but where the enemy are.

[It was] better to set up a monarchy themselves than to suffer a sedition to continue that must certainly end in one.

Man is neither by birth nor disposition a savage, nor of unsocial habits, but only becomes so by indulging in vices contrary to his nature.

Nothing is harder to direct than a man in prosperity; nothing more easily managed that one is adversity.

Cicero said loud-bawling orators were driven by their weakness to noise, as lame men to take horse.

He shall fare well who confronts circumstances aright.

Instead of using medicine, better fast today.

Knavery is the best defense against a knave.

It is no flattery to give a friend a due character; for commendation is as much the duty of a friend as reprehension.

No beast is more savage than man when possessed with power answerable to his rage.

Demosthenes overcame and rendered more distinct his inarticulate and stammering pronunciation by speaking with pebbles in his mouth.

He is a fool who lets slip a bird in the hand for a bird in the bush.

Evidence of trust begets trust, and love is reciprocated by love.

Lying is a most disgraceful vice; it first despises God, and then fears men.

The worship most acceptable to God comes from a thankful and cheerful heart.

Agesilaus being invited once to hear a man who admirably imitated the nightingale, he declined, saying he had heard the nightingale itself.

He is a fool who leaves things close at hand to follow what is out of reach.

Justice makes the life of such as are in prosperity, power and authority the life of a god, and injustice turns it to that of a beast.

He who owns a hundred sheep must fight with fifty wolves

Pythagoras, when he was asked what time was, answered that it was the soul of this world.

Wickedness is a wonderfully diligent architect of misery, of shame, accompanied with terror, and commotion, and remorse, and endless perturbation.

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

The pilot cannot mitigate the billows or calm the winds.

I don't need a friend who change when I change, who nod when I nod. This is something than my own shadow can do.

The great god Pan is dead.

When Demosthenes was asked what were the three most important aspects of oratory, he answered, 'Action, Action, Action.'

It is a true proverb, that if you live with a lame man, you will learn to limp.

The wildest colts make the best horses.

A lover's soul lives in the body of his mistress.

A warrior carries his shield for the sake of the entire line.

For man is a plant, not fixed in the earth, nor immovable, but heavenly, whose head, rising as it were from a root upwards, is turned towards heaven.