Top 390 Quotes & Sayings by Plutarch - Page 3

When Philip had news brought him of divers and eminent successes in one day, "O Fortune!" said he, "for all these so great kindnesses do me some small mischief.

What most of all enables a man to serve the public is not wealth, but content and independence; which, requiring no superfluity at home, distracts not the mind from the common good.

They fought indeed and were slain, but it was to maintain the luxury and the wealth of other men.

God alone is entirely exempt from all want of human virtues, that which needs least is the most absolute and divine.

Philosophy is the art of living.

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."

The same intelligence is required to marshal an army in battle and to order a good dinner. The first must be as formidable as possible, the second as pleasant as possible, to the participants.

Nature without learning is like a blind man; learning without Nature, like a maimed one; practice without both, incomplete. As in agriculture a good soil is first sought for, then a skilful husbandman, and then good seed; in the same way nature corresponds to the soil, the teacher to the husbandman, precepts and instruction to the seed.

He who owns a hundred sheep must fight with fifty wolves

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.

To the Greeks, the supreme function of music was to "praise the gods and educate the youth". In Egypt... Initiatory music was heard only in Temple rites because it carried the vibratory rhythms of other worlds and of a life beyond the mortal.

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

A remorseful change of mind renders even a noble action base, whereas the determination which is grounded on knowledge and reason cannot change even if its actions fail.

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

And Archimedes, as he was washing, thought of a manner of computing the proportion of gold in King Hiero's crown by seeing the water flowing over the bathing-stool. He leaped up as one possessed or inspired, crying, "I have found it! Eureka!".

What All The World Knows Water is the principle, or the element, of things. All things are water.

Pittacus said, "Every one of you hath his particular plague, and my wife is mine; and he is very happy who hath this only".

Character is inured habit.

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

The authors of great evils know best how to remove them.

A good man will take care of his horses and dogs, not only while they are young, but when old and past service.

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.

Forgetfulness transforms every occurrence into a non-occurrence.

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

A prating barber asked Archelaus how he would be trimmed. He answered, "In silence."

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

Agesilaus was very fond of his children; and it is reported that once toying with them he got astride upon a reed as upon a horse, and rode about the room; and being seen by one of his friends, he desired him not to speak of it till he had children of his own.

When one is transported by rage, it is best to observe attentively the effects on those who deliver themselves over to the same passion.

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

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

The obligations of law and equity reach only to mankind; but kindness and beneficence should be extended to the creatures of every species, and these will flow from the breast of a true man, as streams that issue from the living fountain.

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

The soul of man... is a portion or a copy of the soul of the Universe and is joined together on principles and in proportions corresponding to those which govern the Universe.

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

To do an evil action is base; to do a good action without incurring danger is common enough; but it is the part of a good man to do great and noble deeds, though he risks every thing.

Those are greedy of praise prove that they are poor in merit.

He shall fare well who confronts circumstances aright.

I had rather men should ask why my statue is not set up, than why it is.

If you declare that you are naturally designed for such a diet, then first kill for yourself what you want to eat. Do it, however, only through your own resources, unaided by cleaver or cudgel or any kind of ax

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.

Even a nod from a person who is esteemed is of more force than a thousand arguments or studied sentences from others.

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

Distressed valor challenges great respect, even from an enemy.

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

Epaminondas is reported wittily to have said of a good man that died about the time of the battle of Leuctra, "How came he to have so much leisure as to die, when there was so much stirring?

It is wise to be silent when occasion requires, and better than to speak, though never so well.

Grief is like a physical pain which must be allowed to subside somewhat on its own before medical treatment is applied.

He (Cato) never gave his opinion in the Senate upon any other point whatever, without adding these words, "And, in my opinion Carthage should be destroyed." ["Delenda est Carthago."]

Mothers ought to bring up and nurse their own children; for they bring them up with greater affection and with greater anxiety, as loving them from the heart, and so to speak, every inch of them.

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.

Themistocles being asked whether he would rather be Achilles or Homer, said, "Which would you rather be, a conqueror in the Olympic games, or the crier that proclaims who are conquerors?

The process may seem strange and yet it is very true. I did not so much gain the knowledge of things by the words, as words by the experience I had of things.

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

Note that the eating of flesh is not only physically against nature, but it also makes us spiritually coarse and gross by reason of satiety and surfeit.

The giving of riches and honors to a wicked man is like giving strong wine to him that hath a fever.

Alcibiades had a very handsome dog, that cost him seven thousand drachmas; and he cut off his tail, "that," said he, "the Athenians may have this story to tell of me, and may concern themselves no further with me.

The man who is completely wise and virtuous has no need of glory, except so far as it disposes and eases his way to action by the greater trust that it procures him.

Lysander said that the law spoke too softly to be heard in such a noise of war.

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.

Of the land which the Romans gained by conquest from their neighbours, part they sold publicly, and turned the remainder into common; this common land they assigned to such of the citizens as were poor and indigent, for which they were to pay only a small acknowledgment into the public treasury. But when the wealthy men began to offer larger rents, and drive the poorer people out, it was enacted by law that no person whatever should enjoy more than five hundred acres of ground.