Plutarch quotes

Silence at the proper season is wisdom, and better than any speech.

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

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

The whole of life is but a moment of time. It is our duty, therefore to use it, not to misuse it.

It is the admirer of himself, and not the admirer of virtue, that thinks himself superior to others.

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

It is circumstance and proper measure that give an action its character, and make it either good or bad.

Philosophy finds talkativeness a disease very difficult and hard to cure. For its remedy, conversation, requires hearers: but talkative people hear nobody, for they are ever prating. And the first evil this inability to keep silence produces is an inability to listen.

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

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.

It is a thing of no great difficulty to raise objections against another man's oration, it is a very easy matter; but to produce a better in it's place is a work extremely troublesome.

Beauty is the flower of virtue.

Prosperity is no just scale; adversity is the only balance to weigh friends.

The richest soil, if uncultivated, produces the rankest weeds.

What we achieve inwardly will change outer reality.

Time is the wisest of all counselors.

It is the usual consolation of the envious, if they cannot maintain their superiority, to represent those by whom they are surpassed as inferior to some one else.

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

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

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

Vultures are the most righteous of birds: they do not attack even the smallest living creature.

To find fault is easy; to do better may be difficult.

Instead of using medicine, better fast today.

Wisdom is neither gold, nor silver, nor fame, nor wealth, nor health, nor strength, nor beauty.

Water continually dropping will wear hard rocks hollow.

Either is both, and Both is neither.

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 flatterer's object is to please in everything he does; whereas the true friend always does what is right, and so often gives pleasure, often pain, not wishing the latter, but not shunning it either, if he deems it best.

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.

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.

Remember what Simonides said, that he never repented that he had held his tongue, but often that he had spoken.

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

We ought not to treat living creatures like shoes or household belongings, which when worn with use we throw away.

A few vices are sufficient to darken many virtues.

He shall fare well who confronts circumstances aright.

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

We are more sensible of what is done against custom than against nature.

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

Where two discourse, if the anger of one rises, he is the wise man who lets the contest fall.

Time which diminishes all things increases understanding for the aging.

Most people do not understand until old age what Plato tells them when they are young.

When another is asked a question, take special care not to interrupt to answer it yourself.

Courage stands halfway between cowardice and rashness, one of which is a lack, the other an excess of courage.

He who cheats with an oath acknowledges that he is afraid of his enemy, but that he thinks little of God.

If you hate your enemies, you will contract such a vicious habit of mind that it will break out upon those who are your friends, or those who are indifferent to you.

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

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

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

I see the cure is not worth the pain.

As bees extract honey from thyme, the strongest and driest of herbs, so sensible men often get advantage and profit from the most awkward circumstances.

Riches for the most part are hurtful to them that possess them.

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

When Anaxagoras was told of the death of his son, he only said, "I knew he was mortal." So we in all casualties of life should say "I knew my riches were uncertain, that my friend was but a man." Such considerations would soon pacify us, because all our troubles proceed from their being unexpected.

It is not the most distinguished achievements that men's virtues or vices may be best discovered; but very often an action of small note. An casual remark or joke shall distinguish a person's real character more than the greatest sieges, or the most important battles.

Character is simply habit long continued.

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

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

Forgetfulness transforms every occurrence into a non-occurrence.

The mind is not a vessel to be filled but a fire to be kindled.

It is not reasonable that he who does not shoot should hit the mark, nor that he who does not stand fast at his post should win the day, or that the helpless man should succeed or the coward prosper.

The drop hollows out the stone not by strength, but by constant falling.

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

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.

Wise men are able to make a fitting use even of their enmities.

A fool cannot hold his tongue.

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

For the mind does not require filling like a bottle, but rather, like wood, it only requires kindling to create in it an impulse to think independently and an ardent desire for the truth.

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

If we traverse the world, it is possible to find cities without walls, without letters, without kings, without wealth, without coin, without schools and theatres; but a city without a temple, or that practiseth not worship, prayer, and the like, no one ever saw.

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.

Choose what is best, and habit will make it pleasant and easy.

Men who marry wives very much superior to themselves are not so truly husbands to their wives as they are unawares made slaves to their position.

For the wise man, every day is a festival.

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

To fail to do good is as bad as doing harm.

It is a high distinction for a homely woman to be loved for her character rather than for beauty.

Anger turns the mind out of doors and bolts the entrance.

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

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.

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

There is no stronger test of a person's character than power and authority, exciting as they do every passion, and discovering every latent vice.

Nothing can produce so great a serenity of life as a mind free from guilt and kept untainted, not only from actions, but purposes that are wicked. By this means the soul will be not only unpolluted but also undisturbed. The fountain will run clear and unsullied.

To be ignorant of the lives of the most celebrated men of antiquity is to continue in a state of childhood all our days.

Those who aim at great deeds must also suffer greatly.

Vos vestros servate, meos mihi linquite mores You keep to your own ways, and leave mine to me

A healer of others, himself diseased.

Learn to be pleased with everything...because it could always be worse, but isn't!

Reason speaks and feeling bites

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.''

It is not histories I am writing, but lives; and in the most glorious deeds there is not always an indication of virtue or vice, indeed a small thing like a phrase or a jest often makes a greater revelation of a character than battles where thousands die.

Water and our necessary food are the only things that wise men must fight for.

Fate leads him who follows it, and drags him who resist.

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.

Neither blame or praise yourself.

It was not important how many enemies there are, but where the enemy is

To please the many is to displease the wise.

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.

Our senses through ignorance of Reality, falsely tell us that what appears to be, is. FEAR = False Evidence Appearing Real

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

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.

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

Barba non facit philosophum

He who owns a hundred sheep must fight with fifty wolves

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

As small letters hurt the sight, so do small matters him that is too much intent upon them; they vex and stir up anger, which begets an evil habit in him in reference to greater affairs.

The measure of a man's life is the well spending of it, and not the length.

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

Knavery is the best defense against a knave.

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

The abuse of buying and selling votes crept in and money began to play an important part in determining elections. Later on, this process of corruption spread to the law courts. And then to the army, and finally the Republic was subjected to the rule of emperors

An imbalance between rich and poor is the oldest and most fatal ailment of all republics.

Words will build no walls.

Knowledge of divine things for the most part, as Heraclitus says, is lost to us by incredulity.

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

Abstruse questions must have abstruse answers.

Of all the disorders in the soul, envy is the only one no one confesses to.

Nature and wisdom never are at strife.

Character is inured habit.

Proper listening is the foundation of proper living.

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

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

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

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

Silence is an answer to a wise man.

Poverty is dishonorable, not in itself, but when it is a proof of laziness, intemperance, luxury, and carelessness; whereas in a person that is temperate, industrious, just and valiant, and who uses all his virtues for the public good, it shows a great and lofty mind.