Plutarch Quotes
A Greek historian, biographer, and essayist.
(ca. 46 - 127)
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A few vices are sufficient to darken many virtues.
[Vice]
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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.
[Ability]
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A word or a nod from the good, has more weight than the eloquent speeches of others.
[Influence]
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Agesilaus, the Spartan king, was once invited to hear a mimic imitate the nightingale, but declined with the comment that he had heard the nightingale itself.
[Imitation]
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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.
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An imbalance between rich and poor is the oldest and most fatal ailment of all republics.
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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.
[Misery]
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As to Caesar, when he was called upon, he gave no testimony against Clodius, nor did he affirm that he was certain of any injury done to his bed. He only said, "He had divorced Pompeia because the wife of Caesar ought not only to be clear of such a crime, but of the very suspicion of it."
[Suspicion]
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Character is simply habit long continued.
[One Day]
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Courage consists not in hazarding without fear; but being resolutely minded in a just cause.
[Courage]
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Courage stands halfway between cowardice and rashness, one of which is a lack, the other an excess of courage.
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Do not speak of your happiness to one less fortunate than yourself.
[Happiness]
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Epaminondas, finding himself lifted up in the day of his public triumph, the next day went drooping and hanging down his head; and being asked what was the reason of his so great dejection, made answer: "Yesterday I felt myself transported with vainglory, therefore I chastise myself for it today."
[Humility]
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Euripides was wont to say that silence was an answer to a wise man; but we seem to have greater occasion for it in our dealing with fools and unreasonable persons; for men of breeding and sense will be satisfied with reason and fair words.
[Silence]
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Every condition of life, if attended with virtue, is undisturbed and delightful; but when vice is intermixed, it renders even things that appear sumptuous and magnificent, distasteful and uneasy to the possessor.
[Virtue]
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Fate leads him who follows it, and drags him who resist.
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For to err in opinion, though it be not the part of wise men, is at least human.
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Forgetfulness transforms every occurrence into a non-occurrence.
[Memory]
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Frequent fits of anger produce in the soul a propensity to be angry; which ofttimes ends in choler, bitterness, and morosity, when the mind becomes ulcerated, peevish, and querulous, and is wounded by the least occurrence.
[Anger]
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He can never speak well, who knows not how to hold his peace.
[Silence]
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