Plutarch Quotes

Rest is the sweet sauce of labour.
Plutarch
Words will build no walls.
Plutarch
It is a difficult task Oh citizens to make speeches to the belly which has no ears.
Plutarch
Many things which cannot be overcome when they are together yield themselves up when taken little by little.
Plutarch
The present offers itself to our touch for only an instant of time and then eludes the senses.
Plutarch
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."
Plutarch
To be ignorant of the lives of the most celebrated men of antiquity is to continue in a state of childhood.
Plutarch
Those who aim at great deeds must also suffer greatly.
Plutarch
Time is the soul of this world.
Plutarch
Character is simply habit long enough continued.
Plutarch
Those who aim at great deeds must also suffer greatly.
Plutarch
Time is the soul of this world.
Plutarch
Character is simply habit long enough continued.
Plutarch
Forgetfulness transforms every occurrence into a non-occurrence.
Plutarch
No man ever wetted clay and then left it as if there would be bricks by chance and fortune.
Plutarch
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.
Plutarch
It is indeed a desirable thing to be well descended but the glory belongs to our ancestors.
Plutarch
Themistocles said "The Athenians govern the Greeks I govern the Athenians you my wife govern me your son governs you."
Plutarch
Those who aim at great deeds must also suffer greatly.
Plutarch
Prosperity is not just scale adversity is the only balance to weigh friends.
Plutarch
It is a hard matter my fellow citizens to argue with the belly since it has no ears.
Plutarch
From their errors and mistakes the wise and good learn wisdom for the future.
Plutarch
To make no mistake is not in the power of man but from their errors and mistakes the wise and good learn wisdom for the future.
Plutarch
He shall fare well who confronts circumstances aright.
Plutarch
The wildest colts make the best horses.
Plutarch
Character is long-standing habit.
Plutarch
To be ignorant of the lives of the most celebrated men of antiquity is to continue in a state of childhood all our days.
Plutarch
From their errors and mistakes the wise and good learn wisdom for the future.
Plutarch
Those who aim at great deeds must also suffer greatly.
Plutarch
[Theseus] soon found himself involved in factions and troubles; those who long had hated him had now added to their hatred contempt; and the minds of the people were so generally corrupted, that, instead of obeying commands with silence, they expected to be flattered into their duty.
Plutarch
Neither blame or praise yourself.
Plutarch
He who least likes courting favour, ought also least to think of resenting neglect; to feel wounded at being refused a distinction can only arise from an overweening appetite to have it.
Plutarch
But virtue, by the bare statement of its actions, can so affect men's minds as to create at once both admiration of the things done and desire to imitate the doers of them. The goods of fortune we would possess and would enjoy; those of virtue we long to practise and exercise. We are content to receive the former from others, the latter we wish others to experience from us. Moral good is a practical stimulus; it is no sooner seen, than it inspires an impulse to practice, and influences the mind and character not by a mere imitation which we look at, but by the statement of the fact creates a moral purpose which we form.
Plutarch
So long as he was personally present, [Alcibiades] had the perfect mastery of his political adversaries; calumny only succeeded in his absence.
Plutarch
Antipater, in a letter written upon the death of Aristotle, the philosopher, observes, "Amongst his other gifts he had that of persuasiveness"; and the absence of this in the character of Marcius made all his great actions and noble qualities unacceptable to those whom they benifited: pride, and self-will, the consort, as Plato calls it, of solitude, made him insufferable. With the skill which Alcibiades, on the contrary, possessed to treat every one in the way most agreeable to him, we cannot wonder that all his successes were attended with the most exuberant favour and honour; his very errors, at time, being accompanied by something of grace and felicity. And so in spite of great and frequent hurt that he had done the city, he was repeatedly appointed to office and command; while Coriolanus stood in vain for a place which his great services had made his due. The one, in spite of the harm he occasioned, could not make himself hated, nor the other, with all the admiration he attracted, succeed in being beloved by his countrymen.
Plutarch
The future bears down upon each one of us with all the hazards of the unknown. The only way out is through.
Plutarch
For dealing with blessings which come to us from outside we need a firm foundation based on reason and education; without this foundation, people keep on seeking these blessings and heaping them up but can never satisfy the insatiable appetites of their souls.
Plutarch
Vultures are the most righteous of birds: they do not attack even the smallest living creature.
Plutarch
... man by nature is not a wild or unsocial creature, neither was he born so, but makes himself what he naturally is not, by vicious habit; and that again on the other side, he is civilized and grows gentle by a change of place, occupation, and manner of life, as beasts themselves that are wild by nature, become tame and tractable by housing and gentler usage...
Plutarch
That which is chiefly the office of a general, to force the enemy into fighting when he finds himself the stronger, and to avoid being driven into it himself when he is the weaker...
Plutarch
I am all that hath been, and is, and shall be; and my veil no mortal has hitherto raised.
Plutarch
Small, therefore, can we think the progress we have made, as long as our admiration for those who have done noble things is barren, and does not of itself incite us to imitate them.
Plutarch
And the most glorious exploits do not always furnish us with the clearest discoveries of virtue or vice in men; sometimes a matter of less moment, an expression or a jest, informs us better of their characters and inclinations, than the most famous sieges, the greatest armaments, or the bloodiest battles whatsoever. Therefore as portrait-painters are more exact in the lines and features of the face, in which the character is seen, than in the other parts of the body, so I must be allowed to give my more particular attention to the marks and indications of the souls of men, and while I endeavor by these to portray their lives, may be free to leave more weighty matters and great battles to be treated of by others.
Plutarch
Can you really ask what reason Pythagoras had for abstaining from flesh? For my part I rather wonder both by what accident and in what state of soul or mind the first man did so, touched his mouth to gore and brought his lips to the flesh of a dead creature, he who set forth tables of dead, stale bodies and ventured to call food and nourishment the parts that had a little before bellowed and cried, moved and lived. How could his eyes endure the slaughter when throats were slit and hides flayed and limbs torn from limb? How could his nose endure the stench? How was it that the pollution did not turn away his taste, which made contact with the sores of others and sucked juices and serums from mortal wounds? … It is certainly not lions and wolves that we eat out of self-defense; on the contrary, we ignore these and slaughter harmless, tame creatures without stings or teeth to harm us, creatures that, I swear, Nature appears to have produced for the sake of their beauty and grace. But nothing abashed us, not the flower-like tinting of the flesh, not the persuasiveness of the harmonious voice, not the cleanliness of their habits or the unusual intelligence that may be found in the poor wretches. No, for the sake of a little flesh we deprive them of sun, of light, of the duration of life to which they are entitled by birth and being.
Plutarch
These things sensibly affected Theseus, who, thinking it but just not to disregard, but rather partake of, the sufferings of his fellow citizens, offered himself for one without any lot. All else were struck with admiration for the nobleness and with love for the goodness of the act.
Plutarch
It is part of a good man to do great and noble deeds, though he risk everything.
Plutarch
Sertorius rose up and spoke to his army, “You see, fellow soldiers, that perseverance is more prevailing than violence, and that many things which cannot be overcome when they are together, yield themselves up when taken little by little. Assiduity and persistence are irresistible, and in time overthrow and destroy the greatest powers whatever. Time being the favorable friend and assistant of those who use their judgment to await his occasions, and the destructive enemy of those who are unseasonably urging and pressing forward.
Plutarch
The man who is completely wise and virtuous has no need of glory, except so far as it…eases his way to action by the greater trust that it procures him.
Plutarch
It is a true proverb, that if you live with a lame man, you will learn to limp.
Plutarch
In words are seen the state of mind and character and disposition of the speaker.
Plutarch
The Spartans do not ask how many are the enemy but where are they.
Plutarch
For there is no virtue, the honor and credit for which procures a man more odium than that of justice; and this, because more than any other, it acquires a man power and authority among the common people.
Plutarch
Good fortune will elevate even petty minds, and gives them the appearance of a certain greatness and stateliness, as from their high place they look down upon the world; but the truly noble and resolved spirit raises itself, and becomes more conspicuous in times of disaster and ill fortune...
Plutarch
But the Lacedaemonians, who make it their first principle of action to serve their country's interest, know not any thing to be just or unjust by any measure but that.
Plutarch
To make an action honorable, it ought to be agreeable to the age, and other circumstances of the person; since it is circumstance and proper measure that give an action its character, and make it either good or bad.
Plutarch
An imbalance between rich and poor is the oldest and most fatal ailment of all republics.
Plutarch
By the aid of philosophy you will live not unpleasantly, for you will learn to extract pleasure from all places and things: wealth will make you happy, because it will enable you to benefit many; and poverty, as you will not then have many anxieties; and glory, for it will make you honoured; and obscurity, for you will then be safe from envy.
Plutarch
When a man's eyes are sore his friends do not let him finger them, however much he wishes to, nor do they themselves touch the inflammation: But a man sunk in grief suffers every chance comer to stir and augment his affliction like a running sore; and by reason of the fingering and consequent irritation it hardens into a serious and intractable evil.
Plutarch
But being overborne with numbers, and nobody daring to face about, stretching out his hands to heaven, [Romulus] prayed to Jupiter to stop the army, and not to neglect but maintain the Roman cause, now in extreme danger. The prayer was no sooner made, than shame and respect for their king checked many; the fears of the fugitives changed suddenly into confidence.
Plutarch
The superstitious man wishes he did not believe in gods, as the atheist does not, but fears to disbelieve in them.
Plutarch