Plutarch

Plutarch

Year of Birth: 46
Year of Death: 120
Nationality: Greek

Quotes

A few vices are sufficient to darken many virtues.
Plutarch

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."
Plutarch

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.
Plutarch

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

Character is simply habit long continued.
Plutarch

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

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

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

If I were not Alexander, I would be Diogenes.
Plutarch

In words are seen the state of mind and character and disposition of the speaker.
Plutarch

It is indeed a desirable thing to be well-descended, but the glory belongs to our ancestors.
Plutarch

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

It were better to have no opinion of God at all than such a one as is unworthy of him; for the one is only belief - the other contempt.
Plutarch

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

Let us carefully observe those good qualities wherein our enemies excel us; and endeavor to excel them, by avoiding what is faulty, and imitating what is excellent in them.
Plutarch

Medicine to produce health must examine disease; and music, to create harmony must investigate discord.
Plutarch

Moral habits, induced by public practices, are far quicker in making their way into men's private lives, than the failings and faults of individuals are in infecting the city at large.
Plutarch

Neither blame or praise yourself.
Plutarch

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

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

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

Perseverance is more prevailing than violence; and many things which cannot be overcome when they are together, yield themselves up when taken little by little.
Plutarch

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

Someone praising a man for his foolhardy bravery, Cato, the elder, said, "There is a wide difference between true courage and a mere contempt of life."
Plutarch

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

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

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

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

The wildest colts make the best horses.
Plutarch

Those who aim at great deeds must also suffer greatly.
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

What we achieve inwardly will change outer reality.
Plutarch

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

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