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Plutarch Quotes | Quotes said by Plutarch

  • Plutarch Quote #1

    [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 Quote #2

    A mind is not a vessel to be filled, but a fire to be lighted.

  • Plutarch Quote #3

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

  • Plutarch Quote #4

    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 Quote #5

    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 Quote #6

    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 Quote #7

    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 Quote #8

    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 Quote #9

    Courage consists not in hazarding without fear; but being resolutely minded in a just cause.

  • Plutarch Quote #10

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

  • Plutarch Quote #11

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

  • Plutarch Quote #12

    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 Quote #13

    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 Quote #14

    I am all that hath been, and is, and shall be; and my veil no mortal has hitherto raised.

  • Plutarch Quote #15

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

  • Plutarch Quote #16

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

  • Plutarch Quote #17

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

  • Plutarch Quote #18

    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.

  • Plutarch Quote #19

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

  • Plutarch Quote #20

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

  • Plutarch Quote #21

    It’s 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 its place is a work extremely troublesome.

  • Plutarch Quote #22

    L'amicizia è animale da compagnia, non da gregge.

  • Plutarch Quote #23

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

  • Plutarch Quote #24

    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 Quote #25

    Neither blame or praise yourself.

  • Plutarch Quote #26

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

  • Plutarch Quote #27

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

  • Plutarch Quote #28

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

  • Plutarch Quote #29

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

  • Plutarch Quote #30

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

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