PPlutarch

221 source-linked selections

Plutarch

Life dates: 46 AD — 120 AD

Listed in the author section of Bartlett’s ninth-edition anthology, in the linked 1905 printing. Dates reflect that historical edition and may differ from modern scholarship.

Source editions and anthology attributions are not the same evidence level. Read the selection standard ↗

▷ Play this voice Search these words ↗Place in time ↗knowledge friendship time truth wealth work nature wisdom

Quotations and sayings

01c. 83 AD

The general himself ought to be such a one as can at the same time see both forward and backward.

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02c. 83 AD

Statesmen are not only liable to give an account of what they say or do in public, but there is a busy inquiry made into their very meals, beds, marriages, and every other sportive or serious action.

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03c. 83 AD

Leo Byzantius said, "What would you do, if you saw my wife, who scarce reaches up to my knees? . . . Yet," went he on, "as little as we are, when we fall out with each other, the city of Byzantium is not big enough to hold us."

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04c. 83 AD

Cato said, "I had rather men should ask why my statue is not set up, than why it is."

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05c. 83 AD

It was the saying of Bion, that though the boys throw stones at frogs in sport, yet the frogs do not die in sport but in earnest.

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06c. 83 AD

Both Empedocles and Heraclitus held it for a truth that man could not be altogether cleared from injustice in dealing with beasts as he now does.

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07c. 83 AD

For to err in opinion, though it be not the part of wise men, is at least human.

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08c. 83 AD

Simonides calls painting silent poetry, and poetry speaking painting.

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09c. 83 AD

As Meander says, "For our mind is God;" and as Heraclitus, "Man's genius is a deity."

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10c. 83 AD

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

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11c. 83 AD

Lamentation is the only musician that always, like a screech-owl, alights and sits on the roof of an angry man.

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12c. 83 AD

As those that pull down private houses adjoining to the temples of the gods, prop up such parts as are contiguous to them; so, in undermining bashfulness, due regard is to be had to adjacent modesty, good-nature and humanity.

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13c. 83 AD

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

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14c. 83 AD

Learn to be pleased with everything, with wealth so far as it makes us beneficial to others; with poverty, for not having much to care for; and with obscurity, for being unenvied.

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15c. 83 AD

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

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16c. 83 AD

It is an observation no less just than common, that there is no stronger test of a man's real character than power and authority, exciting, as they do, every passion, and discovering every latent vice.

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17c. 83 AD

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

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18c. 83 AD

It is no disgrace not to be able to do everything; but to undertake, or pretend to do, what you are not made for, is not only shameful, but extremely troublesome and vexatious.

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19c. 83 AD

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.

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20c. 83 AD

If you light upon an impertinent talker, that sticks to you like a bur, to the disappointment of your important occasions, deal freely with him, break off the discourse, and pursue your business.

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21c. 83 AD

A few vices are sufficient to darken many virtues.

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22c. 83 AD

A constant friend is a thing hard and rare to find.

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23c. 83 AD

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

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24c. 83 AD

In civil broils the worst of men may rise to honour.

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