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Plutarch
225 quotes
“That proverbial saying, "Ill news goes quick and far.”
Plutarch (40–120) said by 120 at the latest bartlett, Public domain source
“A traveller at Sparta, standing long upon one leg, said to a Lacedæmonian, "I do not believe you can do as much." "True," said he, "but every goose can.”
Plutarch (40–120) said by 120 at the latest bartlett, Public domain source
“Spintharus, speaking in commendation of Epaminondas, says he scarce ever met with any man who knew more and spoke less.”
Plutarch (40–120) said by 120 at the latest bartlett, Public domain source
“It is a thing of no great difficulty to raise objections against another man's oration,--nay, it is a very easy matter; but to produce a better in its place is a work extremely troublesome.”
Plutarch (40–120) said by 120 at the latest bartlett, Public domain source
“Antiphanes said merrily, that in a certain city the cold was so intense that words were congealed as soon as spoken, but that after some time they thawed and became audible; so that the words spoken in winter were articulated next summer.”
Plutarch (40–120) said by 120 at the latest bartlett, Public domain source
“As those persons who despair of ever being rich make little account of small expenses, thinking that little added to a little will never make any great sum.”
Plutarch (40–120) said by 120 at the latest bartlett, Public domain source
“What is bigger than an elephant? But this also is become man's plaything, and a spectacle at public solemnities; and it learns to skip, dance, and kneel.”
Plutarch (40–120) said by 120 at the latest bartlett, Public domain source
“No man ever wetted clay and then left it, as if there would be bricks by chance and fortune.”
Plutarch (40–120) said by 120 at the latest bartlett, Public domain source
“Alexander was wont to say, "Were I not Alexander, I would be Diogenes.”
Plutarch (40–120) said by 120 at the latest bartlett, Public domain source
“When the candles are out all women are fair.”
Plutarch (40–120) said by 120 at the latest bartlett, Public domain source
“Like watermen, who look astern while they row the boat ahead.”
Plutarch (40–120) said by 120 at the latest bartlett, Public domain source
“Socrates said he was not an Athenian or a Greek, but a citizen of the world.”
Plutarch (40–120) said by 120 at the latest bartlett, Public domain source
“Anaximander says that men were first produced in fishes, and when they were grown up and able to help themselves were thrown up, and so lived upon the land.”
Plutarch (40–120) said by 120 at the latest bartlett, Public domain source
“Athenodorus says hydrophobia, or water-dread, was first discovered in the time of Asclepiades.”
Plutarch (40–120) said by 120 at the latest bartlett, Public domain source
“Let us not wonder if something happens which never was before, or if something doth not appear among us with which the ancients were acquainted.”
Plutarch (40–120) said by 120 at the latest bartlett, Public domain source
“Why does pouring oil on the sea make it clear and calm? Is it for that the winds, slipping the smooth oil, have no force, nor cause any waves? The great god Pan is dead.”
Plutarch (40–120) said by 120 at the latest bartlett, Public domain source
“I am whatever was, or is, or will be; and my veil no mortal ever took up.”
Plutarch (40–120) said by 120 at the latest bartlett, Public domain source
“When Hermodotus in his poems described Antigonus as the son of Helios, "My valet-de-chambre," said he, "is not aware of this.”
Plutarch (40–120) said by 120 at the latest bartlett, Public domain source
“There is no debt with so much prejudice put off as that of justice.”
Plutarch (40–120) said by 120 at the latest bartlett, Public domain source
“It is a difficult thing for a man to resist the natural necessity of mortal passions.”
Plutarch (40–120) said by 120 at the latest bartlett, Public domain source
“We are more sensible of what is done against custom than against Nature.”
Plutarch (40–120) said by 120 at the latest bartlett, Public domain source
“When Demosthenes was asked what was the first part of oratory, he answered, "Action;" and which was the second, he replied, "Action;" and which was the third, he still answered, "Action.”
Plutarch (40–120) said by 120 at the latest bartlett, Public domain source
“Xenophon says that there is no sound more pleasing than one's own praises.”
Plutarch (40–120) said by 120 at the latest bartlett, Public domain source
“Lampis, the sea commander, being asked how he got his wealth, answered, "My greatest estate I gained easily enough, but the smaller slowly and with much labour.”
Plutarch (40–120) said by 120 at the latest bartlett, Public domain source
“The general himself ought to be such a one as can at the same time see both forward and backward.”
Plutarch (40–120) said by 120 at the latest bartlett, Public domain source
“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.”
Plutarch (40–120) said by 120 at the latest bartlett, Public domain source
“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.”
Plutarch (40–120) said by 120 at the latest bartlett, Public domain source
“Cato said, "I had rather men should ask why my statue is not set up, than why it is.”
Plutarch (40–120) said by 120 at the latest bartlett, Public domain source
“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.”
Plutarch (40–120) said by 120 at the latest bartlett, Public domain source
“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.”
Plutarch (40–120) said by 120 at the latest bartlett, Public domain source
“For to err in opinion, though it be not the part of wise men, is at least human.”
Plutarch (40–120) said by 120 at the latest bartlett, Public domain source
“Simonides calls painting silent poetry, and poetry speaking painting.”
Plutarch (40–120) said by 120 at the latest bartlett, Public domain source
“As Meander says, "For our mind is God;" and as Heraclitus, "Man's genius is a deity.”
Plutarch (40–120) said by 120 at the latest bartlett, Public domain source
“Pythagoras, when he was asked what time was, answered that it was the soul of this world.”
Plutarch (40–120) said by 120 at the latest bartlett, Public domain source
“To a reasonable creature, that alone is insupportable which is unreasonable; but everything reasonable may be supported.”
Plutarch (40–120) said by 120 at the latest bartlett, Public domain source
“Yet God hath not only granted these faculties, by which we may bear every event without being depressed or broken by it, but like a good prince and a true father, hath placed their exercise above restraint, compulsion, or hindrance, and wholly without our own control.”
Plutarch (40–120) said by 120 at the latest bartlett, Public domain source
“In a word, neither death, nor exile, nor pain, nor anything of this kind is the real cause of our doing or not doing any action, but our inward opinions and principles.”
Plutarch (40–120) said by 120 at the latest bartlett, Public domain source
“Reason is not measured by size or height, but by principle.”
Plutarch (40–120) said by 120 at the latest bartlett, Public domain source
“O slavish man! will you not bear with your own brother, who has God for his Father, as being a son from the same stock, and of the same high descent? But if you chance to be placed in some superior station, will you presently set yourself up for a tyrant?”
Plutarch (40–120) said by 120 at the latest bartlett, Public domain source
“When you have shut your doors, and darkened your room, remember never to say that you are alone, for you are not alone; but God is within, and your genius is within,--and what need have they of light to see what you are doing?”
Plutarch (40–120) said by 120 at the latest bartlett, Public domain source
“No great thing is created suddenly, any more than a bunch of grapes or a fig. If you tell me that you desire a fig, I answer you that there must be time. Let it first blossom, then bear fruit, then ripen.”
Plutarch (40–120) said by 120 at the latest bartlett, Public domain source
“Any one thing in the creation is sufficient to demonstrate a Providence to an humble and grateful mind.”
Plutarch (40–120) said by 120 at the latest bartlett, Public domain source
“Were I a nightingale, I would act the part of a nightingale; were I a swan, the part of a swan.”
Plutarch (40–120) said by 120 at the latest bartlett, Public domain source
“Since it is Reason which shapes and regulates all other things, it ought not itself to be left in disorder.”
Plutarch (40–120) said by 120 at the latest bartlett, Public domain source
“If what the philosophers say be true,--that all men's actions proceed from one source; that as they assent from a persuasion that a thing is so, and dissent from a persuasion that it is not, and suspend their judgment from a persuasion that it is uncertain,--so likewise they seek a thing from a persuasion that it is for their advantage.”
Plutarch (40–120) said by 120 at the latest bartlett, Public domain source
“Practise yourself, for heaven's sake, in little things; and thence proceed to greater.”
Plutarch (40–120) said by 120 at the latest bartlett, Public domain source
“Every art and every faculty contemplates certain things as its principal objects.”
Plutarch (40–120) said by 120 at the latest bartlett, Public domain source
“Why, then, do you walk as if you had swallowed a ramrod?”
Plutarch (40–120) said by 120 at the latest bartlett, Public domain source
“When one maintains his proper attitude in life, he does not long after externals. What would you have, O man?”
Plutarch (40–120) said by 120 at the latest bartlett, Public domain source
“Difficulties are things that show what men are.”
Plutarch (40–120) said by 120 at the latest bartlett, Public domain source