Plutarch quotes - page 9

As Athenodorus was taking his leave of Cæsar, "Remember," said he, "Cæsar, whenever you are angry, to say or do nothing before you have repeated the four-and-twenty letters to yourself." (Plutarch)

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

The correct analogy for the mind is not a vessel that needs filling, but wood that needs igniting - no more - and then it motivates one towards originality and instills the desire for truth. Suppose someone were to go and ask his neighbors for fire and find a substantial blaze there, and just stay there continually warming himself: that is no different from someone who goes to someone else to get to some of his rationality, and fails to realize that he ought to ignite his own flame, his own intellect, but is happy to sit entranced by the lecture, and the words trigger only associative thinking and bring, as it were, only a flush to his cheeks and a glow to his limbs; but he has not dispelled or dispersed, in the warm light of philosophy, the internal dank gloom of his mind.

Plutarch

Socrates thought that if all our misfortunes were laid in one common heap, whence every one must take an equal portion, most persons would be contented to take their own and depart.

Plutarch

By these criteria let Alexander also be judged! For from his words, from his deeds, and from the instruction' which he imparted, it will be seen that he was indeed a philosopher.

Plutarch

These are the materials for reflection which history affords to those who choose to make use of them.

Plutarch

And this," said Cæsar, "you know, young man, is more disagreeable for me to say than to do.

Plutarch

Being nimble and light-footed, his father encouraged him to run in the Olympic race. "Yes," said he, "if there were any kings there to run with me."

Plutarch

When one asked him what boys should learn, "That," said he, "which they shall use when men."

Plutarch

Are you not ashamed to mix tame fruits with blood and slaughter? You are indeed wont to call serpents, leopards, and lions savage creatures; but yet yourselves are defiled with blood, and come nothing behind them in cruelty. What they kill is their ordinary nourishment, but what you kill is your better fare.

Plutarch

Cato the elder wondered how that city was preserved wherein a fish was sold for more than an ox. (Plutarch)

He preferred an honest man that wooed his daughter, before a rich man. "I would rather," said Themistocles, "have a man that wants money than money that wants a man."

Plutarch

I will show," said Agesilaus, "that it is not the places that grace men, but men the places.

Plutarch

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

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

Plutarch

And when the physician said, "Sir, you are an old man," "That happens," replied Pausanias, "because you never were my doctor."

Plutarch

When Alexander asked Diogenes whether he wanted anything, "Yes," said he, "I would have you stand from between me and the sun."

Plutarch

Alexander was wont to say, "Were I not Alexander, I would be Diogenes."

Plutarch

About Pontus there are some creatures of such an extempore being that the whole term of their life is confined within the space of a day; for they are brought forth in the morning, are in the prime of their existence at noon, grow old at night, and then die.

Plutarch

Themistocles said to Antiphales, "Time, young man, has taught us both a lesson."

Plutarch

Cæsar said to the soothsayer, "The ides of March are come;" who answered him calmly, "Yes, they are come, but they are not past." (Plutarch)

In his house he had a large looking-glass, before which he would stand and go through his exercises.

Plutarch

Simonides calls painting silent poetry, and poetry speaking painting.

Plutarch

He that first started that doctrine, that knavery is the best defense against a knave, was but an ill teacher, advising us to commit wickedness to secure ourselves.

Plutarch

When asked why he parted with his wife, Cæsar replied, "I wished my wife to be not so much as suspected."

Plutarch

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