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In words are seen the state of mind and character and disposition of the speaker.
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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.
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The mind is not a vessel to be filled, but a fire to be kindled.
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It is circumstance and proper measure that give an action its character, and make it either good or bad.
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Socrates said he was not an Athenian or a Greek, but a citizen of the world.
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Pyrrhus said, "If I should overcome the Romans in another fight, I were undone."
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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.
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Ingratitude towards great and excellent men are common in popular governments.
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It is not histories I am writing, but lives; and in the most glorious deeds there is not always an indication of virtue or vice, indeed a small thing like a phrase or a jest often makes a greater revelation of a character than battles where thousands die.
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The old proverb was now made good, "the mountain had brought forth a mouse."
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I for my part do much wonder in what humor, with what soul or reason, the first man with his mouth touched slaughter, and reached to his lips the flesh of a dead animal, and having set before people courses of ghastly corpses and ghosts, could give those parts the names of meat and victuals, that but a little before lowed, cried, moved, and saw; how his sight could endure the blood of slaughtered, flayed, and mangled bodies; how his smell could bear their scent; and how the very nastiness happened not to offend the taste, while it chewed the sores of others, and participated of the saps and juices of deadly wounds.
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Certainly the people's insistence that their candidates should present themselves ungirt and without a tunic had nothing to do with any suspicion of bribery, for it was not until long afterwards that the abuse of buying and selling votes crept in and money began to play an important part in determining the elections. Later on, however, this process of corruption spread to the law courts and to the army, and finally, when even the sword became enslaved by the power of gold, the republic was subjected to the rule of the emperors. For it has rightly been said that the man who first offers banquets and bribes to the people is the first to destroy their liberties.
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The obligations of law and equity reach only to mankind; but kindness and beneficence should be extended to the creatures of every species, and these will flow from the breast of a true man, as streams that issue from the living fountain.
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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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I am writing biography, not history, and the truth is that the most brilliant exploits often tell us nothing of the virtues or vices of the men who performed them, while on the other hand a chance remark or a joke may reveal far more of a man's character than the mere feat of winning battles in which thousands fall, or of marshalling great armies, or laying siege to cities.
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Being about to pitch his camp in a likely place, and hearing there was no hay to be had for the cattle, "What a life," said he, "is ours, since we must live according to the convenience of asses!"
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Silence at the proper season is wisdom, and better than any speech.
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"And this," said Caesar, "you know, young man, is more disagreeable for me to say than to do."
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King Agis said, "The Lacedaemonians are not wont to ask how many, but where the enemy are."
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We are more sensible of what is done against custom than against Nature.
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It is a true proverb, that if you live with a lame man, you will learn a limp.
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These are the materials for reflection which history affords to those who choose to make use of them.
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I, for my own part, had much rather people should say of me that there neither is nor ever was such a man as Plutarch, than that they should say, "Plutarch is an unsteady, fickle, froward, vindictive, and touchy fellow."
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Good fortune will elevate even petty minds, and give them the appearance of a certain greatness and stateliness, as from their high place they look down upon the world; but the truly noble and resolved spirit raises itself, and becomes more conspicuous in times of disaster and ill fortune.
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Archimedes had stated, that given the force, any given weight might be moved; and even boasted that if there were another earth, by going into it he could remove this.
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For to err in opinion, though it be not the part of wise men, is at least human.
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Socrates said, "Bad men live that they may eat and drink, whereas good men eat and drink that they may live."
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Caesar said to the soothsayer, "The ides of March are come;" who answered him calmly, "Yes, they are come, but they are not past."
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Extraordinary rains pretty generally fall after great battles.
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Anacharsis coming to Athens, knocked at Solon's door, and told him that he, being a stranger, was come to be his guest, and contract a friendship with him; and Solon replying, "It is better to make friends at home," Anacharsis replied, "Then you that are at home make friendship with me."
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Quote of the day
We are half ruined by conformity, but we should be wholly ruined without it.
Charles Dudley Warner
Plutarch
Creative Commons
Born:
46
Died:
127
(aged 81)
Bio:
Plutarch was a Greek historian, biographer and essayist, known primarily for his Parallel Lives and Moralia. He is classified as a Middle Platonist. Plutarch's surviving works are believed to have been originally written in Koine Greek.
Known for:
Parallel Lives
The Fall of the Roman Republic
On Sparta
The age of Alexander
Makers of Rome, nine lives
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