Plutarch Quotes

277 Sourced Quotes

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
He is a fool who leaves things close at hand to follow what is out of reach.

Plutarch
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
And it is said that when he took his seat for the first time under the golden canopy on the royal throne, Demaratus the Corinthian, a well-meaning man and a friend of Alexander's, as he had been of Alexander's father, burst into tears, as old men will, and declared that those Hellenes were deprived of great pleasure who had died before seeing Alexander seated on the throne of Dareius.

Plutarch
Eurybiades lifting up his staff as if he were going to strike, Themistocles said, "Strike, if you will; but hear".

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

Plutarch
It is a difficult thing for a man to resist the natural necessity of mortal passions.

Plutarch
Euripides was wont to say, "Silence is an answer to a wise man."

Plutarch
Valour, however unfortunate, commands great respect even from enemies: but the Romans despise cowardice, even though it be prosperous.

Plutarch
Lycurgus the Lacedæmonian brought long hair into fashion among his countrymen, saying that it rendered those that were handsome more beautiful, and those that were deformed more terrible. To one that advised him to set up a democracy in Sparta, "Pray," said Lycurgus, "do you first set up a democracy in your own house."

Plutarch
Lamachus chid a captain for a fault; and when he had said he would do so no more, "Sir," said he, "in war there is no room for a second miscarriage." Said one to Iphicrates, "What are ye afraid of?" "Of all speeches," said he, "none is so dishonourable for a general as 'I should not have thought of it.'"

Plutarch
Aristodemus, a friend of Antigonus, supposed to be a cook's son, advised him to moderate his gifts and expenses. "Thy words," said he, "Aristodemus, smell of the apron."

Plutarch
Thus our judgments, if they do not borrow from reason and philosophy a fixity and steadiness of purpose in their acts, are easily swayed and influenced by the praise or blame of others, which make us distrust our own opinions.

Plutarch
"These Macedonians," said he, "are a rude and clownish people, that call a spade a spade."

Plutarch
Athenodorus says hydrophobia, or water-dread, was first discovered in the time of Asclepiades.

Plutarch
Have in readiness this saying of Solon, "But we will not give up our virtue in exchange for their wealth."

Plutarch
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?

Plutarch
Children are to be won to follow liberal studies by exhortations and rational motives, and on no account to be forced thereto by whipping.

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

Plutarch
Thus they let their anger and fury take from them the sense of humanity, and demonstrated that no beast is more savage than man when possessed with power answerable to his rage.

Plutarch
By the study of their biographies, we receive each man as a guest into our minds, and we seem to understand their character as the result of a personal acquaintance, because we have obtained from their acts the best and most important means of forming an opinion about them. "What greater pleasure could'st thou gain than this?" What more valuable for the elevation of our own character?

Plutarch
Yet through Alexander (the Great) Bactria and the Caucasus learned to revere the gods of the Greeks … Alexander established more than seventy cities among savage tribes, and sowed all Asia with Greek magistracies … Egypt would not have its Alexandria, nor Mesopotamia its Seleucia, nor Sogdiana its Prophthasia, nor India its Bucephalia, nor the Caucasus a Greek city, for by the founding of cities in these places savagery was extinguished and the worse element, gaining familiarity with the better, changed under its influence.

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
When the candles are out all women are fair.

Plutarch
Cato requested old men not to add the disgrace of wickedness to old age, which was accompanied with many other evils.

Plutarch
Agesilaus was very fond of his children; and it is reported that once toying with them he got astride upon a reed as upon a horse, and rode about the room; and being seen by one of his friends, he desired him not to speak of it till he had children of his own.

Plutarch
Like the man who threw a stone at a bitch, but hit his step-mother, on which he exclaimed, "Not so bad!"

Plutarch
Note that the eating of flesh is not only physically against nature, but it also makes us spiritually coarse and gross by reason of satiety and surfeit.

Plutarch
That proverbial saying, "Ill news goes quick and far."

Plutarch