Plutarch > Quotes

“The mind is not a vessel to be filled, but a fire to be kindled.”
― Plutarch

“I don't need a friend who changes when I change and who nods when I nod; my shadow does that much better.”
― Plutarch

“What we achieve inwardly will change outer reality.”
― Plutarch

“To find fault is easy; to do better may be difficult.”
― Plutarch

“Know how to listen, and you will profit even from those who talk badly.”
― Plutarch

“The poor go to war, to fight and die for the delights, riches, and superfluities of others.”
― Plutarch

“It is certainly desirable to be well descended, but the glory belongs to our ancestors.”
― Plutarch

“An imbalance between rich and poor is the oldest and most fatal ailment of all republics.”
― Plutarch

“Adversity is the only balance to weigh friends.”
― Plutarch

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

“The whole of life is but a moment of time. It is our duty, therefore to use it, not to misuse it.”
― Plutarch

“To make no mistakes is not in the power of man; but from their errors and mistakes
the wise and good learn wisdom for the future.”
― Plutarch

“A human body in no way resembles those that were born for ravenousness; it hath no hawk’s bill, no sharp talon, no roughness of teeth, no such strength of stomach or heat of digestion, as can be sufficient to convert or alter such heavy and fleshy fare. But if you will contend that you were born to an inclination to such food as you have now a mind to eat, do you then yourself kill what you would eat. But do it yourself, without the help of a chopping-knife, mallet or axe, as wolves, bears, and lions do, who kill and eat at once. Rend an ox with thy teeth, worry a hog with thy mouth, tear a lamb or a hare in pieces, and fall on and eat it alive as they do. But if thou had rather stay until what thou eat is to become dead, and if thou art loath to force a soul out of its body, why then dost thou against nature eat an animate thing? There is nobody that is willing to eat even a lifeless and a dead thing even as it is; so they boil it, and roast it, and alter it by fire and medicines, as it were, changing and quenching the slaughtered gore with thousands of sweet sauces, that the palate being thereby deceived may admit of such uncouth fare.”
― Plutarch

“Of all the disorders in the soul, envy is the only one no one confesses to.”
― Plutarch

“Can you really ask what reason Pythagoras had for abstaining from flesh? For my part I rather wonder both by what accident and in what state of soul or mind the first man did so, touched his mouth to gore and brought his lips to the flesh of a dead creature, he who set forth tables of dead, stale bodies and ventured to call food and nourishment the parts that had a little before bellowed and cried, moved and lived. How could his eyes endure the slaughter when throats were slit and hides flayed and limbs torn from limb? How could his nose endure the stench? How was it that the pollution did not turn away his taste, which made contact with the sores of others and sucked juices and serums from mortal wounds? … It is certainly not lions and wolves that we eat out of self-defense; on the contrary, we ignore these and slaughter harmless, tame creatures without stings or teeth to harm us, creatures that, I swear, Nature appears to have produced for the sake of their beauty and grace. But nothing abashed us, not the flower-like tinting of the flesh, not the persuasiveness of the harmonious voice, not the cleanliness of their habits or the unusual intelligence that may be found in the poor wretches. No, for the sake of a little flesh we deprive them of sun, of light, of the duration of life to which they are entitled by birth and being.”
― Plutarch

“Being conscious of having done a wicked action leaves stings of remorse behind it, which, like an ulcer in the flesh, makes the mind smart with perpetual wounds; for reason, which chases away all other pains, creates repentance, shames the soul with confusion, and punishes it with torment.”
― Plutarch

“It is a thing of no great difficulty to raise objections against another man's oration, it is a very easy matter; but to produce a better in it's place is a work extremely troublesome.”
― Plutarch

“Character is simply habit long continued.”
― Plutarch

“In a certain faraway land the cold is so intense that words freeze as soon as they are uttered, and after some time then thaw and become audible so that words spoken in winter go unheard until the next summer.”
― Plutarch, Plutarch's Morals

“While Leonidas was preparing to make his stand, a Persian envoy arrived. The envoy explained to Leonidas the futility of trying to resist the advance of the Great King's army and demanded that the Greeks lay down their arms and submit to the might of Persia. Leonidas laconically told Xerxes, "Come and get them.”
― Plutarch

“I, for my part, wonder of what sort of feeling, mind or reason that man was possessed who was first to pollute his mouth with gore, and to allow his lips to touch the flesh of a murdered being: who spread his table with the mangled forms of dead bodies, and claimed as daily food and dainty dishes what but now were beings endowed with movement, perception and with voice.

…but for the sake of some little mouthful of flesh, we deprive a soul of the sun and light, and of that portion of life and time it had been born in to the world to enjoy.”
― Plutarch, Moralia 2: How to Profit by One's Enemies/on Having Many Friends/Chance/Virtue & Vice/Letter of Condolence to Apollonius

“Courage stands halfway between cowardice and rashness, one of which is a lack, the other an excess of courage. ”
― Plutarch

“...To the Dolphin alone, beyond all other, nature has granted what the best philosophers seek: friendship for no advantage”
― Plutarch

“In Springtime, O Dionysos,
To thy holy temple come,
To Elis with thy Graces,
Rushing with thy bull-foot, come,
Noble Bull, Noble Bull”
― Plutarch

“Many things which cannot be overcome when they are together yield
themselves up when taken little by little.”
― Plutarch

“For there is no virtue, the honor and credit for which procures a man more odium than that of justice; and this, because more than any other, it acquires a man power and authority among the common people.”
― Plutarch, Plutarch Lives of the Noble Romans

“When Alexander saw the breadth of his domain, he wept for there were no more worlds to conquer. (Technically a misquote, but I like the misquote better)”
― Plutarch

“The mind is not a vessel to be filled, but a fire to be ignited”
― Plutarch

“Evidence of trust begets trust, and love is reciprocated by love.”
― Plutarch

“The whole like of a man is but a point of time; let us enjoy it.”
― Plutarch

“But for the sake of some little mouthful of flesh we deprive a soul of the sun and light, and of that proportion of life and
time it had been born into the world to enjoy.”
― Plutarch

“من الناس نتعلم الكلام ومن الآلهة الصمت”
― Plutarch

“No necesito amigos que cambien cuando yo cambio y asientan cuando yo asiento. Mi sombra lo hace mucho mejor.”
― Plutarch

“...and the minds of the people were so generally corrupted, that instead of obeying commands in silence, they expected to be flattered into their duty.”
― Plutarch, Lives 1

“Глупаците не слушат никого, а самите те непрекъснато говорят.”
― Plutarch

“Децата хвърлят камъни по жабите заради забавлението, но жабите не умират наужким”
― Plutarch

“За да почувствате цената на това, което притежавате, представете си, че сте го изгубили.”
― Plutarch

“...when [Cato The Younger] saw that a purple which was excessively red and vivid was much in vogue, he himself would wear the dark shade. Again, he would often go out into the streets after breakfast without shoes or tunic. He was not hunting for notoriety by this strange practice, but accustoming himself to be ashamed only of what was really shameful, and to ignore men's low opinion of other things.”
― Plutarch, Plutarch's Lives, Volume 8

“When a man's eyes are sore his friends do not let him finger them, however much he wishes to, nor do they themselves touch the inflammation: But a man sunk in grief suffers every chance comer to stir and augment his affliction like a running sore; and by reason of the fingering and consequent irritation it hardens into a serious and intractable evil.”
― Plutarch, In Consolation to His Wife

“[It was] better to set up a monarchy themselves than to suffer a sedition to continue that must certainly end in one.”
― Plutarch, Plutarch Lives of the Noble Romans

“Come and take them”
― Plutarch

“It is perhaps not to be wondered at, since fortune is ever changing her course and time is infinite, that the same incidents should occur many times, spontaneously. For, if the multitude of elements is unlimited, fortune has in the abundance of her material an ample provider of coincidences; and if, on the other hand, there is a limited number of elements from which events are interwoven, the same things must happen many times, being brought to pass by the same agencies.”
― Plutarch, Plutarch's Lives, Volume 8

“But the Lacedaemonians, who make it their first principle of action to serve their country's interest, know not any thing to be just or unjust by any measure but that.”
― Plutarch, Lives of the Noble Greeks

“The mind is not a vessel to be filled but a fire to be kindled”
― Plutarch

“Books delight to the very marrow of one's bones. They speak to us, consult with us, and join with us in a living and intense intimacy.”
― Plutarch

“It does not follow, that because a particular work of art succeeds in charming us, its creator also deserves our admiration.”
― Plutarch