The Complete Works of Plutarch. Illustrated Quotes

“Some, too, have made banishment and loss of property a means of leisure and philosophic study, as did Diogenes and Crates. And Zeno, on learning that the ship which bore his venture had been wrecked, exclaimed, “A real kindness, O Fortune, that thou, too, dost join in driving us to the philosopher’s cloak!”
― Plutarch, The Complete Works of Plutarch. Illustrated: Parallel Lives. Moralia

“When therefore we once begin so to love good men, as not only (according to Plato) to esteem the wise man himself happy, and him who hears his discourses sharer in his felicity, but also to admire and love his habit, gait, look, and very smile, so as to wish ourselves to be that very person, then we may be assured that we have made very good proficiency.”
― Plutarch, The Complete Works of Plutarch. Illustrated: Parallel Lives. Moralia

“But it seems to have eluded all these philosophers in what way each of us is truly two fold and composite. For that other two fold nature of ours they have not discerned, but merely the more obvious one, the blend of soul and body. But that there is some element of composition, some two fold nature and dissimilarity of the very soul within itself, since the irrational, as though it were another substance, is mingled and joined with reason by some compulsion of Nature — E this, it is likely, was not unknown even to Pythagoras, if we may judge by the man’s enthusiasm for the study of music, which he introduced to enchant and assuage the soul, perceiving that the soul has not every part of itself in subjection to discipline and study, and that not every part can be changed from vice by reason, but that the several parts have need of some other kind of persuasion to co operate with them, to mould them, and to tame them, if they are not to be utterly intractable and obstinate to the teaching of philosophy.”
― Plutarch, The Complete Works of Plutarch. Illustrated: Parallel Lives. Moralia

“it is useful, or rather it is necessary, not to be indifferent about acquiring the works of earlier writers, but to make a collection of these, like a set of tools in farming. For the corresponding tool of education is the use of books, and by their means it has come to pass that we are able to study knowledge at its source.”
― Plutarch, The Complete Works of Plutarch. Illustrated: Parallel Lives. Moralia

“Whenever two notes are sounded in accord the tune is carried by the bass; and in like manner every activity in a virtuous household is carried on by both parties in agreement, but discloses the husband’s leadership and preferences.”
― Plutarch, The Complete Works of Plutarch. Illustrated: Parallel Lives. Moralia

“And yet,” said he, “how can a man take care of his own horse or furbish up his spear and helmet, if he is unaccustomed to using his hands on his own dear person? Know ye not,” said he, “that the end and object of conquest is to avoid doing the same thing as the conquered?”
― Plutarch, The Complete Works of Plutarch. Illustrated: Parallel Lives. Moralia

“And he used to say that sleep and sexual intercourse, more than any thing else, made him conscious that he was mortal, implying that both weariness and pleasure arise from one and the same natural weakness.”
― Plutarch, The Complete Works of Plutarch. Illustrated: Parallel Lives. Moralia

“After giving marriage such traits of reserve and decorum, he none the less freed men from the empty and womanish passion of jealous possession, by making it honourable for them, while keeping the marriage relation free from all wanton irregularities, to share with other worthy men in the begetting of children,”
― Plutarch, The Complete Works of Plutarch. Illustrated: Parallel Lives. Moralia

“Lycurgus did not regard sons as the peculiar property of their fathers, but rather as the common property of the state,”
― Plutarch, The Complete Works of Plutarch. Illustrated: Parallel Lives. Moralia