Plutarch

Nothing is harder to direct than a man in prosperity; nothing more easily managed that one is adversity.

Choose what is best and habit will make it pleasant and easy.

It is a true proverb, that if you live with a lame man, you will learn to limp.

When the strong box contains no more both friends and flatterers shun the door.

Friendship is the most pleasant of all things, and nothing more glads the heart of man.

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

The Spartans do not ask how many are the enemy but where are they.

The mind is not a vessel to be filled, but a fire to be kindled.

Painting is silent poetry, and poetry is painting that speaks.

The omission of good is no less reprehensible than the commission of evil.

No beast is more savage than man when possessed with power answerable to his rage.

All men whilst they are awake are in one common world: but each of them, when he is asleep, is in a world of his own.

We are more sensible of what is done against custom than against nature.

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.

Those who aim at great deeds must also suffer greatly.

A lover's soul lives in the body of his mistress.

If you hate your enemies, you will contract such a vicious habit of mind, as by degrees will break out upon those who are your friends, or those who are indifferent to you.

Medicine to produce health must examine disease; and music, to create harmony must investigate discord.

Nothing is cheap which is superfluous for what one does not need is dear at a penny

If I were not Alexander, I would be Diogenes.

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

It is indeed a desirable thing to be well descended but the glory belongs to our ancestors.

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

Good birth is a fine thing but the merit is our ancestors.

There are two sentences inscribed upon the Ancient oracle... "Know thyself" and "Nothing too much"; and upon these all other precepts depend.

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

Come back with your shield - or on it.

Neither blame or praise yourself.

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

The wildest colts make the best horses.

The very spring and root of honesty and virtue lie in good education.

The real destroyer of the liberties of the people is he who spreads among them bounties donations and benefits.

...To the Dolphin alone beyond all other nature has granted what the best philosophers seek friendship for no advantage.

The richest soil, if uncultivated, produces the rankest weeds.

I dont need a friend who changes when I change and who nods when I nod my shadow does that much better.

Dead men don't bite.

Painting is silent poetry.

The talkative listen to no one for they are ever speaking. And the first evil that attends those who know not to be silent is that they hear nothing.

You keep to your own ways, and leave mine to me.

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.

Silence at the proper season is wisdom, and better than any speech.

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

The real destroyer of the liberties of the people is he who spreads among them bounties, donations and benefits.

When one is transported by rage, it is best to observe attentively the effects on those who deliver themselves over to the same passion.

I would rather excel in the knowledge of what is excellent, than in the extent of my power and possessions.

It were better to have no opinion of God at all than such a one as is unworthy of him; for the one is only belief - the other contempt.

The whole life of man is but a point of time; let us enjoy it.

Fate leads him who follows it, and drags him who resist.

A few vices are sufficient to darken many virtues.

Character is simply habit long continued.

Character is long-standing habit.

Let us carefully observe those good qualities wherein our enemies excel us; and endeavor to excel them, by avoiding what is faulty, and imitating what is excellent in them.

Extraordinary rains pretty generally fall after great battles.

Moral habits, induced by public practices, are far quicker in making their way into men's private lives, than the failings and faults of individuals are in infecting the city at large.

All men whilst they are awake are in one common world but each of them when he is asleep is in a world of his own.

A Spartan woman, as she handed her son his shield, exhorted him saying, "As a warrior of Sparta come back with your shield or on it."

It is part of a good man to do great and noble deeds, though he risk everything.

To find fault is easy; to do better may be difficult.

In words are seen the state of mind and character and disposition of the speaker.

What we achieve inwardly will change outer reality.

It is part of a good man to do great and noble deeds though he risk everything.

We ought not to treat living creatures like shoes or household belongings, which when worn with use we throw away.

Poverty is not dishonorable in itself, but only when it comes from idleness, intemperance, extravagance, and folly.

Do not speak of your happiness to one less fortunate than yourself.

Prosperity is no just scale; adversity is the only balance to weigh friends.

For to err in opinion, though it be not the part of wise men, is at least human.

Courage consists not in hazarding without fear; but being resolutely minded in a just cause.

It is indeed a desirable thing to be well-descended, but the glory belongs to our ancestors.

The belly has no ears.

The mind is not a vessel to be filled but a fire to be kindled.

He who least likes courting favour ought also least to think of resenting neglect to feel wounded at being refused a distinction can only arise from an overweening appetite to have it.

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

What is bigger than an elephant But this also is become mans plaything and a spectacle at public solemnities and it learns to skip dance and kneel.