Quotes from Plutarch

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

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

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

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.

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

Music, to create harmony, must investigate discord.

Painting is silent poetry.

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

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.

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

Water and our necessary food are the only things that wise men must fight for.

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

Wise men are able to make a fitting use even of their enmities.

The giving of riches and honors to a wicked man is like giving strong wine to him that hath a fever.

Men who marry wives very much superior to themselves are not so truly husbands to their wives as they are unawares made slaves to their position.

Authority and place demonstrate and try the tempers of men, by moving every passion and discovering every frailty.

Lamentation is the only musician that always, like a screech-owl, alights and sits on the roof of any angry man.

Where two discourse, if the anger of one rises, he is the wise man who lets the contest fall.

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.

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

I have heard that Tiberius used to say that that man was ridiculous, who after sixth years, appealed to a physician.

Spintharus, speaking in commendation of Epaminondas, says he scarce ever met with any man who knew more and spoke less.

What is bigger than an elephant? But this also is become man's plaything, and a spectacle at public solemnities; and it learns to skip, dance, and kneel

What most of all enables a man to serve the public is not wealth, but content and independence; which, requiring no superfluity at home, distracts not the mind from the common good.