Quotes from Plutarch

Knowledge of divine things for the most part, as Heraclitus says, is lost to us by incredulity.

A remorseful change of mind renders even a noble action base, whereas the determination which is grounded on knowledge and reason cannot change even if its actions fail.

The process may seem strange and yet it is very true. I did not so much gain the knowledge of things by the words, as words by the experience I had of things.

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

Neither blame or praise yourself.

In human life there is constant change of fortune; and it is unreasonable to expect an exemption from the common fate. Life itself decays, and all things are daily changing.

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

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.

The state of life is most happy where superfluities are not required and necessities are not wanting.

Water continually dropping will wear hard rocks hollow.

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

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

The drop hollows out the stone not by strength, but by constant falling.

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

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.

A good man will take care of his horses and dogs, not only while they are young, but when old and past service.

The worship most acceptable to God comes from a thankful and cheerful heart.

Time is the wisest of all counselors.

Wickedness frames the engines of her own torment. She is a wonderful artisan of a miserable life.

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

Time which diminishes all things increases understanding for the aging.

Pythagoras, when he was asked what time was, answered that it was the soul of this world.

Epaminondas is reported wittily to have said of a good man that died about the time of the battle of Leuctra, "How came he to have so much leisure as to die, when there was so much stirring?

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