Quotes from Plutarch

Demosthenes, when taunted by Pytheas that all his arguments "smelled of the lamp," replied, "Yes, but your lamp and mine, my friend, do not witness the same labours.

A Locanian having plucked all the feathers off from a nightingale and seeing what a little body it had, "surely," quoth he, "thou art all voice and nothing else.

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

Beauty is the flower of virtue.

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

Rest is the sweet sauce of labour.

He shall fare well who confronts circumstances aright.

A few vices are sufficient to darken many virtues.

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

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

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

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

If Nature be not improved by instruction, it is blind; if instruction be not assisted by Nature, it is maimed; and if exercise fail of the assistance of both, it is imperfect.

Real excellence, indeed, is most recognized when most openly looked into.

For it was not so much that by means of words I came to a complete understanding of things, as that from things I somehow had an experience which enabled me to follow the meaning of words.

To fail to do good is as bad as doing harm.

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

Our senses through ignorance of Reality, falsely tell us that what appears to be, is. FEAR = False Evidence Appearing Real

The superstitious man wishes he did not believe in gods, as the atheist does not, but fears to disbelieve in them.

Rather I fear on the contrary that while we banish painful thoughts we may banish memory as well.

The whole life of man is but a point of time; let us enjoy it, therefore, while it lasts, and not spend it to no purpose.

Rest is the sweet sauce of labor.

It is a hard matter, my fellow citizens, to argue with the belly, since it has no ears.

Friendship requires a steady, constant, and unchangeable character, a person that is uniform in his intimacy.