Quotes By Plutarch

If I were not Alexander, I would be Diogenes.

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

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

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

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

The wildest colts make the best horses.

A few vices are sufficient to darken many virtues.

Character is simply habit long continued.

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

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

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

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.

Those who aim at great deeds must also suffer greatly.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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

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

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