Plutarch (original) (raw)

Our judgments, if they do not borrow from reason and philosophy a fixity and steadiness of purpose in their acts, are easily swayed and influenced by the praise or blame of others, which make us distrust our own opinions.

Lucius Mestrius Plutarchus (c. 46 – 120) was a Greek historian, biographer, and essayist.

Valour, however unfortunate, commands great respect even from enemies: but the Romans despise cowardice, even though it be prosperous.

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.

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

Be ruled by time, the wisest counsellor of all.

Greek text cited from K. Ziegler et al., Plutarchus. Vitae Parallelae, vols. I–III (Munich-Leipzig, 1964–2000).

• ἀρετή τοι δυστυχοῦσι μεγάλην ἔχει μοῖραν αἰδοῦς καὶ παρὰ πολεμίοις, δειλία δὲ Ῥωμαίοις κἂν εὐποτμῇ πάντων ἀτιμότατον.
  • Valour, however unfortunate, commands great respect even from enemies: but the Romans despise cowardice, even though it be prosperous.
  • Aemilius Paulus, 26.12 (tr. Stewart and Long)
• "ὁρᾶτ᾿" εἶπεν "ἄνδρες σύμμαχοι τὴν ἐπιμονὴν ἀνυσιμωτέραν τῆς βίας οὖσαν καὶ πολλὰ τῶν ἀθρόως ἀλήπτων ἐνδιδόντα τῷ κατὰ μικρόν."
  • 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.
  • Sertorius, 16.9 (tr. Dryden and Clough)
• ὃ δὲ δοκεῖ μάλιστα καὶ λέγεται τρόπον ἀνδρὸς ἐπιδεικνύναι καὶ βασανίζειν, ἐξουσία καὶ ἀρχὴ πᾶν πάθος κινοῦσα καὶ πᾶσαν ἀποκαλύπτουσα κακίαν.
  • Authority and place demonstrate and try the tempers of men, by moving every passion and discovering every frailty.
  • Comparison of Demosthenes and Cicero, 3.2 (tr. Dryden and Clough)
• τόν γε σοφώτατον οὐχ ἁμαρτήσεται σύμβουλον ἀναμείνας, χρόνον.
  • Be ruled by time, the wisest counsellor of all.
  • Pericles, 18.2 (tr. Dryden and Clough)

• Ἡ ἀνάπαυσις τῶν πόνων ἐστὶν ἄρτυμα.
  • Rest gives relish to labour.
  • Of the Training of Children, 9 (Tr. Babbitt)
• The great god Pan is dead.
  • Why the Oracles cease to give Answers (Tr. Goodwin)
• He is a fool who lets slip a bird in the hand for a bird in the bush.
  • Of Garrulity (Tr. Goodwin)
• The mind is not a vessel that needs filling, but wood that needs igniting.
  • On Listening to Lectures (Tr. Waterfield)

Apophthegms of Kings and Great Commanders

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Quotes reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919).

• Scilurus on his death-bed, being about to leave four-score sons surviving, offered a bundle of darts to each of them, and bade them break them. When all refused, drawing out one by one, he easily broke them,—thus teaching them that if they held together, they would continue strong; but if they fell out and were divided, they would become weak.
  • 31 Scilurus
• Dionysius the Elder, being asked whether he was at leisure, he replied, "God forbid that it should ever befall me!"
  • 32 Dionysius
• A prating barber asked Archelaus how he would be trimmed. He answered, "In silence."
  • 33 Archelaus
• When Philip had news brought him of divers and eminent successes in one day, "O Fortune!" said he, "for all these so great kindnesses do me some small mischief."
  • 34 Philip
• There were two brothers called Both and Either; perceiving Either was a good, understanding, busy fellow, and Both a silly fellow and good for little, Philip said, "Either is both, and Both is neither."
  • 35 Philip
• Philip being arbitrator betwixt two wicked persons, he commanded one to fly out of Macedonia and the other to pursue him.
  • 36 Philip
• Being about to pitch his camp in a likely place, and hearing there was no hay to be had for the cattle, "What a life," said he, "is ours, since we must live according to the convenience of asses!"
  • 37 Philip
• "These Macedonians," said he, "are a rude and clownish people, that call a spade a spade."
  • 39 Philip
• He made one of Antipater's recommendation a judge; and perceiving afterwards that his hair and beard were coloured, he removed him, saying, "I could not think one that was faithless in his hair could be trusty in his deeds."
  • 40 Philip
• Being nimble and light-footed, his father encouraged him to run in the Olympic race. "Yes," said he, "if there were any kings there to run with me."
  • 41 Alexander
• When Darius offered him ten thousand talents, and to divide Asia equally with him, "I would accept it," said Parmenio, "were I Alexander." "And so truly would I," said Alexander, "if I were Parmenio." But he answered Darius that the earth could not bear two suns, nor Asia two kings.
  • 42 Alexander
• When he was wounded with an arrow in the ankle, and many ran to him that were wont to call him a god, he said smiling, "That is blood, as you see, and not, as Homer saith, ‘such humour as distils from blessed gods.'"
  • 43 Alexander
• Aristodemus, a friend of Antigonus, supposed to be a cook's son, advised him to moderate his gifts and expenses. "Thy words," said he, "Aristodemus, smell of the apron."
  • 44 Antigonus I
• Thrasyllus the Cynic begged a drachm of Antigonus. "That," said he, "is too little for a king to give." "Why, then," said the other, "give me a talent." "And that," said he, "is too much for a Cynic (or, for a dog) to receive."
  • 45 Antigonus I
• Antagoras the poet was boiling a conger, and Antigonus, coming behind him as he was stirring his skillet, said, "Do you think, Antagoras, that Homer boiled congers when he wrote the deeds of Agamemnon?" Antagoras replied, "Do you think, O king, that Agamemnon, when he did such exploits, was a peeping in his army to see who boiled congers?"
  • 46 Antigonus I
• Pyrrhus said, "If I should overcome the Romans in another fight, I were undone."
  • 47 Pyrrhus
• Themistocles being asked whether he would rather be Achilles or Homer, said, "Which would you rather be,—a conqueror in the Olympic games, or the crier that proclaims who are conquerors?"
  • 48 Themistocles
• He preferred an honest man that wooed his daughter, before a rich man. "I would rather," said Themistocles, "have a man that wants money than money that wants a man."
  • 49 Themistocles
• Alcibiades had a very handsome dog, that cost him seven thousand drachmas; and he cut off his tail, "that," said he, "the Athenians may have this story to tell of me, and may concern themselves no further with me."
  • 50 Alcibiades
• Being summoned by the Athenians out of Sicily to plead for his life, Alcibiades absconded, saying that that criminal was a fool who studied a defence when he might fly for it.
  • 51 Alcibiades
• Lamachus chid a captain for a fault; and when he had said he would do so no more, "Sir," said he, "in war there is no room for a second miscarriage." Said one to Iphicrates, "What are ye afraid of?" "Of all speeches," said he, "none is so dishonourable for a general as ‘I should not have thought of it.'"
  • 52 Iphicrates
• To Harmodius, descended from the ancient Harmodius, when he reviled Iphicrates [a shoemaker's son] for his mean birth, "My nobility," said he, "begins in me, but yours ends in you."
  • 54 Iphicrates
• Once when Phocion had delivered an opinion which pleased the people,… he turned to his friend and said, "Have I not unawares spoken some mischievous thing or other?"
  • 55 Phocion
• Phocion compared the speeches of Leosthenes to cypress-trees. "They are tall," said he, "and comely, but bear no fruit."
  • 56 Phocion
• Lycurgus the Lacedæmonian brought long hair into fashion among his countrymen, saying that it rendered those that were handsome more beautiful, and those that were deformed more terrible. To one that advised him to set up a democracy in Sparta, "Pray," said Lycurgus, "do you first set up a democracy in your own house."
  • 57 Lycurgus
• King Agis said, "The Lacedæmonians are not wont to ask how many, but where the enemy are."
  • 58 Agis
• Lysander said, "Where the lion's skin will not reach, it must be pieced with the fox's."
  • 60 Lysander
• To one that promised to give him hardy cocks that would die fighting, "Prithee," said Cleomenes, "give me cocks that will kill fighting."
  • 61 Cleomenes
• When Eudæmonidas heard a philosopher arguing that only a wise man can be a good general, "This is a wonderful speech," said he; "but he that saith it never heard the sound of trumpets."
  • 62 Eudæmonidas
• A soldier told Pelopidas, "We are fallen among the enemies." Said he, "How are we fallen among them more than they among us?"
  • 63 Pelopidas

Quotes reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919).

• Cato the elder wondered how that city was preserved wherein a fish was sold for more than an ox.
  • Cato the Elder
• Cato instigated the magistrates to punish all offenders, saying that they that did not prevent crimes when they might, encouraged them. Of young men, he liked them that blushed better than those who looked pale.
  • Cato the Elder
• Cato requested old men not to add the disgrace of wickedness to old age, which was accompanied with many other evils.
  • Cato the Elder
• He said they that were serious in ridiculous matters would be ridiculous in serious affairs.
  • Cato the Elder
• Cicero said loud-bawling orators were driven by their weakness to noise, as lame men to take horse.
  • Cicero
• After the battle in Pharsalia, when Pompey was fled, one Nonius said they had seven eagles left still, and advised to try what they would do. "Your advice," said Cicero, "were good if we were to fight jackdaws."
  • Cicero
• After he routed Pharnaces Ponticus at the first assault, he wrote thus to his friends: "I came, I saw, I conquered."
  • Cæsar
• As Cæsar was at supper the discourse was of death,—which sort was the best. "That," said he, "which is unexpected."
  • Cæsar
• As Athenodorus was taking his leave of Cæsar, "Remember," said he, "Cæsar, whenever you are angry, to say or do nothing before you have repeated the four-and-twenty letters to yourself."
  • Cæsar Augustus
• "Young men," said Cæsar, "hear an old man to whom old men hearkened when he was young."
  • Cæsar Augustus

Consolation to Apollonius

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Quotes reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919).

• Socrates thought that if all our misfortunes were laid in one common heap, whence every one must take an equal portion, most persons would be contented to take their own and depart.
• Diogenes the Cynic, when a little before his death he fell into a slumber, and his physician rousing him out of it asked him whether anything ailed him, wisely answered, "Nothing, sir; only one brother anticipates another,—Sleep before Death."
• About Pontus there are some creatures of such an extempore being that the whole term of their life is confined within the space of a day; for they are brought forth in the morning, are in the prime of their existence at noon, grow old at night, and then die.
• The measure of a man's life is the well spending of it, and not the length.
• For many, as Cranton tells us, and those very wise men, not now but long ago, have deplored the condition of human nature, esteeming life a punishment, and to be born a man the highest pitch of calamity; this, Aristotle tells us, Silenus declared when he was brought captive to Midas.
• There are two sentences inscribed upon the Delphic oracle, hugely accommodated to the usages of man's life: "Know thyself," and "Nothing too much;" and upon these all other precepts depend.

Laconic Apophthegms

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Quotes reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919).

• To one commending an orator for his skill in amplifying petty matters, Agesilaus said, "I do not think that shoemaker a good workman that makes a great shoe for a little foot."
  • Of Agesilaus the Great
• "I will show," said Agesilaus, "that it is not the places that grace men, but men the places."
  • Of Agesilaus the Great
• When one asked him what boys should learn, "That," said he, "which they shall use when men."
  • Of Agesilaus the Great
• Agesilaus was very fond of his children; and it is reported that once toying with them he got astride upon a reed as upon a horse, and rode about the room; and being seen by one of his friends, he desired him not to speak of it till he had children of his own.
  • Of Agesilaus the Great
• When Demaratus was asked whether he held his tongue because he was a fool or for want of words, he replied, "A fool cannot hold his tongue."
  • Of Demaratus
• Lysander, when Dionysius sent him two gowns, and bade him choose which he would carry to his daughter, said, "She can choose best," and so took both away with him.
  • Of Lysander
• A physician, after he had felt the pulse of Pausanias, and considered his constitution, saying, "He ails nothing," "It is because, sir," he replied, "I use none of your physic."
  • Of Pausanias the Son of Phistoanax
• And when the physician said, "Sir, you are an old man," "That happens," replied Pausanias, "because you never were my doctor."
  • Of Pausanias the Son of Phistoanax
• When one told Plistarchus that a notorious railer spoke well of him, "I 'll lay my life," said he, "somebody hath told him I am dead, for he can speak well of no man living."
  • Of Plistarchus

Quotes about Plutarch

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• [Plutarch's Parallel Lives contain] so many beautiful and serious discourses throughout, derived from the deepest and most hidden secrets of moral and natural philosophy, so many wise warnings, and fruitful advice.
  • Jacques Amyot, Plutarch, Les vies des hommes illustres (Paris, 1565 [second edition of Amyot's version]), quoted in Peter Burke, 'A Survey of the Popularity of Ancient Historians, 1450–1700', History and Theory, Vol. 5, No. 2 (1966), p. 142
• [Plutarch's Lives are] crowded with very wise maxims and rules of life.
  • David Chytraeus in the anthology Artis Historicae Penus (Basel, 1579), II, 477, quoted in Peter Burke, 'A Survey of the Popularity of Ancient Historians, 1450–1700', History and Theory, Vol. 5, No. 2 (1966), p. 142
• [Plutarch's works contains] the sum of Greek and Latin history made up of great maxims and greater instances, noble precepts and nobler examples, set off with...vigorous eloquence.
  • David Lloyd, The Worthies of the World (London, 1665), quoted in Peter Burke, 'A Survey of the Popularity of Ancient Historians, 1450–1700', History and Theory, Vol. 5, No. 2 (1966), pp. 142-143
• My very own Plutarch – so perfect, so outstanding a judge of human actions.
  • Michel de Montaigne, 'On drunkenness', The Complete Essays, translated by M. A. Screech (1991; 2003), p. 389
• Plutarch is amazing in every respect but especially where he makes judgements on men's actions.
  • Michel de Montaigne, 'On anger', The Complete Essays, translated by M. A. Screech (1991; 2003), p. 809
• There is another accusation which irritates me on Plutarch's behalf: it is where Bodin says that Plutarch showed good faith in his parallels between Roman and Roman or Greek and Greek but not between Roman and Greek. Witness, he says, Demosthenes and Cicero; Cato and Aristides; Sylla and Lysander; Marcellus and Pelopidas; Pompey and Agesilaus, reckoning as he does that he favoured the Greeks by matching them so unfairly. That is precisely to attack what is most excellent and commendable in Plutarch: for in those parallel lives (which are the most admirable part of his works and to my mind the one he took most pleasure in) the faithfulness and purity of his judgements equals their weight and profundity. He is a philosopher who teaches us what virtue is.
  • Michel de Montaigne, 'In defence of Seneca and Plutarch', The Complete Essays, translated by M. A. Screech (1991; 2003), p. 822
• In the writings of such "pagan" philosophers as Plutarch and Porphyry we find a humanitarian ethic of the most exalted kind, which, after undergoing a long repression during medieval churchdom, reappeared, albeit but weakly and fitfully at first, in the literature of the Renaissance, to be traced more definitely in the eighteenth century school of "sensibility."
  • Henry Stephens Salt, The Humanities of Diet (Manchester: The Vegetarian Society, 1914)
• [I]t is extremely difficult to say whether he wishes to expound moral philosophy with historical examples, or decorate the narration of important affairs...with philosophical arguments.
  • Francesco Sansovino, dedication to Plutarch, Le vite de gli uomini illustri (Venice, 1564), quoted in Peter Burke, 'A Survey of the Popularity of Ancient Historians, 1450–1700', History and Theory, Vol. 5, No. 2 (1966), p. 142

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• Plutarch at Project Gutenberg