Plutarch
Plutarch
Plutarch; c. AD 46 – AD 120) was a Greek historian, biographer, and essayist, known primarily for his Parallel Lives and Moralia. He is classified as a Middle Platonist. Plutarch's surviving works were written in Greek, but intended for both Greek and Roman readers...
NationalityGreek
ProfessionPhilosopher
philosophy talking people
Philosophy finds talkativeness a disease very difficult and hard to cure. For its remedy, conversation, requires hearers: but talkative people hear nobody, for they are ever prating. And the first evil this inability to keep silence produces is an inability to listen.
kings crowns sometimes
The crowns of kings do not prevent those who wear them from being tormented sometimes by violent headaches.
wife caesars-wife should
Caesar's wife should be above suspicion.
disappointment light break-off
If you light upon an impertinent talker, that sticks to you like a bur, to the disappointment of your important occasions, deal freely with him, break off the discourse, and pursue your business.
talking endless drunkenness
Nor is drunkenness censured for anything so much as its intemperate and endless talk.
disease usual neighbor
The usual disease of princes, grasping covetousness, had made them suspicious and quarrelsome neighbors.
memories may painful
Rather I fear on the contrary that while we banish painful thoughts we may banish memory as well.
listening foundation
Proper listening is the foundation of proper living.
usual envious consolation
It is the usual consolation of the envious, if they cannot maintain their superiority, to represent those by whom they are surpassed as inferior to some one else.
knaves knavery defense
Knavery is the best defense against a knave.
son warrior shields
A Spartan woman, as she handed her son his shield, exhorted him saying, "As a warrior of Sparta come back with your shield or on it."
pain mean occupation
He who busies himself in mean occupations, produces in the very pains he takes about things of little or no use, an evidence against himself of his negligence and indisposition to what is really good
plato people age
Most people do not understand until old age what Plato tells them when they are young.
extravagance poverty poor
Poverty is not dishonorable in itself, but only when it comes from idleness, intemperance, extravagance, and folly.