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
merit praise greedy
Those are greedy of praise prove that they are poor in merit.
character giving flattery
It is no flattery to give a friend a due character; for commendation is as much the duty of a friend as reprehension.
luxury mind use
Poverty is dishonorable, not in itself, but when it is a proof of laziness, intemperance, luxury, and carelessness; whereas in a person that is temperate, industrious, just and valiant, and who uses all his virtues for the public good, it shows a great and lofty mind.
heart hearing consideration
The human heart becomes softened by hearing of instances of gentleness and consideration.
ears gluttony belly
The belly has no ears.
envy matter ink
When malice is joined to envy, there is given forth poisonous and feculent matter, as ink from the cuttle-fish.
quality benefits lessons
Education and study, and the favors of the muses, confer no greater benefit on those that seek them than these humanizing and civilizing lessons, which teach our natural qualities to submit to the limitations prescribed by reason, and to avoid the wildness of extremes.
son men riches
When Anaxagoras was told of the death of his son, he only said, "I knew he was mortal." So we in all casualties of life should say "I knew my riches were uncertain, that my friend was but a man." Such considerations would soon pacify us, because all our troubles proceed from their being unexpected.
death
Concerning the dead nothing but good shall be spoken. [Lat., De mortuis nil nisi bonum.]
evil knows remove
The authors of great evils know best how to remove them.
healer diseased
A healer of others, himself diseased.
eye light clouds
For, in the language of Heraclitus, the virtuous soul is pure and unmixed light, springing from the body as a flash of lightning darts from the cloud. But the soul that is carnal and immersed in sense, like a heavy and dank vapor, can with difficulty be kindled, and caused to raise its eyes heavenward.
beautiful men speech
Themistocles replied that a man's discourse was like to a rich Persian carpet, the beautiful figures and patterns of which can only be shown by spreading and extending it out; when it is contracted and folded up, they are obscured and lost.
opinion should carthage
He (Cato) never gave his opinion in the Senate upon any other point whatever, without adding these words, "And, in my opinion Carthage should be destroyed." ["Delenda est Carthago."]