Quotes by Plutarch

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

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

“A mind is not a vessel to be filled, but a fire to be lighted.”

“For fortune having hitherto seconded him in his designs, made him resolute and firm in his opinions, and the boldness of his temper raised a sort of passion in him for surmounting difficulties; as ...”

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

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

“Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire. For the mind does not require filling like a bottle, but rather, like wood, it only requires kindling to create in it an impulse ...”

“It is a thing of no great difficulty to raise objections against another man's oration, it is a very easy matter; but to produce a better in it's place is a work extremely troublesome.”

“But being overborne with numbers, and nobody daring to face about, stretching out his hands to heaven, [Romulus] prayed to Jupiter to stop the army, and not to neglect but maintain the Roman cause,...”

“While Leonidas was preparing to make his stand, a Persian envoy arrived. The envoy explained to Leonidas the futility of trying to resist the advance of the Great King's army and demanded that the ...”

“When a man's eyes are sore his friends do not let him finger them, however much he wishes to, nor do they themselves touch the inflammation: But a man sunk in grief suffers every chance comer to st...”

“By the aid of philosophy you will live not unpleasantly, for you will learn to extract pleasure from all places and things: wealth will make you happy, because it will enable you to benefit many; a...”

“But the Lacedaemonians, who make it their first principle of action to serve their country's interest, know not any thing to be just or unjust by any measure but that.”

“The man who is completely wise and virtuous has no need of glory, except so far as iteases his way to action by the greater trust that it procures him.”

“Good fortune will elevate even petty minds, and gives them the appearance of a certain greatness and stateliness, as from their high place they look down upon the world; but the truly noble and res...”

“For there is no virtue, the honor and credit for which procures a man more odium than that of justice; and this, because more than any other, it acquires a man power and authority among the common ...”

“Sertorius rose up and spoke to his army, You see, fellow soldiers, that perseverance is more prevailing than violence, and that many things which cannot be overcome when they are together, yield th...”

“The Spartans do not ask how many are the enemy but where are they.”

“An imbalance between rich and poor is the oldest and most fatal ailment of all republics.”

“In words are seen the state of mind and character and disposition of the speaker.”