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
death suffering do-not-fear
What can they suffer that do not fear to die?
elude instant offers
The present offers itself to our touch for only an instant of time and then eludes the senses.
men mirrors infallible
Apothegms are the most infallible mirror to represent a man truly what he is.
anger battle resistance
When I myself had twice or thrice made a resolute resistance unto anger, the like befell me that did the Thebans; who, having once foiled the Lacedaemonians (who before that time had held themselves invincible), never after lost so much as one battle which they fought against them.
veils mortals
I am whatever was, or is, or will be; and my veil no mortal ever took up.
shoes gout tiaras
Gout is not relieved by a fine shoe nor a hangnail by a costly ring nor migraine by a tiara.
friends needs should
A friend should be like money, tried before being required, not found faulty in our need.
impossible silent easy
It is easy to utter what has been kept silent, but impossible to recall what has been uttered.
understanding aging increase
Time which diminishes all things increases understanding for the aging.
giving meals inquiry
Statesmen are not only liable to give an account of what they say or do in public, but there is a busy inquiry made into their very meals, beds, marriages, and every other sportive or serious action.
eating dine knows
What, did you not know, then, that to-day Lucullus dines with Lucullus?
thinking numbers asking
Alexander wept when he heard from Anaxarchus that there was an infinite number of worlds; and his friends asking him if any accident had befallen him, he returns this answer: "Do you not think it a matter worthy of lamentation that when there is such a vast multitude of them, we have not yet conquered one?
veils raised mortals
I am all that hath been, and is, and shall be; and my veil no mortal has hitherto raised.
sweet medicine fire
A human body in no way resembles those that were born for ravenousness; it hath no hawk's bill, no sharp talon, no roughness of teeth, no such strength of stomach or heat of digestion, as can be sufficient to convert or alter such heavy and fleshy fare . . . There is nobody that is willing to eat even a lifeless and a dead thing even as it is; so they boil it, and roast it, and alter it by fire and medicines, as it were, changing and quenching the slaughtered gore with thousands of sweet sauces, that the palate being thereby deceived may admit of such uncouth fare.