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
oratory firsts action
When Demosthenes was asked what was the first part of Oratory, he answered, "Action," and which was the second, he replied, "action," and which was the third, he still answered "Action.
wind sea oil
Why does pouring Oil on the Sea make it Clear and Calm? Is it that the winds, slipping the smooth oil, have no force, nor cause any waves?
people might shields
Such power I gave the people as might do, Abridged not what they had, now lavished new, Those that were great in wealth and high in place My counsel likewise kept from all disgrace. Before them both I held my shield of might, And let not either touch the other's right.
god men brave
God is the brave man's hope, and not the coward's excuse.
knaves firsts knavery
Zeno first started that doctrine, that knavery is the best defence against a knave.
mean understanding meanings-of-words
For it was not so much that by means of words I came to a complete understanding of things, as that from things I somehow had an experience which enabled me to follow the meaning of words.
games achilles said
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?
advice way mines
Vos vestros servate, meos mihi linquite mores You keep to your own ways, and leave mine to me
hands bird fool
He is a fool who lets slip a bird in the hand for a bird in the bush.
men years medicine
I have heard that Tiberius used to say that that man was ridiculous, who after sixth years, appealed to a physician.
passion character power
There is no stronger test of a person's character than power and authority, exciting as they do every passion, and discovering every latent vice.
cities wronged
Solon being asked, namely, what city was best to live in. That city, he replied, in which those who are not wronged, no less than those who are wronged, exert themselves to punish the wrongdoers.
men heard nightingales
Agesilaus being invited once to hear a man who admirably imitated the nightingale, he declined, saying he had heard the nightingale itself.
war gale tempest
Fortune had favoured me in this war that I feared, the rather, that some tempest would follow so favourable a gale.