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
evil knows remove
The authors of great evils know best how to remove them.
death
Concerning the dead nothing but good shall be spoken. [Lat., De mortuis nil nisi bonum.]
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.
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.