"I don't need a friend who changes when I change and who nods when I nod; my shadow does that much better."
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Quote collection
Plutarch quotes (page 1 of 20)
392 quotes — follow a thought to its full quote page.
"The mind is not a vessel to be filled but a fire to be kindled."
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"An imbalance between rich and poor is the oldest and most fatal ailment of all republics."
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"The abuse of buying and selling votes crept in and money began to play an important part in determining elections. Later on, this process of corruption spread to the law courts. And then to the army, and finally the Republic was subjected to the rule of emperors"
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"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."
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"Know how to listen, and you will profit even from those who talk badly."
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"What we achieve inwardly will change outer reality."
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"The real destroyer of the liberties of the people is he who spreads among them bounties, donations and benefits."
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"Barba non facit philosophum"
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"To make no mistakes is not in the power of man; but from their errors and mistakes the wise and good learn wisdom for the future."
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"As geographers, Sosius, crowd into the edges of their maps parts of the world which they do not know about, adding notes in the margin to the effect that beyond this lies nothing but sandy deserts full of wild beasts, and unapproachable bogs."
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"Time is the wisest of all counselors."
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"No beast is more savage than man when possessed with power answerable to his rage."
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"The richest soil, if uncultivated, produces the rankest weeds."
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"Pompey bade Sylla recollect that more worshipped the rising than the setting sun."
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"In human life there is constant change of fortune; and it is unreasonable to expect an exemption from the common fate. Life itself decays, and all things are daily changing."
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"Pompey had fought brilliantly and in the end routed Caesar's whole force... but either he was unable to or else he feared to push on. Caesar [said] to his friends: 'Today the enemy would have won, if they had had a commander who was a winner.'"
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"It is a true proverb, that if you live with a lame man, you will learn to limp."
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"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."
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"The whole of life is but a moment of time. It is our duty, therefore to use it, not to misuse it."
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