"Once when Phocion had delivered an opinion which pleased the people, he turned to his friend and said, "Have I not unawares spoken some mischievous thing or other?""
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Quote collection
Plutarch quotes (page 19 of 20)
392 quotes — follow a thought to its full quote page.
"These Macedonians are a rude and clownish people; they call a spade a spade."
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"When one told Plistarchus that a notorious railer spoke well of him, "I'll lay my life," said he, "somebody hath told him I am dead, for he can speak well of no man living.'"
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"It is the usual consolation of the envious, if they cannot maintain their superiority, to represent those by whom they are surpassed as inferior to some one else."
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"Empire may be gained by gold, not gold by empire. It used, indeed, to be a proverb that "It is not Philip, but Philip's gold that takes the cities of Greece."
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"The ripeness of adolescence is prodigal in pleasures, skittish, and in need of a bridle."
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"If I were not Alexander, I would be Diogenes."
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"Themistocles replied that a man's discourse was like to a rich Persian carpet, the beautiful figures and patterns of which can only be shown by spreading and extending it out; when it is contracted and folded up, they are obscured and lost."
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"Archimedes had stated, that given the force, any given weight might be moved; and even boasted that if there were another earth, by going into it he could remove this."
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"The great god Pan is dead."
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"Politics is not like an ocean voyage or a military campaign... something which leaves off as soon as reached. It is not a public chore to be gotten over with. It is a way of life."
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"The saying of old Antigonus, who when he was to fight at Andros, and one told him, "The enemy's ships are more than ours," replied, "For how many then wilt thou reckon me?"
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"It is no great wonder if in long process of time, while fortune takes her course hither and thither, numerous coincidences should spontaneously occur. If the number and variety of subjects to be wrought upon be infinite, it is all the more easy for fortune, with such an abundance of material, to effect this similarity of results."
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"Scilurus on his death-bed, being about to leave four-score sons surviving, offered a bundle of darts to each of them, and bade them break them. When all refused, drawing out one by one, he easily broke them, thus teaching them that if they held together, they would continue strong; but if they fell out and were divided, they would become weak."
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"A soldier told Pelopidas, "We are fallen among the enemies." Said he, "How are we fallen among them more than they among us?""
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"The most glorious exploits do not always furnish us with the clearest discoveries of virtue or vice in men."
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"Thrasyllus the Cynic begged a drachm of Antigonus. "That," said he, "is too little for a king to give." "Why, then," said the other, "give me a talent." "And that," said he, "is too much for a Cynic (or, for a dog) to receive.""
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"There is no debt with so much prejudice put off as that of justice."
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"We rich men count our felicity and happiness to lie in these superfluities, and not in those necessary things."
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"Pythias once, scoffing at Demosthenes, said that his arguments smelt of the lamp."
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