Plutarch 46-120 A.D. | What Is Plutarch's Moralia?
Source: Plutarch. Moralia. Loeb Classical Library. 14 vols.
Courtesy of translator Giles Laurén, author of The Stoic's Bible.
Plutarch Moralia Quotes, Page: I | II | III | IV
There must be a concurrence of three things to produce perfectly right action: nature, reason and habit.
PL MOR 1 P9.
Indifference ruins good natural endowment, whereas instruction amends a poor one; easy things escape the careless and difficult things are conquered by careful application.
PL MOR 1 P9.
Who are the most pacific Thessalians? Those just returning from war.
PL MOR 1 P13.
Character is habit long continued.
PL MOR 1 P13.
If you dwell with a lame man, you will learn to limp.
PL MOR 1 P17.
While we take pains that children should eat with the right hand, we take no pains that they should hear the right instruction.
PL MOR 1 P23.
Only the mind grows young with increased years; time which takes away everything else adds wisdom to old age.
PL MOR 1 P25.
A discourse composed of short sentences is no small proof of lack of culture; the tiresome monotony soon causes impatience.
PL MOR 1 P33.
It's a fine thing to voyage and see many cities, but profitable to dwell in the best one.
PL MOR 1 P33.
There are three forms of life: the practical, the contemplative and the life of pleasure.
PL MOR 1 P37.
Even the poor ought to endeavour as best they can to provide the best education for their children.
PL MOR 1 P41.
Children ought to be led to honourable practices by means of encouragement and reasoning and certainly not by blows or ill treatment.
PL MOR 1 P41.
Children must be given some breathing space from continuous tasks; the whole of life is divided between relaxation and application. Rest gives relish to labour.
PL MOR 1 P43.
The memory of children should be trained and exercised; it is the storehouse of learning and the mother of the Muses.
PL MOR 1 P45.
Proper measures must be taken to ensure that children shall be tactful and courteous in their address, for nothing is so deservedly disliked as tactless children.
PL MOR 1 P47.
A word is a deed's shadow. Democritus.
PL MOR 1 P47.
When of two speakers one is growing wroth, Wiser is he that yields in argument. Euripides. Protesilous.
PL MOR 1 P47.
Timely silence is wise and better than any speech. Nobody was ever sorry because he kept silent, whereas countless numbers have regretted speech. The unspoken word can always be spoken later, whereas the word once spoken can never be recalled.
PL MOR 1 P51.
We should accustom our children to speak the truth.
PL MOR 1 P53.
Two things: hope of reward and fear of punishment, are the elements of virtue.
PL MOR 1 P59.
Parents should concede some shortcomings to the young person and remind themselves that they once were young.
PL MOR 1 P63.
It is better for a father to be quick tempered than sullen, for a hostile irreconcilable spirit is no small proof of animosity towards one's children.
PL MOR 1 P65.
We bear with our friends' shortcomings, why not those of our children?
PL MOR 1 P65.
An effort should be made to yoke in marriage those who cannot resist their desires and who are deaf to admonitions.
PL MOR 1 P65.
Fathers ought above all to make themselves an example to their children so that the latter may look at their father's lives as at a mirror and be deterred from disgraceful words and deeds.
PL MOR 1 P67.
Why are the Thessalians the only people you don't deceive? Oh, they are too ignorant to be deceived by me. Simonides.
PL MOR 1 P79.
Let poetry be used as an introductory exercise to philosophy. Those who train themselves to seek the profitable in what gives pleasure and to be dissatisfied with what has nothing profitable in it learn discernment, the beginning of education.
PL MOR 1 P81.
In the blessing of plenty What enjoyment is there, If blest wealth owe its increase To base-brooding care? Sophocles?
PL MOR 1 P109.
Prudence is characteristic of a Greek and a man of refinement, while presumption is barbaric and cheap; the one should be emulated and the other despised.
PL MOR 1 P157.
Aim at the pre-eminence which comes from noble qualities and strive to be first in matters of first importance, to be great in the greatest. The repute which comes from small and petty things is disreputable and paltry.
PL MOR 1 P 183.
When we find an edifying sentiment neatly expressed by a poet, we ought to foster and amplify it by means of proofs and testimonies from the philosophers.
PL MOR 1 P189.
The majority of persons practice speaking before they have acquired the habit of listening.
PL MOR 1 P211.
When most men chance upon somebody who is giving an account of a dinner or a procession or a dream or a wordy brawl he has had with another man, they listen in silence and importune him to continue; yet if anybody draws them to one side and tries to impart something useful, they have no patience with him.
PL MOR 1 P213.
The envy directed against a speaker is the offspring of an unseasonable desire for repute and a dishonest ambition. It does not suffer the person in such a mood to pay attention to what is being said, but confuses and distracts his mind by reviewing its own condition to see if it is inferior to that of the speaker.
PL MOR 1 P217.
A man must make truce with his desire for repute and listen cheerfully and affably as though he were a guest at some ceremonial banquet.
PL MOR 1 P217.
Where a man is successful we must reflect that his success is not due to chance or accident, but to care, diligence, and study, and in this we do well to imitate him in a spirit of admiration and emulation.
PL MOR 1 P219.
It is the easiest thing in the world to find fault with one's neighbour and it is also a useless proceeding unless we apply it to correcting or avoiding similar faults.
PL MOR 1 P219.
To offer objections against a discourse is not difficult; to set up a better discourse against it is a laborious task.
PL MOR 1 P221.
We may unwittingly receive into our minds false and vicious doctrines when we feel goodwill and confidence towards speakers.
PL MOR 1 P223.
In a philosophic discussion we must set aside the repute of the speaker and examine what he says.
PL MOR 1 P223.
Certain speakers are admired in so far as they are entertaining and afterwards, when the pleasure has died away, their repute deserts them and so the time of their hearers and the lives of the speakers is wasted. One ought therefore to strip off the superfluity and inanity from the style and seek after the fruit itself, imitating not women making garlands but the bees.
PL MOR 1 P225.
Neither a bath nor a discourse is of any use unless it removes impurity. Ariston.
PL MOR 1 P227.
The person who comes to a dinner is bound to eat what is set before him and not ask for anything else or be critical; so he who comes to a feast of reason must feel bound to listen to the speaker in silence. Those persons who lead the speaker to digress and interject questions and raise difficulties are not pleasant company at a lecture for they get no benefit and they confuse both the speaker and his speech.
PL MOR 1 P231.
Those who ask a speaker something for which he is not apt and do not take what he has to offer, cause all to suffer thereby and incur the name and blame of malice and hostility.
PL MOR 1 P233.
To propose many problems is the mark of a man showing himself off; to listen attentively when another advances his points marks the considerate gentleman and the scholar.
PL MOR 1 P235.
The man who is not touched by anything that is said is an offensive and tiresome listener; he is full of festering presumption and ingrained self assertion as though convinced that he could say something better. As if commendation were money he feels that he is robbing himself of every bit he bestows on another.
PL MOR 1 P237.
To persons who are truly and consistently good it is natural to bestow credit. Those who are niggardly in commending others give the impression of being starved for their own.
PL MOR 1 P239.
The ancients placed Hermes beside the Graces from a feeling that discourse demands graciousness and friendliness.
PL MOR 1 P239.
Love, like ivy, is clever at attaching itself to any support.
PL MOR 1 P241.
In every piece of work beauty is achieved through the congruence of numerous factors brought into union under the rules of due proportion and harmony. Ugliness springs into being if only a single chance element is omitted or out of place.
PL MOR 1 P243.
Just as in playing ball the catcher must adapt his movements to the thrower, so in discourse there is a certain accord between speaker and listener.
PL MOR 1 P 245.
Just as with learning to read and write or in taking up music or physical training, the first lessons are attended with much confusion, hard work, and uncertainty, but as the learner makes progress by slow degrees, just as in his relations with human beings, a full familiarity is engendered and the new knowledge renders what follows attractive; so it is with philosophy.
PL MOR 1 P 253.
When the intelligence of the new student has comprehended the main parts, let us urge him to put the rest together by his own efforts, using his memory as a guide and thinking for himself. The mind does not require filling like a bottle.
PL MOR 1 P257.
So that we might acquire a habit of mind that is deeply trained and philosophic, rather than the sophistic that merely acquires information, let us believe that right listening is the beginning of right living.
PL MOR 1 P259.
Because of self love everyone is his own foremost flatterer and finds no difficulty in admitting the outsider to agree with him in confirming his conceits and desires. The man who loves flatterers loves himself to a high degree and conceives himself endowed with all manner of good qualities. Although the desire for qualities is natural, the conceit that one possesses them is dangerous and must be avoided.
PL MOR 1 P265.
If the Truth is a thing divine and the origin of all good for gods and man, then the flatterer is an enemy to the gods, for the flatterer always takes a position against the maxim KNOW THYSELF by deceiving every man against himself.
PL MOR 1 P267.
Flattery does not attend upon poor, obscure or unimportant persons, but makes itself an obstacle and pestilence to great houses and great affairs.
PL MOR 1 P267.
Flatterers are never to be seen where comfort and warmth are lacking; where renown and power attend do they throng and thrive.
PL MOR 1 P269.
Timely commendation is no less becoming to friendship than censure; complaining and fault finding is unfriendly and unsociable, whereas the kindness that commends noble acts inclines us to accept admonition cheerfully. The man who is glad to commend only blames when he must.
PL MOR 1 P271.
The flattery most difficult to deal with is that which is hidden.
PL MOR 1 P275.
A friendship is begun through a likeness of pursuits and characters; the flatterer notes this and shapes himself to those he attacks through imitation.
PL MOR 1 P277.
Observe the uniformity and permanence of his tastes; does he order his life on one pattern or is he variable and many like water poured into a receptacle?
PL MOR 1 P281.
At Syracuse just after Plato's arrival an insane ardour for philosophy laid hold of Dionysius and the king's palace was filled with dust by reason of the multitude of men that were drawing geometrical diagrams in it, but when Plato fell out of favour and Dionysius shook himself free of philosophy and returned to wine, women and licentiousness, then grossness and fatuity seized upon the whole people as though they had undergone a transformation at Circe's house.
PL MOR 1 P283.
The greatest flatterer was Alcibiades who at Athens was a frivolous jester, kept a racing stable and led a life of urbanity and enjoyment; in Lacedaemon he cropped his hair, wore coarse clothing and bathed in cold water; in Thrace he was a fighter and hard drinker; in Tissaphernes he took to soft living, luxury and pretentiousness.
PL MOR 1 P283.
The changes of the flatterer are like those of a cuttlefish and may be most easily detected if a man pretends that he is changeable himself and disapproves of the mode of life which he previously approved and suddenly shows a liking for actions, conduct or language which used to offend him. The flatterer is nowhere constant and has no character of his own.
PL MOR 1 P285.
Between true friends there is neither emulation nor envy. Whether their share of success is equal or less they bear it with moderation and without vexation.
PL MOR 1 P295.
The flatterer thinks he ought to do anything to be agreeable, while the friend by always doing what he ought to do is ofttimes agreeable and sometimes disagreeable not from any desire to be disagreeable. He is like the physician who administers an unpleasant remedy.
PL MOR 1 P295.
The good man takes no less delight in his friends than the bad man in his flatterers.
PL MOR 1 P295.
One ought to hurt a friend only to help him.
PL MOR 1 P287.
It is necessary to see if the praise is for the action or for the man; it is for the action if they praise us in our absence.
PL MOR 1 P299.
How can he be a good man who is not harsh even with rascals?
PL MOR 1 P299.
If our own conscience protests and refuses to accept praise then it is proof against the flatterer.
PL MOR 1 P301.
Since disposition and character are the seeds from which actions spring, flatterers pervert the fountain head of living when they invest vice with names that belong to virtue. Reckless daring becomes courage, watchful waiting cowardice, moderation appeasement.
PL MOR 1 P301.
A short man who is made to believe he is tall is not long for the game, but praise that accustoms a man to regard vice as virtue destroys cities: calling Dionysius' savage cruelty 'hatred of wickedness,' for example.
PL MOR 1 P303.
The test by which we detect cases of cringing submission is when deference is not paid to experience, virtue or age, but to wealth and repute.
PL MOR 1 P313.
Flatterers proclaim that kings, wealthy persons and rulers are not only prosperous and blessed, but that they also rank first in understanding, technical skill, and every form of virtue.
PL MOR 1 P315.
Carneades used to say that although the sons of the wealthy learn to ride on horseback, they learn nothing else so well. In their studies their teacher flatters them with praise, in wrestling their opponent submits to being thrown, yet the horse, having no knowledge of rich or poor, always throws those who cannot ride him.
PL MOR 1 P315.
A man would not be an improper subject for praise if by virtue of such praise alone he could be improved and made productive of good. Yet a field is not made worse by praise while a puffed up man is. Bion.
PL MOR 1 P315.
The true frankness that a friend displays applies to errors that are being committed and the pain it causes is salutary and benignant.
PL MOR 1 P319.
Once when Tiberius Caesar came to the Senate one of the flatterers rose and said that they ought, being free men, to speak frankly and not dissemble or refrain from discussing anything that might be for the general good. Having thus aroused general admiration, in the ensuing silence, as Tiberius gave ear, he said: Listen Caesar to the charges which we are making against you but which no one dares to speak out. You do not take proper care of yourself, you are prodigal of your bodily strength, you are continually wearing it out in your anxieties and labours in our behalf, you give yourself no respite either by day or by night. As he drew out a long string of such phrases Cassius Severus remarked: Such frankness as this will be the death of this man!
PL MOR 1 P323.
Himerius the flatterer used to vilify a man, the most illiberal and avaricious of the rich men at Athens, as a careless profligate destined to starve in misery together with his children. Or again they will reproach profligate and lavish spenders with meanness and sordidness (as Titus Petronius did with Nero); or they will bid rulers who deal savagely with their subjects to lay aside their excessive clemency and inopportune pity.
PL MOR 1 P323.
Our soul has two sides: on the one side are truthfulness, love of honour and the power of reason; on the other side are irrationality, love of falsehood and the emotions.
PL MOR 1 P327.
The flatterer is always covertly on the watch for some emotion to pamper. Are you angry? Punish them. Do you crave anything? Buy it. Are you afraid? Flee. Are you suspicious? Give it credence.
PL MOR 1 P329.
No friend enters into co-operation unless he has first been taken into consultation and has examined the undertaking and agreed that it is fitting and expedient.
PL MOR 1 P335.
Have friends who are not yielding in their speech, But let your house be barred against the knaves Who try by pleasing you to win regard, ! Euripides. Erechtheus.
PL MOR 1 P335.
The flatterer's intent is shown in the nature of his service. Is it honourable or dishonourable? Does it do good or give pleasure? A friend does not expect a friend to support him in honest projects and in dishonest.
PL MOR 1 P341.
The Lacedaemonians sent corn to the people of Smyrna in their need, and when these thanked them they replied: It was nothing of any importance, we merely voted that we and our cattle go without dinner for one day and collected the amount.
PL MOR 1 P341.
You cannot use me both as friend and flatterer. Phocion to Antipater.
PL MOR 1 P 343.
The flatterer is unable to help another with words or money or to back him in a quarrel, yet he makes no excuses when it comes to underhand actions.
PL MOR 1 P345.
The precept of Medius, the master of the flatterers who surrounded Alexander, was that the scar of calumny remains after the calumny is discharged.
PL MOR 1 P347.
The lofty mind that lacks sense lies at the mercy of the insignificant and mean.
PL MOR 1 P349.
We must eradicate self-love and conceit, because by flattering us beforehand they render us less resistant to flatterers.
PL MOR 1 P349.
Frankness, like any medicine, if not applied at the proper time causes needless suffering and accomplishes painfully what flattery accomplishes pleasantly. People are injured by both untimely praise and untimely blame.
PL MOR 1 P351.
Every form of vice is to be conquered through virtue and not through the vice that is its antithesis; like those that would escape bashfulness through shamelessness or cowardice through impudence.
PL MOR 1 P351.
The most shameful way of disavowing the name of flatterer is to cause pain; it is a rude and tactless disregard of goodwill to be disagreeable in order to escape abasement and servility in friendship.
PL MOR 1 P353.
Just as it is shameful to flatter when aiming to please, so it is a shameful when trying to avoid flattery to destroy the friendly thoughtfulness of another by immoderate speech.
PL MOR 1 P353.
Certain fatal faults often accompany frankness; let frank reproach be free from self-regard and private reason. People are wont to think anger, not goodwill, is the motive of a man who speaks on his own behalf. Frankness is friendly and noble; faultfinding is selfish and mean.
PL MOR 1 P353.
The admonition of a friend, when it is clear of personal feeling, is a thing to be treated with respect and not to be faced out.
PL MOR 1 P355.
Let us purge from our frankness all arrogance, ridicule, scoffing and scurrility, the unwholesome seasonings of free speech.
PL MOR 1 P359.
Offensive and bitter retorts profit nothing, their scurrility and frivolity give no pleasure and a retort of this kind betokens intemperance of the tongue combined with malice and arrogance not without enmity.
PL MOR 1 P361.
In good fortune men most need friends to speak frankly and reduce their excess of pride. There are few in good fortune who maintain a sober mind and most need a discrete infusion of reason from without.
PL MOR 1 P365.
He who applies frankness of speech and stinging reproof to a person in misfortune might as well apply some stimulant to vision to the inflamed eye; he affects no cure nor abatement of pain, but only adds irritation and exasperates the sufferer.
PL MOR 1 P365.
The very circumstances in which the unfortunate find themselves leave no room for sententious saws, they require gentle usage and help. When children fall down, nurses do not rush up and berate them, they take them up, wash them, straighten their clothes and after this, rebuke them.
PL MOR 1 P367.
If you find no other reason for being circumspect, do so to keep your enemies from being bold.
PL MOR 1 P373.
In company, we must be very careful with the use of frank speech toward a friend.
PL MOR 1 P375.
Error should be treated as a foul disease and all admonition should be in secret.
PL MOR 1 P375.
It is more like sophistry than friendship to seek for glory in other men's faults and to make a show before spectators.
PL MOR 1 P375. Elderly men trying to cultivate a sense of respect among the young must themselves first show respect to the young. Likewise among friends a modest frankness best engenders modesty and a cautious approach saps the foundations of vice and annihilates it.
PL MOR 1 P377.
Frank speaking needs the support of good character, especially when it comes to rebuking another.
PL MOR 1 P379.
Those who win goodwill and confidence seem to be correcting their friends precisely as they correct themselves.
PL MOR 1 P381.
We are more wont to yield to those who share our emotion without contempt.
PL MOR 1 P383.
Arouse a man to emulate his better self.
PL MOR 1 P383.
When we draw comparisons with other people the spirit of contentiousness becomes sullen: Then why don't you go away to my betters and not trouble me?
PL MOR 1 P385.
It is least becoming to reply to admonition with admonition and to counter attack frank speaking with frank speaking for this provokes instant heat and causes estrangement.
PL MOR 1 P385.
It is the duty of the friend to accept the odium that comes with giving admonition when matters of importance are at stake.
PL MOR 1 P387.
A man dying from consumption asked Philotimus for something to cure a sore finger: My dear sir, your concern is not about a sore finger.
PL MOR 1 P233.
PL MOR 1 P387.
We ought to watch our friends closely both when they go wrong and when they go right. Indeed, the first step should be commendation cheerfully bestowed as this gives us the chance to later say: Is this conduct worthy to compare with that?
PL MOR 1 P389.
A kindly friend, a good father, and a teacher take pleasure in using commendation rather than blame for the correction of character.
PL MOR 1 P 389.
Blame for past deeds is a weapon which we see enemies using against each other.
PL MOR 1 P393.
It is better to guard against errors by following proffered advice than to repent of errors because of men's upbraiding; this is why frank speaking is a fine art.
PL MOR 1 P393.
Those who admonish should not take their leave too soon nor allow anything painful to their friendship form the final topic of conversation.
PL MOR 1 P395.
According to some Stoics there is no progress to virtue; one attains to virtue only at the moment of attaining absolute and perfect good.
PL MOR 1 P403.
If this be so the wise man in a moment of time changes from depravity to a state of virtue and his vice, which long years of travail have not diminished, leaves him.
PL MOR 1 P403.
We observe that there are degrees of evil.
PL MOR 1 P407. Vice always attacks the man who yields ground through inattention and
carries him backward.
PL MOR 1 P409. The greater the gain from philosophy, the greater the annoyance at being cut off from it.
PL MOR 1 P413.
When fits of dejection become infrequent and the protests of sound sense come quickly to our support, we may believe that our progress is firmly founded.
PL MOR 1 P415.
It is impossible to cease emulating what the great majority admire except for those who have learned to admire virtue. Many only confront the world boldly when they are angry, but the ability to contemn actions the world admires only comes with wisdom.
PL MOR 1 P417.
Whenever you set the advantages of virtue against external advantages, you have dispelled envy and the things that depress many beginners to philosophy, and you have made clear your progress.
PL MOR 1 P419.
Also significant is the change in one's speech as the beginner's inclination to the forms of discourse that make for repute are overcome.
PL MOR 1 P419.
When students of philosophy pass from ostentation and artifice to discourse which deals with character and feeling they begin to make progress.
PL MOR 1 P421.
We must consider whether we discourse for our own improvement or for the sake of momentary repute. Do we take more pleasure in winning an argument than in learning and imparting some fact?
PL MOR 1 P427.
A man making progress is reasonable and mild in discourse; he is able to join a discussion without wrangling and to close it without anger. He avoids arrogance, over success, and exasperation in defeat.
PL MOR 1 P427.
Everyone ought to pay attention to both words and actions to be sure their usefulness prevails over ostentation and that their tone is of truth rather than display.
PL MOR 1 P429.
A man who stands well in his own estimation feels satisfaction as the witness of honourable deeds; in the words of Democritus: He is becoming accustomed to find within himself the sources of enjoyment.
PL MOR 1 P431.
The young philosopher is like an empty vessel, that as it is filled expels the air. They cease to feel pride in their philosopher's beard and gown and transfer their training to their minds, applying the most stinging criticism to themselves and mildness to others.
PL MOR 1 P433.
Menedemus remarked that: the multitudes who came to Athens to study were at the outset wise; later they became lovers of wisdom; later still orators, and as time went on, just ordinary persons and the more they laid hold on reason the more they laid aside their self opinion and conceit.
PL MOR 1 P435.
The incurable are those who take a hostile attitude and hot temper toward those who admonish them; those who patiently submit are in less serious plight.
PL MOR 1 P437.
The man who fears baseness more than ill-repute does not avoid uncomplimentary remarks when they may be made a means for improvement.
PL MOR 1 P439.
When the vice of those who are making progress is transformed into more moderate emotions it is being blotted out.
PL MOR 1 P447.
The translation of words into deeds is above all a mark of progress. It is to imitate what we admire and avoid what we censure.
PL MOR 1 P449.
Love for another is not active unless there is some jealousy in it, nor is the commendation of virtue ardent which does not prick us to emulation.
PL MOR 1 P449.
To be able to advance to meet a man of high repute without timidity gives a man some assurance that he knows where he stands.
PL MOR 1 P453.
The progressing man no longer holds that any of his sins is unimportant and is studiously circumspect in heeding all.
PL MOR 1 P455.
To imagine that nothing can cause a great disgrace makes men easy going and careless about little things.
PL MOR 1 P457.
