Top 15 Plutarch Quotes

The mind is not a vessel to be filled, but a fire to be kindled.

I don't need a friend who changes when I change and who nods when I nod; my shadow does that much better.

It is a true proverb, that if you live with a lame man, you will learn to limp.

Wise men are able to make a fitting use even of their enmities.

According to the proverb, the best things are the most difficult.

A human body in no way resembles those that were born for ravenousness; it hath no hawk’s bill, no sharp talon, no roughness of teeth, no such strength of stomach or heat of digestion, as can be sufficient to convert or alter such heavy and fleshy fare. But if you will contend that you were born to an inclination to such food as you have now a mind to eat, do you then yourself kill what you would eat. But do it yourself, without the help of a chopping-knife, mallet or axe, as wolves, bears, and lions do, who kill and eat at once. Rend an ox with thy teeth, worry a hog with thy mouth, tear a lamb or a hare in pieces, and fall on and eat it alive as they do. But if thou had rather stay until what thou eat is to become dead, and if thou art loath to force a soul out of its body, why then dost thou against nature eat an animate thing? There is nobody that is willing to eat even a lifeless and a dead thing even as it is; so they boil it, and roast it, and alter it by fire and medicines, as it were, changing and quenching the slaughtered gore with thousands of sweet sauces, that the palate being thereby deceived may admit of such uncouth fare.

An imbalance between rich and poor is the oldest and most fatal ailment of all republics.

Know how to listen, and you will profit even from those who talk badly.

To find fault is easy; to do better may be difficult.

The one who is tipping over cannot straight up someone else.

When Alexander saw the breadth of his domain, he wept for there were no more worlds to conquer. (Technically a misquote, but I like the misquote better)

To learn is simply to allow something to be done to you.

In truth, kings are afraid for their subjects, while tyrants are afraid of their subjects.

For water continually dropping will wear hard rocks hollow.

The poor go to war, to fight and die for the delights, riches, and superfluities of others.