Best 356 quotes of Plutarch on MyQuotes

The mind is not a vessel that needs filling, but wood that needs igniting.

There is a story recorded about Geradas, a Spartiate of really ancient times, who when asked by a foreigner what their punishment for adulterers was, said: "There is no adulterer among us, stranger." When the latter replied: "But what if there should be one?", Geradas' answer was: "His fine would be a great bull which bends over Mount Taygetus to Drink from the Eurotas." The foreigner was amazed at this and said: "But how could there be a bull of such size?" At which Geradas laughed and said: "But how could there be an adulterer at Sparta?" This, then, concludes my investigation of their marriages.

[The Spartans] should not make war often, or long, with the same enemy, lest that they should train and instruct them in war, by habituating them to defend themselves.

They should live all together on an equal footing; merit to be their only road to eminence, and the disgrace of evil, and credit of worthy acts, their one measure of difference between man and man.

To make an action honorable, it ought to be agreeable to the age, and other circumstances of the person; since it is circumstance and proper measure that give an action its character, and make it either good or bad.

When someone blamed Hecataeus the sophist because that, being invited to the public table, he had not spoken one word all supper-time, Archidamidas answered in his vindication 'He who knows how to speak, knows also when'.