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“Aristodemus, a friend of Antigonus, supposed to be a cook's son, advised him to moderate his gifts and expenses. "Thy words," said he, "Aristodemus, smell of the apron."”

Plutarch

44 Antigonus I
Apophthegms of Kings and Great Commanders

“Moral habits, induced by public practices, are far quicker in making their way into men's private lives, than the failings and faults of individuals are in infecting the city at large.”

Plutarch book Parallel Lives

Lysander, sec. 17
Parallel Lives

“To sing the same tune, as the saying is, is in everything cloying and offensive; but men are generally pleased with variety.”

Plutarch book Moralia

Moralia, Of the Training of Children

“Young men," said Cæsar, "hear an old man to whom old men hearkened when he was young.”

Plutarch

Cæsar Augustus
Roman Apophthegms

“Why does pouring oil on the sea make it clear and calm? Is it for that the winds, slipping the smooth oil, have no force, nor cause any waves?”

Plutarch

Symposiacs, book viii. Question IX
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)

“Laughing at his own son, who got his mother, and by his mother's means his father also, to indulge him, he told him that he had the most power of any one in Greece: "For the Athenians command the rest of Greece, I command the Athenians, your mother commands me, and you command your mother."”

Plutarch

Life of Themistocles

“Being summoned by the Athenians out of Sicily to plead for his life, Alcibiades absconded, saying that that criminal was a fool who studied a defence when he might fly for it.”

Plutarch

51 Alcibiades
Apophthegms of Kings and Great Commanders

“For my part, I had rather be the first man among these fellows than the second man in Rome.”

Plutarch book Parallel Lives

Parallel Lives, Caesar

“Agesilaus being invited once to hear a man who admirably imitated the nightingale, he declined, saying he had heard the nightingale itself.”

Plutarch

Life of Agesilaus II
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)

“Yet through Alexander (the Great) Bactria and the Caucasus learned to revere the gods of the Greeks … Alexander established more than seventy cities among savage tribes, and sowed all Asia with Greek magistracies … Egypt would not have its Alexandria, nor Mesopotamia its Seleucia, nor Sogdiana its Prophthasia, nor India its Bucephalia, nor the Caucasus a Greek city, for by the founding of cities in these places savagery was extinguished and the worse element, gaining familiarity with the better, changed under its influence.”

Plutarch book Moralia

On the Fortune of Alexander, I, 328D, 329A Loeb, F.C. Babbitt
Moralia, Others

“Eurybiades lifting up his staff as if he were going to strike, Themistocles said, "Strike, if you will; but hear."”

Plutarch

Life of Themistocles

“Cato said, "I had rather men should ask why my statue is not set up, than why it is."”

Plutarch

Political Precepts
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)

“Leo Byzantius said, "What would you do, if you saw my wife, who scarce reaches up to my knees?… Yet," went he on, "as little as we are, when we fall out with each other, the city of Byzantium is not big enough to hold us."”

Plutarch

Political Precepts
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)

“Anacharsis said a man's felicity consists not in the outward and visible favours and blessings of Fortune, but in the inward and unseen perfections and riches of the mind.”

Plutarch

The Banquet of the Seven Wise Men, 11
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)

“There were two brothers called Both and Either; perceiving Either was a good, understanding, busy fellow, and Both a silly fellow and good for little, Philip said, "Either is both, and Both is neither."”

Plutarch

35 Philip
Apophthegms of Kings and Great Commanders

“Go on, my friend, and fear nothing; you carry Cæsar and his fortunes in your boat.”

Plutarch book Parallel Lives

Parallel Lives, Caesar

“Did you not know, then, that to-day Lucullus sups with Lucullus?”

Plutarch

Life of Lucullus
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)

“Lysander said that the law spoke too softly to be heard in such a noise of war.”

Plutarch

Life of Caius Marius
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)

“Phocion compared the speeches of Leosthenes to cypress-trees. "They are tall," said he, "and comely, but bear no fruit."”

Plutarch

56 Phocion
Apophthegms of Kings and Great Commanders

“Xenophon says that there is no sound more pleasing than one's own praises.”

Plutarch

Whether an Aged Man ought to meddle in State Affairs
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)