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“We are more sensible of what is done against custom than against Nature.”

Plutarch

Of Eating of Flesh, Tract 1
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)

“For many, as Cranton tells us, and those very wise men, not now but long ago, have deplored the condition of human nature, esteeming life a punishment, and to be born a man the highest pitch of calamity; this, Aristotle tells us, Silenus declared when he was brought captive to Midas.”

Plutarch

Consolation to Apollonius

“Anacharsis coming to Athens, knocked at Solon's door, and told him that he, being a stranger, was come to be his guest, and contract a friendship with him; and Solon replying, "It is better to make friends at home," Anacharsis replied, "Then you that are at home make friendship with me."”

Plutarch

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

“When Demosthenes was asked what was the first part of oratory, he answered, "Action;" and which was the second, he replied, "Action;" and which was the third, he still answered, "Action."”

Plutarch

Lives of the Ten Orators
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)

“Abstain from beans; that is, keep out of public offices, for anciently the choice of the officers of state was made by beans.”

Plutarch book Moralia

Moralia, Of the Training of Children

“He made one of Antipater's recommendation a judge; and perceiving afterwards that his hair and beard were coloured, he removed him, saying, "I could not think one that was faithless in his hair could be trusty in his deeds."”

Plutarch

40 Philip
Apophthegms of Kings and Great Commanders

“Nothing made the horse so fat as the king's eye.”

Plutarch book Moralia

Moralia, Of the Training of Children

“When Philip had news brought him of divers and eminent successes in one day, "O Fortune!" said he, "for all these so great kindnesses do me some small mischief."”

Plutarch

34 Philip
Apophthegms of Kings and Great Commanders

“Let us not wonder if something happens which never was before, or if something doth not appear among us with which the ancients were acquainted.”

Plutarch

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

“You ask of me then for what reason it was that Pythagoras abstained from eating of flesh. I for my part do much admire in what humor, with what soul or reason, the first man with his mouth touched slaughter, and reached to his lips the flesh of a dead animal, and having set before people courses of ghastly corpses and ghosts, could give those parts the names of meat and victuals, that but a little before lowed, cried, moved, and saw; how his sight could endure the blood of slaughtered, flayed, and mangled bodies; how his smell could bear their scent; and how the very nastiness happened not to offend the taste, while it chewed the sores of others, and participated of the saps and juices of deadly wounds.”

Plutarch book Moralia

I, 1
Moralia, Of Eating of Flesh

“Dionysius the Elder, being asked whether he was at leisure, he replied, "God forbid that it should ever befall me!"”

Plutarch

32 Dionysius
Apophthegms of Kings and Great Commanders

“Thus they let their anger and fury take from them the sense of humanity, and demonstrated that no beast is more savage than man when possessed with power answerable to his rage.”

Plutarch

"The Life of Cicero"

“Alcibiades had a very handsome dog, that cost him seven thousand drachmas; and he cut off his tail, "that," said he, "the Athenians may have this story to tell of me, and may concern themselves no further with me."”

Plutarch

50 Alcibiades
Apophthegms of Kings and Great Commanders

“To one commending an orator for his skill in amplifying petty matters, Agesilaus said, "I do not think that shoemaker a good workman that makes a great shoe for a little foot."”

Plutarch

Of Agesilaus the Great
Laconic Apophthegms

“Antagoras the poet was boiling a conger, and Antigonus, coming behind him as he was stirring his skillet, said, "Do you think, Antagoras, that Homer boiled congers when he wrote the deeds of Agamemnon?" Antagoras replied, "Do you think, O king, that Agamemnon, when he did such exploits, was a peeping in his army to see who boiled congers?"”

Plutarch

46 Antigonus I
Apophthegms of Kings and Great Commanders

“The pilot cannot mitigate the billows or calm the winds.”

Plutarch

On the Tranquillity of the Mind
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)

“Authority and place demonstrate and try the tempers of men, by moving every passion and discovering every frailty.”

Plutarch book Parallel Lives

Demosthenes and Cicero, sec. 3
Parallel Lives

“Ought a man to be confident that he deserves his good fortune, and think much of himself when he has overcome a nation, or city, or empire; or does fortune give this as an example to the victor also of the uncertainty of human affairs, which never continue in one stay? For what time can there be for us mortals to feel confident, when our victories over others especially compel us to dread fortune, and while we are exulting, the reflection that the fatal day comes now to one, now to another, in regular succession, dashes our joy.”

Plutarch book Parallel Lives

Aemilius, sec. 27
Parallel Lives

“He said that in his whole life he most repented of three things: one was that he had trusted a secret to a woman; another, that he went by water when he might have gone by land; the third, that he had remained one whole day without doing any business of moment.”

Plutarch

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

“You speak truth," said Themistocles; "I should never have been famous if I had been of Seriphus; nor you, had you been of Athens.”

Plutarch

Life of Themistocles