Plutarch: Doing

Plutarch was ancient Greek historian and philosopher. Explore interesting quotes on doing.
Plutarch: 502 quotes14 likes

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

Plutarch

“Do not speak of your happiness to one less fortunate than yourself.”

Plutarch

Source: The Fall of the Roman Republic: Six Lives

“After the battle in Pharsalia, when Pompey was fled, one Nonius said they had seven eagles left still, and advised to try what they would do. "Your advice," said Cicero, "were good if we were to fight jackdaws."”

Plutarch

Cicero
Roman Apophthegms

“As geographers, Sosius, crowd into the edges of their maps parts of the world which they do not know about, adding notes in the margin to the effect that beyond this lies nothing but sandy deserts full of wild beasts, and unapproachable bogs.”

Plutarch

Life of Theseus, reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)

“Xenophanes said, "I confess myself the greatest coward in the world, for I dare not do an ill thing."”

Plutarch

Of Bashfulness
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)

“The most glorious exploits do not always furnish us with the clearest discoveries of virtue or vice in men.”

Plutarch

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

“Thus our judgments, if they do not borrow from reason and philosophy a fixity and steadiness of purpose in their acts, are easily swayed and influenced by the praise or blame of others, which make us distrust our own opinions.”

Plutarch book Parallel Lives

Timoleon, sec. 6
Parallel Lives

“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)

“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

“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

“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

“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)

“Lamachus chid a captain for a fault; and when he had said he would do so no more, "Sir," said he, "in war there is no room for a second miscarriage." Said one to Iphicrates, "What are ye afraid of?" "Of all speeches," said he, "none is so dishonourable for a general as ‘I should not have thought of it.'"”

Plutarch

52 Iphicrates
Apophthegms of Kings and Great Commanders

“Statesmen are not only liable to give an account of what they say or do in public, but there is a busy inquiry made into their very meals, beds, marriages, and every other sportive or serious action.”

Plutarch

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

“A traveller at Sparta, standing long upon one leg, said to a Lacedæmonian, "I do not believe you can do as much." "True," said he, "but every goose can."”

Plutarch

Remarkable Speeches
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)

“As Athenodorus was taking his leave of Cæsar, "Remember," said he, "Cæsar, whenever you are angry, to say or do nothing before you have repeated the four-and-twenty letters to yourself."”

Plutarch

Cæsar Augustus
Roman Apophthegms

“It was the saying of Bion, that though the boys throw stones at frogs in sport, yet the frogs do not die in sport but in earnest.”

Plutarch

Which are the most crafty, Water or Land Animals?, 7
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)

“And this," said Cæsar, "you know, young man, is more disagreeable for me to say than to do.”

Plutarch book Parallel Lives

Parallel Lives, Caesar