Plutarch cytaty

strona 3

„Jeżeli twierdzisz, że natura zaprojektowała Cię abyś jadł mięso, to najpierw zabij własnoręcznie to co zamierzasz zjeść. Zrób to, uzbrojony jednak tylko w to, w co wyposażyła Cię natura, bez pomocy noża, tasaka czy topora.”

„Broda nie czyni nikogo filozofem.”

„Umysł nie jest naczyniem, które należy napełnić, lecz ogniem, który trzeba rozniecić.”

„Medycyna i gimnastyka leczą ciało. Lekarstwem dla chorej duszy jest tylko filozofia.”

„Macie zwyczaj nazywania dzikimi bestiami węże, leopardy i lwy; lecz sami jesteście splamieni krwią i w niczym nie ustępujecie ich okrucieństwu. One zabijają jedynie dla zdobywania swojego normalnego pożywienia, lecz wy zabijacie by wykwintniej zastawić stół.”

„Życie nie jest koniecznie, konieczna jest podróż.”

„Tak jak but zmienia kształt przez nogę, a nie odwrotnie, tak też duchowe pragnienia zmieniają życie człowieka.”

„Trzeba żyć, a nie tylko istnieć.”

„Jeśli przeciwnik popadł w gniew, mądry pozwala sporowi wygasnąć.”

„Z wszystkich ludzkich rzeczy tylko wiedza jest nieśmiertelna.”

„Przyjaciel jest bardziej konieczny niż ogień i woda.”

„Synowie władców i wysoko urodzonych powinni przede wszystkim doskonalić naukę jazdy konno.”

„Mężowie w tym są niesprawiedliwi, bo wymagają od swych żon wierności, a sami nie zawsze jej dochowują. Podobni są w tym do owego hetmana, który od żołnierzy wymaga, żeby odważnie walczyli, a sam ucieka.”

„Świnia poucza Minerwę.”

„Bardziej królewską rzeczą niż zwyciężanie jest panowanie nad samym sobą.”

„Puste beczki i głupcy robią dużo hałasu.”

„Kto uciechom Wenery zbyt trwożnie się broni, grzeszy równie jak drugi, co ją nadto goni.”

„Działać (…) powinniśmy zawsze z pełną świadomością celu.”

„Milczenie w odpowiednim momencie jest ważniejsze i lepsze od wszelkich słów.”

„Najlepszą wagą do mierzenia przyjaźni jest nieszczęście.”

„Wieziesz Cezara i jego los.”

„Śmierć jest końcem wszystkich spraw życia ludzkiego, wyjąwszy przesądy i zabobony.”

„Łatwiej jest miasto w powietrzu wybudować niż założyć państwo bez religii.”

„Charakter to długotrwałe przyzwyczajenie.”

„Kiedy zgasi się świece, wszystkie kobiety pięknieją.”

„O zmarłych nic, jeśli nie dobrze.”

„Nie ma groźniejszego potwora od człowieka.”

„Człowiek rozumny nie przychodzi na biesiadę, jakby był tylko garnkiem do napchania, ale po to takż, aby użyć i poważnej rozmowy, i żartów, i posłuchać czegoś, i samemu opowiedzieć w towarzystwie coś stosownego w danych okolicznościach - jeżeli zebranie ma stanowić dla obecnych przyjemność.”

„Nie uważajmy krótkotrwałego dobra za wielkie zło i nie bądźmy niewdzięczni za to, co los nam dał, dlatego ze nie dało tego, czegośmy się spodziewali.”

„Żądza zadawani bólu jest tym większa, im większa jest słabość.”

“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.”

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

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

“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?”

“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."”

“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.”

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

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

“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.”

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

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

“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."”

“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.”

“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."”

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

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

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

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

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

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

“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.”

“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."”

“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."”

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

“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."”

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

“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."”

“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.”

“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.”