Plutarch 46-120 A.D.

Source: Plutarch. Moralia. Loeb Classical Library. 14 vols.

Courtesy of translator Giles Laurén, author of The Stoic's Bible.

Plutarch Moralia Quotes, Page: I | II | III | IV

Our friendships, if nothing else, involve us in enmities.
PL MOR 2 P5.

Consider your enemy and see whether he does not in some way offer you a means to profit by him.
PL MOR 2 P9.

Some have made banishment and loss of property a means to leisure and philosophic study, as did Diogenes and Crates. Zeno, on learning that his ship had been lost, exclaimed: A real kindness, O Fortune, that thou dost join in driving us into the philosopher's cloak.

PL MOR 2 P9.
PL MOR 6, p.183.

The man who knows that his enemy is his competitor in life and repute is more heedful of himself and circumspect in his actions and this brings his life into better harmony.
PL MOR 2 P13.

We feel more ashamed of our faults before our enemies than before our friends.
PL MOR 2 P13.

Since men are distressed when they see their enemies doing well, what must be their state of mind in seeing you a better man, an honest, sensible, useful citizen?
PL MOR 2 P15.

After the annihilation of the Carthaginians Nasica remarked: Now is our position really dangerous since we have left for ourselves none to make us either ashamed or afraid.
PL MOR 2 P15.

If you wish to distress the man who hates you do not revile him; show yourself a man of self-control, be truthful, and treat with kindness and justice those with whom you have to deal.
PL MOR 2 P17.

If you call your enemy uneducated, increase your learning; if you call him coward increase your self reliance; if you call him licentious curb yourself the more. There is nothing more disgraceful than speaking evil that recoils upon its author.

PL MOR 2 P17.

If the man who reviles another will at once carefully inspect himself and make adjustments for the better, he will have gained from reviling that which is otherwise useless.
PL MOR 2 P19.

The man who is going to indulge in reviling need not be smart, loud voiced and aggressive, but he must be irreproachable and unimpeachable.
PL MOR 2 P 19.

Upon none does the divine power seem to enjoin the precept, KNOW THYSELF, so much as upon one who purposes to censure another, so that such persons by saying what they please must listen in turn to what is displeasing.
PL MOR 2 P21.

Thus there is much that is profitable in reviling an enemy and there is no less profit in being reviled by an enemy since friendship's voice has become thin and flattery voluble we have to listen to our enemies to hear the truth.
PL MOR 2 P21.

Whenever any calumny has been said of you, you must not disregard it just because it is false, but rather seek to discover what act or word of yours gave colour to the calumny and carefully avoid it.
PL MOR 2 P25.

What is to hinder a man from taking his enemy as his teacher without fee and profiting thereby by learning things of which he was unaware?
PL MOR 2 P25.

There is nothing more dignified and noble than to maintain a calm demeanour when an enemy reviles one.
PL MOR 2 P29.

Once you acquire the habit of bearing an enemy's abuse in silence, you will easily bear up under a wife's attack when she rails at you; you will hear without discomposure the bitterest words of friend and brother; you will bear the blows of father or mother without passion or wrath.
PL MOR 2 P29.

A man may be admired for taking vengeance on an enemy when the opportunity occurs, but if he should show compassion for an enemy in affliction or render service to his children, he will be admired by the gods and all good men.
PL MOR 2 P31.

There must be no economy of commendation or due honour in the case of an enemy who has justly gained a fair repute, for such an attitude wins greater commendation for those who bestow it.
PL MOR 2 P31.

A man is farther from envying the good fortune of friends and relatives if he has acquired the habit of commending his enemies. What training produces greater benefit to our souls, or a better disposition, than that which takes away our jealousy and envy?
PL MOR 2 P31.

When Cæsar ordered Pompey's statues restored, Cicero said: You have restored Pompey's statues and you have made your own secure.
PL MOR 2 P31.

Many things which are necessary in war are bad at other times. Once they acquire the sanction of custom and law, they cannot be easily abolished by the people even when they are injurious. Enmity introduces envy along with hatred and vindictiveness and leaves a residue of jealousy and joy in the misfortune of others. Knavery, deceit and intrigue, which seem justified against an enemy, may find a permanent tenure that is hard to eject and men begin to employ them against their friends through force of habit.
PL MOR 2 P 33.

It is surely a grand achievement for a man to be noble and honest in his disagreements with others and put down his base tendencies so that his dealings with his friends may always be steadfast and upright.
PL MOR 2 P33.

If we acquire the habit of practicing honesty in dealing with our enemies, we shall never deal dishonestly with our friends.
PL MOR 2 P35.

When Demus came to power in Chios he advised his associates not to banish all their opponents: That we may not begin to quarrel with our friends through being rid of enemies.
PL MOR 2 P35.

He who thinks that it is by good fortune only that his enemy surpasses him in pleading cases, in state administration, or in standing with his friends, is sinking into a state of jealousy and discouragement that is inert and ineffectual.
PL MOR 2 P39.

If our enemies appear to reap rewards by flattery, knavery and bribery, they will not annoy us, but rather give us joy if we but recall our freedom, simplicity of life and our immunity from attack.
PL MOR 2 P39.

Nothing enviable or noble ever springs from dishonour.
PL MOR 2 P39.

One thing that is particularly antagonistic to acquiring friends is the desire to acquire numerous friends for it is like licentious women who due to their frequent intimacies with many men cannot keep any.
PL MOR 2 P49.

It is always the fresh and blooming friend that allures us and makes us change our mind; in pursuing the new we pass over the old.
PL MOR 2 P49.

It is impossible to acquire many slaves or many friends with little coin; the coin of friendship is goodwill and graciousness combined with virtue; nothing in nature is more rare.
PL MOR 2 P51.

True friendship seeks three things: virtue as a good thing, intimacy as a pleasant thing, usefulness as a necessary thing. A man ought to use judgement before accepting a friend and these requirements stand in the way of having many friends.
PL MOR 2 P53.

We ought not to accept chance acquaintances readily, nor make friends with those who seek after us, rather we should seek out those who are worthy of friendship.
PL MOR 2 P55.

The enjoyment of friendship lies in its intimacy and daily companionship.
PL MOR 2 P57.

True friendship desires unity and consolidation; a multitude of friends causes disunion, separation, and divergence.
PL MOR 2 P57.

For fond affection does not brook neglect. Menender.
PL MOR 2 P59. He who accepts the services of many for his needs must in turn render like service to many in their need.
PL MOR 2 P61.

Men who seek for a swarm of friends unwittingly run afoul of hornets' nests of enemies.
PL MOR 2 P63.

What man is so indefatigable, so changeable, so universally acceptable, that he can assimilate himself to many persons without deriding his character?
PL MOR 2 P67.

Friendship seeks a fixed and steadfast character which does not shift about, but continues in one place and in one intimacy. For this reason a steadfast friend is rare and hard to find.
PL MOR 2 P69.

If self control, justice and bravery exist, how is it possible to reason that intelligence does not exist, and if intelligence exists must not sagacity exist also? If we impute sagacity to chance, so too must self control and justice be so imputed and it follows that we should abandon our reasoning process to chance.
PL MOR 2 P77.

What can be found out or learned by man if the issue of all things is chance?
PL MOR 2 P79.

The arts have Labour, that is Athena, and not Chance as their coadjutor.
PL MOR 2 P85.

A pleasant and happy life does not come from external things, it draws on its own character to add pleasure and joy to the things that surround it.
PL MOR 2 P95.

Where is the pleasure in vice if it does not free us from care and grief or bring contentment and calm?
PL MOR 2 P99.

Once you have learned what the honourable and good is, you will be content with your lot, luxurious in poverty, and live like a king.
PL MOR 2 P101.

If you become a philosopher you will live pleasantly and learn to subsist pleasantly anywhere and with any resources. Wealth will give you gladness for the good you will do to many, poverty for your freedom from many cares, repute for the honours you will enjoy, and obscurity for the certainty that you will not be envied.
PL MOR 2 P101.

To be carried beyond bounds and exaggerate our grief is contrary to nature and results from depraved ideas.
PL MOR 2 P111.

Sensible is he who keeps within appropriate bounds and is able to bear judiciously both the agreeable and the grievous in his lot. Make up your mind beforehand to conform to the disposition of things.
PL MOR 2 P113.

It is the task of rational prudence to guard against evil as it approaches or if it has happened, to rectify and minimise it or to provide one's self with noble patience and endure.
PL MOR 2 P115.

Man is mortal by nature, he has been allotted a mortal life where conditions readily reverse themselves.
PL MOR 2 P119.

To pass one's time free of the body and its emotions, which distract and taint the mind with human folly, would be blessed good fortune.
PL MOR 2 P141.

Rid of the irrationality of the body we shall be in company with others in like state and behold the pure and absolute truth; for the impure to touch the pure may be against divine ordinance.
PL MOR 2 P143.

This that we call an evil, death, is the only one of the supposed evils which when present has never caused anybody pain, but causes pain when it is not present and merely expected. Arcesilaus.
PL MOR 2 P151.

Excellence is not to be ascribed to length of time, but to worth and timely fitness, things that are regarded as tokens of good fortune and divine favour.
PL MOR 2 P157.

We everywhere observe that it is a happy use of opportunity rather than a happy old age the wins the highest place.
PL MOR 2 P157.

We have not come into this world to make laws for its governance, but to obey the commandments of the gods who preside over the universe and the decrees of Fate.
PL MOR 2 P159.

Do those who mourn for the untimely dead mourn on their own account or on account of the departed?
PL MOR 2 P159.

In the case of bodily afflictions the quickest relief is best. Therefore concede to reason and education what you must later concede to time and thus release yourself from your troubles.
PL MOR 2 P163.

If it be true that untimely death is an evil, than the most untimely would be that of infants and children and still more the newly born.
PL MOR 2 P169.

Perhaps Zeus, having a fatherly care for the human race and foreseeing future events, removes some persons from life early.
PL MOR 2 P189.

Many who have protracted their mourning have followed their lamented friends without having gained any advantage from mourning and only useless torment by their misery.
PL MOR 2 P191.

The time of our lives is short and we must therefore be chary of passing too much of it in extremes of mourning and try rather to live with a cheerful spirit.
PL MOR 2 P193.

The man who puts off until tomorrow is wrestling with disaster. Hesiod. Works and Days. 414.
PL MOR 2 P193.

Don't eat when you're not hungry or drink when you're not thirsty.
PL MOR 2 P229.

That which is pleasant is congenial to our nature and it is by remaining hungry that we increase the appetite and get the most enjoyment from basic foods. We should not stir up a second and separate set of appetites after we have appeased the natural ones.
PL MOR 2 P229.

The body should not be aroused to pleasure by the mind's desire since such an origin is unnatural. We ought to take more pride in abstinence than in fulfilment.
PL MOR 2 P233.

Infirmity makes many philosophers.
PL MOR 2 P237. 363

It makes no difference if a man practices lewdness in the front parlour or the back hall. Arcesilaus.
PL MOR 2 P237.

A wholesome and unspoiled appetite in a sound body makes everything pleasant and eagerly craved. Homer. Od. viii,164.
PL MOR 2 P239.

The body will not suffer from some restrictions and the loss of some encumbrances.
PL MOR 2 P247.

Those who fail in self-control because of pleasures should be reminded that pleasures derive most of their satisfaction from the body.
PL MOR 2 P247.

We are quick to see if the fish be fresh, the bread white, the bath warm, or the girl shapely, but slow to look at ourselves to see if we are nauseated, feculent, stale or in any way upset.
PL MOR 2 P249.

A man ought to handle his body like the sail of a ship, and neither lower nor reduce it when no cloud is in sight, nor be slack to manage it when he suspects something may be wrong.
PL MOR 2 P251.

It is well to accustom the body to do without meat. We may use it to supplement our diet and rely on foods that are more natural and less dulling to the mind, plain, light substances.
PL MOR 2 P265.

Wine is the most beneficial of beverages, the pleasantest of medicines, and the least cloying of appetising things, provided that there is a happy combination of it with the occasion as well as with water.
PL MOR 2 P265.

A man who objects to his place at table is objecting to his neighbour rather than to his host and makes himself hateful to both.
PL MOR 2 P365.

One ought to accustom oneself to taking two or three glasses of water every day.
PL MOR 2 P267.

We should follow the advice of physicians who recommend letting some time intervene between dinner and sleep.
PL MOR 2 P273.

The drinking of water for several days, or fasting, or enema should be tried before pernicious dosing.
PL MOR 2 P279. Health is not to be purchased by idleness and inactivity, the greatest evils attend on sickness. The man who thinks to conserve his health by idle ease does not differ from the man who guards his eyes by not seeing and his voice by not speaking.
PL MOR 2 P281.

Avoiding every activity that hinted at ambition did not help Epicurus and his followers to better bodily health.
PL MOR 2 P281.

People who have sense are least given to proffering pleasures to the body when it is busied with labours.
PL MOR 2 P287.

With regard to food and drink, it is more expedient to note what kinds are wholesome rather than pleasant, to be better acquainted with those that are good for the stomach rather than the appetite, and those that do not disturb the digestion rather than those that tickle the palate.
PL MOR 2 P289.

Nature adds pleasure with neither pain nor repentance to whatever is healthful and beneficial.
PL MOR 2 P291.

We should preserve the best balance between mind and body that allows us to get and use virtue in words and deeds.
PL MOR 2 P293.

The keen love that blazes up between newly married people burns fiercely as the result of physical attractiveness. It must not be regarded as enduring or constant until it becomes centred on character and gains hold over the rational faculties and attains a state of vitality.
PL MOR 2 P303.

Kings fond of the arts make persons incline to be artists; those fond of letters make many want to be scholars, and those fond of sport make many take up athletics. In like manner a man fond of his personal appearance makes a wife all paint and powder; one fond of pleasure makes her licentious, while a husband who loves what is good and honourable makes a wife discreet and well-behaved.
PL MOR 2 P311.

A wife ought not to make friends of her own, but enjoy her husband's friends in common with him.
PL MOR 2 P311.

It is the petty, continual daily clashes between man and wife that disrupt and mar married life.
PL MOR 2 P315.

By inherited custom the women of Egypt were not allowed to wear shoes to keep them home all day, and if you take from women their bangles and fancy dresses most stay indoors.
PL MOR 2 P321. The purpose of the Roman law that prohibited giving and receiving gifts between man and wife was not to prevent them from sharing, but that they should feel that they shared in all things.
PL MOR 2 P325.

A man who is going to harmonize State, Forum, and friends, ought to have his household well harmonised, for it is much more likely that sins against women will be noticed before any sins by women.
PL MOR 2 P333.

In the exercise of dominion there is one advantage to set against its many disadvantages: the honour and glory of a ruler who rules over good men by being better than they are.
PL MOR 2 P355.

As I was noticing that the dinner was plainer than usual there came to me the thought that the entertainment of wise and good men involves no expense, but rather curtails it since it does away with the elaborate.
PL MOR 2 P371.

How do you know good government?

• The people stand in as much fear of the law as of a despot. Bias.
• The citizens are neither too rich nor too poor. Thales.
• Public men dread censure more than the law. Cleobulus.
• Bad men are not allowed to hold office and good men are not allowed to refuse it. Pitticus.

PL MOR 2 P395.
But few persons are in control of kingdoms whereas we all have to do with a hearth and home. Aesop laughed and said: Not all if you include Anacharsis, for not only has he no home but he takes immense pride in being homeless and in using a wagon after the manner in which they say the sun makes his rounds in a chariot, occupying now one place and now another in the heavens.
PL MOR 2 P397.

You go about inspecting the works of carpenters and stone masons and regarding them as a home and not the inward, personal possessions of each man, his children, his spouse, his friends and servants and though it be in an anthill or a bird's nest yet if these are possessed of sense and direction they make a happy home. Anacharsis.
PL MOR 2 P399.

How do you know a good home?

• The best home is where no injustice is attached to the acquisition of property, no distrust in keeping it and no repentance in spending it. Solon.
• It is the home in which the head of the household maintains the same character at home and away from home. Bias.
• The home in which it is possible for the head to have the greatest leisure. Thales.
• If the head have more who love him than fear him. Cleobolus.
• Where nothing superfluous is needed and nothing necessary lacks. Pittacus.
  PL MOR 2. pp.399,401.

To cling to every form of pleasure is irrational, but to avoid every form of pleasure is insensate.
PL MOR 2 P419.

The one way to avoid temptation and to keep oneself righteousness is to become sufficient unto oneself and to need nothing from any other source.
PL MOR 2 P421.

Craving for the superfluous follows close upon the use of necessities and soon becomes habit.
PL MOR 2 P423.

Ignorance and blindness as to the gods divides itself into two streams: atheism and superstition.
PL MOR 2 P455.

A man assumes that wealth is the greatest good. This falsehood contains venom; it feeds upon the soul, distracts him, does not allow him to sleep, fills him with stinging desires, pushes him over precipices, chokes him and takes from him his freedom of speech.
PL MOR 2 P455.

Disbelief in the Divinity is to have no fear of the gods. Superstition, which means dread of deities, is an emotional idea that humbles and crushes man for he thinks that there are gods and they are the cause of pain and misery. In the one case ignorance engenders disbelief in the One who can help him, in the other is bestows the idea that He causes injury. Atheism is falsified reason and superstition is an emotion engendered from false reason.
PL MOR 2 P457.

Of all kinds of fear the most impotent and helpless is superstitious fear. He who fears the gods fears all things: earth, sea, air, sky, darkness, light sound and silence and a dream.
PL MOR 2 P459.

Superstition makes no truce with sleep and never gives the soul time to recover its courage by putting aside despondent notions concerning the gods.
PL MOR 2 P461.

Superstition, by its excess of caution, unwittingly subjects itself to every sort of dread.
PL MOR 2 P467.

The atheists don't think they see the gods at all, the superstitious see them everywhere and think them evil. The former disregard them the latter conceive their kindliness to be frightful, their fatherly solicitude to be despotic, their loving care to be injurious, their slowness to anger to be savage. Such persons give credence to workers in metal and stone and wax who make images of gods in the likeness of men and worship them. They hold in contempt philosophers who try to prove that the majesty of Zeus is associated with goodness, magnanimity, kindness and solicitude.
PL MOR 2 P469.

The superstitious man complains against Fortune and Chance and declares that nothing happens rightly or as the result of providence.
PL MOR 2 P473.

Zeus is brave hope, not cowardly excuse. The Jews, because it was the Sabbath day, sat in their places immovable while the enemy planted ladders against the walls and captured the defences. So they remained, fast bound in the toils of superstition as in one great net.
PL MOR 2 P481.

The atheist thinks there are no gods; the superstitious man wishes there were none.
PL MOR 2 P491.

I will not give poor gifts to one so rich, Lest you should take me for a fool, or I Should seem by giving to invite a gift. Euripides?

For he does no favour who gives small gifts from scanty means to wealthy men, since it is not credible that his giving is for nothing. He acquires a reputation for disingenuousness and servility.
PL MOR5 P199.

It was not by chance that € was the letter that came to occupy first place with the god and attained the rank of a sacred offering and something worth seeing; those who first sought knowledge of the god either discovered some particular potency in it or used it as a token to other matters of the highest concern. [? pronounced ??]
PL MOR5 P199.

Apollo has many titles: Pythian (Inquirer), Delian (Clear), Phanacan (Disclosing), Ismenian (Knowing), Leschenorian (Conversationalist). Since inquiry is the beginning of philosophy, and wonder and uncertainty the beginning of inquiry, it seems natural that a great part of what concerns the god should be concealed in riddles that call for some explanation of the cause. Consider the inscriptions, KNOW THYSELF and AVOID EXTREMES, how many philosophic inquires have they set on foot, and what a hoard of discourses!
PL MOR5. pp.203,205.

They say that those wise men who by some were called the 'Sophists' were actually five in number: Chilon, Thales, Solon, Bias and Pittacus. When Cleobolus, despot of the Lindians, and Periander of Corinth, who had neither virtue nor wisdom and forcibly acquired their repute, invaded the renown of the Wise Men by circulating sayings similar to theirs, the Wise Men did not like it. Loath to expose the imposture and arouse open hatred, they met here and dedicated that letter € which being fifth in the alphabet stands for the number five, thus testifying before the god that they were five and renounced the two pretenders. In support of this, note that the golden € was named the € of Livia, wife of Augustus, the bronze € the € of the Athenians, while the oldest one, made of wood, they still call the € of the Wise Men, as though it were an offering of the Wise Men in common. [EI = E, five]
PL MOR5. pp.205,207.

The commonly accepted opinion is that neither the appearance nor the sound of the letter has any cryptic meaning, only its name: It is the form of the consultation with the god and holds first place in every question, IF. Since to inquire from the god as a prophet is our individual prerogative and to pray to him as a god is common to all, they think the particle contains an operative force no less than an interrogative. [E = IF]
PL MOR5. pp.207,209.

The god was urging the Greeks to study geometry. When the god gives out ambiguous oracles, he is promoting logical reasoning for those who are to apprehend his meaning. No creature other than man apprehends, for he alone has a concept of antecedent and consequent, of apparent implication and connexion of these things with another and their relations and differences. Since philosophy is concerned with truth and the illumination of truth is demonstration and the inception of demonstration is the hypothetical syllogism, then with good reason this € was consecrated to the god, who is above all a lover of truth, by the wise men. [E, "if," is an indispensable word in logic for the construction of a syllogism: E = IF]
PL MOR5. pp.211,213.

Those who repose in the Theory of Numbers all affairs, natures and principles of things divine and human alike and make this theory a guide in all that is beautiful and valuable offer to the god the first fruits of mathematics, believing that € has come to be held in honour as the symbol of a sovereign number, the pempad, from which the wise gave the name pempazein to counting done in fives. [EI = E, five]
PL MOR5. pp.215,217.

Someone anticipated Plato [Sophist. 256c] in comprehending this before he did and dedicated to the god an €, the number of the elements. The god displays itself under five categories, [Philebus. 66 A-C.] of which the first is moderation, the second due proportion, the third the mind, the fourth the sciences and arts and true opinions and fifth any pleasure that is pure and unalloyed with pain.
PL MOR5 P235.

I am of the opinion that the significance of the € is neither a numeral nor a place in a series nor a conjunction. It is an address and salutation to the god, complete in itself, which being spoken, brings him who utters it to thought of the god's power. For the god addresses each one of us as we approach him here with the words KNOW THYSELF, as a form of welcome and we in turn reply to him 'Thou art,' as rendering unto him a form of address which is truthful, free from deception, and the only one befitting him, the assertion of Being. [EI is used in wishes or prayers to the god, often in the combination e??e or e? ?a?, E = IF or IF ONLY].
PL MOR5 P239.

How, if we remain the same persons, do we take delight in some things now, whereas earlier we took delight in different things; that we love or hate opposite things, and so too with our admirations and disapprovals, and that we use other words and feel other emotions and no longer have the same personal appearance, external form or the same purposes of mind? Without change it is not reasonable that a person should have different experiences and if he changes he is not the same, he has no permanent being and changes his very nature as one personality succeeds to another. Our senses, through ignorance of reality, falsely tell us what appears to be.
PL MOR5 P243.

What then really is Being? It is that which is eternal, without beginning and without end, to which time brings no change. Time is in motion, appearing in connexion with moving matter, ever flowing, retaining nothing, a receptacle of birth and decay whose familiar 'after,' 'before,' 'shall be' and 'has been,' when they are uttered, are of themselves a confession of Not Being. To speak of that which has not yet occurred in terms of Being, or to say that has ceased to be, is, is absurd.
PL MOR5 P243.

If Nature, when it is measured, is subject to the same processes as the agent that measures it, then there is nothing in Nature that has permanence or even existence, and all things are in the process of creation or destruction according to their relative position in time. It is irreverent in the case of that which is to say even that it was or shall be; for these are certain deviations, transitions, and alterations, belonging to that which by its character has no permanence in Being.
PL MOR5 P245.

Under these condition we ought as we pay Him reverence, greet Him and address Him, use the words, 'Thou art'; or even, I vow, as some of the men of old, "Thou art One."
PL MOR5 P245.

The Deity is not Many, like each of us who is compounded of hundreds of different factors which arise in our experience. Being must have Unity, even as Unity must have Being. The god's names are excellently adapted to him:

Apollo, that is to say, denying the Many and abjuring multiplicity; he is Ieius, as being One and One alone; and Phoebus is the name that men of old gave to everything pure and undefiled.
PL MOR5 P247.