Top 300 Plutarch Quotes (2024 Update)

1. “The mind is not a vessel to be filled but a fire to be kindled.”

— Plutarch

Featured in: Leadership Quotes, Education Quotes

2. “Come back with your shield – or on it.”

— Plutarch

3. “I don’t need a friend who changes when I change and who nods when I nod; my shadow does that much better.”

— Plutarch

4. “What we achieve inwardly will change outer reality.”

— Plutarch

5. “For the wise man, every day is a festival.”

— Plutarch

6. “A Spartan woman, as she handed her son his shield, exhorted him saying, “As a warrior of Sparta come back with your shield or on it.””

— Plutarch

7. “Proper listening is the foundation of proper living.”

— Plutarch

Featured in: Quotes About Listening

8. “God is the brave man’s hope, and not the coward’s excuse.”

— Plutarch

9. “No beast is more savage than man when possessed with power answerable to his rage.”

— Plutarch

Featured in: Anger Quotes

10. “The great god Pan is dead.”

— Plutarch

11. “Painting is silent poetry, and poetry is painting that speaks.”

— Plutarch

12. “If I were not Alexander, I would be Diogenes.”

— Plutarch

13. “Know how to listen, and you will profit even from those who talk badly.”

— Plutarch

14. “Rest is the sweet sauce of labor.”

— Plutarch

Featured in: Fitness Quotes

15. “A good man will take care of his horses and dogs, not only while they are young, but also when they are old and past service.”

— Plutarch

16. “Barba non facit philosophum.”

— Plutarch

17. “The Spartans do not ask how many are the enemy but where are they.”

— Plutarch

18. “Silence at the proper season is wisdom, and better than any speech.”

— Plutarch

19. “The worship most acceptable to God comes from a thankful and cheerful heart.”

— Plutarch

20. “To make no mistakes is not in the power of man; but from their errors and mistakes the wise and good learn wisdom for the future.”

— Plutarch

21. “When Demosthenes was asked what were the three most important aspects of oratory, he answered, ‘Action, Action, Action.’”

— Plutarch

22. “Instead of using medicine, better fast today.”

— Plutarch

Featured in: Medicine Quotes

23. “A warrior carries his shield for the sake of the entire line.”

— Plutarch

24. “Those who aim at great deeds must also suffer greatly.”

— Plutarch

25. “It is part of a good man to do great and noble deeds, though he risk everything.”

— Plutarch

26. “An imbalance between rich and poor is the oldest and most fatal ailment of all republics.”

— Plutarch

27. “Fate leads him who follows it, and drags him who resist.”

— Plutarch

28. “I see the cure is not worth the pain.”

— Plutarch

29. “Caesar’s wife should be above suspicion.”

— Plutarch

30. “Wisdom is neither gold, nor silver, nor fame, nor wealth, nor health, nor strength, nor beauty.”

— Plutarch

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

— Plutarch

32. “Perseverance is more prevailing than violence; and many things which cannot be overcome when they are together, yield themselves up when taken little by little.”

— Plutarch

33. “Spintharus, speaking in commendation of Epaminondas, says he scarce ever met with any man who knew more and spoke less.”

— Plutarch

34. “It is a true proverb, that if you live with a lame man, you will learn to limp.”

— Plutarch

35. “The talkative listen to no one, for they are ever speaking. And the first evil that attends those who know not to be silent is that they hear nothing.”

— Plutarch

Featured in: Firsts Quotes

36. “Wise men are able to make a fitting use even of their enmities.”

— Plutarch

37. “Neither blame or praise yourself.”

— Plutarch

38. “But for the sake of some little mouthful of flesh we deprive a soul of the sun and light, and of that proportion of life and time it had been born into the world to enjoy.”

— Plutarch

39. “Grief is natural; the absence of all feeling is undesirable, but moderation in grief should be observed, as in the face of all good or evil.”

— Plutarch

40. “When the candles are out all women are fair.”

— Plutarch

41. “A lover’s soul lives in the body of his mistress.”

— Plutarch

42. “The measure of a man is the way he bears up under misfortune.”

— Plutarch

43. “Extraordinary rains pretty generally fall after great battles.”

— Plutarch

44. “The whole life of man is but a point of time; let us enjoy it.”

— Plutarch

45. “For the correct analogy for the mind is not a vessel that needs filling, but wood that needs igniting.”

— Plutarch

46. “For it was not so much that by means of words I came to a complete understanding of things, as that from things I somehow had an experience which enabled me to follow the meaning of words.”

— Plutarch

47. “Silence is an answer to a wise man.”

— Plutarch

48. “Alexander esteemed it more kingly to govern himself than to conquer his enemies.”

— Plutarch

49. “For the mind does not require filling like a bottle, but rather, like wood, it only requires kindling to create in it an impulse to think independently and an ardent desire for the truth.”

— Plutarch

50. “Learn to be pleased with everything, with wealth so far as it makes us beneficial to others; with poverty, for not having much to care for; and with obscurity, for being unenvied.”

— Plutarch