Plutarch

To make an action honorable, it ought to be agreeable to the age, and other circumstances of the person; since it is circumstance and proper measure that give an action its character, and make it either good or bad.

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

By the aid of philosophy you will live not unpleasantly, for you will learn to extract pleasure from all places and things: wealth will make you happy, because it will enable you to benefit many; and poverty, as you will not then have many anxieties; and glory, for it will make you honoured; and obscurity, for you will then be safe from envy.

When a man's eyes are sore his friends do not let him finger them, however much he wishes to, nor do they themselves touch the inflammation: But a man sunk in grief suffers every chance comer to stir and augment his affliction like a running sore; and by reason of the fingering and consequent irritation it hardens into a serious and intractable evil.

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

But being overborne with numbers, and nobody daring to face about, stretching out his hands to heaven, [Romulus] prayed to Jupiter to stop the army, and not to neglect but maintain the Roman cause, now in extreme danger. The prayer was no sooner made, than shame and respect for their king checked many; the fears of the fugitives changed suddenly into confidence.

The superstitious man wishes he did not believe in gods, as the atheist does not, but fears to disbelieve in them.

For fortune having hitherto seconded him in his designs, made him resolute and firm in his opinions, and the boldness of his temper raised a sort of passion in him for surmounting difficulties; as if it were not enough to be always victorious in the field, unless places and seasons and nature herself submitted to him.

A mind is not a vessel to be filled, but a fire to be lighted.

While Leonidas was preparing to make his stand, a Persian envoy arrived. The envoy explained to Leonidas the futility of trying to resist the advance of the Great King's army and demanded that the Greeks lay down their arms and submit to the might of Persia. Leonidas laconically told Xerxes, "Come and get them.

It is a thing of no great difficulty to raise objections against another man's oration, it is a very easy matter; but to produce a better in it's place is a work extremely troublesome.

Courage consists not in hazarding without fear but being resolutely minded in a just cause.

Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire. __or 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.

The mind is not a vessel to be filled, but a fire to be kindled.

Painting is silent poetry, and poetry is painting that speaks.

I don't need a friend who changes when I change and who nods when I nod my shadow does that much better.

Courage stands halfway between cowardice and rashness, one of which is a lack, the other an excess of courage.

No man ever wetted clay and then left it, as if there would be bricks by chance and fortune.