Plutarch

Who was Plutarch?

Plutarch then named, on his becoming a Roman citizen, Lucius Mestrius Plutarchus, c. 46 – 120 AD, was a Greek historian, biographer, and essayist, known primarily for his Parallel Lives and Moralia. He is considered today to be a Middle Platonist.

Famous Quotes:

• The mind is not a vessel to be filled, but a fire to be kindled.
• All men whilst they are awake are in one common world: but each of them, when he is asleep, is in a world of his own.
• Abstain from beans.
• The first evil those who are prone to talk suffer, is that they hear nothing.
• He made the city [Athens], great as it was when he took it, the greatest and richest of all cities, and grew to be superior in power to kings and tyrants. Some of these actually appointed him guardian of their sons, but he did not make his estate a single drachma greater than it was when his father left it to him.
• In human life there is constant change of fortune; and it is unreasonable to expect an exemption from the common fate. Life itself decays, and all things are daily changing.
• 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.
• Prosperity is no just scale; adversity is the only balance to weigh friends.
• Distressed valor challenges great respect, even from an enemy.
• Courage stands halfway between cowardice and rashness, one of which is a lack, the other an excess of courage.