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Socrates said he was not an Athenian or a Greek, but a citizen of the world.
-Plutarch
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Solon being asked, namely, what city was best to live in. That city, he replied, in which those who are not wronged, no less than those who are wronged, exert themselves to punish the wrongdoers.
-Plutarch
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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.
-Plutarch
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Action(s)
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When Demosthenes was asked what were the three most important aspects of oratory, he answered, Action, Action, Action.
-Plutarch
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Adversity
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Prosperity is no just scale; adversity is the only balance to weigh friends.
-Plutarch
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Those who aim at great deeds must also suffer greatly.
-Plutarch
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Advice
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Vos vestros servate, meos mihi linquite mores
You keep to your own ways, and leave mine to me
Editor's note: seems to be a predecessor to Live and Let Live
-Plutarch
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Ancestry, Ancestors
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It is indeed a desirable thing to be well-descended, but the glory belongs to our ancestors.
-Plutarch
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Birth
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Good birth is a fine thing, but the merit is our ancestors.
-Plutarch
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Blame
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To find a fault is easy; to do better may be difficult.
-Plutarch
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Bravery
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Distressed valor challenges great respect, even from an enemy.
-Plutarch
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Courage consists not in hazarding without fear; but being resolutely minded in a just cause.
-Plutarch
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Courage stands halfway between cowardice and rashness, one of which is a lack, the other an excess of courage.
-Plutarch
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Change
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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.
-Plutarch
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Character
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Character is simply habit long continued.
-Plutarch
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Children
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The wildest colts make the best horses.
-Plutarch
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Contentment
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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
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Death
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Not by lamentations and mournful chants ought we to celebrate the funeral of a good man, but by hymns, for in ceasing to be numbered with mortals he enters upon the heritage of a diviner life.
-Plutarch
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Divorce
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A Roman divorced from his wife, being highly blamed by his friends, who demanded, Was she not chaste? Was she not fair? Was she not fruitful? holding out his shoe, asked them whether it was not new and well made. Yet, added he, none of you can tell where it pinches me.
-Plutarch
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The reason of this separation has not come to our knowledge; but there seems to be a truth conveyed in the account of another Roman's being divorced from his wife, which may be applicable here. This person being highly blamed by his friends, who demanded, Was she not chaste? was she not fair? was she not fruitful? holding out his shoe, asked them, Whether it was not new? and well made? Yet, added he, none of you can tell where it pinches me.
-Plutarch, AEMILIUS PAULUS translated by John Dryden
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Failure
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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
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Fate & Destiny
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Fate leads him who follows it, and drags him who resist.
-Plutarch
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Food
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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.
http://www.bravebirds.org/plutarch.html
-Plutarch, The Eating of Flesh
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Happiness
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Do not speak of your happiness to one less fortunate than yourself.
-Plutarch
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History
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To be ignorant of the lives of the most celebrated men of antiquity is to continue in a state of childhood all our days.
-Plutarch
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Books by and about Plutarch