Plutarch Zitate

seite 4

„„Ich brauche keinen Freund, der sich ändert, wenn ich mich ändere, und der nickt, wenn ich nicke. Mein Schatten macht das viel besser.“

„[ Wein ] ist unter den Getränken das nützlichste, unter den Arzneien das schmackhafteste und unter den Nahrungsmitteln das angenehmste.“

„Es ist schlimm, erst dann zu merken, dass man keine Freunde hat, wenn man Freunde nötig hat.“

„Der Wein ist unter den Getränken das nützlichste, unter den Arzneien das schmackhafteste, unter den Nahrungsmitteln das angenehmste.“

„Erholung ist die Würze der Arbeit.“

„Der Anfang des rechten Lebens ist, wie wir glauben, das rechte Hören.“

„Der Tod ist das Ende aller Dinge des menschlichen Lebens, nur des Aberglaubens nicht.“

„Armut ist keine Schande an sich, sondern wo sie ein Zeichen von Leichtfertigkeit, Mangel an Selbstbeherrschung, Gedankenlosigkeit oder Verschwendung ist.“

„Der Geist ist nicht wie ein Gefäß, das gefüllt werden soll, sondern wie Holz, das lediglich entzündet werden will.“

„Der Menge gefallen heißt den Weisen missfallen.“

„Die Kunst besteht darin, in allem den Mittelweg einzuhalten.“

„Dumm und feige ist, wer aus Furcht vor Verlust den Besitz des Nötigen ablehnt.“

„Ein lästiger und ungezogener Tischgenosse zerstört alle Lust.“

„Einsicht verschafft das Gute, erhält es, mehrt es und macht rechten Gebrauch davon.“

„Er schärfte den Seinen ein, kühn mit Verleumdungen zu packen und zu beißen, so dass, auch wenn der Gebissene die Wunde behandelt, die Narbe bleibt.“

„Lieber der Erste hier als der Zweite in Rom!“

„Man soll ebensowenig nach den Augen heiraten wie nach den Fingern.“

„Wenn ich dir etwas gebe, bettelst du umso mehr. Der Erste, der seine Hand auftut, ist schuld an deiner Gemeinheit, weil er dich zum Faulenzer machte.“

„Nachlässigkeit richtet selbst vorzügliche Anlage der Natur zugrunde.“

„Es ist schon wünschenswert, von guter Abstammung zu sein, aber der Ruhm dafür gebührt den Vorfahren.“

“Thus they let their anger and fury take from them the sense of humanity, and demonstrated that no beast is more savage than man when possessed with power answerable to his rage.”

“Alcibiades had a very handsome dog, that cost him seven thousand drachmas; and he cut off his tail, "that," said he, "the Athenians may have this story to tell of me, and may concern themselves no further with me."”

“To one commending an orator for his skill in amplifying petty matters, Agesilaus said, "I do not think that shoemaker a good workman that makes a great shoe for a little foot."”

“Antagoras the poet was boiling a conger, and Antigonus, coming behind him as he was stirring his skillet, said, "Do you think, Antagoras, that Homer boiled congers when he wrote the deeds of Agamemnon?" Antagoras replied, "Do you think, O king, that Agamemnon, when he did such exploits, was a peeping in his army to see who boiled congers?"”

“The pilot cannot mitigate the billows or calm the winds.”

“Authority and place demonstrate and try the tempers of men, by moving every passion and discovering every frailty.”

“Ought a man to be confident that he deserves his good fortune, and think much of himself when he has overcome a nation, or city, or empire; or does fortune give this as an example to the victor also of the uncertainty of human affairs, which never continue in one stay? For what time can there be for us mortals to feel confident, when our victories over others especially compel us to dread fortune, and while we are exulting, the reflection that the fatal day comes now to one, now to another, in regular succession, dashes our joy.”

“He said that in his whole life he most repented of three things: one was that he had trusted a secret to a woman; another, that he went by water when he might have gone by land; the third, that he had remained one whole day without doing any business of moment.”

“You speak truth," said Themistocles; "I should never have been famous if I had been of Seriphus; nor you, had you been of Athens.”

“Said Periander, "Hesiod might as well have kept his breath to cool his pottage."”

“Lamachus chid a captain for a fault; and when he had said he would do so no more, "Sir," said he, "in war there is no room for a second miscarriage." Said one to Iphicrates, "What are ye afraid of?" "Of all speeches," said he, "none is so dishonourable for a general as ‘I should not have thought of it.'"”

“Statesmen are not only liable to give an account of what they say or do in public, but there is a busy inquiry made into their very meals, beds, marriages, and every other sportive or serious action.”

“What spectator… would not exclaim… that through Fortune the foreign host was prevailing beyond its deserts, but through Virtue the Hellenes were holding out beyond their ability? And if the ones (i. e., the enemy) gains the upper hand, this will be the work of Fortune or of some jealous deity or of divine retribution; but if the others (i. e., the Greeks) prevail, it will be Virtue and daring, friendship and fidelity, that will win the guerdon of victory? These were, in fact, the only support that Alexander had with him at this time, since Fortune had put a barrier between him and the rest of his forces and equipment, fleets, horse, and camp. Finally, the Macedonians routed the barbarians, and, when they had fallen, pulled down their city on their heads.”

“T is a wise saying, Drive on your own track.”

“Pythagoras, when he was asked what time was, answered that it was the soul of this world.”

“The most perfect soul, says Heraclitus, is a dry light, which flies out of the body as lightning breaks from a cloud.”

“When one told Plistarchus that a notorious railer spoke well of him, "I 'll lay my life," said he, "somebody hath told him I am dead, for he can speak well of no man living."”

“Marius said, "I see the cure is not worth the pain."”

“Whenever Alexander heard Philip had taken any town of importance, or won any signal victory, instead of rejoicing at it altogether, he would tell his companions that his father would anticipate everything, and leave him and them no opportunities of performing great and illustrious actions.”

“It is no great wonder if in long process of time, while fortune takes her course hither and thither, numerous coincidences should spontaneously occur. If the number and variety of subjects to be wrought upon be infinite, it is all the more easy for fortune, with such an abundance of material, to effect this similarity of results.”

“To conduct great matters and never commit a fault is above the force of human nature.”

“The very spring and root of honesty and virtue lie in the felicity of lighting on good education.”

“What meal is not expensive? That for which no animal is put to death. … one participating of feeling, of seeing, of hearing, of imagination, and of intellection; which each animal hath received from Nature for the acquiring of what is agreeable to it, and the avoiding what is disagreeable.”

“I, for my own part, had much rather people should say of me that there neither is nor ever was such a man as Plutarch, than that they should say, "Plutarch is an unsteady, fickle, froward, vindictive, and touchy fellow."”

“And it is said that when he took his seat for the first time under the golden canopy on the royal throne, Demaratus the Corinthian, a well-meaning man and a friend of Alexander's, as he had been of Alexander's father, burst into tears, as old men will, and declared that those Hellenes were deprived of great pleasure who had died before seeing Alexander seated on the throne of Dareius.”

“Eat not thy heart; which forbids to afflict our souls, and waste them with vexatious cares.”

“And Archimedes, as he was washing, thought of a manner of computing the proportion of gold in King Hiero's crown by seeing the water flowing over the bathing-stool. He leaped up as one possessed or inspired, crying, "I have found it! Eureka!"”

“Pyrrhus said, "If I should overcome the Romans in another fight, I were undone."”

“Cicero called Aristotle a river of flowing gold, and said of Plato's Dialogues, that if Jupiter were to speak, it would be in language like theirs.”