Parallel Lives

The Parallel Lives (Greek: Βίοι Παράλληλοι; Latin: Vītae Parallēlae) is a series of 48 biographies of famous men written by the Greco-Roman philosopher, historian, and Apollonian priest Plutarch, probably at the beginning of the second century. The lives are arranged in pairs to illuminate their common moral virtues or failings. The surviving Parallel Lives comprises 23 pairs of biographies, each pair consisting of one Greek and one Roman of similar destiny, such as Alexander the Great and Julius Caesar, or Demosthenes and Cicero. It is a work of considerable importance, not only as a source of information about the individuals described, but also about the times in which they lived.

Quotes

1: Theseus and Romulus

Theseus

He is a second Hercules.

• ?
  • As geographers, Sosius, crowd into the edges of their maps parts of the world which they do not know about, adding notes in the margin to the effect that beyond this lies nothing but sandy deserts full of wild beasts, unapproachable bogs, Scythian ice, or a frozen sea, so, in this work of mine, in which I have compared the lives of the greatest men with one another, after passing through those periods which probable reasoning can reach to and real history find a footing in, I might very well say of those that are farther off: Beyond this there is nothing but prodigies and fictions, the only inhabitants are the poets and inventors of fables; there is no credit, or certainty any farther.
  • 1 (Tr. Dryden and Clough)
  • Cp. Swift, Poetry, a Rhapsody (1733):

    So geographers, in Afric maps,
    With savage pictures fill their gaps,
    And o'er unhabitable downs
    Place elephants for want of towns.

• ?
  • Whom shall I set so great a man to face?
    Or whom oppose? who's equal to the place?
  • 1 (Tr. Dryden and Clough)
  • Quoting Aeschylus

• ?
  • From Theseus began the saying, "He is a second Hercules."
  • ? (Tr. Dryden and Clough)

Romulus

• ?
  • The most perfect soul, says Heraclitus, is a dry light, which flies out of the body as lightning breaks from a cloud.
  • ? (Tr. Dryden and Clough)

3: Themistocles and Camillus

Themistocles

Strike, if you will; but hear.

• ?
  • I am not of the noble Grecian race,
    I'm poor Abrotonon, and born in Thrace.
    Let the Greek women scorn me, if they please,
    I was the mother of Themistocles.
  • ? (Tr. Langhorne)
  • Cp. Anthologia Palatina, 7, 306:

    Αβρότονον Θρύϊσσα γυνή πέλον· αλλά τεκέσθαι
    τον μέγαν Έλλησιν φημί Θεμιστοκλέα.
    I was Abrotonon, a Thracian woman; but I say that I bare for Greece her great Themistocles.

• ?
  • Themistocles said that he certainly could not make use of any stringed instrument; could only, were a small and obscure city put into his hands, make it great and glorious.
  • ? (Tr. Dryden and Clough)

• ?
  • Eurybiades lifting up his staff as if he were going to strike, Themistocles said, "Strike, if you will; but hear".
  • ? (Tr. Dryden and Clough)
  • Cp. Apophegthms (Themistocles):

    "Strike," said he, "but hear me."

• ?
  • Themistocles said to Antiphales, "Time, young man, has taught us both a lesson".
  • ? (Tr. Dryden and Clough)

• ?
  • Laughing at his own son, who got his mother, and by his mother's means his father also, to indulge him, he told him that he had the most power of any one in Greece: "For the Athenians command the rest of Greece, I command the Athenians, your mother commands me, and you command your mother."
  • ? (Tr. Dryden and Clough)
  • Cp. Of the Training of Children:

    Diophantus, the young son of Themistocles, made his boast often and in many companies, that whatsoever pleased him pleased also all Athens; for whatever he liked, his mother liked; and whatever his mother liked, Themistocles liked; and whatever Themistocles liked, all the Athenians liked.

  • Cp. Apophthegms (Themistocles):

    When the son of Themistocles was a little saucy toward his mother, he said that this boy had more power than all the Grecians; for the Athenians governed Greece, he the Athenians, his wife him, and his son his wife.

• ?
  • "You speak truth," said Themistocles; "I should never have been famous if I had been of Seriphus; nor you, had you been of Athens."
  • ? (Tr. Dryden and Clough)

• ?
  • Themistocles said that a man's discourse was like to a rich Persian carpet, the beautiful figures and patterns of which can be shown only by spreading and extending it out; when it is contracted and folded up, they are obscured and lost.
  • ? (Tr. Dryden and Clough)
  • Cp. Apophthegms (Themistocles):

    Themistocles said speech was like to tapestry; and like it, when it was spread it showed its figures, but when it was folded up, hid and spoiled them.

• ?
  • When he was in great prosperity, and courted by many, seeing himself splendidly served at his table, he turned to his children and said: "Children, we had been undone, if we had not been undone".
  • ? (Tr. Dryden and Clough)

4: Solon and Poplicola

Solon

• Ὡς ἥκιστα ἢ ὡς ἥδιστα.
  • As briefly, or as pleasantly as possible.
  • 28 (Tr. King)
  • In Latin, Aut quam minime, aut quam jucundissime.
  • Originally said of the kind of speech to be used with kings and great personages, it equally applies to the mode in which bad news should be communicated. See Historiarum variarum Chiliades, 631 (Procul a Jove).

• ?
  • Anacharsis coming to Athens, knocked at Solon's door, and told him that he, being a stranger, was come to be his guest, and contract a friendship with him; and Solon replying, "It is better to make friends at home," Anacharsis replied, "Then you that are at home make friendship with me."
  • ? (Tr. Dryden and Clough)

5: Pericles and Fabius

Pericles

Be ruled by time, the wisest counsellor of all.

• Ἐγὼ δ᾽ ἐν πολλῷ χρόνῳ.
  • But I paint for a long time.
  • 13, 2 (Tr. King)
  • On Agatharchus, the scene painter, boasting of his rapidity of execution, Zeuxis quietly remarked thus. In Latin, Pingo in æternitatem.—"I paint for posterity." In Plutarch, Moralia, p. 113 (De Amicorum Multitudine, 5, p. 94f), the rejoinder is reported as: Ὁμολογῶ ἐν πολλῷ χρόνῳ γράφειν, καὶ γὰρ εἰς πολύν—"I confess I take a long time, but then I paint for a long time."

• ?
  • Moral good is a practical stimulus; it is no sooner seen than it inspires an impulse to practise.
  • ? (Tr. Dryden and Clough)

• ?
  • Ease and speed in doing a thing do not give the work lasting solidity or exactness of beauty.
  • ? (Tr. Dryden and Clough)
  • Cp. Chaucer, The Marchantes Tale, l. 585:

    Ther n' is no werkman whatever he be,
    That may both werken wel and hastily.
    This wol be done at leisure parfitly.

• ?
  • So very difficult a matter is it to trace and find out the truth of anything by history.
  • ? (Tr. Dryden and Clough)

• ?
  • Be ruled by time, the wisest counsellor of all.
  • ? (Tr. Dryden and Clough)

Fabius Maximus

• ?
  • To conduct great matters and never commit a fault is above the force of human nature.
  • ? (Tr. Dryden and Clough)

6: Alcibiades and Coriolanus

Coriolanus

• ?
  • Menenius Agrippa concluded at length with the celebrated fable: "It once happened that all the other members of a man mutinied against the stomach, which they accused as the only idle, uncontributing part in the whole body, while the rest were put to hardships and the expense of much labour to supply and minister to its appetites."
  • ? (Tr. Dryden and Clough)

• ?
  • Knowledge of divine things for the most part, as Heraclitus says, is lost to us by incredulity.
  • ? (Tr. Dryden and Clough)

8: Phocion and Cato the Younger

Phocion

• ?
  • Even a nod from a person who is esteemed is of more force than a thousand arguments or studied sentences from others.
  • ? (Tr. Dryden and Clough)

• ?
  • Demosthenes told Phocion, "The Athenians will kill you some day when they once are in a rage." "And you," said he, "if they are once in their senses."
  • ? (Tr. Dryden and Clough)

11: Timoleon and Aemilius

Timoleon

• ?
  • It was for the sake of others that I first undertook to write biographies, but I soon began to dwell upon and delight in them for myself, endeavouring to the best of my ability to regulate my own life, and to make it like that of those who were reflected in their history as it were in a mirror before me. By the study of their biographies, we receive each man as a guest into our minds, and we seem to understand their character as the result of a personal acquaintance, because we have obtained from their acts the best and most important means of forming an opinion about them. "What greater pleasure could'st thou gain than this?" What more valuable for the elevation of our own character?
  • 1 (Tr. Stewart and Long)
  • Cp. Shakespeare, Hamlet, III, 2: To hold as ’twere the mirror up to nature.

Aemilius Paulus

• ?
  • As the strongest bodies are those which can equally well support the extremes of heat and cold, so the noblest minds are those which prosperity does not render insolent and overbearing, nor ill fortune depress.
  • 2 (Tr. Stewart and Long)

• ?
  • Those who are careless of accuracy in small things soon begin to neglect the most important.
  • 3 (Tr. Stewart and Long)

• ?
  • These are the materials for reflection which history affords to those who choose to make use of them.
  • 5 (Tr. Stewart and Long)

• ?
  • It is not Philip, but Philip's gold that takes the cities of Greece.
  • 12 (Tr. Stewart and Long)

• ?
  • It is not reasonable that he who does not shoot should hit the mark, nor that he who does not stand fast at his post should win the day, or that the helpless man should succeed or the coward prosper.
  • 19 (Tr. Stewart and Long)

• ?
  • Valour, however unfortunate, commands great respect even from enemies: but the Romans despise cowardice, even though it be prosperous.
  • 26 (Tr. Stewart and Long)

• ?
  • 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.
  • 27 (Tr. Stewart and Long)

• ?
  • You, young men, be sure that you lay aside your haughty looks and vainglory in your victory, and await with humility what the future may bring forth, ever considering what form of retribution Heaven may have in store for us to set off against our present good fortune.
  • 27 (Tr. Dryden and Clough)

• ?
  • 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."
  • ? (Tr. Dryden and Clough)

12: Eumenes and Sertorius

Eumenes

• ?
  • Good fortune will elevate even petty minds, and give them the appearance of a certain greatness and stateliness, as from their high place they look down upon the world; but the truly noble and resolved spirit raises itself, and becomes more conspicuous in times of disaster and ill fortune.
  • 9 (Tr. Dryden and Clough)

Sertorius

• ?
  • 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.
  • 16 (Tr. Dryden and Clough)

• ?
  • 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.
  • ? (Tr. Dryden and Clough)

13: Aristides and Cato the Elder

Cato the Elder

My good sir, old age is ugly enough without your adding the deformity of wickedness to it.

• ?
  • My good sir, old age is ugly enough without your adding the deformity of wickedness to it.
  • 9 (Tr. Stewart and Long)

• ?
  • I had rather that men should ask why I have no statue, than that they should ask why I have one.
  • 19 (Tr. Stewart and Long)

• ?
  • We see that kindness or humanity has a larger field than bare justice to exercise itself in; law and justice we cannot, in the nature of things, employ on others than men; but we may extend our goodness and charity even to irrational creatures; and such acts flow from a gentle nature, as water from an abundant spring. It is doubtless the part of a kind-natured man to keep even worn-out horses and dogs, and not only take care of them when they are foals and whelps, but also when they are grown old.
  • 36 (Tr. Dryden and Clough)

• ?
  • It is a difficult task, O citizens, to make speeches to the belly, which has no ears.
  • ? (Tr. Dryden and Clough)
  • Cp. Rabelais, book iv, chap. lxvii:

    The belly has no ears, nor is it to be filled with fair words.

• ?
  • Cato used to assert that wise men profited more by fools than fools by wise men; for that wise men avoided the faults of fools, but that fools would not imitate the good examples of wise men.
  • (Tr. Dryden and Clough)

• ?
  • 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.
  • (Tr. Dryden and Clough)

14: Pelopidas and Marcellus

Pelopidas

• ?
  • 'Twas not that life or death itself was good,
    That these heroic spirits shed their blood:
    This was their aim, and this their latest cry,
    'Let us preserve our honour, live or die.'
  • 1 (Tr. Stewart and Long)

• Οὐκοῦν εἰς αὔριον' ἔφη, τὰ σπουδαῖα.
  • Business to-morrow!
  • 10 (Tr. King)
  • As Archias remarked, when he put aside the letter warning him of the conspiracy against his life.

Marcellus

• ?
  • Archimedes had stated, that given the force, any given weight might be moved; and even boasted that if there were another earth, by going into it he could remove this.
  • ? (Tr. Dryden and Clough)

15: Lysander and Sulla

Lysander

• ?
  • Moral habits, induced by public practices, are far quicker in making their way into men's private lives, than the failings and faults of individuals are in infecting the city at large.
  • 17 (Tr. Dryden and Clough)

• ?
  • Dost thou, fair Sikyon, hesitate to raise
    A fitting tomb to thy lost hero's praise?
    Curst be the land, nay, curst the air or wave
    That grudges room for thy Aratus' grave.
  • 53 (Tr. Stewart and Long)

• ?
  • The saying of old Antigonus, who when he was to fight at Andros, and one told him, "The enemy's ships are more than ours," replied, "For how many then wilt thou reckon me?"
  • ? (Tr. Dryden and Clough)
  • Cp. Apophthegms (Antigonus II):

    The pilot telling Antigonus the enemy outnumbered him in ships, he said, "But how many ships do you reckon my presence to be worth?"

• ?
  • Played Cretan against Cretan.
  • ? (Tr. Dryden and Clough)
  • Or cheat against cheat.

16: Pyrrhus and Marius

Pyrrhus

If we win one more battle like this against the Romans, we shall be utterly done for.

• Ἂν ἔτι μίαν μάχην Ῥωμαίους νικήσωμεν, ἀπολούμεθα παντελῶς.
  • If we win one more battle like this against the Romans, we shall be utterly done for.
  • 21 (Tr. King)
  • Victoria Pyrrhica.—"A Pyrrhic Victory", in which the conqueror comes off worse than the conquered. Pyrrhus, King of Epirus, in his Tarentine campaign against Rome (280 BC), defeated the enemy at Ascoli with such severe losses to his own side, that, according to Plutarch, he made the remark above. Such an equivocal success is also called Καδμείη νίκη (Herodotus, Histories, 1, 166), or Cadmæa victoria, with allusion to the internecine strife of the Sparti, the armed men who sprang from the dragon’s teeth sown by Cadmus. (See Plato, Leges, 641c).
    For the converse—defeats which amount to victories—see Marshal Duke de Villars’ letter to Louis XIV after the retreat of the French from Malplaquet, 1709.—Si Dieu nous fait la grâce de perdre encore une bataille pareille, Votre Majesté peut compter que ses ennemis sont détruits—"If God give us the grace to lose another battle of the same kind, your Majesty may count upon the entire destruction of your enemies." (Roche and Chasles, Histoire de France, Paris, 1843, vol. 2, p. 320).

Gaius Marius

• Τὸ ἐπανόρθωμα τῆς ἀλγηδόνος οὐκ ἄξιον.
  • He saw the cure to be not worth the pain.
  • 6 (Tr. Perrin)
  • Remark of Marius, after having had a varicose vein cut from his leg (c. 90 BC)
  • Cp. Publius Syrus, Maxim 301:

    There are some remedies worse than the disease.

  • Cp. Bacon, Of Seditions:

    The remedy is worse than the disease.

• ?
  • Extraordinary rains pretty generally fall after great battles.
  • ? (Tr. Dryden and Clough)

• ?
  • The law spoke too softly to be heard amidst the din of arms.
  • ? (Tr. Dryden and Clough)

19: Cimon and Lucullus

Lucullus

• ?
  • Did you not know, then, that to-day Lucullus sups with Lucullus?
  • ? (Tr. Dryden and Clough)

21: Agesilaus and Pompey

Agesilaus II

• ?
  • Agesilaus being invited once to hear a man who admirably imitated the nightingale, he declined, saying he had heard the nightingale itself.
  • ? (Tr. Dryden and Clough)

• ?
  • It is circumstance and proper measure that give an action its character, and make it either good or bad.
  • ? (Tr. Dryden and Clough)

• ?
  • The old proverb was now made good, "the mountain had brought forth a mouse."
  • ? (Tr. Dryden and Clough)

Pompey

• Νέκρους οὐ δάκνειν.
  • Dead men do not bite.
  • 77 (Tr. King)
  • Reported saying of Theodotus of Chios. Latin translation in the Historiarum variarum chiliades, p. 473 ("Maledicentia"): Mortui non mordent.

• ?
  • Pompey bade Sylla recollect that more worshipped the rising than the setting sun.
  • ? (Tr. Dryden and Clough)

• ?
  • When some were saying that if Cæsar should march against the city they could not see what forces there were to resist him, Pompey replied with a smile, bidding them be in no concern, "for whenever I stamp my foot in any part of Italy there will rise up forces enough in an instant, both horse and foot."
  • ? (Tr. Dryden and Clough)

22: Alexander and Caesar

Alexander the Great

Impossible questions require impossible answers.

• ?
  • I myself had rather excel others in excellency of learning than in greatness of power.
  • 7 (Tr. Stewart and Long)

• ?
  • Impossible questions require impossible answers.
  • 54 (Tr. Stewart and Long)

• ?
  • Life, because it endures such terrible suffering.
  • 54 (Tr. Stewart and Long)
  • Response of one of the Gymnosophistae, when asked by Alexander which was the stronger, life or death.

• ?
  • The most glorious exploits do not always furnish us with the clearest discoveries of virtue or vice in men.
  • ? (Tr. Dryden and Clough)

• ?
  • 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.
  • ? (Tr. Dryden and Clough)

• ?
  • Alexander said, "I assure you I had rather excel others in the knowledge of what is excellent, than in the extent of my power and dominion."
  • ? (Tr. Dryden and Clough)

• ?
  • When Alexander asked Diogenes whether he wanted anything, "Yes," said he, "I would have you stand from between me and the sun."
  • ? (Tr. Dryden and Clough)

Julius Caesar

I would rather be the first man here than the second in Rome.

• Ὦ μῆτερ, τήμερον ἢ ἀρχιερέα τὸν υἱὸν ἢ φυγάδα ὄψει.
  • Mother, today thou shalt see thy son either pontifex maximus or an exile.
  • 7, 2 (Tr. Perrin)
  • Cp. Aut Cæsar aut nihil.—"Either Caesar or nothing."

• Ἐβουλόμην παρὰ τούτοις εἶναι μᾶλλον πρῶτος ἢ παρὰ Ῥωμαίοις δεύτερος.
  • I would rather be the first man here than the second in Rome.
  • 11 (Tr. King)
  • Cp. Nulli secundus.—"Second to none." Motto of the Coldstream Regiment of Foot Guards. Apuleius, Florida, 1, 9, 32 (ed. Bipont, 1788, p. 120): Hippias eloquentia nulli secundus.—"In eloquence Hippias was second to none." "Better to reign in Hell than serve in Heaven," is the avowed sentiment of the "lost archangel" in Paradise Lost, i. 261.
  • Dryden's translation: "For my part, I had rather be the first man among these fellows than the second man in Rome."

• Ἀνερρίφθω κύβος.
  • Let the die be cast.
  • 32 (Tr. King)
  • Let the game be ventured! the memorable exclamation of Julius Cesar, 49 BC—spoken in Greek, so Plutarch says—when, after long hesitation, he finally decided at the Rubicon (the Pisciatello) to march on Rome. The Latin quotation alea jacta est.—"The die is cast."—is founded upon Suetonius, Caesar, 32, jacta alea esto.—"Let the die be cast."
  • Dryden's translation: "Using the proverb frequently in their mouths who enter upon dangerous and bold attempts, 'The die is cast,' he took the river."

• Καίσαρα φέρεις, καὶ τὴν Καίσαρος τύχην.
  • You carry Caesar and Caesar’s fortunes.
  • 38 (Tr. King)
  • Cp. Suetonius, Julius Caesar, 58: Cæsarem vehis Cæsarisque fortunam. The traditional reply of Caesar to the mariner, Amyclas, when overtaken by tempest as he was secretly crossing from Durazzo to Brindisi (50 BC) in an open boat. The man declared he would go no farther. Caesar, grasping his hand, bade him fear nothing. Perge audacter, Caesarem vehis, etc.—"Go on boldly, you carry Caesar"—as above.

• Ἦλθον, εἶδον, ἐνίκησα.
  • I came, I saw, I conquered.
  • 50 (Tr. King)
  • Cp. Suetonius, Julius Caesar, 37: Veni, vidi, vici. Inscription on the banners of the triumph of Gaius Julius Cesar, after his victory over Pharnaces, son of Mithridates, near Zela, in Pontus, 2 August 47 BC. See also Seneca the Elder, Suasoriæ, 2, 22.

• Βέλτιόν ἐστιν ἅπαξ ἀποθανεῖν ἢ ἀεὶ προσδοκᾶν.
  • Better die once than always live in apprehension.
  • 57 (Tr. King)
  • Shakespeare, Julius Caesar, 2, 2, renders:

    Cowards die many times before their deaths:
    The valiant never taste of death but once.

• Α. Αἱ μὲν δὴ Μάρτιαι Εἰδοὶ πάρεισιν.
  Β. Ναὶ πάρεισιν, ἀλλ ̓ οὐ παρεληλύθασι.
  
  • Cæsar said to the soothsayer, "The ides of March are come;" who answered him calmly, "Yes, they are come, but they are not past."
  • 63 (Tr. Dryden and Clough)
  • Rendered by Shakespeare, Julius Caesar, III, 1:

    Cæsar: The Ides of March are come.
    Soothsayer: Ay, Caesar; but not gone.

• Ὄψει δέ με περί Φιλίππους.
  • Thou shalt see me at Philippi.
  • 69 (Tr. King)
  • Famous speech of Caesar’s apparition to Brutus (ὁ σὸς ὦ Βροῦτε δαίμων κακός, "Τhy evil genius, Brutus"), on the eve of encountering Antony and Octavius on the plains of Philippi, 42 BC. So, Shakespeare. Julius Caesar, 4, 3:—

    Brutus: Speak to me what thou art.
    Ghost: Thy evil spirit, Brutus.
    Brutus: Why com’st thou?
    Ghost: To tell thee, thou shalt see me at Philippi.

• ?
  • Fate is to all appearance more unavoidable than unexpected.
  • ? (Tr. Dryden and Clough)

• ?
  • I wished my wife to be not so much as suspected.
  • ? (Tr. Dryden and Clough)
  • Caesar, when asked why he parted with his wife, Pompeia: hence the proverb, "Caesar's wife must be above suspicion."

• ?
  • More disagreeable for me to say than to do.
  • ? (Tr. Dryden and Clough)

• ?
  • Go on, my friend, and fear nothing; you carry Cæsar and his fortune in your boat.
  • Caesar ? (Tr. Dryden and Clough)

23: Demosthenes and Cicero

Demosthenes

• ?
  • For the enjoyment of true happiness, which depends chiefly upon a man's character and disposition, it makes no difference whether he be born in an obscure state or of an ill-favoured mother, or not.
  • 1 (Tr. Stewart and Long)

• ?
  • Far from the battle, on that fatal day
    Beside Thermodon may I flee away,
    Or view it as an eagle from the sky;
    There shall the vanquished weep, the victor die.
  • 19 (Tr. Stewart and Long)

• ?
  • Pythias once, scoffing at Demosthenes, said that his arguments smelt of the lamp.
  • ? (Tr. Dryden and Clough)

• ?
  • Demosthenes overcame and rendered more distinct his inarticulate and stammering pronunciation by speaking with pebbles in his mouth.
  • ? (Tr. Dryden and Clough)

• ?
  • In his house he had a large looking-glass, before which he would stand and go through his exercises.
  • ? (Tr. Dryden and Clough)

Cicero

• ?
  • 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.
  • ? (Tr. Dryden and Clough)

Comparison

• Authority and place demonstrate and try the tempers of men, by moving every passion and discovering every frailty.
  • 3 (Tr. Dryden and Clough)

Unpaired biographies

Artaxerxes

• ?
  • You may say what you please, but I may both say and do what I please.
  • 5 (Tr. Stewart and Long)

Aratus

• ?
  • To imagine that one has already arrived at perfection, argues self-conceit rather than true greatness of character.
  • 1 (Tr. Stewart and Long)

External links

• W. F. H. King, Classical and Foreign Quotations, 3rd ed. (1904), Caesar, 74, 193, 219, 239, 1821, 1967, 2885; Pelopidas, 1998; Pericles, 2105; Pompey, 1581; Pyrrhus, 2907; Solon, 1985

• John and William Langhorne, Plutarch's Lives, 6 vols. (1770–1774); digitised for Google Books, vol. 1

• Aubrey Stewart; George Long, Plutarch's Lives, 4 vols. (1892–1894); digitised for Project Gutenberg, vols. 1, 2, 3, 4

• Bernadotte Perrin, Plutarch: Parallel Lives, 11 vols. (LCL, 1914–1923); digitised by Bill Thayer, "Plutarch's Lives", LacusCurtius (2 November 2022)

• John Bartlett, Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919); 13th ed. (1955)