Frases de Plutarco

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“No cometer errores no está en las manos del hombre; pero de sus errores y equivocaciones el sabio y bueno aprende sabiduría para el futuro.”

“Aprende a escuchar, y te beneficiarás incluso de aquellos que hablan mal.”

“El cerebro no es un vaso por llenar, sino una lámpara por encender.”

“La lectura hace al hombre completo, la conversación lo hace ágil, la escritura lo hace exacto.”

“Para saber hablar es preciso saber escuchar.”

“Los cazadores atrapan las liebres con los perros, muchos hombres atrapan a los ignorantes con la adulación.”

“Es lo mejor, para todos los hombres y mujeres, no nacer; y lo segundo después de esto —la primera cosa que pueden conseguir los hombres— es, una vez nacidos, morir tan rápido como se pueda.”

“«La amistad es animal de compañía, no de rebaño».”

“«Si hacéis amistad con un cojo, aprended a cojear».”

“Hay amores tan bellos que justifican todas las locuras que hacen cometer.”

“A la cogujada no puede faltarle moño, ni tampoco al gobierno popular calumniador.”

“Quien tiene muchos vicios, tiene muchos amos.”

“El que abusa, para engañar, del juramento, reconoce que teme a su enemigo y que insulta a Dios.”

“El verdadero sabio sólo es riguroso consigo mismo; con los demás es amable.”

“La maldad aún con nobleza es digna de desprecio.”

“Los más sufrimos peor las malas palabras que las malas obras, porque es más difícil llevar el desprecio que la pérdida.”

“No puede ejecutar cosas grandes el que tiene su atención en las pequeñas.”

“Así hasta esto tuvo en su favor Argesilao: entrar a mandar sabiendo obedecer.”

“¡Cuán cierto es que la fortuna está muy fuera del alcance del juicio humano, y que respecto a ella nada sirven nuestros raciocinios!”

“El amor a la paz es verdaderamente divino.”

“Es cosa deseable tener una buena ascendencia, pero la gloria pertenece a nuestros antepasados.”

“Esclavos de los más ruines, a trueque de mandar a los mejores.”

“La maldad contiene los motivos de su propio tormento. Es un maravilloso artesano de una vida miserable.”

“Leones en casa, zorras en lo razo.”

“Lo entregó todo al fuego, que no hace distinción entre los culpados y los que no lo son.”

“Lo justo debe ser la medida real con que se regule la mayoría y excelencia del poder.”

“Lo que hagas sin esfuerzo y con presteza, durar no puede ni tener belleza.”

“Los caracteres ambiciosos, que no saben en la república guardar un justo medio, hacen más daño que provecho.”

“Los dichos injuriosos parece que nacen de sobrado rencor y sobrada malicia.”

“Para la plebe, el mayor honor de parte de los más poderosos es el que no la desprecien.”

“Por un pequeño bocado de carne privamos a un alma del Sol y de la luz y del gozo de la porción de vida y tiempo por la que había nacido al mundo.”

“Sería lo mismo motejar a Heracles de tímido, que acusar a Catón de avaro.”

“Un ejército de ciervos dirigido por un león es mucho más temible que un ejército de leones mandado por un ciervo.”

“Disfrutar de todos los placeres es insensato; evitarlos, insensible.”

“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.”

“To sing the same tune, as the saying is, is in everything cloying and offensive; but men are generally pleased with variety.”

“Young men," said Cæsar, "hear an old man to whom old men hearkened when he was young.”

“Why does pouring oil on the sea make it clear and calm? Is it for that the winds, slipping the smooth oil, have no force, nor cause any waves?”

“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."”

“Being summoned by the Athenians out of Sicily to plead for his life, Alcibiades absconded, saying that that criminal was a fool who studied a defence when he might fly for it.”

“For my part, I had rather be the first man among these fellows than the second man in Rome.”

“Agesilaus being invited once to hear a man who admirably imitated the nightingale, he declined, saying he had heard the nightingale itself.”

“Yet through Alexander (the Great) Bactria and the Caucasus learned to revere the gods of the Greeks … Alexander established more than seventy cities among savage tribes, and sowed all Asia with Greek magistracies … Egypt would not have its Alexandria, nor Mesopotamia its Seleucia, nor Sogdiana its Prophthasia, nor India its Bucephalia, nor the Caucasus a Greek city, for by the founding of cities in these places savagery was extinguished and the worse element, gaining familiarity with the better, changed under its influence.”

“Eurybiades lifting up his staff as if he were going to strike, Themistocles said, "Strike, if you will; but hear."”

“Cato said, "I had rather men should ask why my statue is not set up, than why it is."”

“Leo Byzantius said, "What would you do, if you saw my wife, who scarce reaches up to my knees?… Yet," went he on, "as little as we are, when we fall out with each other, the city of Byzantium is not big enough to hold us."”

“Anacharsis said a man's felicity consists not in the outward and visible favours and blessings of Fortune, but in the inward and unseen perfections and riches of the mind.”

“There were two brothers called Both and Either; perceiving Either was a good, understanding, busy fellow, and Both a silly fellow and good for little, Philip said, "Either is both, and Both is neither."”

“Go on, my friend, and fear nothing; you carry Cæsar and his fortunes in your boat.”

“Did you not know, then, that to-day Lucullus sups with Lucullus?”

“Lysander said that the law spoke too softly to be heard in such a noise of war.”

“Phocion compared the speeches of Leosthenes to cypress-trees. "They are tall," said he, "and comely, but bear no fruit."”

“Xenophon says that there is no sound more pleasing than one's own praises.”

“We are more sensible of what is done against custom than against Nature.”

“For many, as Cranton tells us, and those very wise men, not now but long ago, have deplored the condition of human nature, esteeming life a punishment, and to be born a man the highest pitch of calamity; this, Aristotle tells us, Silenus declared when he was brought captive to Midas.”

“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."”

“When Demosthenes was asked what was the first part of oratory, he answered, "Action;" and which was the second, he replied, "Action;" and which was the third, he still answered, "Action."”

“Abstain from beans; that is, keep out of public offices, for anciently the choice of the officers of state was made by beans.”

“He made one of Antipater's recommendation a judge; and perceiving afterwards that his hair and beard were coloured, he removed him, saying, "I could not think one that was faithless in his hair could be trusty in his deeds."”

“Nothing made the horse so fat as the king's eye.”

“When Philip had news brought him of divers and eminent successes in one day, "O Fortune!" said he, "for all these so great kindnesses do me some small mischief."”

“Let us not wonder if something happens which never was before, or if something doth not appear among us with which the ancients were acquainted.”

“You ask of me then for what reason it was that Pythagoras abstained from eating of flesh. I for my part do much admire in what humor, with what soul or reason, the first man with his mouth touched slaughter, and reached to his lips the flesh of a dead animal, and having set before people courses of ghastly corpses and ghosts, could give those parts the names of meat and victuals, that but a little before lowed, cried, moved, and saw; how his sight could endure the blood of slaughtered, flayed, and mangled bodies; how his smell could bear their scent; and how the very nastiness happened not to offend the taste, while it chewed the sores of others, and participated of the saps and juices of deadly wounds.”