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.”

“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.”