"They relate of Diogenes of Sinope, when he began to be a philosopher, that the Athenians were celebrating a festival, and there were public banquets and shows and mutual festivities, and drinking and revelling all night, and he, coiled up in a corner of the market-place intending to sleep, fell into a train of thought likely seriously to turn him from his purpose and shake his resolution, for he reflected that he had adopted without any necessity a toilsome and unusual kind of life, and by his own fault sat there debarred of all the good things. At that moment, however, they say a mouse stole up and began to munch some of the crumbs of his barley-cake, and he plucked up his courage and said to himself, in a railing and chiding fashion, "What say you, Diogenes? Do your leavings give this mouse a sumptuous meal, while you, the gentleman, wail and lament because you are not getting drunk yonder and reclining on soft and luxurious couches?" Whenever such depressions of mind are not frequent, and the mind when they take place quickly recovers from them, after having put them to flight as it were, and when such annoyance and distraction is easily got rid of, then one may consider one's progress in virtue as a certainty."

"For the enthusiasm that can go so far as not to be discouraged at the sure prospect of trouble, but admires and emulates what is good even so, could never be turned away from what is noble by anybody. Such men ever, whether they have some business to transact, or have taken upon them some office, or are in some critical conjuncture, put before their eyes the example of noble men, and consider what Plato would have done on the occasion, what Epaminondas would have said, how Lycurgus or Agesilaus would have dealt; that so, adjusting and re-modelling themselves, as it were, at their mirrors, they may correct any ignoble expression, and repress any ignoble passion."

"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."

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

"Euripides was wont to say, "Silence is an answer to a wise man.""

"Alexander wept when he heard from Anaxarchus that there was an infinite number of worlds; and his friends asking him if any accident had befallen him, he returns this answer: "Do you not think it a matter worthy of lamentation that when there is such a vast multitude of them, we have not yet conquered one?""

"'Tis a wise saying, Drive on your own track."

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

"Remember what Simonides said,—that he never repented that he had held his tongue, but often that he had spoken."

"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.""

"Epaminondas is reported wittily to have said of a good man that died about the time of the battle of Leuctra, "How came he to have so much leisure as to die, when there was so much stirring?""

"Have in readiness this saying of Solon, "But we will not give up our virtue in exchange for their wealth.""

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

"Socrates said, "Bad men live that they may eat and drink, whereas good men eat and drink that they may live.""

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

"Children are to be won to follow liberal studies by exhortations and rational motives, and on no account to be forced thereto by whipping."

"A traveller at Sparta, standing long upon one leg, said to a Lacedæmonian, "I do not believe you can do as much." "True," said he, "but every goose can.""

"Spintharus, speaking in commendation of Epaminondas, says he scarce ever met with any man who knew more and spoke less."

"Democritus said, words are but the shadows of actions."

"No man ever wetted clay and then left it, as if there would be bricks by chance and fortune."

"Athenodorus says hydrophobia, or water-dread, was first discovered in the time of Asclepiades."

"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."

"When men are arrived at the goal, they should not turn back."

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

"For water continually dropping will wear hard rocks hollow."

"According to the proverb, the best things are the most difficult."

"He is a fool who lets slip a bird in the hand for a bird in the bush."

"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.""

"Lampis, the sea commander, being asked how he got his wealth, answered, "My greatest estate I gained easily enough, but the smaller slowly and with much labour.""

"The general himself ought to be such a one as can at the same time see both forward and backward."

"The very spring and root of honesty and virtue lie in good education."

"It is a true proverb, that if you live with a lame man, you will learn to halt."

"It is wise to be silent when occasion requires, and better than to speak, though never so well."

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

"The whole life of man is but a point of time; let us enjoy it, therefore, while it lasts, and not spend it to no purpose."

"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 enemy gains the upper hand, this will be the work of Fortune or of some jealous deity or of divine retribution; but if the the Greeks prevail, it will be Virtue and daring, friendship and fidelity, that will win the guerdon of victory?"

"If it were not my purpose to combine foreign things with things Greek, to traverse and civilize every continent, to search out the uttermost parts of land and sea, to push the bounds of Macedonia to the farthest Ocean, and to disseminate and shower the blessings of Greek justice and peace over every nation, I should not content to sit quietly in the luxury of idle power, but I should emulate the frugality of Diogenes. But as things are, forgive me Diogenes, that I imitate Heracles, and emulate Perseus, and follow in the footsteps of Dionysus, the divine author and progenitor of my family, and desire that victorious Greeks should dance again in India and revive the memory of the Bacchic revels among the savage mountain tribes beyond the Caucasus."

"That remiss and slow-paced justice (as Euripides describes it) that falls upon the wicked by accident, by reason of its uncertainty, ill-timed delay, and disorderly motion, seems rather to resemble chance than providence. So that I cannot conceive what benefit there is in these millstones of the Gods which are said to grind so late, as thereby celestial punishment is obscured, and the awe of evil doing rendered vain and despicable."

"By these criteria let Alexander also be judged! For from his words, from his deeds, and from the instruction' which he imparted, it will be seen that he was indeed a philosopher."

"Οὐ γὰρ ὡς ἀγγεῖον ὁ νοῦς ἀποπληρώσεως ἀλλ' ὑπεκκαύματος μόνον ὥσπερ ὕλη δεῖται ὁρμὴν ἐμποιοῦντος εὑρετικὴν καὶ ὄρεξιν ἐπὶ τὴν ἀλήθειαν. ὥσπερ οὖν εἴ τις ἐκ γειτόνων πυρὸς δεόμενος, εἶτα πολὺ καὶ λαμπρὸν εὑρὼν αὐτοῦ καταμένοι διὰ τέλους θαλπόμενος, οὕτως εἴ τις ἥκων λόγου μεταλαβεῖν πρὸς ἄλλον οὐχ οἴεται δεῖν φῶς οἰκεῖον ἐξάπτειν καὶ νοῦν ἴδιον, ἀλλὰ χαίρων τῇ ἀκροάσει κάθηται θελγόμενος, οἷον ἔρευθος ἕλκει καὶ γάνωμα τὴν δόξαν ἀπὸ τῶν λόγων, τὸν δ᾽ ἐντὸς: εὐρῶτα τῆς ψυχῆς καὶ ζόφον οὐκ ἐκτεθέρμαγκεν οὐδ᾽ ἐξέωκε διὰ φιλοσοφίας."

"Alexander established more than seventy cities among savage tribes, and sowed all Asia with Greek magistracies."

"It is a desirable thing to be well descended; but the glory belongs to our ancestors."

"Τοῖς ἐγρηγορόσιν ἕνα καὶ κοινὸν κόσμον εἶναι, τῶν δὲ κοιμωμένων ἕκαστον εἰς ἴδιον ἀποστρέφεσθαι."

"Nήπιος, ὃς τὰ ἕτοιμα λιπὼν ἀνέτοιμα διώκει."

"When the candles are out, all women are alike."

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

"Xenophanes said, "I confess myself the greatest coward in the world, for I dare not do an ill thing.""

"He that first started that doctrine, that knavery is the best defence against a knave, was but an ill teacher, advising us to commit wickedness to secure ourselves."

"To err in opinion, though it be not the part of wise men, is at least human."

"Ἡ ἀνάπαυσις τῶν πόνων ἐστὶν ἄρτυμα."