Regum et imperatorum apophthegmata

Plutarch

Plutarch. Moralia, Vol. III. Babbitt, Frank Cole, translator. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press; London: William Heinemann Ltd., 1931 (printing).

Seeing that statues were being set up in honour of many men, he said, As for myself, I had rather that men should ask why there is not a statue of Cato than why there is. [*](Cf. Moralia, 820 B, and the Life of M. Cato, chap. xix. (347 C).)

He charged those in power to be sparing of their authority, so that authority might continue always to be theirs.

He used to say that those who rob virtue of honour rob youth of virtue.

An official or a judge, he said, ought neither to require importuning to grant what is right nor to yield to importuning to grant what is wrong.

Wrongdoing, he used to say, even if it brings no risk to its authors, brings risk to all.

He used to say that, since there are so many odious things connected with old age, it is only right not to add the odium which comes from vice. [*](Cf. Moralia, 784 A and 829 F; and Plutarch’s Life of M. Cato, chap. ix. (341 D).)

He had an idea that the man who has lost his temper differs from him who has lost his mind only in duration of time. [*](Cf. Horace, Epistles, i. 2. 62; Seneca, De ira, i. 1. 2.)

He said that those who use their good fortune reasonably and moderately are least envied; for people envy not us but our surroundings.

He used to say that those who are serious in ridiculous matters will be ridiculous in serious matters.