Plútarchos citáty

page 8

„Ak budete vedieť ako počúvať, budete profitovať aj z tých, ktorí hovoria zle.“

„Myseľ nie je loď, ktorá sa má naplniť, ale oheň, ktorý sa má zapáliť.“

„Mlčanie v pravý čas je múdrosť a je lepšie ako akákoľvek reč.“

„Človek sa nemôže mýliť, ale múdri a dobrí sa zo svojich chýb a omylov učia múdrosti pre budúcnosť.“

„To, čo dosiahneme v našom vnútri, zmení aj našu vonkajšiu realitu.“

„Najstaršia a najväčšia láska je láska k životu.“

„Kto miluje, ten nevšímavosť nemá rád.“

„Vychádzajúce slnko privádza so svetlom činy a myšlienky všetkých ľudí. Ako vraví Demokritos, s novým dňom ľudia dostávajú nové myšlienky a z túžby po vzájomnom priateľstve, akoby napätým lanom stiahnutí, schádzajú sa každý odinakiaľ k práci.“

„Mlčky a bez slova sa v spoločnosti napchávať je vlastnosťou svíň.“

„Nádej je spoločná všetkým. Kto nič nemá, má aspoň nádej.“

„V cnosti je cena života, nie v dlhom veku.“

„Práca je človeku ako vlaha rastline - živí ho, ale môže ho aj zatopiť.“

„Priateľovi ničím nemôžeš ublížiť viac, ako keď rozdeľuješ cit, alebo čas, ktorý by si mohol stráviť s priateľom, s niekým druhým.“

„Víno je medzi nápojmi najušľachtilejšie, medzi liekmi najchutnejšie a medzi pokrmami najpríjemnejšie!“

„Dobrý manžel si zaslúži väčšiu chválu ako dobrý senátor.“

„Keď znášame chyby svojich priateľov, prečo neznášame chyby svojich detí?“

„Nič nie je také hybké ako jazyk ženy, nič nie je záludnejšie ako výčitky, nič nie je hroznejšie ako zlosť, nič háklivejšie ako jej slzy.“

„Obraz je mlčiaca báseň a báseň je hovoriaci obraz.“

„Po dlhej únave odpočinok je korením práce.“

„Verte, že robia chyby tí, ktorí spolu spia len pre rozkoš, ale ak sa nejako pohnevajú a pohašteria, ľahnú si oddelene a zabúdajú práve títo najviac vzývať Afroditu, ktorá bývala v podobných prípadoch najlepšou lekárkou.“

„Luk sa láme, keď je napnutý, ale duša stráca svoje sily nečinnosťou.“

„Keď sa Lapisa pýtali, ako získal bohatstvo, odpovedal: Veľký majetok som získal ľahko, malý len po dlhej a veľkej námahe.“

„Keď sú sviece zhasnuté, všetky ženy sú krásne.“

„Cnosť je dobrý zvyk.“

„Človek môže mať veľa priateľov, ale málo spoľahlivých priateľov. Nepotrebujem priateľa, ktorý prikyvuje na všetko, čo poviem. Môj tieň kýva presnejšie.“

„Dúha nie je nič iné, ako odraz slnečného lúča. Ani rozprávka nie je nič iné, ako zahalená pravda.“

„Je ťažké určený osud predvídať, no ešte ťažšie je vyvarovať sa mu.“

„Keby bol svet spravodlivý, nebola by potrebná udatnosť.“

„Konať dobre - to si vyžaduje svoj čas a svoj vek. Dobré konanie sa líši od zlého práve správnou mierou.“

„Len odvážne ohováraj, vždy sa niečo ujme.“

„Ľudia sú takí neprajní, že sa človek viac zarmucuje pre prednosti iných, ako aby sa radoval zo svojich vlastných.“

„Nájdite mestá, kde nevedia čítať, mestá bez kráľov, bez peňazí, divadiel, palácov, ale mesto bez chrámov a bez bohov, bez obetí… nikto veru nevidel a neuvidí nikdy.“

„Najdôležitejšie a najpríjemnejšie korenie je zdravie.“

„Nič na našom tele nevybavila príroda tak starostlivo ako jazyk - je dôkladne zatvorený a zuby okolo neho stoja ako stráž.“

„Nie je možné milovať a zostať múdrym.“

„Nikdy nepreukazujte dobro, ak nie ste ochotní prijať nevďak.“

„Oddych je korením práce.“

„Priateľ, ktorý sa mení podľa toho, ako sa mením ja, ktorý prikyvuje na všetko, na čo ja, nie je mi prínosom. To ešte lepšie robí môj tieň.“

„Sklon ľudskej povahy k neprajnosti je taký, že sa človek pre úspechy iných trápi väčšmi, než sa raduje zo svojich vlastných.“

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

“He said they that were serious in ridiculous matters would be ridiculous in serious affairs.”

“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.”

“Custom is almost a second nature.”

“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."”

“Anaximander says that men were first produced in fishes, and when they were grown up and able to help themselves were thrown up, and so lived upon the land.”

“Cato instigated the magistrates to punish all offenders, saying that they that did not prevent crimes when they might, encouraged them. Of young men, he liked them that blushed better than those who looked pale.”

“A physician, after he had felt the pulse of Pausanias, and considered his constitution, saying, "He ails nothing," "It is because, sir," he replied, "I use none of your physic."”

“Certainly the people's insistence that their candidates should present themselves ungirt and without a tunic had nothing to do with any suspicion of bribery, for it was not until long afterwards that the abuse of buying and selling votes crept in and money began to play an important part in determining the elections. Later on, however, this process of corruption spread to the law courts and to the army, and finally, when even the sword became enslaved by the power of gold, the republic was subjected to the rule of the emperors. For it has rightly been said that the man who first offers banquets and bribes to the people is the first to destroy their liberties.”

“Lycurgus the Lacedæmonian brought long hair into fashion among his countrymen, saying that it rendered those that were handsome more beautiful, and those that were deformed more terrible. To one that advised him to set up a democracy in Sparta, "Pray," said Lycurgus, "do you first set up a democracy in your own house."”

“Pompey had fought brilliantly and in the end routed Caesar's whole force… but either he was unable to or else he feared to push on. Caesar [said] to his friends: 'Today the enemy would have won, if they had had a commander who was a winner.”

“Like watermen, who look astern while they row the boat ahead.”

“The great god Pan is dead.”

“For ease and speed in doing a thing do not give the work lasting solidity or exactness of beauty.”

“According to the proverb, the best things are the most difficult.”

“The measure of a man's life is the well spending of it, and not the length.”

“Indeed, to imagine that one has already arrived at perfection, argues self-conceit rather than true greatness of character.”

“Now, king of the Lacedæmonians, take care when we come out that no one sees us weeping or doing anything unworthy of Sparta. This lies in our own power; but good or evil fortune befalls us according to the will of Heaven.”

“Perish those who suspect those men of doing or enduring anything base.”

“He has glorified himself by recording that when men were detected in any fault, they would excuse themselves by saying that they must be pardoned if they did anything amiss, for they were not Catos: and that those who endeavoured clumsily to imitate his proceedings were called left-handed Catos.”

“With all this he showed himself so affable and simple to those under his rule, so severe and inexorable in the administration of justice, and so vigilant and careful in seeing that his orders were duly executed, that the government of Rome never was more feared or more loved in Sardinia than when he governed that island.”

“Cleverness of speech was a quality which nearly all the young men of the time sought to attain, but Cato was singular in his keeping up the severe traditions of his ancestors in labouring with his own hands, eating a simple dinner, lighting no fire to cook his breakfast, wearing a plain dress, living in a mean house, and neither coveting superfluities nor courting their possessors.”

“Hence, when these men praised Philip as being more eloquent, more handsome, and to crown all, able to drink more than any one else, Demosthenes sneeringly replied that the first of these qualities was excellent in a sophist, the second in a woman, and the third in a sponge, but that they were none of them such as became a king.”

“Yet, 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: and here Aemilius appears more nearly to approach absolute perfection, as, when in great misfortune and grief for his children, he showed the same dignity and firmness as after the greatest success.”

“He said, that he never had feared what man could do to him, but always had feared Fortune, the most fickle and variable of all deities; and in the late war she had been so constantly present with him, like a favouring gale, that he expected now to meet with some reverse by way of retribution.”

“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.”

“In the beginning, some wild and mischievous beast was killed and eaten, and then some little bird or fish was entrapped. And the love of slaughter, being first experimented and exercised in these, at last passed even to the laboring ox, and the sheep that clothes us, and to the poor cock that keeps the house; until by little and little, unsatiableness being strengthened by use, men came to the slaughter of men, to bloodshed and wars.”

“For the sake of some little mouthful of flesh, we deprive a soul of the sun and light, and of that proportion of life and time it had been born into the world to enjoy. And then we fancy that the voices it utters and screams forth to us are nothing else but certain inarticulate sounds and noises, and not the several deprecations, entreaties, and pleadings of each of them.”

“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.”