Plútarchos citáty

strana 4

„Mlčení v pravý čas je moudrost a je lepší než jakákoli řeč.“

„Nedělat chyby není v moci člověka, ale moudří a dobří se ze svých chyb a omylů učí moudrosti do budoucna.“

„Nepotřebuji přítele, který se změní, když se změním a který přikývne, když kývnu; můj stín to dělá mnohem lépe.“

„To, čeho dosáhneme uvnitř, změní vnější realitu.“

„Umíte-li naslouchat, budete mít prospěch i z těch, kteří mluví špatně.“

„Je smutné objevit, že nemáme přátele, až ve chvíli, kdy bychom je potřebovali.“

„Snášíme chyby svých přátel, proč nesnášíme také chyby svých dětí?“

„Luk se láme, když je napjatý, ale duše ztrácí své síly nečinností.“

„Ctnost, tak jako silná a vytrvalá rostlina, zakoření všude, kde najde ušlechtilou povahu a snaživou duši.“

„Ani neotužilé tělo nesnáší slunce, ani nepřipravená duše neunese lásku bez utrpení.“

„Víno je mezi nápoji ten nejprospěšnější, mezi léky nejchutnější a mezi potravinami nejpříjemnější.“

„Nejstarší a největší je láska k životu.“

„Nejvíce péče je třeba věnovat tomu, aby si chlapci zvykli mluvit pravdu, neboť lhaní je otrocká nectnost, hodná nenávisti všech lidí.“

„Kvůli malému kousku masa připravíme tyto bytosti o světlo a život, který jim byl dán proto, aby se na tomto světě radovali.“

„Jakási chudá stařenka zapřísahala krále Filippa, aby rozsoudil její při. Když jí odpověděl, že na takové věci nemá čas, řekla mu: "Tak nebuď král!"“

„Práce je člověku jako vláha rostlině - živí ho, ale může ho i zatopit.“

„Když jsou svíce zhasnuty, všechny ženy jsou krásné.“

„Odpočinek je koření práce.“

„Kdo bydlí u chromého, naučí se kulhat.“

„Rozum a z něho vyplývající připravenost na všechny životní zvraty je nejlepší lék, nejlepší prostředek ku zmírnění zármutku.“

„Tíhnutí lidské povahy k nepřejícnosti je takové, že se člověk pro přednosti ostatních rmoutí víc, než se raduje ze svých vlastních.“

„Směle pomlouvej, vždy něco uvízne.“

„Ctnost je dobrý zvyk.“

„Láska nás učí všem ctnostem.“

„Mlčky a beze slova se ve společnosti nacpat je vlastní pouze vepřům.“

„Je těžké souzený osud předvídat, ještě těžší je uvarovat se ho.“

„V egyptských Thébách bylo možno vidět sochy soudců bez rukou a sochu jejich předsedy s očima sklopenýma k zemi. Tím bylo naznačováno, že se nesluší, aby ty, kdož soudí, nějak ovlivňovaly dary nebo pohled na obžalované.“

„Když kdosi říkal, že Sparta je v pořádku proto, že králové umějí poroučet, Theopompos ho opravil: "Kdepak, protože občané umějí poslouchat."“

„Nepěkná a zvrácená je tedy i žena, která se tváří mrzutě, má-li muž chuť žertovat a veselit se, je-li naopak vážný, žertuje a směje se; ono je totiž znakem nevlídnosti, toto projevem pohrdání.“

„Odkud to přišlo, že vás jakási dravost a šílenství v této šťastné době vede k tomu, že se špiníte krví, ačkoliv máte tolik jiných způsobů obživy? Proč popíráte, že vás země dokáže uživit? Nestydíte se přilévat k plodům země krev a zabíjení?“

„Dobrý manžel si zaslouží větší chválu než dobrý senátor.“

„To ať má na mysli muž a nikoho více se neostýchá než své ženy, ježto manželská ložnice se jí stane buď učebnou zdrženlivosti, nebo nezřízenosti.“

„Kdo se trápí tím, že není horský lev, jenž se pyšní silou, a současně i maltský psík rozmazlovaný na klíně bohaté vdovy, je na hlavu padlý.“

„Nic není tak ubohé, aby se nemohlo bránit, má-li dostatek zmužilosti (pravil poté, co jej myš kousnula do prstu).“

„Věřte, že chybují ti, kdo spolu spí jen pro rozkoš, ale pohněvají-li se nějak a pohašteří, lehnou si odděleně a zapomínají právě tehdy nejvíce vzývat Afroditu, která bývá v podobných případech nejlepší lékařkou.“

“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.”