Regum et imperatorum apophthegmata

Plutarch

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

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

He used to say that it is necessary to make good deeds secure by means of good deeds, so that they may not fall off in their repute.

He used to rebuke the citizens for electing always the same men to office. For, said he, you will give the impression that you hold office to be of no great worth, or else that you hold not many men to be worthy of office. [*](Cf. Plutarch’s Life oF M. Cato, chap. viii. (340 D).)

He pretended to be amazed at the man who had sold his lands bordering on the sea as being himself stronger than the sea. For, said he, what the sea only laps, this man has easily drunk up. [*](Ibid.)

When he was a candidate for the censorship, and saw the other candidates soliciting the populace and flattering them, he himself cried out that the [*]( e C/. Plutarch’s Life of M. Cato, chap. viii. (340 d). d Ibid. )

people had need of a stern physician and a thorough cleansing; they must choose not the most agreeable but the most inexorable man. As a result of his words he was the first choice of the electors. [*](Cf. Plutarch’s Life of M. Cato, chap. xvi. (345 D).)

In instructing the young men to fight boldly, he said that ofttimes talk is better than the sword and the voice better than the hand to rout and bewilder the enemy. [*](Ibid. chap. i. (336 E); cf. also Plutarch’s Life of Coriolanus, chap. viii. (216 F); Life of M. Cato, chap. x. (241 F).)