Plutarch Quotes

A good man can be stupid and still be good. But a bad man must have brains.

Old age has deformities enough of its own. It should never add to them the deformity of vice.

… knowledge without conscience is but the ruin of the soul

It is not difficult to avoid death. It is much more difficult to avoid wickedness, for it runs faster than death.

Men become old, but they never become good.

About the time we get old enough to be as wicked as we want to be, we don't want to be so very wicked after all.

The giving of riches and honors to a wicked man is like giving strong wine to him that hath a fever.

Be thou good thyself, and let people speak evil of thee; it is better than to be wicked, and that they should consider thee as good.

Corruption hates what is not corrupt.

Old age, especially an honored old age, has so great authority, that this is of more value than all the pleasures of youth.

When men are pure, laws are useless; when men are corrupt, laws are broken.

For never, never, wicked man was wise.

The community has no bribe that will tempt a wise man.

But goodness alone is never enough. A hard, cold wisdom is required for goodness to accomplish good. Goodness without wisdom always accomplishes evil.

Integrity without knowledge is weak and useless, and knowledge without integrity is dangerous and dreadful.

It is not living that matters, but living rightly.

Only the old are innocent. That is what the Victorians understood, and the Christians. Original sin is a property of the young. The old grow beyond corruption very quickly.

Let us be true: this is the highest maxim of art and of life, the secret of eloquence and of virtue, and of all moral authority.

Bad company corrupts good character.

To those whose God is honor; only disgrace is a sin.

Few people know how to be old.

By a lie, a man... annihilates his dignity as a man.

One is never so dangerous when one has no shame, than when one has grown too old to blush.

The highest proof of virtue is to possess boundless power without abusing it.