Plutarch

"Brave men are all vertebrates; they have backbones."

"Prefer the society of those who seek knowledge to that which seeks gain."

"There is no witness so terrible, no accuser so powerful as conscience dwelling within."

"The art of being happy lies in the power of extracting happiness from common things."

"A lucky man is rarer than a wise one; in fact, I take wisdom to be the rarer thing."

"To the man in earnest, all things are possible."

"He who considers too much will perform too little."

"I care not how many books I have, but how good those books are which I have."

"The beautiful thing about learning is that no one can take it away from you."

"On occasions of insecurity, a good man will avoid causing unnecessary provocation."

"History is a pattern of events occurring in succession and relative to one another."

"Courage and fear are brothers."

"For to err in opinion, though not in deed, is to some extent pardonable."

"The investigation of truth is the business of philosophical contemplation."

"A leader must be ready to abandon any ship, even one of his own construction."

"The ship of state cannot easily turn about, as can a small boat."

"He who helps another to the best of his power, helps himself."

"Meditation and water are wedded forever."

"I will continue to be useful to the public as long as I can."

"It is not how long you live, but how well."

"The part can never be well unless the whole is well."

"Prosperity provides some ease, but the greatest ease comes from within."

"Many hands make light work, but too many cooks spoil the broth."

"The natural man has only two primal passions: to get and to beget."

"Adversity is the midwife of genius."

"A single conversation with a wise man is worth a month's study of books."

"The god who is served is the one who is thought about most."

"The most injured women are those who begin by deceiving themselves about their own virtue."

"Nothing is by its own nature calamitous—even poverty, hunger, and disease are only so relative to the belief of the sufferer."

"The great and golden rule of art, of all human creation, is that form should never predominate over content."