Tao Te Ching
Parallel Lives
By Plutarch
In this famous and influential book, Plutarch compares famous Romans and Greeks in an attempt to edify youth and develop more respect between contemporary Greeks and Romans. Of these, only 22 pairs and 4 single biographies have been found. After describing the details, he draws lessons and advice for his time that remains insightful today. Shakespeare used Plutarch as a major resource for many of his plays and as an inspiration for his development of the tragic hero prototype. This book also became an important and unique resource on many historical settings and events not available anywhere else.
Quotes from Parallel Lives
“[Demosthenes' style] was wonderfully pleasing to the common people, but by well-educated persons, it was looked upon as mean, humiliating, and unmanly.”
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“Cicero’s love of mockery often ran him into scurrility; and in his love of laughing away serious arguments in judicial cases by jests and facetious remarks , with a view to the advantage of his clients, he paid too little regard to what was decent… his immeasurable boasting of himself argues him guilty of an uncontrollable appetite for distinction”
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“Demosthenes far surpassed in force and strength of eloquence all his contemporaries in political and judicial speaking, in grandeur, and majesty all the orators, and in accuracy and science all the logicians and rhetoricians of his day… without all the embellishment and jesting [of Cicero] but of the temperance, thoughtfulness, austerity, and grave earnestness of his temper.”
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“Fate leads him who follows it, and drags him who resist.”
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“I don't need a friend who changes when I change and who nods when I nod; my shadow does that much better.”
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“Know how to listen, and you will profit even from those who talk badly.”
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“Perseverance is more prevailing than violence; and many things which cannot be overcome when they are together, yield themselves up when taken little by little.”
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“Solon, to save his country, put a trick upon both parties, and privately promised the poor a division of the lands, and the rich security for their debts... the rich consented because he was wealthy, the poor because he was honest.”
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“To find fault is easy; to do better may be difficult.”
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Quotes about Parallel Lives (2 quotes)
“Painting is silent poetry, and poetry is painting that speaks.”
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“The mind is not a vessel to be filled, but a fire to be kindled.”
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