Plutarch 46 AD – 119 AD
Plutarch of Chaeronea was a Greek Middle Platonist philosopher, biographer, and priest at Delphi. His Parallel Lives paired famous Greeks with famous Romans to illuminate the moral character of each, and his Moralia collects essays on ethics, religion, education, politics, and natural philosophy. Plutarch drew on Plato, the Old Academy, and the religious traditions of Greece and Egypt, and he transmitted much that we know of earlier philosophy through his copious quotation. His writings shaped European moral and political education from the Renaissance through the eighteenth century.
Key facts
- Nationality
- Greek
- Era
- Ancient
- Movements
- Platonism
Selected quotes
-
Attributed to Plutarch:
“The mind is not a vessel to be filled, but a fire to be kindled.”
-
Attributed to Plutarch:
“What we achieve inwardly will change outer reality.”
-
Attributed to Plutarch:
“Character is simply habit long continued.”
-
Attributed to Plutarch:
“It is a thing of no great difficulty to raise objections against another man's oration; nay, it is a very easy matter; but to produce a better in its place is a work extremely troublesome.”
-
Attributed to Plutarch:
“To find a fault is easy; to do better may be difficult.”