Plutarch Quotes

I am speaking now of the highest duty we owe our friends, the noblest, the most sacred - that of keeping their own nobleness, goodness, pure and incorrupt. If we let our friend become cold and selfish and exacting without remonstrance, we are no true lover, no true friend.

It is not for minds like ours to give or to receive flatter; yet the praises of sincerity have ever been permitted to the voice of friendship

But to have a friend, and to be true under any and all trials, is the mark of a man!

If you're picking your best friend based on what kind of clothes she wears or how popular she is, chances are you aren't going to stay in touch after graduation.

My friend is he who will tell me my faults in private.

I need good friends who can say, 'I love you to death, but you look terrible in that, and you need to change right now.'

You can learn something about a person by the company she keeps.

When the character of a man is not clear to you, look at his friends.

The relevant question isn't, 'Is this a potential friend for me?' but, 'Is this character alive?'

If you have a friend that will reprove your faults and foibles, consider you enjoy a blessing which the king upon the throne cannot have.

A friend's only gift is himself.

Every one that flatters thee Is no friend in misery. Words are easy, like the wind, Faithful friends are hard to find.

Like all of my friends, she's a lousy judge of character.

I have undertaken, you see, to write not only my life, but my opinions also; hoping and expecting that your knowledge of my character, and of what kind of a mortal I am, by the one, would give you a better relish for the other: As you proceed further with me, the slight acquaintance which is now beginning betwixt us, will grow into familiarity; and that, unless one of us is in fault, will terminate in friendship.

I consider myself to be a true friend of the Israeli people. But I define friendship as someone who takes care of a friend, who just doesn't use or exploit a friend. And, you know, there's that old adage: 'Friends don't let friends drive drunk'.

Of all sorts of flattery, that which comes from a solemn character and stands before a sermon is the worst-complexioned. Such commendation is a satire upon the author, makes the text look mercenary, and disables the discourse from doing service.

The simulated approval and affection with which parents and teachers are often urged to solve behavior problems are counterfeit. So are flattery, backslap-ping, and many other ways of "winning friends.

And whatever our faith - whatever our faith, one belief should bind us all: The measure of our character is our willingness to give of ourselves for others and for our country.

A heap of epithets is poor praise: the praise lies in the facts, and in the way of telling them.

Sometimes small incidents, rather than glorious exploits, give us the best evidence of character. So, as portrait painters are more exact in doing the face, where the character is revealed, than the rest of the body, I must be allowed to give my more particular attention to the marks of the souls of men.

It is characteristic of spontaneous friendship to take on first, without enquiry and almost at first sight, the unseen doings and unspoken sentiments of our friends; the parts known give us evidence enough that the unknown parts cannot be much amiss.

The one who praises you is a thief. The one who criticizes you is your true friend.

I have need of a friend. There is one and only one who will give the air from his failing lungs for my body's mend. And that one is my love.

The best friend is he that, when he wishes a person's good, wishes it for that person's own sake.