Plutarch Quotes
When a man's eyes are sore his friends do not let him finger them, however much he wishes to, nor do they themselves touch the inflammation: But a man sunk in grief suffers every chance comer to stir and augment his affliction like a running sore; and by reason of the fingering and consequent irritation it hardens into a serious and intractable evil.
Plutarch. Plutarch's Moralia. Translated by Frank Cole Babbitt, vol. 2, Harvard University Press, 1928, p. 111.
A custom at the time was for people in grief to literally tear some of their hair out. This quotation is memorable because it is one of the earliest that questions established customs and traditions by using logic—something which is more common in modern times than in Ancient Greece, but even today much custom and superstition is accepted and followed without any logical analysis.
Plutarch (/ˈpluːtɑːrk/; Greek: Πλούταρχος, Ploútarchos; Koine Greek: [ˈplutarkʰos]; AD 46–after AD 119) was a Greek Middle Platonist philosopher, historian, biographer, essayist, and priest at the Temple of Apollo. He is known primarily for his Parallel Lives, a series of biographies of illustrious Greeks and Romans, and Moralia, a collection of essays and speeches. Upon becoming a Roman citizen, he was named Lucius Mestrius Plutarchus (Λούκιος Μέστριος Πλούταρχος).
