Plutarch on Family

"When Hermodotus in his poems described Antigonus as the son of Helios, "My valet-de-chambre," said he, "is not aware of this."

"Like the man who threw a stone at a bitch, but hit his step-mother, on which he exclaimed, "Not so bad!"

"Children are to be won to follow liberal studies by exhortations and rational motives, and on no account to be forced thereto by whipping."

"In his house he had a large looking-glass, before which he would stand and go through his exercises."

"King Agis said, "The Lacedæmonians are not wont to ask how many, but where the enemy are."

"It is a desirable thing to be well descended, but the glory belongs to our ancestors."

"As Athenodorus was taking his leave of Cæsar, "Remember," said he, "Cæsar, whenever you are angry, to say or do nothing before you have repeated the four-and-twenty letters to yourself."

"Nothing made the horse so fat as the king's eye."

"When he was in great prosperity, and courted by many, seeing himself splendidly served at his table, he turned to his children and said: "Children, we had been undone, if we had not been undone."

"Thrasyllus the Cynic begged a drachm of Antigonus. "That," said he, "is too little for a king to give." "Why, then," said the other, "give me a talent." "And that," said he, "is too much for a Cynic to receive."

"Laughing at his own son, who got his mother, and by his mother's means his father also, to indulge him, he told him that he had the most power of any one in Greece: "For the Athenians command the rest of Greece, I command the Athenians, your mother commands me, and you command your mother."

"Agesilaus was very fond of his children; and it is reported that once toying with them he got astride upon a reed as upon a horse, and rode about the room; and being seen by one of his friends, he desired him not to speak of it till he had children of his own."

"On this occasion also, Marcus the son of Cato, fighting among the noblest and bravest of the youth, though hard pressed, did not yield nor flee, but laying about him and calling out who he was, and his father's name, he fell on a heap of the enemy's slain. There fell, too, the bravest of the men, exposing themselves in defence of Brutus."

"Yet, as the strongest bodies are those which can equally well support the extremes of heat and cold, so the noblest minds are those which prosperity does not render insolent and overbearing, nor ill fortune depress: and here Aemilius appears more nearly to approach absolute perfection, as, when in great misfortune and grief for his children, he showed the same dignity and firmness as after the greatest success."