“Activity does not consist in velocity of change but in constancy of purpose; in the conspiracy of many moments and many processes toward one ideal harmony and one concomitant ideal result.”
— George Santayana, The Life of Reason, Vol. I: Reason in Common Sense (1905)
“Therefore as portrait-painters are more exact in the lines and features of the face in which the character is seen, than in the other parts of the body, so I must be allowed to give my more particular attention to the marks and indications of the souls of men, and while I endeavor by these to portray their lives, may be free to leave more weighty matters and great battles to be treated of by others.”
— Plutarch, Lives of the Noble Grecians and Romans (Dryden trans., rev. A. H. Clough)
“It must be borne in mind that my design is not to write histories, but lives.”
— Plutarch, Lives of the Noble Grecians and Romans (Dryden trans., rev. A. H. Clough)
“And the most glorious exploits do not always furnish us with the clearest discoveries of virtue or vice in men; sometimes a matter of less moment, an expression or a jest, informs us better of their characters and inclinations, than the most famous sieges, the greatest armaments, or the bloodiest battles whatsoever.”
— Plutarch, Lives of the Noble Grecians and Romans (Dryden trans., rev. A. H. Clough)
“Fanaticism consists in redoubling your effort when you have forgotten your aim.”
— George Santayana, The Life of Reason, Vol. I: Reason in Common Sense (1905)
“My method, on the contrary, is, by the study of history, and by the familiarity acquired in writing, to habituate my memory to receive and retain images of the best and worthiest characters.”
— Plutarch, Lives of the Noble Grecians and Romans (Dryden trans., rev. A. H. Clough)
“The absence of romance in my history will, I fear, detract somewhat from its interest; but if it be judged useful by those inquirers who desire an exact knowledge of the past as an aid to the interpretation of the future, which in the course of human things must resemble if it does not reflect it, I shall be content.”
— Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War (trans. Richard Crawley)
“He who busies himself in mean occupations produces, in the very pains he takes about things of little or no use, an evidence against himself of his negligence and indisposition to what is really good.”
— Plutarch, Lives of the Noble Grecians and Romans (Dryden trans., rev. A. H. Clough)
“It was for the sake of others that I first commenced writing biographies; but I find myself proceeding and attaching myself to it for my own; the virtues of these great men serving me as a sort of looking-glass, in which I may see how to adjust and adorn my own life.”
— Plutarch, Lives of the Noble Grecians and Romans (Dryden trans., rev. A. H. Clough)
The Salon library
This is today’s sample of twelve. The whole collection is in the Salon.
Salon members read all 746 English quotes and the Afrikaans collection too, with every filter,
the plain-words notes from A Year with the Muses, the quotes they save, and a private journal for the lines that stay with them.
Join the SalonAlready a member? Open the library →
Every quote in this collection was verified
against its original public-domain source — the letter, journal, poem or treatise it
truly comes from. No internet folklore, no misattributions.
Start free to bring these voices into your daily practice.