Plutarch

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Plutarch knew that if people are not gathering in free assemblies to work at taking caring of all the social welfare of their society through charity rather than the force of the benefactors of the state like FDR and LBJ then they are slothful in the ways of liberty and will be entangled in the elements of the world and brought back into bondage.

Plutarch

"That the man who first ruined the Roman people twas he who first gave them treats and gratuities. But this mischief crept secretly and gradually in, and did not openly make it's appearance in Rome for a considerable time." Plutarch's Life of Coriolanus (c. 100 AD.)[1]

Plutarch [2] later named, on his becoming a Roman citizen, Lucius Mestrius Plutarchus [3](c. 46 – 120 AD),[1] was a Greek historian, biographer, and essayist, known primarily for his Parallel Lives and Moralia.

“The real destroyers of the liberties of the people is he who spreads among them bounties, donations, and benefits.” Plutarch

Those claiming to believe the Bible, or Christ should have known "He that is greedy of gain troubleth his own house; but he that hateth gifts shall live." Proverbs 15:27

  • "And he said unto them, Take heed, and beware of covetousness: for a man's life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth." Luke 12:15

This undoutedly why were told:

To say nothing about Peter's warnings about covetous practices and Jesus' command about benefactors who exercise authority.[4]


Many people like to say that the United States is not a Democracy but a Constitutional Republic but few of the people actually take an objective look at this idea and fewer understand the personal responsibilities you must accept to manage to maintain a pure Republic and what that really means.

The construction of the United States federal government by the terms of the constitution and other subsequent acts is that of an indirect democracy. The president has all the power of the Imperial Emperors of Rome. That President is elected by an electoral college and his office has grown exponentially in power because the people have become increasingly dependant upon the State as their conscripted fathers.

The Constitution of the United States was created to "guarantee to every state in this union a republican form of government, and shall protect each of them against invasion". Article IV Section 4 of the Constitution. The States were Republics but you are no longer citizens of your states. You are residents of your states and citizens of the United States Federal indirect democracy. Most of your rights have been curtailed or encumbered by obligations because you decided to eat at a federal table of welfare benefits which are provided by the employment of your neighbor and future generations through debt.

Around 600 b.c. Lycurgus, the lawgiver, put into Sparta’s constitution a provision that banned the circulation and possession of gold, silver, or other precious metals as a means of transacting business and replaced these forms of money with an iron currency.

Plutarch attempted to establish a land reform that spread out the ownership of that wealth but the inequality had come from the roots of the welfare state which had begun even before Polybius.

Plutarch like modern progressives set to work reforming the currency. In Plutarch’s Lives of Noble Grecians and Romans we read that Lycurgus:

Not content with this [land reform], he resolved to make a division of their moveables too, that there might be no odious distinction or inequality left amongst them; but finding that it would be very dangerous to go about it openly, he took another course, and defeated their avarice by the following stratagem: he commanded that all gold and silver coin should be called in, and only a sort of money made of iron should be current, a great weight and quantity of which was very little worth; so that to lay up twenty or thirty pounds there was required a pretty large closet, and, to remove it, nothing less than a yoke of oxen. With the diffusion of this money, at once a number of vices were banished from Lacedaemon; for who would rob another of such a coin? Who would unjustly detain or take by force, or accept as a bribe, a thing that it was not easy to hide, nor a credit to have, or of any use to cut in pieces? For when it was just red hot, they quenched it in vinegar, and by that means spoilt it, and made it almost incapable of being worked.
Part of the motivation for the reformation of Sparta’s currency may have been the discouragement of trade with foreigners, because there is no record of exchange rates between Sparta’s iron currency and the coinage of other cities of the same era. It is unlikely, but possible, that Sparta was attempting to compensate for a shortage of domestic supplies of gold and silver, possessing no gold or silver mines of its own.

Societies sometimes develop substitute monies when the growth of commercial activity is restricted by a shortage of money.


"Plutarch’s idea of taking all the substance of the nation into a common treasury and issuing iron coins was clearly not Biblical.[5] Such schemes have historically been disastrous, besides contributing to the bondage of people like they were in Egypt. Jesus desires that we be free from all deception, debt, and bondage." See Temple of Diana


The problem goes much deeper than our lack of understanding of terms like Republic and Democracy, Citizen or Employ. We have become a society where we are Biting one another in a thousand ways to obtain those Benefits at the expense of our neighbor through the Benefactors of a World we created with our own hands. It is through these Covetous Practices that we have lost access to the enjoyment of our rights and become little more than Merchandise or pawns in a world scheme of control. The table of civil benefits provided by men who exercise authority one over the other which should have been for our welfare has become a snare. We have been devoured by our own appetite and through Covetousness.

Many warned of these practices from Polybius to John the Baptist and the Prophets and Apostles of Christ himself. While some today may try to avoid the benefits in order to claim their freedom they do little to become benefactors of society who exercise Charity like some nations and people of the past. They remain Slothful and therefore should be under Tribute.

The early Christians were not like Modern Christians but actually were striving to follow what Christ said to do. They were Doers of the word. They did not depend on the Pagan Temples which provided many of the services of that pagan government of Rome. They provided for one another in a living network and attended to the Weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith which include caring for the needs of our neighbors and the widows and orphans of our society through Pure Religion in matters of health, education, and welfare. We are NOT to provide for the needy of society through the Covetous Practices and the men who call themselves benefactors but who exercise authority one over the other like the socialists do.

The Way of Christ was like neither the way of the world of Rome nor the governments of the gentiles who depend on those fathers of the earth through force, fear and fealty who deliver the people back in bondage again like they were in Egypt. Christ's ministers and true Christians do not depend upon systems of social welfare that force the contributions of the people like the corban of the Pharisees which made the word of God to none effect. Many people have been deceived to go the way of Balaam and the Nicolaitan and out of The Way of Christ and have become workers of iniquity.

The Christian conflict with Rome in the first century Church appointed by Christ was because they would not apply to the fathers of the earth for their free bread but instead relied upon a voluntary network providing a daily ministration to the needy of society through Faith, Hope, and Charity by way of freewill offerings of the people, for the people, and by the people through the perfect law of liberty in Free Assemblies according to the ancient pattern of Tuns or Tens as He commanded.

The modern Christians are in need of repentance.


"Follow me!" —Jesus the Christ.


.

Plutarch was a Platonist, but was open to the influence of the Peripatetics, and even to Stoicism. He was more interested in moral and religious questions.


The Life of Galba

The Life of Galba by Plutarch
published in The Parallel Lives, Vol. XI

"Moreover, Plato​3 sees that a good commander or general can do nothing unless his army is amenable and loyal; and he thinks that the quality of obedience, like the quality characteristic of a king, requires a noble nature and a philosophic training, which, above all things, blends harmoniously the qualities of gentleness and humanity with those of high courage and aggressiveness. Many dire events, and particularly those which befell the Romans after the death of Nero, bear witness to this, and show plainly that an empire has nothing more fearful to p209 show than a military force given over to untrained and unreasoning impulses."



Plutarch's writings had an enormous influence on English and French literature, not because he was always right but because we can see when he was wrong by looking at history. Shakespeare paraphrased parts of Thomas North's translation of selected Lives in his plays, and occasionally quoted from them verbatim.

"To make no mistakes is not in the power of man; but from their errors and mistakes the wise and good learn wisdom for the future." Plutarch

Men like George Santayana

  • "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." The Life of Reason (1905-1906) Vol. I, Reason in Common Sense

Which have influenced the thinking of others:

    • Those who cannot learn from history are doomed to repeat it.
    • Those who do not remember their past are condemned to repeat their mistakes.
    • Those who do not read history are doomed to repeat it.

To enslave a people you would have to keep the general population from learning their true history.


Learning from History Famous quotations and quotes

When it comes to the possibilities of ' learning from history ' there are doubtless many things we could aspire to learn. Some of those would be more practically useful, in terms of contributing to the normal and decent functioning of well-meaning societies than others.

The following selection of famous quotations and quotes about ' learning from history ' begins with a few quotes in which several persons express some disillusionment about Humanity actually learning from history or the past mistakes of history. The selection soon continues with other quotations where such seriously famous observers as Edmund Burke, David Hume, Immanuel Kant, Ralph Waldo Emerson and Machiavelli present views that very directly suggest that learning deep lessons from history is both possible and desirable.

Our overview of this learning from history may not so much explicitly focus importance on the broader range of past mistakes of history, of which there are many, as learning useful lessons about - The Human Condition.

This can show, through cautionary examples, how past mistakes and serious misjudgements have arisen from time to time disrupting the normal and decent functioning of would-be well-meaning societies.


"Rulers, Statesmen, Nations, are wont to be emphatically commended to the teaching which experience offers in history. But what experience and history teach is this - that people and governments never have learned anything from history, or acted on principles deduced from it. Each period is involved in such peculiar circumstances, exhibits a condition of things so strictly idiosyncratic, that its conduct must be regulated by considerations connected with itself, and itself alone." G. W. F. Hegel


"We learn from history that we learn nothing from history." George Bernard Shaw

Great suffering will come to those who learn history for they will have to stand by helplessly watching those who will not learn from history condemn themselves by making the same mistakes generation after generation.


Thousands of years ago Plutarch told us who to be wary of as the real threat to liberty But instead of avoiding them we elect them at our own peril. All democracies will cut their own throat for want of comfort more than righteousness. Those who believe that the vote will save them are the last to accept the truth they should not have gone through the quicksand of democracy.

Moralia

Ralph Waldo Emerson and the Transcendentalists were greatly influenced by the Moralia and even Montaigne's Essays draw extensively from it.


"The soul, being eternal, after death is like a caged bird that has been released. If it has been a long time in the body, and has become tame by many affairs and long habit, the soul will immediately take another body and once again become involved in the troubles of the world. The worst thing about old age is that the soul's memory of the other world grows dim, while at the same time its attachment to things of this world becomes so strong that the soul tends to retain the form that it had in the body. But that soul which remains only a short time within a body, until liberated by the higher powers, quickly recovers its fire and goes on to higher things." Plutarch (The Consolation, Moralia)


Parallel Lives

His soldiers showed such good will and zeal in his service that those who in their previous campaigns had been in no way superior to others were invincible and irresistible in confronting every danger to enhance Caesar's fame. Such a man, for instance, was Acilius, who, in the sea-fight at Massalia, boarded a hostile ship and had his right hand cut off with a sword, but clung with the other hand to his shield, and dashing it into the faces of his foes, routed them all and got possession of the vessel. Such a man, again, was Cassius Scaeva, who, in the battle at Dyrrhachium, had his eye struck out with an arrow, his shoulder transfixed with one javelin and his thigh with another, and received on his shield the blows of one hundred and thirty missiles. In this plight, he called the enemy to him as though he would surrender. Two of them, accordingly, coming up, he lopped off the shoulder of one with his sword, smote the other in the face and put him to flight, and came off safely himself with the aid of his comrades. Again, in Britain, when the enemy had fallen upon the foremost centurions, who had plunged into a watery marsh, a soldier, while Caesar in person was watching the battle, dashed into the midst of the fight, displayed many conspicuous deeds of daring, and rescued the centurions, after the Barbarians had been routed. Then he himself, making his way with difficulty after all the rest, plunged into the muddy current, and at last, without his shield, partly swimming and partly wading, got across. Caesar and his company were amazed and came to meet the soldier with cries of joy; but he, in great dejection, and with a burst of tears, cast himself at Caesar's feet, begging pardon for the loss of his shield. Again, in Africa, Scipio captured a ship of Caesar's in which Granius Petro, who had been appointed quaestor, was sailing. Of the rest of the passengers Scipio made booty, but told the quaestor that he offered him his life. Granius, however, remarking that it was the custom with Caesar's soldiers not to receive but to offer mercy, killed himself with a blow of his sword.

Life of Caesar, XVI

"It is not histories I am writing, but lives; and in the most glorious deeds there is not always an indication of virtue or vice, indeed a small thing like a phrase or a jest often makes a greater revelation of a character than battles where thousands die." Plutarch (Life of Alexander/Life of Julius Caesar, Parallel Lives, [tr. E.L. Bowie])

Quotes

I don't need a friend who changes when I change and who nods when I nod; my shadow does that much better. Plutarch


The mind is not a vessel to be filled but a fire to be kindled. Plutarch


An imbalance between rich and poor is the oldest and most fatal ailment of all republics. Plutarch


Painting is silent poetry, and poetry is painting that speaks. Plutarch


The real destroyer of the liberties of the people is he who spreads among them bounties, donations and benefits. Plutarch


We ought not to treat living creatures like shoes or household belongings, which when worn with use we throw away. Plutarch


To make no mistakes is not in the power of man; but from their errors and mistakes the wise and good learn wisdom for the future. Plutarch


Do not speak of your happiness to one less fortunate than yourself. Plutarch


Know how to listen, and you will profit even from those who talk badly. Plutarch


It is part of a good man to do great and noble deeds, though he risk everything. Plutarch


Character is long-standing habit. Plutarch


In words are seen the state of mind and character and disposition of the speaker. Plutarch


Fate leads him who follows it, and drags him who resist. Plutarch


The very spring and root of honesty and virtue lie in good education. Plutarch


I would rather excel in the knowledge of what is excellent, than in the extent of my power and possessions. Plutarch


To find fault is easy; to do better may be difficult. Plutarch


Prosperity is no just scale; adversity is the only balance to weigh friends. Plutarch


A few vices are sufficient to darken many virtues. Plutarch


Silence at the proper season is wisdom, and better than any speech. Plutarch


The wildest colts make the best horses. Plutarch


Neither blame or praise yourself. Plutarch


Courage consists not in hazarding without fear; but being resolutely minded in a just cause. Plutarch


Let us carefully observe those good qualities wherein our enemies excel us; and endeavor to excel them, by avoiding what is faulty, and imitating what is excellent in them. Plutarch


Medicine to produce health must examine disease; and music, to create harmony must investigate discord. Plutarch

For to err in opinion, though it be not the part of wise men, is at least human. Plutarch


It were better to have no opinion of God at all than such a one as is unworthy of him; for the one is only belief - the other contempt. Plutarch


The omission of good is no less reprehensible than the commission of evil. Plutarch

Immoral as well as "Moral habits, induced by public practices, are far quicker in making their way into men's private lives, than the failings and faults of individuals are in infecting the city at large." Plutarch

If I were not Alexander, I would be Diogenes. Plutarch

The omission of good is no less reprehensible than the commission of evil. Plutarch


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


No man ever wetted clay and then left it, as if there would be bricks by chance and fortune. Plutarch


To be ignorant of the lives of the most celebrated men of antiquity is to continue in a state of childhood all our days. Plutarch


All men whilst they are awake are in one common world: but each of them, when he is asleep, is in a world of his own. Plutarch


Character is simply habit long continued. Plutarch


Those who aim at great deeds must also suffer greatly. Plutarch


When the strong box contains no more both friends and flatterers shun the door. Plutarch


Courage stands halfway between cowardice and rashness, one of which is a lack, the other an excess of courage. Plutarch


Nothing is harder to direct than a man in prosperity; nothing more easily managed that one is adversity. Plutarch


Perseverance is more prevailing than violence; and many things which cannot be overcome when they are together, yield themselves up when taken little by little. Plutarch


Moral habits, induced by public practices, are far quicker in making their way into men's private lives, than the failings and faults of individuals are in infecting the city at large. Plutarch

People of the present
Jordan Peterson | Thomas Sowell | Candace Owens |
George Soros | Robert Burk | Howard Zinn | David French |
Guru theories
David Zuniga | LB Bork | Anna Maria Riezinger |
Marc Stevens | Marcus | Steven Americo |
David Merrill | Larken Rose | |
Numerous Scientists
Dr. Geert Vanden Bossche | Dr. Malone | Dr. Jessica Rose |
Sucharit Bhakdi | Dr. Suzuki | Dr. Ryan Cole |
Dr Stephanie Seneff | Dr Shankara Chetty |
Dr. Luc Montagnier | Dr. Aseem Malhotra |
Dr Dan Stock | Dr. Michael Yeadon | Dr. Steven Quay |
Anthony Fauci | Dr. Salk | Dr. Charles Hoffe |
Professor John Ioannidis | Dr. Peter McCullough | Judy Mikovits |
Doctor Richard Ruhling |
James Scott |
People of the past
Cain | Nimrod | Melchizedek | Abraham | Pharaoh | Moses |
Buddha | Philo Judaeus‎ | Epicurus | Polybius | Plutarch |
Caesars
Emperators | Caesar | Julius Caesar |
Augustus Caesar | Tiberius |
Caligula | Claudius | Nero |
Galba | Otho | Vitellius | Vespasian |
Titus | Domitian | Trajan |
Hadrian | Antoninus Pius |
Marcus Aurelius | Vespian |
Diocletianic Persecution |
Seneca | Stoic | Marcus Tullius Cicero | Celsus | Tacitus | Suetonius | Ignatius of Antioch |
Philo Judaeus‎ - Philo of Alexandria | Herod | John the Baptist |
Jesus the Christ | Diotrephes | Paul the Apostle |
Justin the Martyr | Hippolytus of Rome (200 AD) |
Theophilus | Origen | Jerome | Augustine of Hippo |
Constantine | Ambrose | Eusebius | Eustathius |
Allocutio ad imperatorem Constantinum |
Athanasius | Athenagoras of Athens |
Augustine of Canterbury | Lady Godiva | Thomas Aquinas | Thomas Moore | John Wycliffe‎ |
James Madison | Thomas Jefferson | Patrick Henry | Isaac Backus |
Henry David Thoreau | Ralph Waldo Emerson | Frederic Bastiat |
Alexis de Tocqueville | David Crockett |
Booker T Washington | George Washington Carver |
Becamp | Charles Guignebert | Friedrich Nietzsche | Emma Goldman | Edward Mandell House | Woodrow Wilson | FDR | LBJ | Friedrich Niemöller | Norman Dodd | Archibald MacLeish | Harry Browne | Admiral Ben Moreell |


Footnotes

  1. Alternate translation. "For it has been well said that he first breaks down the power of the people who first feasts and bribes them. But at Rome the mischief seems to have crept in stealthily and gradually, and not to have been noticed at once." Life of Coriolanus, Sec. 14
  2. Greek: Πλούταρχος, Ploútarkhos, Koine Greek: [plǔːtarkʰos];
  3. (Λούκιος Μέστριος Πλούταρχος);
  4. Not exercise authority
    Matthew 20:25 "But Jesus called them unto him, and said, Ye know that the princes of the Gentiles exercise dominion over them, and they that are great exercise authority upon them. But it shall not be so among you:..."
    Mark 10:42 "But Jesus called them to him, and saith unto them, Ye know that they which are accounted to rule over the Gentiles exercise lordship over them; and their great ones exercise authority upon them. But so shall it not be among you:..."
    Luke 22:25 "And he said unto them, The kings of the Gentiles exercise lordship over them; and they that exercise authority upon them are called benefactors. But ye [shall] not [be] so:..."
  5. Leviticus 19:36 “Just balances, just weights, a just ephah, and a just hin, shall ye have: I [am] the LORD your God, which brought you out of the land of Egypt.”
    [Deuteronomy 25:13 ] Proverbs 16:11 “A just weight and balance are the LORD’S: all the weights of the bag are his work.”
    Proverbs 20:10 “Divers weights, and divers measures, both of them are alike abomination to the LORD.”
    Proverbs 20:23 “Divers weights are an abomination unto the LORD; and a false balance is not good.
    Micah 6:11 Shall I count them pure with the wicked balances, and with the bag of deceitful weights?”
  6. Matthew 20:25-26 But Jesus called them unto him, and said, Ye know that the princes of the Gentiles exercise dominion over them, and they that are great exercise authority upon them. But it shall not be so among you: but whosoever will be great among you, let him be your minister;
    Mark 10:42-43 But Jesus called them to him, and saith unto them, Ye know that they which are accounted to rule over the Gentiles exercise lordship over them; and their great ones exercise authority upon them. But so shall it not be among you: but whosoever will be great among you, shall be your minister:
    Luke 22:25-26 And he said unto them, The kings of the Gentiles exercise lordship over them; and they that exercise authority upon them are called benefactors. But ye shall not be so: but he that is greatest among you, let him be as the younger; and he that is chief, as he that doth serve.

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The covetous practices and an appetite for the wages of unrighteousness degrades society paving the road to despotism. Plutarch and Polybius knew it and John the Baptist, Christ and the early Church preached it.