But virtue, by the bare statement of its actions, can so affect men's minds as to create at once both admiration of the things done and desire to imitate the doers of them. The goods of fortune we would possess and would enjoy; those of virtue we long to practise and exercise. We are content to receive the former from others, the latter we wish others to experience from us. Moral good is a practical stimulus; it is no sooner seen, than it inspires an impulse to practice, and influences the mind and character not by a mere imitation which we look at, but by the statement of the fact creates a moral purpose which we form.

According to the 10th century historian George Syncellus late in Plutarch's life emperor Hadrian appointed him nominal procurator of Achaea – a position that entitled him to wear the vestments and ornaments of a consul himself. 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. 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 daPlutarchd into the midst of the fight displayed many conspicuous deeds of daring and rescued the centurions after the Barbarians had been routed.

46 – 120 AD was a Greek historian biographer and essayist known primarily for his Parallel Lives and Moralia. Plutarch (/ˈpluːtɑrk/; Greek: Πλούταρχος Ploútarkhos Koine Greek: [plŭːtarkʰos]) then named on his becoming a Roman citizen Lucius Mestrius Plutarchus (Λούκιος Μέστριος Πλούταρχος)c. He was born to a prominent family in Chaeronea Boeotia a town about twenty miles east of Delphi.