Moralia, Volume II: How to Profit by One's Enemies. On Having Many Friends. Chance. Virtue and Vice. Letter of Condolence to Apollonius. Advice About Keeping Well. Advice to Bride and Groom. The Dinner of the Seven Wise Men. Superstition Book

It is indeed a hard task, in the midst of company and good cheer, to keep to moderation and one's habits and at the same time to avoid the extreme disagreeableness which makes one appear offensive and tiresome to the whole company.'Advice about Keeping Well, 123f
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Why, for my part, I should prefer that men should say about me that I have never been born at all, and there is no Plutarch, rather than that they should say "Plutarch is an inconstant fickle person, quick-tempered, vindictive over little accidents, pained at trifles. If you invite others to dinner and leave him out, or if you haven't the time and don't go to call on him, or fail to speak to him when you see him, he will set his teeth into your body and bite it through, or he will get hold of your little child and beat him to death, or he will turn the beast that he owns into your crops and spoil your harvest." 'Superstition, 169f

To his honourable memory and to his fair fame, which will endure for time eternal.)'A Letter of Condolence to Apollonius, 121e
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This volume contains the following essays:
• How to Profit by One's Enemies
• On Having Many Friends
• Chance
• Virtue and Vuce
• A Letter of Condolence to Apollonius
• Advice about Keeping Well
• Advice to Bride and Groom
• The Dinner of the Seven Wise Men
• Superstition
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Some more good thoughts from Plutarch.

Also enjoyable are the countless quotations he includes from ancients which have both survived and have been lost.
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How to Profit by One's Enemies
To live circumspectly, to give heed to one's self, and not to do or say anything carelessly or inconsiderately, but always to keep ones life unassailable as though under an exact regimen. (87d)

Enter within the portals of your own soul . . .(88d)

As often as Plato found himself in the company of persons whose conduct was unseemly, he was won't to say to himself, "Is it possible that I am like them?" (88e)
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On Having Many Friends
One should by no means take what is easily taken. (94e)

Now he is master of all things, and in every way superior. (98f)

For the arts have Labour, that is Athena, and not Chance as their coadjutor. Of just one artist, however, it is related that in painting a horse he had succeeded in nearly every respect in the drawing and colours, but the frothy appearance of the foam from champing the bit, and the rush of the foam-flecked breath, he had tried again and again to paint, but without success, and each time had wiped it out, until finally, in a rage, he threw his sponge just as it was, full of pigments, at the canvas, and this, as it struck, transferred its contents in some amazing manner to the canvas, and effected the desired result. This is the only recorded instance of a technical achievement due to chance. (99b)
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Virtue and Vice
A pleasant and happy life comes not from external things, but, on the contrary, man draws on his own character as a source from which to add the element of pleasure and joy to the things which surround him. (100c)

So every occupation and manner of life, if attended by virtue, is untroubled and delightful. (100d)

For a well-balanced and healthy condition of the body gives room for engendering the pleasures of the flesh. (101a)
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A Letter of Condolence to Apollonius
One ought to realise, not merely that he himself is mortal by nature, but also that he is allotted to a life that is mortal and to conditions which readily reverse themselves. (103f)

. . . because of these things, we have no leisure for study. (108b)

If we are ever going to have any pure knowledge, we must divest ourselves of the body, and with the soul itself observe the realities. (108b)

Just as all events before our lifetime were nothing to us, even so will all events subsequent to our lifetime be nothing to us. (109f)

Many people, because of their utter fatuity and their false opinion regarding death, die in their affort to keep from dying. (110a)

Excellence is not to be ascribed to length of time, but to worth. (111b)

If you intend some time to change your attitude, why do you not change it at once and extricate yourself from this misfortune? (112c)

For men it is utterly impossible that they should obtain the best thing of all, or even have any share in its nature (for the best thing for all men and women is not to be born); however, the next best thing to this, and the first of those to which man can attain, but nevertheless only the second best, is, after being born, to die as quickly as possible. (115e; cf Theognis, 425)

. . . in the blooming period of his years, has departed early, a perfect youth, envied and admired by all who knew him. (120a)

To his honourable memory and to his fair fame, which will endure for time eternal. (121e)
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Advice about Keeping Well
We ought especially to guard against excess in eating and drinking, and against all self-indulgence. (123e)

It is indeed a hard task, in the midst of company and good cheer, to keep to moderation and one's habits and at the same time to avoid the extreme disagreeableness which makes one appear offensive and tiresome to the whole company. (123f)

The Spartans give to the cook vinegar and salt only, bidding his seek whatever else he needs in the slaughtered animal itself. (128c)

To take a cold bath after excessing is ostentatious and juvenile rather than healthful. (131b)

Stick to the thin hand light things, such as most of the garden stuff, birds, and such fish as have not much fat. (131e)

Our use of meat should not be for the satisfaction of appetite, as is the case with wolves or lions; but while we may put it in as a sort of prop and support of our diet, we should use other foods and relishes which for the body are more in accord with nature and less dulling to the reasoning faculty, which, as it were, is kindled from plain and light substances. (132a)

Some people feel most impelled towards wine when the drink which they most need is water. (132c)

. . . the way of most people, who fill up their bodies for the sake of emptying them, and then empty them for the sake of filling them up again, thus transgressing against nature . . . (134b)

. . . the way of most people, who make themselves miserable over incidental things, and wear themselves out with loss of sleep, going to this place and that place, and running about, all for no useful or decent purpose, but only from a spirit of insolence, envy, rivalry against others, or in the pursuit of unprofitable and empty repute. (135e)
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Advice to Bride and Groom
Helen was fond of wealth and Paris of pleasure; Odysseus was sensible and Penelope virtuous. Therefore the marriage of the later pair was happy and enviable, while that of the former created an "Iliad of woes" for Greeks and barbarians. (140f)

A woman once said to Philip who was trying to fore her to come to him against her will, "Let me go. All women are the same when the lights are out." This is well said as an answer to adulterous and licentious men . . . (144e)
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The Dinner of the Seven Wise Men
It seems fairly certain, Nicharchus, that the lapse of time will bring about much obscurity and complete uncertainty regarding actual events . . . (146b)

It is more difficult to discover the fitting adornment for character than the superfluous and useless adornment for the body. (147f)

To cling to every form of pleasure is utterly irrational, but to avoid every form of pleasure is utterly insensate. Let it be granted that there exist some superior pleasures for the soul to enjoy . . . (158e

This volume is a good read, rich with interest for many, I would imagine. How to Profit by One's Enemies (how to manage wisely an enemy), On Having Many Friends (qualities and demands of true friendship), The Dinner of the Seven Wise Men (a symposium of the wisest men of ancient lore), Superstition (comparing atheism to superstition with the mean of true religion), A Letter of Condolence to Apollonius (his young son died) and more. My personal favorite is Advice to Bride and Groom, Plutarch's wedding present wisdom to his daughter and son-in-law on a successful and happy marriage.