Pliny The Elder Quotes

Human nature is fond of novelty.

Cats too, with what silent stealthiness, with what light steps do they creep up to a bird!

The graceful tear that streams for others' Man is the weeping animal born to govern all the rest.

Nature is to be found in her entirety nowhere more than in her smallest creatures.

It is generally much more shameful to lose a good reputation than never to have acquired it.

Nothing is so unequal as equality.

Such is the audacity of man, that he hath learned to counterfeit Nature, yea, and is so bold as to challenge her in her work.

It [the earth] alone remains immoveable, whilst all things revolve round it.

And that all seas are made calme and still with oile; and therefore the Divers under the water doe spirt and sprinkle it abroad with their mouthes because it dulceth and allaieth the unpleasant nature thereof, and carrieth a light with it.

There is in them a softer fire than the ruby, there is the brilliant purple of the amethyst, and the sea green of the emerald - all shining together in incredible union. Some by their splendor rival the colors of the painters, others the flame of burning sulphur or of fire quickened by oil.

From the end spring new beginnings.

Our youth and manhood are due to our country, but our declining years are due to ourselves.

All men possess in their bodies a poison which acts upon serpents; and the human saliva, it is said, makes them take to flight, as though they had been touched with boiling water. The same substance, it is said, destroys them the moment it enters their throat.

There is an herb named in Latine Convolvulus (i.e. with wind), growing among shrubs and bushes, with carrieth a flower not unlike to this Lilly, save that it yeeldeth no smell nor hath those chives within; for whitenesse they resemble one another very much, as if Nature in making this floure were a learning and trying her skill how to frame the Lilly indeed.

The leading distinction of magnets is sex ... The kind that is found in Troas is black, and of the female sex, and consequently destitute of attractive power.

A dear bargain is always disagreeable, particularly as it is a reflection upon the buyer's judgment.

Their best and most wholesome feeding is upon one dish and no more and the same plaine and simple: for surely this hudling of many meats one upon another of divers tastes is pestiferous. But sundrie sauces are more dangerous than that.

A god cannot procure death for himself, even if he wished it, which, so numerous are the evils of life, has been granted to man as our chief good.

We listen with deep interest to what we hear, for to man novelty is ever charming.

Amid the sufferings of life on earth, suicide is God's best gift to man.

War should neither be feared nor provoked.

Among these things, one thing seems certain - that nothing certain exists and that there is nothing more pitiful or more presumptuous than man.

Out of Africa, there is always something new.

The brain is the highest of the organs in position, and it is protected by the vault of the head; it has no flesh or blood or refuse. It is the citadel of sense-perception.

Cincinnatus was ploughing his four jugera of land upon the Vaticanian Hill, the same that are still known as the Quintian Meadows, when the messenger brought him the dictatorship, finding him, the tradition says, stripped to the work.

The most valuable discoveries have found their origin in the most trivial accidents.

No man's abilities are so remarkably shining as not to stand in need of a proper opportunity.

Sure, football is a silly game. But have you seen what else is on television?

We neglect those things which are under our very eyes, and heedless of things within our grasp, pursue those which are afar off.

The great business of man is to improve his mind, and govern his manners; all other projects and pursuits, whether in our power to compass or not, are only amusements.

His only fault is that he has no fault.

A short death is the sovereign good hap of human life.

Let not things, because they are common, enjoy for that the less share of our consideration.

It has been observed that the height of a man from the crown of the head to the sole of the foot is equal to the distance between the tips of the middle fingers of the two hands when extended in a straight line.

There is no book so bad that some good can not be got out of it,

Lust is an enemy to the purse, a foe to the person, a canker to the mind, a corrosive to the conscience, a weakness of the wit, a besotter of the senses, and finally, a mortal bane to all the body.

The feasant hens of Colchis, which have two ears as it were consisting of feathers, which they will set up and lay down as they list.

With man, most of his misfortunes are occasioned by man.

It is a maxim universally agreed upon in agriculture, that nothing must be done too late; and again, that everything must be done at its proper season; while there is a third precept which reminds us that opportunities lost can never be regained.

There is alas no law against incompetency; no striking example is made. They learn by our bodily jeopardy and make experiments until the death of the patients, and the doctor is the only person not punished for murder.

Nothing is more useful than wine for strengthening the body and also more detrimental to our pleasure if moderation be lacking.

Always act in such a way as to secure the love of your neighbour.

In the literary as well as military world, most powerful abilities will often be found concealed under a rustic garb.

We ought to be guarded against every appearance of envy, as a passion that always implies inferiority wherever it resides.

The javelin-snake amphiptere hurls itself from the branches of trees.

Accustom yourself to master and overcome things of difficulty; for if you observe, the left hand for want of practice is insignificant, and not adapted to general business; yet it holds the bridle better than the right, from constant use.

The best kind of wine is that which is most pleasant to him who drinks it.

The first (barbers) that entered Italy came out of Sicily and it was in the 454 yeare after the foundation of Rome. Brought in they were by P. Ticinius Mena as Verra doth report for before that time they never cut their hair. The first that was shaven every day was Scipio Africanus, and after cometh Augustus the Emperor who evermore used the razor.

Nulla dies sine linea - Not a day without a line.

Contact with [menstrual blood] turns new wine sour, crops touched by it become barren, grafts die, seed in gardens are dried up, the fruit of trees fall off, the edge of steel and the gleam of ivory are dulled, hives of bees die, even bronze and iron are at once seized by rust, and a horrible smell fills the air; to taste it drives dogs mad and infects their bites with an incurable poison.

As in our lives so also in our studies, it is most becoming and most wise, so to temper gravity with cheerfulness, that the former may not imbue our minds with melancholy, nor the latter degenerate into licentiousness.

There is, to be sure, no evil without something good.

In comparing various authors with one another, I have discovered that some of the gravest and latest writers have transcribed, word for word, from former works, without making acknowledgment.

Hope is a working-man's dream.

It is ridiculous to suppose that the great head of things, whatever it be, pays any regard to human affairs.

The agricultural population, says Cato, produces the bravest men, the most valiant soldiers, and a class of citizens the least given of all too evil designs.

Let honor be to us as strong an obligation as necessity is to others.

Wine refreshes the stomach, sharpens the appetite, blunts care and sadness, and conduces to slumber.

The most disgraceful cause of the scarcity [of remedies] is that even those who know them do not want to point them out, as if they were going to lose what they pass on to others.

The only thing man knows instinctively is how to weep.

Let that which is wanting in income be supplied by economy.

To laugh, if but for an instant only, has never been granted to man before the fortieth day from his birth, and then it is looked upon as a miracle of precocity.

The depth of darkness to which you can descend and still live is an exact measure of the height to which you can aspire to reach.

Why do we believe that in all matters the odd numbers are more powerful?

This only is certain, that there is nothing certain.

In wine, there's truth.

The human features and countenance, although composed of but some ten parts or little more, are so fashioned that among so many thousands of men there are no two in existence who cannot be distinguished from one another.

When collapse is imminent, the little rodents flee.

Why is it that we entertain the belief that for every purpose odd numbers are the most effectual?

The enjoyments of this life are not equal to its evils.

The ancients had little doubt about the true shape of the earth: "It's [the world's] shape has the rounded appearance of a perfect sphere. This is shown first of all by the name of 'orb' which is bestowed upon it by the general consent of mankind ... Our eyesight also confirms this belief, because the firmament presents the aspect of a concave hemisphere equidistant in every direction, which would be impossible in the case of any other figure."