Pliny the Elder Quotes - Page 3

True happiness consists in being considered deserving of it.

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

Compassion and shame come over one who considers how precarious is the origin of the proudest of living beings: often the smell of a lately extinguished lamp is enough to cause a miscarriage. And to think that from such a frail beginning a tyrant or butcher may be born! You who trust in your physical strength, who embrace the gifts of fortune and consider yourself not their ward but their son, you who have a domineering spirit, you who consider yourself a god as soon as success swells your breast, think how little could have destroyed you!

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

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.

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

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.

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

The perverted ingenuity of man has given to water the power of intoxicating where wine is not procured. Western nations intoxicate themselves by moistened grain.

The brain is the citadel of sense perception.

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

When collapse is imminent, the little rodents flee.

The happier the moment the shorter.

It is this earth that, like a kind mother, receives us at our birth, and sustains us when born; it is this alone, of all the elements around us, that is never found an enemy of man.

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

We live by reposing trust in each other.

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

War should neither be feared nor provoked.

But with man, — by Hercules! most of his misfortunes are occasioned by man.

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."

It has become quite a common proverb that in wine there is truth (In Vino Veritas).

The desire to know a thing is heightened by its gratification being deferred.

In wine there is health (In vino sanitas)

The largest land animal is the elephant, and it is the nearest to man in intelligence: it understands the language of its country and obeys orders, remembers duties that it has been taught, is pleased by affection and by marks of honour, nay more it possesses virtues rare even in man, honesty, wisdom, justice, also respect for the stars and reverence for the sun and moon.

No book so bad but some part may be of use.