Pliny The Elder Quotes
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.
Men are most apt to believe what they least understand; and through the lust of human wit obscure things are more easily credited.
We ought to be guarded against every appearance of envy, as a passion that always implies inferiority wherever it resides.
Our youth and manhood are due to our country, but our declining years are due to ourselves.
Man is the only one that knows nothing, that can learn nothing without being taught. He can neither speak nor walk nor eat, and in short he can do nothing at the prompting of nature only, but weep.
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.
I would have a man generous to his country, his neighbors, his kindred, his friends, and most of all his poor friends. Not like some who are most lavish with those who are able to give most of them.
Let not things, because they are common, enjoy for that the less share of our consideration.
The graceful tear that streams for others' Man is the weeping animal born to govern all the rest.
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.
The most valuable discoveries have found their origin in the most trivial accidents.
Nature makes us buy her presents at the price of so many sufferings that it is doubtful whether she deserves most the name of parent or stepmother.
A dear bargain is always disagreeable, particularly as it is a reflection upon the buyer's judgment.
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.
Cats too, with what silent stealthiness, with what light steps do they creep up to a bird!
In the literary as well as military world, most powerful abilities will often be found concealed under a rustic garb.
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.
Now, that the sovereign power and deity, whatsoever it is, should have regard of mankind, is a toy and vanity worthy to be laughed at.
Wine takes away reason, engenders insanity, leads to thousands of crimes, and imposes such an enormous expense on nations.
It is ridiculous to suppose that the great head of things, whatever it be, pays any regard to human affairs.
