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Pliny the Elder Quotes
Gaius Plinius Secundus (23 – 79), called Pliny the Elder was a Roman author, naturalist, natural philosopher, naval and army commander of the early Roman Empire, and a friend of the emperor Vespasian. He wrote the encyclopedic Naturalis Historia (Natural History), which became an editorial model for encyclopedias.
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Why is it that we entertain the belief that for every purpose odd numbers are the most effectual?
Man alone at the very moment of his birth, cast naked upon the naked earth, does she [Nature] abandon to cries and lamentations.
It has become quite a common proverb that in wine there is truth.
When a building is about to fall down, all the mice desert it.
Indeed, what is there that does not appear marvelous when it comes to our knowledge for the first time? How many things, too, are looked upon as quite impossible until they have actually been effected?
It is far from easy to determine whether she [Nature] has proved to man a kind parent or a merciless stepmother.
Always act in such a way as to secure the love of your neighbour.
It is generally admitted that the absent are warned by a ringing in the ears, when they are being talked about.
Nature has given man no better thing than shortness of life.
It is ridiculous to suppose that the great head of things, whatever it be, pays any regard to human affairs.
With man, most of his misfortunes are occasioned by man.
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.
Let not things, because they are common, enjoy for that the less share of our consideration.
The best plan is, as the common proverb has it, to profit by the folly of others.
The bird of passage known to us as the cuckoo.
This is Italy, land sacred to the Gods.
The brain is the citadel of the senses: this guides the principle of thought.
Everything is soothed by oil, and this is the reason why divers send out small quantities of it from their mouths, because it smooths every part which is rough.
It is advantageous that the gods should be believed to attend to the affairs of man; and the punishment for evil deeds, though sometimes late, is never fruitless.
Bears when first born are shapeless masses of white flesh a little larger than mice, their claws alone being prominent. The mother then licks them gradually into proper shape.
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