Pliny the Younger Quotes
b. 113
Gaius Plinius Caecilius Secundus (63 – c. 113), better known as Pliny the Younger, was a lawyer, an author and a natural philosopher of Ancient Rome.
Random Pliny the Younger quote
62 quotes
Informations without the accuser's name subscribed must not be admitted in evidence against anyone, as it is introducing a very dangerous precedent, and by no means agreeable to the spirit of the age.
Modestus said of Regulus that he was "the biggest rascal that walks upon two legs."
By then day had broken everywhere, but here it was still night—no, more than night.
It is long since I have known the sweets of leisure and repose; since I have known in fine, that indolent but agreeable condition of doing nothing, and being nothing.
To name the man is to say all!
The erection of a monument is superfluous; the memory of us will last, if we have deserved it in our lives.
For there is a certain luxury in grief; especially when we pour out our sorrows in the bosom of a friend, who will approve, or, at least, pardon our tears.
His only fault is that he has no fault.
He died full of years and of glory.
It is allowed to poets to lie.
An object in possession seldom retains the same charms which it had when it was longed for.
To all this, his illustrious mind reflects the noblest ornament; he places no part of his happiness in ostentation, but refers the whole of it to conscience; and seeks the reward of a virtuous action, not in the applauses of the world, but in the action itself.
Objects which are usually the motives of our travels by land and by sea are often overlooked and neglected if they lie under our eye. [...] We put off from time to time going and seeing what we know we have an opportunity of seeing when we please.
As it is far better to excel in any single art, than to arrive only at a mediocrity in several; so on the other hand, a moderate skill in several is to be preferred, where one cannot attain to excellency in any.
I am sensible how much nobler it is to place the reward of virtue in the silent approbation of one's own breast than in the applause of the world. Glory ought to be the consequence, not the motive of our actions.
How skillful he is both in public and in private law! What a knowledge he possesses of things, of examples, and of antiquity! There is nothing you would learn which he cannot teach. In every difficulty he is my constant resource.
Such is the disposition of mankind, if they cannot blast an action, they will censure the parade of it; and whether you do what does not deserve to be taken notice of, or take notice yourself of what does, either way you incur reproach.
There is little difference between expecting misfortune and undergoing it; except that grief has limits, whereas apprehension has none. For we grieve only for what we know has happened; but we fear all that possibly may happen.
The highest of characters, in my estimation, is his, who is as ready to pardon the moral errors of mankind, as if he were every day guilty of some himself; and at the same time as cautious of committing a fault as if he never forgave one.
Experience, that excellent master.