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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.

— Pliny the Elder

Deos agere curam rerum humanarum credi, ex usu vitæ est: pœnasque maleficiis, aliquando seras, nunquam autem irritas esse.

Original text (Latin)

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More quotes by Pliny the Elder

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?

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Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Pliny the Elder (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.