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There is an herb named in Latine Convolvulus (i. e. with wind), growing among shrubs and bushes, which carrieth a flower not unlike to this Lilly, save that it yeeldeth no smell nor hath those chives within; for whitenesse they resemble one another very much, as if Nature in making this floure were a learning and trying her skill how to frame the Lilly indeed.

— Pliny the Elder

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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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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.