Pliny the Elder Short Quotes

25 Sourced Quotes

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There is always something new out of Africa.

Pliny the Elder
Ticks, the foulest and nastiest creatures that be...

Pliny the Elder
With man, most of his misfortunes are occasioned by man.

Pliny the Elder
When a building is about to fall down, all the mice desert it.

Pliny the Elder
Always act in such a way as to secure the love of your neighbour.

Pliny the Elder
It has become quite a common proverb that in wine there is truth.

Pliny the Elder
Why do we believe that in all matters the odd numbers are more powerful?

Pliny the Elder
Stars are also seen to shoot hither and thither, but never to any purpose.

Pliny the Elder
It [the earth] alone remains immoveable, whilst all things revolve round it.

Pliny the Elder
The best plan is, as the common proverb has it, to profit by the folly of others.

Pliny the Elder
And the best plan is, as the popular saying was, to profit by the folly of others.

Pliny the Elder
Nature is to be found in her entirety nowhere more than in her smallest creatures.

Pliny the Elder
Cats too, with what silent stealthiness, with what light steps do they creep up to a bird!

Pliny the Elder
[Pliny] always said that there was no book so bad that some good could not be got out of it.

Pliny the Elder
Let not things, because they are common, enjoy for that the less share of our consideration.

Pliny the Elder
So as this only point among the rest remaineth sure and certain, namely, that nothing is certain.

Pliny the Elder
Why is it that we entertain the belief that for every purpose odd numbers are the most effectual?

Pliny the Elder
So that it is far from easy to judge whether she has proved a kind parent to man or a harsh step-mother.
On nature

Pliny the Elder
It is ridiculous to suppose that the great head of things, whatever it be, pays any regard to human affairs.

Pliny the Elder
It is generally admitted that the absent are warned by a ringing in the ears, when they are being talked about.

Pliny the Elder
It is far from easy to determine whether she [Nature] has proved to man a kind parent or a merciless stepmother.

Pliny the Elder
It is madness to harass the mind, as some have done, with attempts to measure the world, and to publish these attempts

Pliny the Elder
Such is the audacity of man, that he hath learned to counterfeit Nature, yea, and is so bold as to challenge her in her work.

Pliny the Elder
Man alone at the very moment of his birth, cast naked upon the naked earth, does she [Nature] abandon to cries and lamentations.

Pliny the Elder
It is asserted that the dogs keep running when they drink at the Nile, for fear of becoming a prey to the voracity of the crocodile.

Pliny the Elder
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.

Pliny the Elder
Hail, Nature, mother of all creation, and mindful that I alone of the men of Rome have praised thee in all thy manifestations, be gracious to me.

Pliny the Elder
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.

Pliny the Elder
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.

Pliny the Elder
When collating authorities I have found that the most professedly reliable and modern writers have copied the old authors word for word, without acknowledgement.

Pliny the Elder