Pliny the Elder - Natural History

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There is always something new out of Africa.

Pliny the Elder
Hail is formed of Rain, congealed into Ice: and Snow of the same Humour grown together, but not so hard. Frost is made of Dew frozen. In Winter Snows fall, and not Hail. It haileth oftener in the Daytime than in the Night; yet Hail sooner melteth by far than Snow.

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
Pythagoras at the same Time uses the Terms of Music, by calling the Space between the Earth and the Moon a Tone; saying, that from her to Mercury is Half a Tone: and from him to Venus about the same Space. But from her to the Sun so much and a Half more: but from the Sun to Mars a Tone, that is to say, as much as from the Earth to the Moon.

Pliny the Elder
The Planet which they call Saturn is the highest, and therefore seemeth to be least: also he performeth his Revolution in the greatest Circle of all: and it is certain, that in thirty Years' Space he returneth again to the Point of his first Place.

Pliny the Elder
In the Town of Syene (which is above Alexandria fifty Stadia), at Noon, in the midst of Summer, there is no Shadow: and that for Experiment thereof, a Well that was sunk in the Ground was lighted to the Bottom; whereby it appeareth that the Sun at that Time is directly over that Place.

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

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

Pliny the Elder
Their best and most wholesome feeding is upon one dish and no more and the same plaine and simple: for surely this hudling of many meats one upon another of divers tastes is pestiferous. But sundrie sauces are more dangerous than that.

Pliny the Elder
The Eclipse of the Moon and Sun is a Thing throughout the universal Contemplation of Nature most marvellous, and resembling a Prodigy, and shews the Magnitude and Shadow of these two Planets. For it is evident that the Sun is hidden by the Intervention of the Moon; and the Moon again by the Opposition of the Earth...

Pliny the Elder
In these minute creatures [insects], so nearly akin as they are to non-entity, how surpassing the intelligence, how vast the resources, and how ineffable the perfection which she [Nature] has displayed.

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

Pliny the Elder
Most Men are ignorant of that Secret which, by great Study of the Heavens, Men of deep Learning have found out: namely, that it is the Fires of uppermost Planets, which, falling to the Earth, carry the Name of Lightnings.

Pliny the Elder
The brain is the highest of the organs in position, and it is protected by the vault of the head; it has no flesh or blood or refuse. It is the citadel of sense-perception.

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

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

Pliny the Elder
Many other means there be, that promise the foreknowledge of things to come: besides the raising up and conjuring of ghosts departed, the conference also with familiars and spirits infernal. And all these were found out in our days, to be no better than vanities and false illusions...

Pliny the Elder
The largest land animal is the elephant, and it is the nearest to man in intelligence: it understands the language of its country and obeys orders, remembers duties that it has been taught, is pleased by affection and by marks of honour, nay more it possesses virtues rare even in man, honesty, wisdom, justice, also respect for the stars and reverence for the sun and moon.

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

Pliny the Elder
The most disgraceful cause of the scarcity [of remedies] is that even those who know them do not want to point them out, as if they were going to lose what they pass on to others.

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