Pliny The Elder Quotes

Hope is the pillar that holds up the world. Hope is the dream of a waking man.

The feasant hens of Colchis, which have two ears as it were consisting of feathers, which they will set up and lay down as they list.

It has become quite a common proverb that in wine there is truth (In Vino Veritas).

The depth of darkness to which you can descend and still live is an exact measure of the height to which you can aspire to reach.

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

An object in possession seldom retains the same charm that it had in pursuit.

In these matters the only certainty is that nothing is certain.

From the end spring new beginnings.

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

In wine, there's truth.

Better do nothing than do ill.

There is, to be sure, no evil without something good.

But with man, — by Hercules! most of his misfortunes are occasioned by man.

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.

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.

It is generally much more shameful to lose a good reputation than never to have acquired it.

Nothing is so unequal as equality.

As for the garden of mint, the very smell of it alone recovers and refreshes our spirits, as the taste stirs up our appetite for meat.

As touching peaches in general, the very name in Latine whereby they are called Persica, doth evidently show that they were brought out of Persia first.

How many things... are looked upon as quite impossible until they have been actually effected?

There is always something new out of Africa.

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

The perverted ingenuity of man has given to water the power of intoxicating where wine is not procured. Western nations intoxicate themselves by moistened grain.

Truth comes out in wine.

There is no book so bad that some good can not be got out of it.

Nothing is more useful than wine for strengthening the body and also more detrimental to our pleasure if moderation be lacking.

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

No man's abilities are so remarkably shining as not to stand in need of a proper opportunity.

Lust is an enemy to the purse, a foe to the person, a canker to the mind, a corrosive to the conscience, a weakness of the wit, a besotter of the senses, and finally, a mortal bane to all the body.

Nature has given man no better thing than shortness of life.

Among these things, one thing seems certain - that nothing certain exists and that there is nothing more pitiful or more presumptuous than man.

....shellfish are the prime cause of the decline of morals and the adaptation of an extravagant lifestyle.

Simple diet is best: for many dishes bring many diseases, and rich sauces are worse than even heaping several meats upon each other.

As land is improved by sowing it with various seeds, so is the mind by exercising it with different studies.

The javelin-snake amphiptere hurls itself from the branches of trees.

The great business of man is to improve his mind, and govern his manners; all other projects and pursuits, whether in our power to compass or not, are only amusements.

Wine refreshes the stomach, sharpens the appetite, blunts care and sadness, and conduces to slumber.

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.

On a farm the best fertilizer is the master's eye.

The agricultural population produces the bravest men, the most valiant soldiers,46 and a class of citizens the least given of all to evil designs.

Wine maketh the band quivering, the eye watery, the night unquiet, lewd dreams, a stinking breath in the morning, and an utter forgetfulness of all things.

We neglect those things which are under our very eyes, and heedless of things within our grasp, pursue those which are afar off.

The only certainty is uncertainty

I think it is the most beautiful and humane thing in the world, so to mingle gravity with pleasure that the one may not sink into melancholy, nor the other rise up into wantonness.

Most men are afraid of a bad name, but few fear their consciences.

The lust of avarice as so totally seized upon mankind that their wealth seems rather to possess them than they possess their wealth.

The best kind of wine is that which is most pleasant to him who drinks it.

The brain is the citadel of sense perception.

We ought to be guarded against every appearance of envy, as a passion that always implies inferiority wherever it resides.

Men are most apt to believe what they least understand; and through the lust of human wit obscure things are more easily credited.