Pliny the Elder Quotes
Pliny the Elder presents keen observations on authorship, childhood laughter, and human uniqueness.
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Fortune favours the brave:
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In comparing various authors with one another, I have discovered that some of the gravest and latest writers have transcribed, word for word, from former works, without making acknowledgment.
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The only certainty is that nothing is certain.
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It is far from easy to determine whether she [Nature] has proved to man a kind parent or a merciless stepmother.
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Man alone at the very moment of his birth, cast naked upon the naked earth, does she [Nature] abandon to cries and lamentations.
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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.
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Man is the only one that knows nothing, that can learn nothing without being taught. He can neither speak nor walk nor eat, and in short he can do nothing at the prompting of nature only, but weep.
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With man, most of his misfortunes are occasioned by man.
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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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The human features and countenance, although composed of but some ten parts or little more, are so fashioned that among so many thousands of men there are no two in existence who cannot be distinguished from one another.
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It has been observed that the height of a man from the crown of the head to the sole of the foot is equal to the distance between the tips of the middle fingers of the two hands when extended in a straight line.
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When a building is about to fall down, all the mice desert it.
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The best plan is to profit by the folly of others.
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Cum grano salis.
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True glory consists in doing what deserves to be written; in writing what deserves to be read.
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In the literary as well as military world, most powerful abilities will often be found concealed under a rustic garb.
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Man naturally yearns for novelty.
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Better do nothing than do ill.
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It is this earth that, like a kind mother, receives us at our birth, and sustains us when born; it is this alone, of all the elements around us, that is never found an enemy of man.
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His only fault is that he has no fault.
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In these matters the only certainty is that nothing is certain.
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Amid the sufferings of life on earth, suicide is God's best gift to man.
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The happier the moment the shorter.
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Accustom yourself to master and overcome things of difficulty; for if you observe, the left hand for want of practice is insignificant, and not adapted to general business; yet it holds the bridle better than the right, from constant use.
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As land is improved by sowing it with various seeds, so is the mind by exercising it with different studies.
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True happiness consists in being considered deserving of it.
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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.