More from Pliny the Elder

  1. In comparing various authors with one another, I have discovered that some of the gravest and latest writers have transcribed, word for wor…
  2. The only certainty is that nothing is certain.
  3. It is far from easy to determine whether she [Nature] has proved to man a kind parent or a merciless stepmother.
  4. Man alone at the very moment of his birth, cast naked upon the naked earth, does she [Nature] abandon to cries and lamentations.
  5. 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…
  6. 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…
  7. With man, most of his misfortunes are occasioned by man.
  8. 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 up…

All Pliny the Elder quotes