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About this quote

What does it mean?
Nature can seem benevolent or cruel to humans.
In plain terms
Nature might help or hurt us.
What can you take from it?
Nature is unpredictable.

Where it applies

  • disaster
  • gardening
  • outdoor life

Putting it to work

  • environmental planning
  • preparedness
  • reflection

Questions to consider

  • Is nature kind or cruel?
  • How do you see nature?

Another view

This view anthropomorphizes nature.

More from Pliny the Elder

  1. The only certainty is that nothing is certain.

    Permalink to quote #3
  2. Man alone at the very moment of his birth, cast naked upon the naked earth, does she [Nature] abandon to cries and lamentations.

    Permalink to quote #5
  3. 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…

    Permalink to quote #2

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