Quote #4
It is far from easy to determine whether she [Nature] has proved to man a kind parent or a merciless stepmother.
Attribution disputed; shown as originally published.
More from Pliny the Elder
- The only certainty is that nothing is certain.
- Man alone at the very moment of his birth, cast naked upon the naked earth, does she [Nature] abandon to cries and lamentations.
- In comparing various authors with one another, I have discovered that some of the gravest and latest writers have transcribed, word for wor…
- 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…
- Fortune favours the brave:
- 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…
- With man, most of his misfortunes are occasioned by man.
- 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…