Pliny the Elder Quotes

On this page you can find the TOP of Pliny the Elder's best quotes! We hope you will find some sayings from Author Pliny the Elder's in our collection, which will inspire you to new achievements! There are currently 131 quotes on this page collected since 23! Share our collection of quotes with your friends on social media so that they can find something to inspire them!
  • A short death is the sovereign good hap of human life.

  • A god cannot procure death for himself, even if he wished it, which, so numerous are the evils of life, has been granted to man as our chief good.

    Men   Evil   Granted  
    Pliny the Elder (2015). “Delphi Complete Works of Pliny the Elder (Illustrated)”, p.7, Delphi Classics
  • Contact with [menstrual blood] turns new wine sour, crops touched by it become barren, grafts die, seed in gardens are dried up, the fruit of trees fall off, the edge of steel and the gleam of ivory are dulled, hives of bees die, even bronze and iron are at once seized by rust, and a horrible smell fills the air; to taste it drives dogs mad and infects their bites with an incurable poison.

    Dog   Fall   Wine  
  • 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.

    Courage   Men   Class  
    "The Natural History of Pliny".
  • There is always something new out of Africa.

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

    Fall   Desert   Building  
    'Historia Naturalis' bk. 8, ch. 103
  • ...shellfish are the prime cause of the decline of morals and the adaptation of an extravagant lifestyle. Indeed of the whole realm of Nature the sea is in many ways the most harmful to the stomach, with its great variety of dishes and tasty fish.

    Food   Sea   Cooking  
  • 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.

    Lust   Mind   Enemy  
  • In time of sickness the soul collects itself anew.

    Soul   Sickness  
  • 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.

  • 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.

    "Letters, vol. 2". Book by Pliny (the Younger.), William Melmoth and Winifred Margaret Lambart Hutchinson, Book VIII, Letter 17, 6, 1935.
  • The only thing man knows instinctively is how to weep.

    Men   Knows  
  • Better do nothing than do ill.

    Ill  
  • Home is where the heart is.

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

  • It is a maxim universally agreed upon in agriculture, that nothing must be done too late; and again, that everything must be done at its proper season; while there is a third precept which reminds us that opportunities lost can never be regained.

    Pliny (the Elder.) (1856). “The Natural History of Pliny”, p.18
  • Cats too, with what silent stealthiness, with what light steps do they creep up to a bird!

    Cat   Light   Bird  
    Pliny the Elder (2015). “Delphi Complete Works of Pliny the Elder (Illustrated)”, Delphi Classics
  • Cincinnatus was ploughing his four jugera of land upon the Vaticanian Hill, the same that are still known as the Quintian Meadows, when the messenger brought him the dictatorship, finding him, the tradition says, stripped to the work.

    Land   Ploughing   Four  
    Pliny the Elder (2015). “Delphi Complete Works of Pliny the Elder (Illustrated)”, p.845, Delphi Classics
  • Wine takes away reason, engenders insanity, leads to thousands of crimes, and imposes such an enormous expense on nations.

    Wine   Insanity   Reason  
  • The world, and whatever that be which we call the heavens, by the vault of which all things are enclosed, we must conceive to be a deity, to be eternal, without bounds, neither created nor subject at any time to destruction. To inquire what is beyond it is no concern of man; nor can the human mind form any conjecture concerning it.

    Men   Heaven   Mind  
    Pliny the Elder (2015). “Delphi Complete Works of Pliny the Elder (Illustrated)”, p.1, Delphi Classics
  • 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.

    Two   Ears   Hens  
  • Example is the softest and least invidious way of commanding.

    Example   Way  
  • We listen with deep interest to what we hear, for to man novelty is ever charming.

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

    Eye   Afar   Neglect  
  • Most men are afraid of a bad name, but few fear their consciences.

    Men   Names   Conscience  
  • This only is certain, that there is nothing certain.

    Certain  
  • The graceful tear that streams for others' Man is the weeping animal born to govern all the rest.

    Animal   Men   Tears  
  • True happiness consists in being considered deserving of it.

  • God has no power over the past except to cover it with oblivion.

    Past   Oblivion   Over It  
  • 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.

    Country   Stars   Honesty  
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  • We hope you have found the saying you were looking for in our collection! At the moment, we have collected 131 quotes from the Author Pliny the Elder, starting from 23! We periodically replenish our collection so that visitors of our website can always find inspirational quotes by authors from all over the world! Come back to us again!