Pliny the Elder Quotes
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A short death is the sovereign good hap of human life.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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There is always something new out of Africa.
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When a building is about to fall down, all the mice desert it.
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...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.
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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.
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In time of sickness the soul collects itself anew.
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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.
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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.
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The only thing man knows instinctively is how to weep.
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Better do nothing than do ill.
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Home is where the heart is.
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We ought to be guarded against every appearance of envy, as a passion that always implies inferiority wherever it resides.
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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.
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Cats too, with what silent stealthiness, with what light steps do they creep up to a bird!
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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.
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Wine takes away reason, engenders insanity, leads to thousands of crimes, and imposes such an enormous expense on nations.
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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.
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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.
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Example is the softest and least invidious way of commanding.
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We listen with deep interest to what we hear, for to man novelty is ever charming.
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We neglect those things which are under our very eyes, and heedless of things within our grasp, pursue those which are afar off.
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Most men are afraid of a bad name, but few fear their consciences.
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This only is certain, that there is nothing certain.
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The graceful tear that streams for others' Man is the weeping animal born to govern all the rest.
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True happiness consists in being considered deserving of it.
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God has no power over the past except to cover it with oblivion.
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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.
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