Top Pliny the Elder Quotes

Pliny the Elder Biography

Pliny the Elder (born Gaius Plinius Secundus, AD 23–79) was a Roman author, naturalist and natural philosopher, a naval and army commander of the early Roman Empire, and friend of emperor Vespasian.

Read about Pliny the Elder in Wikipedia

Random Authors

Pliny the Elder Quotes

No mortal man, moreover is wise at all moments.

Demise, Man, Men, Mortal, Wise

The human features and countenance, although composed of but some ten parts or little more, are so fashioned that among so many thousands of men there are no two in existence who cannot be distinguished from one another.

Although, Littles, Men, Parts, Thousands, Two

The first (barbers) that entered Italy came out of Sicily and it was in the 454 yeare after the foundation of Rome. Brought in they were by P. Ticinius Mena as Verra doth report for before that time they never cut their hair. The first that was shaven every day was Scipio Africanus, and after cometh Augustus the Emperor who evermore used the razor.

Came, Cutting, Doth, Hair, Rome, Used

The only certainty is uncertainty

Certainty, Decision, Decision Making, Uncertainty

All men possess in their bodies a poison which acts upon serpents; and the human saliva, it is said, makes them take to flight, as though they had been touched with boiling water. The same substance, it is said, destroys them the moment it enters their throat.

Bodies, Destroys, Men, Poison, Water

Suicide is a privilege of man which deity does not possess.

Man, Men, Privilege, Suicide, Sympathy

The leading distinction of magnets is sex. . . The kind that is found in Troas is black, and of the female sex, and consequently destitute of attractive power.

Black, Female, Magnets, Science, Sex

The ancients had little doubt about the true shape of the earth: "It's [the world's] shape has the rounded appearance of a perfect sphere. This is shown first of all by the name of 'orb' which is bestowed upon it by the general consent of mankind. . . . Our eyesight also confirms this belief, because the firmament presents the aspect of a concave hemisphere equidistant in every direction, which would be impossible in the case of any other figure. "

Bestowed, Doubt, Figure, Names, Perfect, Presents

The perverted ingenuity of man has given to water the power of intoxicating where wine is not procured. Western nations intoxicate themselves by moistened grain.

Grain, Men, Nations, Power, Water, Wine

Such is the audacity of man, that he hath learned to counterfeit Nature, yea, and is so bold as to challenge her in her work.

Audacity, Challenges, Counterfeit, Man, Men, Yea

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

Building, Desert, Down, Fall

There is an herb named in Latine Convolvulus (i. e. with wind), growing among shrubs and bushes, with carrieth a flower not unlike to this Lilly, save that it yeeldeth no smell nor hath those chives within; for whitenesse they resemble one another very much, as if Nature in making this floure were a learning and trying her skill how to frame the Lilly indeed.

Chives, Flower, Lilly, Shrubs, Skills, Wind

No man's abilities are so remarkably shining as not to stand in need of a proper opportunity.

Men, Opportunity, Proper, Remarkably, Shining

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, without making acknowledgment.

Authors, Compare, Comparing, Former, Various, Word

War should neither be feared nor provoked.

Feared, Provoked, Should, War

Nature makes us buy her presents at the price of so many sufferings that it is doubtful whether she deserves most the name of parent or stepmother.

Names, Parent, Presents, Stepmother, Suffering, Sufferings

I would have a man generous to his country, his neighbors, his kindred, his friends, and most of all his poor friends. Not like some who are most lavish with those who are able to give most of them.

Country, Generosity, Kindred, Men, Neighbors

. . . . shellfish are the prime cause of the decline of morals and the adaptation of an extravagant lifestyle.

Adaptation, Causes, Decline, Extravagant, Moral, Prime

Nature is to be found in her entirety nowhere more than in her smallest creatures.

Creatures, Found, Nature, Nowhere, Smallest

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

Passion, Envy, Inferiority, Resides, Guarded

››

Pliny the Elder Biography

Contact Us

About us