110+ Pliny The Elder Quotes (Natural, History And Encyclopedia)

Pliny the Elder was a Roman author, naturalist, and natural philosopher who lived during the 1st century AD. He was best known for his encyclopedic work, Naturalis Historia, which covered the fields of natural history, botany, zoology, geography, and astronomy. He is also noted for his detailed accounts of Roman life and the natural disasters of his time.

Top 10 Pliny The Elder Quotes

1. Hope is the pillar that holds up the world. Hope is the dream of a waking man.
2. It has become quite a common proverb that in wine there is truth (In Vino Veritas).
3. The depth of darkness to which you can descend and still live is an exact measure of the height to which you can aspire to reach.
4. Why do we believe that in all matters the odd numbers are more powerful?
5. An object in possession seldom retains the same charm that it had in pursuit.
6. In these matters the only certainty is that nothing is certain.
7. From the end spring new beginnings.
8. Prosperity tries the fortunate, adversity the great.
9. Nature is to be found in her entirety nowhere more than in her smallest creatures.
10. In wine, there's truth.

Pliny The Elder Short Quotes

• Home is where the heart is.
• There is, to be sure, no evil without something good.
• It is generally much more shameful to lose a good reputation than never to have acquired it.
• There is always something new out of Africa.
• When a building is about to fall down, all the mice desert it.
• Truth comes out in wine.
• There is no book so bad that some good can not be got out of it.
• In these matters the only certainty is that there is nothing certain.
• The only certainty is that nothing is certain.
• Nature has given man no better thing than shortness of life.

Pliny The Elder Famous Quotes And Sayings

There is in them a softer fire than the ruby, there is the brilliant purple of the amethyst, and the sea green of the emerald - all shining together in incredible union. Some by their splendor rival the colors of the painters, others the flame of burning sulphur or of fire quickened by oil. — Pliny The Elder

Accustom yourself to master and overcome things of difficulty; for if you observe, the left hand for want of practice is insignificant, and not adapted to general business; yet it holds the bridle better than the right, from constant use. — Pliny The Elder

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. — Pliny The Elder

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. — Pliny The Elder

As for the garden of mint, the very smell of it alone recovers and refreshes our spirits, as the taste stirs up our appetite for meat. — Pliny The Elder

As touching peaches in general, the very name in Latine whereby they are called Persica, doth evidently show that they were brought out of Persia first. — Pliny The Elder

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. — Pliny The Elder

Nothing is more useful than wine for strengthening the body and also more detrimental to our pleasure if moderation be lacking. — Pliny The Elder

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. — Pliny The Elder

As land is improved by sowing it with various seeds, so is the mind by exercising it with different studies. — Pliny The Elder

Among these things, one thing seems certain - that nothing certain exists and that there is nothing more pitiful or more presumptuous than man. — Pliny The Elder

....shellfish are the prime cause of the decline of morals and the adaptation of an extravagant lifestyle. — Pliny The Elder

The great business of man is to improve his mind, and govern his manners; all other projects and pursuits, whether in our power to compass or not, are only amusements. — Pliny The Elder

I think it is the most beautiful and humane thing in the world, so to mingle gravity with pleasure that the one may not sink into melancholy, nor the other rise up into wantonness. — Pliny The Elder

Men are most apt to believe what they least understand. — Pliny The Elder

There is alas no law against incompetency; no striking example is made. They learn by our bodily jeopardy and make experiments until the death of the patients, and the doctor is the only person not punished for murder. — Pliny The Elder

...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. — Pliny The Elder

Wine maketh the band quivering, the eye watery, the night unquiet, lewd dreams, a stinking breath in the morning, and an utter forgetfulness of all things. — Pliny The Elder

The lust of avarice as so totally seized upon mankind that their wealth seems rather to possess them than they possess their wealth. — Pliny The Elder

We neglect those things which are under our very eyes, and heedless of things within our grasp, pursue those which are afar off. — Pliny The Elder

The happier the moment the shorter. — Pliny The Elder

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. — Pliny The Elder

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. — Pliny The Elder

It has been observed that the height of a man from the crown of the head to the sole of the foot is equal to the distance between the tips of the middle fingers of the two hands when extended in a straight line. — Pliny The Elder

The best plan is to profit by the folly of others. — Pliny The Elder

Most men are afraid of a bad name, but few fear their consciences. — Pliny The Elder

The leading distinction in magnets is the sex, male and female, and the next great difference in them is the colour. Those of Magnesia, bordering on Macedonia, are of a reddish black; those of Breotia are more red than black; and the kind that is found in Troas is black, of the female sex, and consequently destitute of attractive power. — Pliny The Elder

A short death is the sovereign good hap of human life. — Pliny The Elder

Let honor be to us as strong an obligation as necessity is to others. — Pliny The Elder

Men are most apt to believe what they least understand; and through the lust of human wit obscure things are more easily credited. — Pliny The Elder

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 can do nothing at the prompting of nature only, but weep. — Pliny The Elder

Our civilization depends largely on paper. — Pliny The Elder

Chance is a second master. — Pliny The Elder

On a farm the best fertilizer is the master's eye. — Pliny The Elder

As in our lives so also in our studies, it is most becoming and most wise, so to temper gravity with cheerfulness, that the former may not imbue our minds with melancholy, nor the latter degenerate into licentiousness. — Pliny The Elder

The brain is the highest of the organs in position, and it is protected by the vault of the head; it has no flesh or blood or refuse. It is the citadel of sense-perception. — Pliny The Elder

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. — Pliny The Elder

Their best and most wholesome feeding is upon one dish and no more and the same plaine and simple: for surely this hudling of many meats one upon another of divers tastes is pestiferous. But sundrie sauces are more dangerous than that. — Pliny The Elder

Let not things, because they are common, enjoy for that the less share of our consideration. — Pliny The Elder

The brain is the citadel of sense perception. — Pliny The Elder

Suicide is a privilege of man which deity does not possess. — Pliny The Elder

The master's eye is the best fertilizer. — Pliny The Elder

God has no power over the past except to cover it with oblivion. — Pliny The Elder

Amid the sufferings of life on earth, suicide is God's best gift to man. — Pliny The Elder

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 miracle of precocity. — Pliny The Elder

Nulla dies sine linea - Not a day without a line. — Pliny The Elder

Simple diet is best: for many dishes bring many diseases, and rich sauces are worse than even heaping several meats upon each other. — Pliny The Elder

Nothing which we can imagine about Nature is incredible. — Pliny The Elder

Example is the softest and least invidious way of commanding. — Pliny The Elder

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." — Pliny The Elder

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. — Pliny The Elder

How many things... are looked upon as quite impossible until they have been actually effected? — Pliny The Elder

Nothing is so unequal as equality. — Pliny The Elder

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. — Pliny The Elder

True glory consists in doing what deserves to be written; in writing what deserves to be read; and in so living as to make the world happier and better for our living in it. — Pliny The Elder

Envy always implies conscious inferiority wherever it resides. — Pliny The Elder

This only is certain, that there is nothing certain. — Pliny The Elder

Many dishes bring many diseases. — Pliny The Elder

In time of sickness the soul collects itself anew. — Pliny The Elder

No mortal man, moreover is wise at all moments. — Pliny The Elder

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

The graceful tear that streams for others' Man is the weeping animal born to govern all the rest. — Pliny The Elder

When collapse is imminent, the little rodents flee. — Pliny The Elder

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. — Pliny The Elder

The best kind of wine is that which is most pleasant to him who drinks it. — Pliny The Elder

Now, that the sovereign power and deity, whatsoever it is, should have regard of mankind, is a toy and vanity worthy to be laughed at. — Pliny The Elder

Hope is a working-man's dream. — Pliny The Elder

Honey comes out of the air At early dawn the leaves of trees are found bedewed with honey. Whether this is the perspiration of the sky or a sort of saliva of the stars, or the moisture of the air purging itself, nevertheless it brings with it the great pleasure of its heavenly nature. It is always of the best quality when it is stored in the best flowers. — Pliny The Elder

We live by reposing trust in each other. — Pliny The Elder

We listen with deep interest to what we hear, for to man novelty is ever charming. — Pliny The Elder

It [the earth] alone remains immoveable, whilst all things revolve round it. — Pliny The Elder

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. — Pliny The Elder

It is ridiculous to suppose that the great head of things, whatever it be, pays any regard to human affairs. — Pliny The Elder

A dear bargain is always disagreeable, particularly as it is a reflection upon the buyer's judgment. — Pliny The Elder

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 on as quite impossible until they have been actually effected? — Pliny The Elder

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. — Pliny The Elder

Better do nothing than do ill. — Pliny The Elder

Many other means there be, that promise the foreknowledge of things to come: besides the raising up and conjuring of ghosts departed, the conference also with familiars and spirits infernal. And all these were found out in our days, to be no better than vanities and false illusions. — Pliny The Elder

It is this earth that, like a kind mother, receives us at our birth, and sustains us when born; it is this alone, of all the elements around us, that is never found an enemy of man. — Pliny The Elder

Man naturally yearns for novelty. — Pliny The Elder

Why is it that we entertain the belief that for every purpose odd numbers are the most effectual? — Pliny The Elder

Cats too, with what silent stealthiness, with what light steps do they creep up to a bird! — Pliny The Elder

Compassion and shame come over one who considers how precarious is the origin of the proudest of living beings: often the smell of a lately extinguished lamp is enough to cause a miscarriage. And to think that from such a frail beginning a tyrant or butcher may be born! You who trust in your physical strength, who embrace the gifts of fortune and consider yourself not their ward but their son, you who have a domineering spirit, you who consider yourself a god as soon as success swells your breast, think how little could have destroyed you! — Pliny The Elder

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. — Pliny The Elder

In the literary as well as military world, most powerful abilities will often be found concealed under a rustic garb. — Pliny The Elder

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. — Pliny The Elder

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. — Pliny The Elder

The only thing man knows instinctively is how to weep. — Pliny The Elder

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. — Pliny The Elder

His only fault is that he has no fault. — Pliny The Elder

Life Lessons by Pliny The Elder

1. Pliny the Elder taught that knowledge is power, emphasizing the importance of learning and understanding the world around us.
2. He also emphasized the importance of living a life of virtue, believing that a life of integrity and honor is the most fulfilling.
3. Finally, Pliny the Elder encouraged us to be humble and recognize our own mortality, teaching us to appreciate the beauty of life and make the most of our time here on earth.