The only thing man knows instinctively is how to weep.
PLINY THE ELDERThe most valuable discoveries have found their origin in the most trivial accidents.
More Pliny the Elder Quotes
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Most men are afraid of a bad name, but few fear their consciences.
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 -
The happier the moment the shorter.
PLINY THE ELDER -
Nature has given man no better thing than shortness of life.
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 -
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 -
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 -
Nothing which we can imagine about Nature is incredible.
PLINY THE ELDER -
No one is wise at all times.
PLINY THE ELDER -
Cats too, with what silent stealthiness, with what light steps do they creep up to a bird!
PLINY THE ELDER -
There is no book so bad that some good can not be got out of it.
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 -
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 -
No man’s abilities are so remarkably shining as not to stand in need of a proper opportunity.
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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