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 ELDERAs land is improved by sowing it with various seeds, so is the mind by exercising it with different studies.
More Pliny the Elder Quotes
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The brain is the citadel of sense perception.
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 -
The most valuable discoveries have found their origin in the most trivial accidents.
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Let that which is wanting in income be supplied by economy.
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.
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How many things… are looked upon as quite impossible until they have been actually effected?
PLINY THE ELDER -
Man alone at the very moment of his birth, cast naked upon the naked earth, does she abandon to cries and lamentations.
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Nothing is more useful than wine for strengthening the body and also more detrimental to our pleasure if moderation be lacking.
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Human nature is fond of novelty.
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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.
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Suicide is a privilege of man which deity does not possess.
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Better do nothing than do ill.
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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.
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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.
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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