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 ELDERWe listen with deep interest to what we hear, for to man novelty is ever charming.
More Pliny the Elder Quotes
-
-
We ought to be guarded against every appearance of envy, as a passion that always implies inferiority wherever it resides.
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 -
Human nature craves novelty.
PLINY THE ELDER -
True happiness consists in being considered deserving of it.
PLINY THE ELDER -
The only certainty is uncertainty
PLINY THE ELDER -
In wine there is health.
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 -
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 -
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 -
Envy always implies conscious inferiority wherever it resides.
PLINY THE ELDER -
Nothing is so unequal as equality.
PLINY THE ELDER -
Let not things, because they are common, enjoy for that the less share of our consideration.
PLINY THE ELDER -
There is always something new out of Africa.
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 -
Many dishes bring many diseases.
PLINY THE ELDER






