Pliny the Elder
Pliny the Elder
Gaius Plinius Secundus, better known as Pliny the Elder, was a Roman author, naturalist, and natural philosopher, as well as naval and army commander of the early Roman Empire, and personal friend of the emperor Vespasian...
NationalityRoman
ProfessionAuthor
reputation shameful loses
It is generally much more shameful to lose a good reputation than never to have acquired it.
wine body culinary
Nothing is more useful than wine for strengthening the body and also more detrimental to our pleasure if moderation be lacking.
knowledge want causes
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.
dream morning wine
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.
lust avarice-greed wealth
The lust of avarice as so totally seized upon mankind that their wealth seems rather to possess them than they possess their wealth.
eye afar neglect
We neglect those things which are under our very eyes, and heedless of things within our grasp, pursue those which are afar off.
sex science black
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.
strong honor obligation
Let honor be to us as strong an obligation as necessity is to others.
adversity men misfortunes
With man, most of his misfortunes are occasioned by man.
land four messengers
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.
doe firsts impossible
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?
common consideration share
Let not things, because they are common, enjoy for that the less share of our consideration.
numbers purpose belief
Why is it that we entertain the belief that for every purpose odd numbers are the most effectual?
two ears hens
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.