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
dream hope men
Hope is the pillar that holds up the world. Hope is the dream of a waking man.
something-new
There is always something new out of Africa.
spring new-beginnings ends
From the end spring new beginnings.
reputation shameful loses
It is generally much more shameful to lose a good reputation than never to have acquired it.
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.
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?
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.
brain perception intellect
The brain is the citadel of sense perception.
disease dishes
Many dishes bring many diseases.
laughter men laughing
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.
causes moral adaptation
....shellfish are the prime cause of the decline of morals and the adaptation of an extravagant lifestyle.
faults
His only fault is that he has no fault.