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
animal men tears
The graceful tear that streams for others' Man is the weeping animal born to govern all the rest.
mother men enemy
It is this earth that, like a kind mother, receives us at our birth, and sustains us when born; it is this alone, of all the elements around us, that is never found an enemy of man.
country men generosity
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.
men naked earth
Man alone at the very moment of his birth, cast naked upon the naked earth, does she abandon to cries and lamentations.
distance men hands
It has been observed that the height of a man from the crown of the head to the sole of the foot is equal to the distance between the tips of the middle fingers of the two hands when extended in a straight line.
men two littles
The human features and countenance, although composed of but some ten parts or little more, are so fashioned that among so many thousands of men there are no two in existence who cannot be distinguished from one another.
men heaven mind
The world, and whatever that be which we call the heavens, by the vault of which all things are enclosed, we must conceive to be a deity, to be eternal, without bounds, neither created nor subject at any time to destruction. To inquire what is beyond it is no concern of man; nor can the human mind form any conjecture concerning it.
men water substance
All men possess in their bodies a poison which acts upon serpents; and the human saliva, it is said, makes them take to flight, as though they had been touched with boiling water. The same substance, it is said, destroys them the moment it enters their throat.
men knows
The only thing man knows instinctively is how to weep.
men certain pitiful
Among these things, one thing seems certain - that nothing certain exists and that there is nothing more pitiful or more presumptuous than man.
men novelty charming
We listen with deep interest to what we hear, for to man novelty is ever charming.
wise men demise
No mortal man, moreover is wise at all moments.
men evil granted
A god cannot procure death for himself, even if he wished it, which, so numerous are the evils of life, has been granted to man as our chief good.
men novelty
Man naturally yearns for novelty.