Quotes from Pliny the Elder

It has become quite a common proverb that in wine there is truth (In Vino Veritas).

To seek after any shape of God, and to assign a form and image to Him, is a proof of man's folly. For God, whosoever he be (if haply there be any other but the world itself), and in what part soever resident, all sense He is, all sight, all hearing: He is the whole of the life and of the soul, all of Himself.

Our forefathers regarded as a prodigy the passage of the Alps: first by Hannibal and, more recently, by the Cimbri; but at the present day, these very mountains are cut asunder to yield us a thousand different marbles; promontories are thrown open to the sea; and the face of Nature is being everywhere reduced to a level.

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.

The only certainty is that nothing is certain.

In vino Veritas. (In wine there is truth.)

There is always something new out of Africa.

The brain is the citadel of sense perception.

An object in possession seldom retains the same charm that it had in pursuit.

But with man, — by Hercules! most of his misfortunes are occasioned by man.

No man's abilities are so remarkably shining as not to stand in need of a proper opportunity.

Among these things, one thing seems certain - that nothing certain exists and that there is nothing more pitiful or more presumptuous than man.

The agricultural population produces the bravest men, the most valiant soldiers,46 and a class of citizens the least given of all to evil designs.

Most men are afraid of a bad name, but few fear their consciences.

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.

Men are most apt to believe what they least understand; and through the lust of human wit obscure things are more easily credited.

We trace out all the veins of the earth, and yet, living upon it, undermined as it is beneath our feet, are astonished that it should occasionally cleave asunder or tremble: as though, forsooth, these signs could be any other than expressions of the indignation felt by our sacred parent!

Man has learned how to challenge both Nature and art to become the incitements to vice! His very cups he has delighted to engrave with libidinous subjects, and he takes pleasure in drinking from vessels of obscene form!

Chance is a second master.

The desire to know a thing is heightened by its gratification being deferred.

Nothing is so unequal as equality.

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.

Nothing is more useful than wine for strengthening the body and also more detrimental to our pleasure if moderation be lacking.

Wine refreshes the stomach, sharpens the appetite, blunts care and sadness, and conduces to slumber.