Quotes from Pliny the Younger

However often you may have done them a favour, if you once refuse they forget everything except your refusal.

There is nothing to write about, you say. Well then, write and let me know just this - that there is nothing to write about or tell me in the good old style if you are well. That's right. I am quite well.

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

So we must work at our profession and not make anybody else's idleness an excuse for our own. There is no lack of readers and listeners; it is for us to produce something worth being written and heard.

Pliny the Elder] used to say that "no book was so bad but some good might be got out of it.

In the darkness you could hear the crying of women, the wailing of infants, and the shouting of men. Some prayed for help. Others wished for death. But still more imagined that there were no Gods left, and that the universe was plunged into eternal darkness.

The smallest evil if neglected, will reach the greatest proportions.

There were some so afraid of death that they prayed for death.

Glory ought to be the consequence, not the motive, of our actions; and although it happen not to attend the worthy deed, yet it is by no means the less fair for having missed the applause it deserved.

The happier time, the quicker it passes

nihil novum nihil varium nihil quod non semel spectasse sufficiat

Let me into the secrets you would prefer no one to know.

But, if I were given my choice, I prefer the speech like the winter snows.

Nullus est liber tam malus ut non aliqua parte prosit - There is no book so bad that it is not profitable on some part.

Deus est mortali iuvare mortalem.

You summon us, we follow. You order us to be free and so we will be.

that those supports may be shaken, and collapse, for the popularity of evil men is as fickle as the men themselves.

So when you 3 go hunting you can adopt my advice, and carry your tablets as well as your food-basket and flask, for you will find that Minerva roams the mountains no less than Diana.

It is not true that the world is too tired and exhausted to produce anything worth praising.

there may be greater glory in obedience where the desire to obey is less

nulla dies sine linea.

Peccant, qvia nihil peccant.

I shall continue to be anxious about him until he can permit himself some distraction and allow his wound to heal; nothing can do this but acceptance of the inevitable, lapse of time, and surfeit of grief.

It is a long time since I have had a letter from you. "There is nothing to write about," you say: well then write and let me know just this, that "there is nothing to write about," or tell me in the good old style, If you are well that's right, I am quite well. This will do for me, for it implies everything. You think I am joking? Let me assure you I am in sober earnest. Do let me know how you are; for I cannot remain ignorant any longer without growing exceedingly anxious about you. Farewell.