Nature has given man no better thing than shortness of life. Pliny the Elder More Quotes by Pliny the Elder More Quotes From Pliny the Elder The desire to know a thing is heightened by its gratification being deferred. Pliny the Elder gratification knows desire Man naturally yearns for novelty. Pliny the Elder novelty men Let that which is wanting in income be supplied by economy. Pliny the Elder income economy In time of sickness the soul collects itself anew. Pliny the Elder sickness soul Honey comes out of the air At early dawn the leaves of trees are found bedewed with honey. Whether this is the perspiration of the sky or a sort of saliva of the stars, or the moisture of the air purging itself, nevertheless it brings with it the great pleasure of its heavenly nature. It is always of the best quality when it is stored in the best flowers. Pliny the Elder stars flower food A short death is the sovereign good hap of human life. Pliny the Elder human-life sovereign death Human nature craves novelty. Pliny the Elder novelty human-nature humans Lust is an enemy to the purse, a foe to the person, a canker to the mind, a corrosive to the conscience, a weakness of the wit, a besotter of the senses, and finally, a mortal bane to all the body. Pliny the Elder lust mind enemy The javelin-snake amphiptere hurls itself from the branches of trees. Pliny the Elder snakes dragons tree 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. Pliny the Elder ploughing four land In these matters the only certainty is that there is nothing certain. Pliny the Elder Prosperity tries the fortunate, adversity the great. Pliny the Elder The master's eye is the best fertilizer. Pliny the Elder This only is certain, that there is nothing certain; and nothing more miserable and yet more arrogant than man. Pliny the Elder True glory consists in doing what deserves to be written in writing what deserves to be read and in so living as to make the world happier for our living in it. Pliny the Elder True glory consists in doing what deserves to be written; in writing what deserves to be read; and in so living as to make the world happier and better for our living in it. Pliny the Elder What is there more unruly than the sea, with its winds, its tornadoes, and its tempests? And yet in what department of her works has Nature been more seconded by the ingenuity of man than in this, by his inventions of sails and of oars? Pliny the Elder more man nature sea 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! Pliny the Elder living parent earth feet How innocent, how happy, how truly delightful, even, would life be if we were to desire nothing but what is to be found upon the face of the earth: in a word, nothing but what is provided ready to our hands! Pliny the Elder face innocent happy life 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! Pliny the Elder challenge man nature art
