Pliny The Elder

Prosperity tries the fortunate, adversity the great.

— Pliny The Elder

Men are most apt to believe what they least understand.

— Pliny The Elder

Compassion and shame come over one who considers how precarious is the origin of the proudest of living beings: often the smell of a lately extinguished lamp is enough to cause a miscarriage. And to think that from such a frail beginning a tyrant or butcher may be born! You who trust in your physical strength, who embrace the gifts of fortune and consider yourself not their ward but their son, you who have a domineering spirit, you who consider yourself a god as soon as success swells your breast, think how little could have destroyed you!

— Pliny The Elder

In these matters the only certainty is that there is nothing certain.

— Pliny The Elder

The only certainty is that nothing is certain.

— 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

The master's eye is the best fertilizer.

— Pliny The Elder

The happier the moment the shorter.

— Pliny The Elder

Home is where the heart is.

— Pliny The Elder

Let honor be to us as strong an obligation as necessity is to others.

— Pliny The Elder

The enjoyments of this life are not equal to its evils.

— Pliny The Elder

There is always something new out of Africa.

— Pliny The Elder

It is generally much more shameful to lose a good reputation than never to have acquired it.

— Pliny The Elder