"Speech is a mirror of the soul: as a man speaks, so is he."

Maxim 1073.

"Whom they have injured they also hate."

De Ira. ii. 33.

"Fire is the test of gold; adversity, of strong men."

De Providentia. 5, 9.

"There is no great genius without a tincture of madness."

De Tranquillitate Animi. 17.

"Do you seek Alcides' equal? None is, except himself."

Hercules Furens. i. 1, 84.

"Successful and fortunate crime is called virtue."

Hercules Furens. 255.

"A good man possesses a kingdom."

Thyestes. 380.

"I do not distinguish by the eye, but by the mind, which is the proper judge of the man."

On a Happy Life. 2. (L' Estrange's Abstract, Chap. i.)

"Submit to the present evil, lest a greater one befall you."

Book i. Fable 2, 31.

"He who covets what belongs to another deservedly loses his own."

Book i. Fable 4, 1.

"That it is unwise to be heedless ourselves while we are giving advice to others, I will show in a few lines."

Book i. Fable 9, 1.

"Whoever has even once become notorious by base fraud, even if he speaks the truth, gains no belief."

Book i. Fable 10, 1.

"By this story [The Fox and the Raven] it is shown how much ingenuity avails, and how wisdom is always an overmatch for strength."

Book i. Fable 13, 13.

"No one returns with good-will to the place which has done him a mischief."

Book i. Fable 18, 1.

"It has been related that dogs drink at the river Nile running along, that they may not be seized by the crocodiles."

Book i. Fable 25, 3.

"Every one is bound to bear patiently the results of his own example."

Book i. Fable 26, 12.

"Come of it what may, as Sinon said."

Book iii. The Prologue, 27.

"Things are not always what they seem."

Book iv. Fable 2, 5.

"Jupiter has loaded us with a couple of wallets: the one, filled with our own vices, he has placed at our backs; the other, heavy with those of others, he has hung before."

Book iv. Fable 10, 1.

"A mountain was in labour, sending forth dreadful groans, and there was in the region the highest expectation. After all, it brought forth a mouse."

Book iv. Fable 23, 1.

"A fly bit the bare pate of a bald man, who in endeavouring to crush it gave himself a hard slap. Then said the fly jeeringly, "You wanted to revenge the sting of a tiny insect with death; what will you do to yourself, who have added insult to injury?""

Book v. Fable 3, 1.

""I knew that before you were born." Let him who would instruct a wiser man consider this as said to himself."

Book v. Fable 9, 4.

"In comparing various authors with one another, I have discovered that some of the gravest and latest writers have transcribed, word for word, from former works, without making acknowledgment."

Natural History. Book i. Dedication, Sect. 22.

"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."

Natural History. Book ii. Sect. 1.

"It is ridiculous to suppose that the great head of things, whatever it be, pays any regard to human affairs."

Natural History. Book ii. Sect. 20.

"Everything is soothed by oil, and this is the reason why divers send out small quantities of it from their mouths, because it smooths every part which is rough."

Natural History. Book ii. Sect. 234.

"It is far from easy to determine whether she [Nature] has proved to him a kind parent or a merciless stepmother."

Natural History. Book vii. Sect. 1.

"Man alone at the very moment of his birth, cast naked upon the naked earth, does she abandon to cries and lamentations."

Natural History. Book vii. Sect. 2.

"To laugh, if but for an instant only, has never been granted to man before the fortieth day from his birth, and then it is looked upon as a miracle of precocity."

Natural History, Book vii. Sect. 2.

"Man is the only one that knows nothing, that can learn nothing without being taught. He can neither speak nor walk nor eat, and in short he can do nothing at the prompting of nature only, but weep."

Natural History, Book vii. Sect. 4.

"With man, most of his misfortunes are occasioned by man."

Natural History, Book vii. Sect. 5.

"Indeed, what is there that does not appear marvellous when it comes to our knowledge for the first time? How many things, too, are looked upon as quite impossible until they have been actually effected?"

Natural History, Book vii. Sect. 6.

"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."

Natural History, Book vii. Sect. 8.

"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."

Natural History, Book vii. Sect. 15.

"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."

Natural History. Book vii. Sect. 77.

"When a building is about to fall down, all the mice desert it."

Natural History. Book viii. Sect. 103.

"Bears when first born are shapeless masses of white flesh a little larger than mice, their claws alone being prominent. The mother then licks them gradually into proper shape."

Natural History. Book viii. Sect. 126.

"It is asserted that the dogs keep running when they drink at the Nile, for fear of becoming a prey to the voracity of the crocodile."

Natural History. Book viii. Sect. 148.

"It has become quite a common proverb that in wine there is truth."

Natural History. Book xiv. Sect. 141.

"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."

Natural History. Book xviii. Sect. 20.

"The agricultural population, says Cato, produces the bravest men, the most valiant soldiers, and a class of citizens the least given of all to evil designs. . . . A bad bargain is always a ground for repentance."

Natural History. Book xviii. Sect. 26.

"The best plan is, as the common proverb has it, to profit by the folly of others."

Natural History. Book xviii. Sect. 31.

"Always act in such a way as to secure the love of your neighbour."

Natural History. Book xviii. Sect. 44.

"It is a maxim universally agreed upon in agriculture, that nothing must be done too late; and again, that everything must be done at its proper season; while there is a third precept which reminds us that opportunities lost can never be regained."

Natural History. Book xviii. Sect. 44.

"The bird of passage known to us as the cuckoo."

Natural History. Book xviii. Sect. 249.

"Let not things, because they are common, enjoy for that the less share of our consideration."

Natural History. Book xix. Sect. 59.

"Why is it that we entertain the belief that for every purpose odd numbers are the most effectual?"

Natural History. Book xxviii. Sect. 23.

"We give to necessity the praise of virtue."

Institutiones Oratoriæ, i. 8, 14.

"A liar should have a good memory."

Institutiones Oratoriæ, iv. 2, 91.

"Vain hopes are often like the dreams of those who wake."

Institutiones Oratoriæ, vi. 2, 30.