Showing 1–26 of 26 entries
"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.
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain
"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.
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain
"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.
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain
"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.
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain
"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.
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain
"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.
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain
"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.
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain
"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.
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain
"With man, most of his misfortunes are occasioned by man."
Natural History, Book vii. Sect. 5.
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain
"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.
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain
"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.
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain
"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.
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain
"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.
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain
"When a building is about to fall down, all the mice desert it."
Natural History. Book viii. Sect. 103.
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain
"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.
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain
"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.
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain
"It has become quite a common proverb that in wine there is truth."
Natural History. Book xiv. Sect. 141.
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain
"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.
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain
"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.
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain
"The best plan is, as the common proverb has it, to profit by the folly of others."
Natural History. Book xviii. Sect. 31.
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain
"Always act in such a way as to secure the love of your neighbour."
Natural History. Book xviii. Sect. 44.
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain
"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.
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain
"The bird of passage known to us as the cuckoo."
Natural History. Book xviii. Sect. 249.
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain
"Let not things, because they are common, enjoy for that the less share of our consideration."
Natural History. Book xix. Sect. 59.
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain
"Why is it that we entertain the belief that for every purpose odd numbers are the most effectual?"
Natural History. Book xxviii. Sect. 23.
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain
"He [Pliny the Elder] used to say that "no book was so bad but some good might be got out of it.""
Letters. Book iii. Letter v. 10.
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain