Pliny the Younger Quotes

Multi famam, conscientiam pauci verentur.

O morte ipsa mortis tempus indignius!

Nihil peccat, nisi quod nihil peccat.

They will by this means receive their education where they receive their birth, and be accustomed from their infancy to inhabit and affect their native soil.

Character lies more concealed, and out of the reach of common observation.

For there is a certain luxury in grief; especially when we pour out our sorrows in the bosom of a friend, who will approve, or, at least, pardon our tears.

Homines enim cum rem destruere non possunt, iactationem eius incessunt. Ita si silenda feceris, factum ipsum, si laudanda non sileas, ipse culparis.

Votes go by number, not weight; nor can it be otherwise in assemblies of this kind, where nothing is more unequal than that equality which prevails in them.

Usus, magister egregius.

Such is the disposition of mankind, if they cannot blast an action, they will censure the parade of it; and whether you do what does not deserve to be taken notice of, or take notice yourself of what does, either way you incur reproach.

As it is far better to excel in any single art, than to arrive only at a mediocrity in several; so on the other hand, a moderate skill in several is to be preferred, where one cannot attain to excellency in any.

By then day had broken everywhere, but here it was still night—no, more than night.

Quamquam longissimus, dies cito conditur.

To all this, his illustrious mind reflects the noblest ornament; he places no part of his happiness in ostentation, but refers the whole of it to conscience; and seeks the reward of a virtuous action, not in the applauses of the world, but in the action itself.

Informations without the accuser's name subscribed must not be admitted in evidence against anyone, as it is introducing a very dangerous precedent, and by no means agreeable to the spirit of the age.