Pliny the Younger Quotes

Est enim quaedam etiam dolendi voluptas, praesertim si in amici sinu defleas, apud quem lacrimis tuis vel laus sit parata vel venia.

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.

It is long since I have known the sweets of leisure and repose; since I have known in fine, that indolent but agreeable condition of doing nothing, and being nothing.

There is certainly no truth in the popular belief, that a man's will is the mirror of his character.

Dicere etiam solebat nullum esse librum tam malum ut non aliqua parte prodesset..

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

Falsum est nimirum quod creditur vulgo, testamenta hominum speculum esse morum.

Nihil peccat, nisi quod nihil peccat.

A certain large collective wisdom resides in a crowd, as such; and men whose individual judgement is defective are excellent judges when grouped together.

I contemplate the sort of friend, the sort of man I am now without. He completed his sixty-seventh year, a reasonable age for the sturdiest of us; I acknowledge that. He escaped from an interminable illness; I acknowledge that. He died with his dear ones surviving him, and at a time of prosperity for the state, which was dearer to him than all else; that too I acknowledge. Yet I lament his death as though he were young and in glowing health. I lament it—you can consider me a weakling in this—on my own account, for I have lost the witness, guardian and teacher of my life.

Numerantur enim sententiae, non ponderantur; nec aliud in publico consilio potest fieri, in quo nihil est tam inaequale quam aequalitas ipsa.

The lust of lucre has so totally seized upon mankind, that their wealth seems rather to possess them, than they to possess their wealth.

Mihi autem videtur acerba semper et immatura mors eorum, qui immortale aliquid parant.

Secunda felices, adversa magnos probent.

Quamlibet saepe obligati, si quid unum neges, hoc solum meminerunt quod negatum est.