Pliny Quotes

“I texted Nightingale to let him know our change in disposition and then I picked up my Pliny, because nothing says stuck all alone in your flat like a Roman know-it-all”
― Ben Aaronovitch, Broken Homes

“... Mother Nature is punishing us, ..., for our greed and selfishness. We torture her at all hours by iron and wood, fire and stone. We dig her up and dump her in the sea. We sink mine shafts into her and drag out her entrails - and all for a jewel to wear on a pretty finer. Who can blame her if she occasionally quivers with anger?" - Pliny, Pg. 176”
― Robert Harris, Pompeii

“there may be greater glory in obedience where the desire to obey is less”
― Pliny the Younger, Panegyricus: Latin Text

“À ce propos, nous ajouterons encore une remarque concernant certaines descriptions d’êtres étranges qui se rencontrent dans ces récits : comme ces descriptions datent naturellement tout au plus de l’antiquité « classique », dans laquelle il s’était déjà produit une incontestable dégénérescence au point de vue traditionnel, il est fort possible qu’il s’y soit introduit des confusions de plus d’une sorte ; ainsi, une partie de ces descriptions peut en réalité provenir des « survivances » d’un symbolisme qui n’était plus compris [L’Histoire Naturelle de Pline, notamment, semble être une « source » presque inépuisable d’exemples se rapportant à des cas de ce genre, et c’est d’ailleurs une source à laquelle tous ceux qui sont venus après lui ont puisé fort abondamment.]”
― René Guénon, The Reign of Quantity & the Signs of the Times

“In many ways, turnips are the unsung heroes of the root crop universe. They don't have the ad budget potatoes have, or the glamorous appearance of carrots, but they shouldn't be underestimated. They're high in vitamins and minerals, low in sugar, and taste delicious roasted, caramelized, or mashed with a pound of butter. Pliny the Elder considered the turnip the most important vegetable of his day, because "its utility surpasses that of any other plant's." Say what you want about Pliny the Elder... he was a man who knew his vegetables.”
― Abbi Waxman, The Garden of Small Beginnings

“In one of his later volumes, Earth, book XXXV, Pliny tells the story of a goldsmith who brought an unusual dinner plate to the court of Emperor Tiberius.

The plate was a stunner, made from a new metal, very light, shiny, almost as bright as silver. The goldsmith claimed he’d extracted it from plain clay, using a secret technique, the formula known only to himself and the gods. Tiberius, though, was a little concerned. The emperor was one of Rome’s great generals, a warmonger who conquered most of what is now Europe and amassed a fortune of gold and silver along the way. He was also a financial expert who knew the value of his treasure would seriously decline if people suddenly had access to a shiny new metal rarer than gold. “Therefore,” recounts Pliny, “instead of giving the goldsmith the regard expected, he ordered him to be beheaded.”

This shiny new metal was aluminum, and that beheading marked its loss to the world for nearly two millennia. It next reappeared during the early 1800s but was still rare enough to be considered the most valuable metal in the world. Napoléon III himself threw a banquet for the king of Siam where the honored guests were given aluminum utensils, while the others had to make do with gold.”
― Peter H. Diamandis, Abundance: The Future Is Better Than You Think

“This is where we keep the volumes which my ancestors brought back from Greece. One hundred and twenty plays by Sophocles alone. They are irreplaceable. We have never allowed them to be copied.” She gripped his arm. “Men are born to die and die by the thousand every day. What do we matter? These great works are all that will be left of us. Pliny will understand.”
― Robert Harris - Pompeii

“As the great Roman naturalist Pliny wrote, the proof of wealth is "to possess something that might absolutely be destroyed in a moment.”
― Katherine Rundell, Vanishing Treasures: A Bestiary of Extraordinary Endangered Creatures