Quote

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.

Pliny the Elder

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Pliny the Elder
Author
Historian
Military Personnel
Naturalist
Philosopher
Poet
Writer
Gaius Plinius Secundus
Caius Plinius Secundus
Gaius P. Secundus
Caius P. Secundus
C. Plinius Secundus
Plinius
Pliny
the Elder Pliny
Humans
Though
Throat
Take
Upon
Possess
Men
Water
Poison
Serpents
Moment
Touched
Saliva
Makes
Acts
Boiling
Moments
Flight
Serpent
Body
Substance
Enters
Human
Bodies
Destroys

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Lust is an enemy to the purse, a foe to the person, a canker to the mind, a corrosive to the conscience, a weakness of the wit, a besotter of the senses, and finally, a mortal bane to all the body.
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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.
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Wine maketh the band quivering, the eye watery, the night unquiet, lewd dreams, a stinking breath in the morning, and an utter forgetfulness of all things.
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Such is the audacity of man, that he hath learned to counterfeit Nature, yea, and is so bold as to challenge her in her work.
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The leading distinction in magnets is the sex, male and female, and the next great difference in them is the colour. Those of Magnesia, bordering on Macedonia, are of a reddish black those of Breotia are more red than black and the kind that is found in Troas is black, of the female sex, and consequently destitute of attractive power.
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Envy always implies conscious inferiority wherever it resides.
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The happier the moment the shorter.
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It is this earth that, like a kind mother, receives us at our birth, and sustains us when born it is this alone, of all the elements around us, that is never found an enemy of man.
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A god cannot procure death for himself, even if he wished it, which, so numerous are the evils of life, has been granted to man as our chief good.
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True glory consists in doing what deserves to be written, and writing what deserves to be read.
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There is in them a softer fire than the ruby, there is the brilliant purple of the amethyst, and the sea green of the emerald - all shining together in incredible union. Some by their splendor rival the colors of the painters, others the flame of burning sulphur or of fire quickened by oil.
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Our civilization depends largely on paper.
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Example is the softest and least invidious way of commanding.
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Many other means there be, that promise the foreknowledge of things to come: besides the raising up and conjuring of ghosts departed, the conference also with familiars and spirits infernal. And all these were found out in our days, to be no better than vanities and false illusions.
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Nulla dies sine linea - Not a day without a line.
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Nature has given man no better thing than shortness of life.
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No book so bad but some part may be of use.
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The graceful tear that streams for others' Man is the weeping animal born to govern all the rest.
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In these matters the only certainty is that nothing is certain.
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It is generally much more shameful to lose a good reputation than never to have acquired it.
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