Pliny the Younger: Trending quotes (page 2)

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

“The living voice is that which sways the soul.”

“If you compute the years in which all this has happened, it is but a little while; if you number the vicissitudes, it seems an age.”
Si computes annos, exiguum tempus, si vices rerum, aevum putes.

“Never do a thing concerning the rectitude of which you are in doubt.”
Quod dubites, ne feceris.

“To name the man is to say all!”
Dixi omnia cum hominem nominavi.

“An object in possession seldom retains the same charm that it had in pursuit.”
Rarum id quidem nihil enim aeque gratum est adeptis quam concupiscentibus.

“The expense of a monument is superfluous; my memory will endure if my actions deserve it.”
Impensa monumenti supervacua est; memoria nostri durabit, si vita meruimus.

“There is little difference between expecting misfortune and undergoing it; except that grief has limits, whereas apprehension has none. For we grieve only for what we know has happened; but we fear all that possibly may happen.”
Parvolum differt, patiaris adversa an exspectes; nisi quod tamen est dolendi modus, non est timendi. Doleas enim quantum scias accidisse, timeas quantum possit accidere.

“How much does the fame of human actions depend upon the station of those who perform them!”
Quam multum interest quid a quoque fiat!

“Character lies more concealed, and out of the reach of common observation.”
Vita hominum altos recessus magnasque latebras habet.

“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.”
Ornat haec magnitudo animi, quae nihil ad ostentationem, omnia ad conscientiam refert recteque facti non ex populi sermone mercedem, sed ex facto petit.

“Oblige people never so often, and, if you deny them on a single point, they remember nothing but that refusal.”
Quamlibet saepe obligati, si quid unum neges, hoc solum meminerunt quod negatum est.

“Those who are actuated by the desire of fame and glory are amazingly gratified by approbation and praise, even though it comes from their inferiors.”
Omnes enim, qui gloria famaque ducuntur, mirum in modum assensio et laus a minoribus etiam profecta delectat.

“He died full of years and of glory.”
Plenus annis abit, plenus honoribus.

“The day, even when it is at the longest, is quickly spent.”
Quamquam longissimus, dies cito conditur.

“I am sensible how much nobler it is to place the reward of virtue in the silent approbation of one's own breast than in the applause of the world. Glory ought to be the consequence, not the motive of our actions.”
Meminimus quanto maiore animo honestatis fructus in conscientia quam in fama reponatur. Sequi enim gloria, non appeti debet.

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

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

“He used to say that "no book was so bad but that some good might be got out of it."”
Dicere etiam solebat nullum esse librum tam malum ut non aliqua parte prodesset..