Pline l'Ancien citations (42 citations)

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Histoire naturelle

Pline l'Ancien

Pline l'Ancien: 42 citations 0 J'aime

Pline l'Ancien citations célèbres

“Aussi je souhaite bon succès à ceux qui me préviendront comme à ceux qui me suivront, et qui, je le sais, entreront en lice avec nous, ainsi que nous avons fait avec nos devanciers.”

Pline l'Ancien livre Histoire naturelle

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Histoire naturelle, Livre I

“Herbe aux statues : Certains conseillent de cueillir l’herbe qui poussent sur la tête des statues : enveloppée dans un lambeau de vêtement et suspendue au cou par un fil rouge, elle aurait pour effet de calmer dans l’instant le mal de tête.”

Pline l'Ancien

La vertu des arbres

“Cet ouvrage [l’Histoire naturelle] est d'une étendue, d'une érudition infinie, et presque aussi varié que la nature elle-même. Vous êtes surpris comment un homme dont le temps était si rempli a pu écrire tant de volumes, et y traiter tant de différents sujets, la plupart si épineux et si difficiles. Vous serez bien plus étonné quand vous saurez qu'il a plaidé pendant quelque temps, et qu'il n'avait que cinquante-six ans quand il est mort. On sait qu'il en a passé la moitié dans les embarras que les plus importants emplois et la bienveillance des princes lui ont attirés. Mais c'était une pénétration, une application, une vigilance incroyables.”

Pline l'Ancien

‘Naturae historiarum triginta septem’, opus diffusum eruditum, nec minus varium quam ipsa natura. Miraris quod tot volumina multaque in his tam scrupulosa homo occupatus absolverit? Magis miraberis si scieris illum aliquamdiu causas actitasse, decessisse anno sexto et quinquagensimo, medium tempus distentum impeditumque qua officiis maximis qua amicitia principum egisse. Sed erat acre ingenium, incredibile studium, summa vigilantia.
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Pline le Jeune évoquant son oncle Pline l'Ancien dans une lettre à Baebius Macrus (Pline le Jeune, Lettres, III, 5).

“C'est, en effet, je pense, un acte de bienveillance, et plein d'une candeur honorable, de déclarer quels sont ceux qui nous ont été utiles; à quoi du reste ont manqué la plupart de ceux que j'ai tenus entre les mains.”

Pline l'Ancien livre Histoire naturelle

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Histoire naturelle, Livre I

“Pour moi, je pense qu'un intérêt particulier doit s'attacher dans les lettres à ceux qui, vainqueurs des difficultés, ont préféré le mérite d'être utile à l'avantage de plaire.”

Pline l'Ancien livre Histoire naturelle

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Histoire naturelle, Livre I

“J'ajouterai que le consentement des hommes me touche; car ce que les Grecs ont appelé κόσμος, d'un mot qui signifie ornement, nous l'appelons monde, d'un mot qui indique une élégance parfaite et suprême.”

Pline l'Ancien livre Histoire naturelle

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Histoire naturelle, Livre II

Pline l'Ancien Citations

“L'homme devient dieu pour l'homme en le secourant; ce chemin est celui de la gloire éternelle.”

Pline l'Ancien livre Histoire naturelle

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Histoire naturelle, Livre II

hommes , Dieu

“Sans doute j'ai commis, moi aussi, bien des omissions; je suis homme, mon temps est pris par des fonctions publiques, et je m'occupe de ce travail à mes moments de loisir, c'est-à-dire pendant la nuit.”

Pline l'Ancien livre Histoire naturelle

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Histoire naturelle, Livre I

temps , nuit , hommes

“Nous cherchons en général les agréments de l'étude; aussi, les œuvres qui passent pour traiter de choses infiniment ardues demeurent dans l'obscurité et dans l'oubli.”

Pline l'Ancien livre Histoire naturelle

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Histoire naturelle, Livre I

étude , oubli

“De plus, il me faut toucher à tout ce que les Grecs renferment dans le mot d'encyclopédie : et cependant il est des points ou ignorés, ou que la subtilité a rendus incertains; il en est d'autres traités tant de fois, que le dégoût s'y est attaché. Ce n'est pas chose aisée que de donner un air nouveau à ce qui est ancien, de l'autorité à ce qui est nouveau, du brillant à ce qui est terne, de la lumière à ce qui est obscur, de la faveur à ce qui est dédaigné, du crédit à ce qui est douteux, à chaque chose sa nature, et à la nature tout ce qui lui appartient. Aussi, dussé-je manquer le but, il sera beau et glorieux d'avoir voulu y arriver.”

Pline l'Ancien livre Histoire naturelle

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Histoire naturelle, Livre I

nature , lumière , faute , foi

“Il y a auprès du fleuve Indus deux montagnes, dont l’une retient et l’autre repousse toute espèce de fer (XXXVI, 25); de la sorte, si l’on porte des clous aux souliers, dans l’une on ne peut pas retirer son pied, dans l’autre on ne peut pas le poser.”

Pline l'Ancien livre Histoire naturelle

Voir Aimant permanent
Histoire naturelle, Livre II

montagne , sortie , sort

Pline l'Ancien: Citations en anglais

“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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Pliny the Elder livre Histoire naturelle

Book VII, sec. 4.
Naturalis Historia

“Why is it that we entertain the belief that for every purpose odd numbers are the most effectual?”

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Pliny the Elder livre Histoire naturelle

Book XXVIII, sec. 23.
Naturalis Historia

“Always act in such a way as to secure the love of your neighbour.”

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Pliny the Elder livre Histoire naturelle

Book XVIII, sec. 44.
Naturalis Historia

“When a building is about to fall down, all the mice desert it.”
ruinis inminentibus musculi praemigrant...

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Pliny the Elder livre Histoire naturelle

Book VIII, sec. 103.
Naturalis Historia

“It is far from easy to determine whether she [Nature] has proved to man a kind parent or a merciless stepmother.”

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Pliny the Elder livre Histoire naturelle

Book VII, sec. 1.
Naturalis Historia

“The best plan is, as the common proverb has it, to profit by the folly of others.”

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Pliny the Elder livre Histoire naturelle

Book XVIII, sec. 31.
Naturalis Historia

“With man, most of his misfortunes are occasioned by man.”

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Pliny the Elder livre Histoire naturelle

Book VII, sec. 5.
Naturalis Historia

“It has become quite a common proverb that in wine there is truth.”

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Pliny the Elder livre Histoire naturelle

Book XIV, sec. 141.
Naturalis Historia

“Bears when first born are shapeless masses of white flesh a little larger than mice, their claws alone being prominent. The mother then licks them gradually into proper shape.”

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Pliny the Elder livre Histoire naturelle

Book VIII, sec. 126.
Naturalis Historia

“Man alone at the very moment of his birth, cast naked upon the naked earth, does she [Nature] abandon to cries and lamentations.”

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Pliny the Elder livre Histoire naturelle

Book VII, sec. 2.
Naturalis Historia

“To laugh, if but for an instant only, has never been granted to man before the fortieth day from his birth, and then it is looked upon as a miracle of precocity.”

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Pliny the Elder livre Histoire naturelle

Book VII, sec. 2.
Naturalis Historia

“The human features and countenance, although composed of but some ten parts or little more, are so fashioned that among so many thousands of men there are no two in existence who cannot be distinguished from one another.”

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Pliny the Elder livre Histoire naturelle

Book VII, sec. 8.
Naturalis Historia

“It was a custom with Apelles, to which he most tenaciously adhered, never to let any day pass, however busy he might be, without exercising himself by tracing some outline or other,—a practice which has now passed into a proverb. It was also a practice with him, when he had completed a work, to exhibit it to the view of the passers-by in his studio, while he himself, concealed behind the picture, would listen to the criticisms…. Under these circumstances, they say that he was censured by a shoemaker for having represented the shoes with one latchet too few. The next day, the shoemaker, quite proud at seeing the former error corrected, thanks to his advice, began to criticise the leg; upon which Apelles, full of indignation, popped his head out and reminded him that a shoemaker should give no opinion beyond the shoes, —a piece of advice which has equally passed into a proverbial saying.”

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Pliny the Elder livre Histoire naturelle

Book XXXV, sec. 84.
Naturalis Historia

“It is ridiculous to suppose that the great head of things, whatever it be, pays any regard to human affairs.”

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Pliny the Elder livre Histoire naturelle

Book II, sec. 20.
Naturalis Historia

“Indeed, what is there that does not appear marvelous when it comes to our knowledge for the first time? How many things, too, are looked upon as quite impossible until they have actually been effected?”

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Pliny the Elder livre Histoire naturelle

Book VII, sec. 6.
Naturalis Historia

“With a grain of salt.”
Cum grano salis.

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Pliny the Elder livre Histoire naturelle

Book XXIII, sec. 8.
Naturalis Historia

“Cincinnatus was ploughing his four jugera of land upon the Vaticanian Hill,—the same that are still known as the Quintian Meadows,—when the messenger brought him the dictatorship, finding him, the tradition says, stripped to the work.”

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Pliny the Elder livre Histoire naturelle

Book XVIII, sec. 20.
Naturalis Historia

“Everything is soothed by oil, and this is the reason why divers send out small quantities of it from their mouths, because it smooths every part which is rough.”

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Pliny the Elder livre Histoire naturelle

Book II, sec. 234.
Naturalis Historia

“Fortune favours the brave.”
Fortes Fortuna iuvat.

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Pliny the Elder

Attributed by Pliny the Younger to his uncle during the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in which the Elder died
Quoted in [Pliny, translated by William Melmoth, Letters of Pliny, c.100 CE, eBook, 1927, Bibliobytes, Hoboken, NJ, English, ISBN 0585049971, LXV, to Tacitus http://www.gutenberg.org/files/2811/2811-h/2811-h.htm#link2H_4_0065, p. 48, Here he stopped to consider whether he should turn back again; to which the pilot advising him, "Fortune", said he, "favours the brave; steer to where Pomponianus is."]
Commonly quoted as "Fortune favours the bold".

“It is generally admitted that the absent are warned by a ringing in the ears, when they are being talked about.”
Absentes tinnitu aurium præsentire sermones de se receptum est.

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Pliny the Elder livre Histoire naturelle

Book XXVIII, sec. 5.
Naturalis Historia

“This is Italy, land sacred to the Gods.”
Haec est Italia diis sacra

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Pliny the Elder livre Histoire naturelle

Book III, sec. 46.
Naturalis Historia

“The only certainty is that nothing is certain.”

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Pliny the Elder livre Histoire naturelle

Fuller version: This series of instances entangles unforeseeing mortality, so that among these things but one thing is in the least certainthat nothing certain exists, and that nothing is more pitiable, or more presnmptuous, than man! In Latin: Quae singula inprovidam mortalitatem involvunt, solum ut inter ista vel certu sit nihil esse certi nec quicquam miserius homine aut superbius.
Book II, sec. 5.
Naturalis Historia