Quotes from book
Deipnosophistae

Name: Deipnosophistae
Author: Athenaeus

AthenaeusOriginal title Δειπνοσοφισταί

The Deipnosophistae is an early 3rd-century AD Greek work by the Greco-Egyptian author Athenaeus of Naucratis. It is a long work of literary, historical, and antiquarian references set in Rome at a series of banquets held by the protagonist Publius Livius Larensis for an assembly of grammarians, lexicographers, jurists, musicians, and hangers-on. It is sometimes called the oldest surviving cookbook.

“It was a saying of Demetrius Phalereus, that "Men having often abandoned what was visible for the sake of what was uncertain, have not got what they expected, and have lost what they had,—being unfortunate by an enigmatical sort of calamity."”

Athenaeus book Deipnosophistae

VI, 23, referring to mining operations.
Deipnosophistae (2nd century)

“Every investigation which is guided by principles of Nature fixes its ultimate aim entirely on gratifying the stomach.”

Athenaeus book Deipnosophistae

VII, 11. Compare: "I look upon it, that he who does not mind his belly will hardly mind anything else", Samuel Johnson, in Life of Johnson (Boswell). 29 Vol. ii. Chap. ix. 1763.
Deipnosophistae (2nd century)

“On one occasion some one put a very little wine into a wine-cooler, and said that it was sixteen years old. "It is very small for its age," said Gnathæna.”

Athenaeus book Deipnosophistae

XIII, 47.
Deipnosophistae (2nd century)

“Goodness does not consist in greatness, but greatness in goodness.”

Athenaeus book Deipnosophistae

XIV, 6. Compare: "They ’re only truly great who are truly good", George Chapman, Revenge for Honour, Act v. Sc. 2.
Deipnosophistae (2nd century)

“Dorion, ridiculing the description of a tempest in the "Nautilus" of Timotheus, said that he had seen a more formidable storm in a boiling saucepan.”

Athenaeus book Deipnosophistae

VIII, 19. Compare: "Tempest in a teapot" (proverb).
Deipnosophistae (2nd century)