WIST Quotations

Pliny the Younger -- (Attributed)

Dave — Fri, 12 Nov 2010 17:09:40 +0000

Home is where the heart is.

Pliny the Younger (c. 61-c. 113) Roman politician, writer [Gaius Plinius Caecilius Secundus]
(Attributed)

Pliny the Younger -- Epistles [Epistulae], Book 8, Letter 22 “To Geminus” [tr. J.B.Firth (1900)]

Dave — Wed, 23 Aug 2017 01:51:45 +0000

For my own part, I consider the best and most finished type of man to be the person who is always ready to make allowances for others, on the ground that never a day passes without his being in fault himself, yet who keeps as clear of faults as if he never pardoned them in others.

[Atque ego optimum et emendatissimum existimo, qui ceteris ita ignoscit, tamquam ipse cotidie peccet, ita peccatis abstinet tamquam nemini ignoscat.]

Pliny the Younger (c. 61-c. 113) Roman politician, writer [Gaius Plinius Caecilius Secundus]
Epistles [Epistulae], Book 8, Letter 22 “To Geminus” [tr. J.B.Firth (1900)]
(Source)

Alt. trans.: "The highest of characters, in my estimation, is his, who is as ready to pardon the moral errors of mankind, as if he were every day guilty of some himself; and at the same time as cautious of committing a fault as if he never forgave one."

Pliny the Younger -- Letters, 1.20 [tr. Radice (1963)]

Dave — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 19:33:02 +0000

The best of all teachers, experience.

Pliny the Younger (c. 61-c. 113) Roman politician, writer [Gaius Plinius Caecilius Secundus]
Letters, 1.20 [tr. Radice (1963)]

Pliny the Younger -- Letters, 8.19 [tr. Radice (1963)]

Dave — Mon, 18 Jul 2011 12:16:03 +0000

Literature is both my joy and my comfort: it can add to every happiness and there is no sorrow it cannot console.

Pliny the Younger (c. 61-c. 113) Roman politician, writer [Gaius Plinius Caecilius Secundus]
Letters, 8.19 [tr. Radice (1963)]

Pliny the Younger -- Letters, 9.30 [tr. Radice (1963)]

Dave — Thu, 04 Nov 2010 12:51:04 +0000

Greed for ownership has taken such a hold of us that we seem to be possessed by wealth rather than to possess it.

Pliny the Younger (c. 61-c. 113) Roman politician, writer [Gaius Plinius Caecilius Secundus]
Letters, 9.30 [tr. Radice (1963)]

Pliny the Younger -- Letters, Book 1, Letter 20 [tr. Radice (1963)]

Dave — Thu, 30 Jul 2015 12:59:58 +0000

Everyone is prejudiced in favor his own powers of discernment, and will always find an argument most convincing if it leads to the conclusion he has reached for himself; everyone must then be given something he can grasp and recognize as his own idea.

Pliny the Younger (c. 61-c. 113) Roman politician, writer [Gaius Plinius Caecilius Secundus]
Letters, Book 1, Letter 20 [tr. Radice (1963)]

Pliny the Younger -- Letters, Book II, letter 15

Dave — Sun, 01 Feb 2004 16:00:00 +0000

An object in possession seldom retains the same charm that it had in pursuit.

Pliny the Younger (c. 61-c. 113) Roman politician, writer [Gaius Plinius Caecilius Secundus]
Letters, Book II, letter 15

Pliny the Younger -- Letters, Book VIII, letter 17

Dave — Sun, 01 Feb 2004 16:00:00 +0000

Grief has limits, whereas apprehension has none. For we grieve only for what has happened, but we fear all that possibly may happen.

Pliny the Younger (c. 61-c. 113) Roman politician, writer [Gaius Plinius Caecilius Secundus]
Letters, Book VIII, letter 17

Full text.