Tao Te Ching

The Power of Goodness, the Wisdom Beyond Words
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Natural History

By Pliny

A 37-book, 10 volume masterwork that became the earliest extant encyclopedia and the largest literary work to survive from Ancient Rome. A synthesis of the writings available at that time, each book focused on a different topic ranging from agriculture to zoology. Innovations included a comprehensive index, the referencing of quoted authors, and the extensive range of topics.

Quotes from Natural History

“A shoemaker should give no opinion beyond the shoes.”

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“Fortune favors the brave.”

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Themes: Confidence

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“How many things are judged impossible before they are accomplished!”

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Themes: Carpe diem

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“In comparing various authors with one another, I have discovered that some of the gravest and latest writers have transcribed, word for word, from former works, without making acknowledgment.”

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Themes: Pluralism

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“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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Themes: Delusion

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“It is a maxim universally agreed upon in agriculture, that nothing must be done too late; and again, that everything must be done at its proper season; while there is a third precept which reminds us that opportunities lost can never be regained.”

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Themes: Agriculture

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“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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“Let not things, because they are common, enjoy for that the less share of our consideration.”

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Themes: Simplicity

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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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“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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Themes: Education

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“Take things with a grain of salt and profit by the follow of others.”

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Themes: Strategy

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“The agricultural population, says Cato, produces the bravest men, the most valiant soldiers, and a class of citizens the least given of all to evil designs…. A bad bargain is always a ground for repentance.”

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Themes: Warriors

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“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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Themes: Oneness

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“The only certainty is that nothing is certain... nothing is more pitiable, or more presmptuous, than man!”

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

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Themes: Obstacles

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Related Lineages (1 lineages)

Stoic

Quotes about Natural History (0 quotes)

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