Vesuvius Quotes

[Footnote:] Pliny the Elder perished in 79 A. D. when he refused to flee from the great eruption of Mt. Vesuvius, insisting that everything would be all right. It wasn't. (Will Cuppy)
Pozzolana.-There is... a kind of powder which from natural causes produces astonishing results. It is found in the neighborhood of Baiae and in the country belonging to the towns round about Mt. Vesuvius. This substance when mixed with lime and rubble not only lends strength to buildings of other kinds, but even when piers of it are constructed in the sea, they set hard under water. View quote
Vitruvius
Compared to the unleashed forces of warfare and of faith, Mount Vesuvius was kinder to the legacy of antiquity. View quote
Stephen Greenblatt
I went to the top of Vesuvius and looked in. View quote
Ali Smith
And now it was your purpose to weep Vesuvius' flames in pious melody and spend your tears on the losses of your native place, what time the Father took the mountain from earth and lifted it to the stars only to plunge it down upon the hapless cities far and wide. View quote
Statius
Some of us still get all weepy when we think about the Gaia Hypothesis, the idea that earth is a big furry goddess-creature who resembles everybody's mom in that she knows what's best for us. But if you look at the historical record -- Krakatoa, Mt. Vesuvius, Hurricane Charley, poison ivy, and so forth down the ages -- you have to ask yourself Whose side is she on, anyway. View quote
Barbara Ehrenreich
Give me a condor's quill Give me Vesuvius crater for an inkstand. View quote
Herman Melville
Live in danger. Build your cities on the slopes of Vesuvius. View quote
Friedrich Nietzsche