"(With) a grain of salt," in modern English, is an idiom which means to view something with skepticism, or to not take it literally.
Read more about Grain Of Salt: History, In Other Languages
Famous quotes containing the words grain of, grain and/or salt:
“For every grain of wit there is a grain of folly.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“He showed me that the lines of a good helve
Were native to the grain before the knife
Expressed them, and its curves were no false curves
Put on it from without.”
—Robert Frost (1874–1963)
“At sea a fellow comes out. Salt water is like wine, in that respect.”
—Herman Melville (1819–1891)