"(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 salt, grain of, grain and/or salt:
“With a grain of salt.”
—Pliny The Elder (23–79)
“There was not a grain of poetry in the whole composition of Lord Fawn, and poetry was what her very soul craved;Mpoetry, together with houses, champagne, jewels, and admiration.”
—Anthony Trollope (1815–1882)
“If you can look into the seeds of time,
And say which grain will grow and which will not,
Speak then to me.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)
“The indispensable ingredient of any game worth its salt is that the children themselves play it and, if not its sole authors, share in its creation. Watching TV’s ersatz battles is not the same thing at all. Children act out their emotions, they don’t talk them out and they don’t watch them out. Their imagination and their muscles need each other.”
—Leontine Young (20th century)