Your Favorite Roman Latin Quotes Maxims Mottos Sayings ?

[Restitvtvs]

Ditto. Thank you Jona, for both posts. Beautiful, profound, compassionate. Another laud. Pax tecvm, +r

[D B Campbell]

Martial has a shockingly beautiful epigram on a little slave girl named Erotion (5.34), in which he plays with STTL.

A few years ago, there was an ambitious blogging project to translate the Epigrams of Martial. As far as I can see, it never reached Book 5.

[Eleatic Guest]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Latin_phrases

[Salvianus]

Interesting thread!

Some I enjoy:

iuris praecepta sunt honeste vivere alterum no laedere suum cuique tribuere
The requirements of the law are these: to live honestly, to harm no other, to honor each according to his essential dignity.
Justinian, Institutes 1.1

fortuna opes auferre non animum potest
Fortune is able to take one’s wealth away, but not one’s character.
Seneca, Medea, 176

philosophum non facit barba
A beard doesn't make a philosopher.
Plutarch

and

an cuiquam genitos nisi caelo credere fas est esse homines
Are we to believe that man is born of aught but heaven?
Manilius, Astronomica 4.897

[Jona Lendering]

philosophum non facit barba
A beard doesn't make a philosopher.
Plutarch

Which reminds me of Primum vivere dein philosophari, which is hard to translate. Personally, I think that "First life, then philosophy" is not really clear, but perhaps a native speaker of the English language sees no problem. Anyhow, no language can beat Brecht's "Erst kommt das Fressen, dann kommt die Moral" (from the Three Penny Opera) which is even better than the Latin original. :wink:

[Carus Andiae]

If I take the meaning correctly, I think it equates to an English expression: "Those who would build castles in the air must keep their feet firmly on the ground". In other words, it's all very well dreaming up high-minded ideals, but you have to keep a grip on reality.

[Salvianus]

Primum vivere dein philosophari,

Nice one Jona.

I think those are infinitives, so I'd imagine it literally as "First to live, then to philosophize", but personally I'd adapt it to my slightly old fashioned English as if it was imperative motto: "First live, then philosophize" or, perhaps to clarify for the modern audience, I've seen it expanded to: "First one must live, then one may philosophize".

Wow, talking about Latin translation: it makes me feel as if I'm more of a scholar than a 'B' grade in Latin 'O' Level 25 years ago might suggest! :wink:

[Restitvtvs]

Thank you all for sharing, translating, and discussing your favorite Latin quotes. It's been inspiring as well as educational.

Another quote:
"Si vis pacem, para bellum." or
"Qui Desiderat Pacem Praeparet Bellum."

Translates as "If you want peace, prepare for war."

Attributed to Publius Flavius Vegetius Renatus, from or based on his "Epitoma rei militaris," possibly written around 390 AD.

Personally, I favor nonviolent resistence. [self-edit]

[Salvianus]

"Si vis pacem, para bellum." or
"Qui Desiderat Pacem Praeparet Bellum."

Translates as "If you want peace, prepare for war."

Attributed to Publius Flavius Vegetius Renatus, from or based on his "Epitoma rei militaris," possibly written around 390 AD.

Quite right: the latter is the phrase that appears directly in the introduction to Book III of Vegetius and I think is literally:"Let (one) who desires peace prepare for war"

Related to this, on peoples' right to self-defense and self-determination, I still struggle between approaches

I certainly share this particular dilemma! I suspect we will be off topic, if not outside the Forum Rules to pursue it here, but I will PM you

One germane Latin quote, very much on topic:
Vix ulla tam iniqua pax, quin bello vel aequissimo sit potior – "Scarcely is there any peace so unjust that it is not better than even the fairest war" (Erasmus)

and a motto:
fortiter in re, suaviter in modo
boldly in deed, gently in manner

[Restitvtvs]

Related to this, on peoples' right to self-defense and self-determination, I still struggle between approaches

I certainly share this particular dilemma! I suspect we will be off topic, if not outside the Forum Rules to pursue it here, but I will PM you

Yes. Thank you for noting. I edited my post to back away from the line.

One germane Latin quote, very much on topic:
Vix ulla tam iniqua pax, quin bello vel aequissimo sit potior – "Scarcely is there any peace so unjust that it is not better than even the fairest war" (Erasmus)

and a motto:
fortiter in re, suaviter in modo
boldly in deed, gently in manner

Excellent! Many thanks.

[PMBardunias]

Perhaps one of you might know if there is a latin antecendant to the Mark Twain quote: "They did not know it was impossible, so they did it!"

For some reason I think there is, but can't source it.

[Amphaxitis]

Mine favorite is :

ALEA IACTA EST !

– Plutarch, 'Life of Pompey, Ch. 60'


It is what Julius Caesar is reported to have said on January 10, 49 BC as he led his army across the River Rubicon in northern Italy. With this step, he entered Italy at the head of his army in defiance of the Roman Senate and began his long civil war against Pompey and the Optimates.

[Carus Andiae]

I rather like St Gregory's (?) "Non Angli, sed Angeli" (Not Angles but Angels"), purely the the nice almost-pun. Though I prefer 1066 And All That's translation: "Not Angels, but Anglicans" :lol:

[Jona Lendering]

I rather like St Gregory's (?)

Yep, Gregory the Great. He sent Augustine (not the famous Father of the Church, but another one) to convert those Anglo-Saxons.

Which is remarkable, because the Anglo-Saxons had already been converted, by monks from Ireland. However, Gregory believed that the Irish were not really orthodox: after all, they accepted women as bishops and calculated the Date of Easter differently. At the Synod of Whitby, the adherents of Irish Christianity accepted Augustine's teachings.

It is important, because it was now in fact conceded that all ecclesiastical authority depended on the bishop of Rome. In other words, if the pope did not like a bishop, he could order him to desist. In c.600, this had to be done indirectly, by declaring the diocese a missionary zone; the Dictatus Papae and the Concordat with Napoleon made it even easier. Today, we find it self-evident that bishops derive their authority from Rome, but it was not always like that.

[Carus Andiae]

Thanks! I thought it was him, but I didn't have time to check.