Your Favorite Roman Latin Quotes Maxims Mottos Sayings ?

[Restitvtvs]

Please post your favorite Roman - Latin quotes here.

They can be ancient, ecclesiastical, and/or modern.

Quotes can include axioms, maxims, mottos, parables, phrases, proverbs, sayings, truisms, words, etc.

My favorite quote (motto): "Ad maiorem Dei gloriam"
(English: "For the greater glory of God"; ecclesiastical Latin, Jesuit motto)

You can check wikipedia as a starting point for Roman - Latin quote lists, articles, and related webpages/sites.

Your favorite quotes can be very edifying, lol: .

Thanks! +r

[Carlton Bach]

Cynical but, sadly, true:

bonus vir semper tiro


And I've never heard a better or more approriate thing to say at a funeral than

sit tibi terra levis


No idea where it is from, but I find

venis hostis, mors, dum vivo

[D B Campbell]

I'm sure of our colleagues would appreciate a translation!

I don't think that bonus vir semper tiro is supposed to be cynical. It just means that "a good man is always learning".

[Restitvtvs]

Another of my favorite quotes. I couldn't find the original Latin quote, so I can't comment on the translation's quality.

"Every translator is a traitor." ~ Ambrose, 4th century

[Wander]

[quote]“Every translator is a traitor.â€

[Restitvtvs]

Wander\\n[quote][quote]“Every translator is a traitor.â€

[Wander]

Alfredus NovusHomo, but I think he's the same guy.

partly of most Late Roman descent.

Yeah, but it's been a really steep descent.



Glad I could share a laugh with people who get it!

[M. Demetrius]

Well, there's Descartes' Cogito ergo sum. I think, therefore I am, of course.

And seen written on a modern college latrina wall, "Coito ergo sum", but I can't imagine what that means, can you?
:oops: :wink:

[Wander]

That takes my mind in two directions. The former, the proper Descartes quote, reminds me of Ambrose Bierce's cynical play on such philosophy. Stating the we can't be sure of anything, he rendered it as: "Cogito cogito, ergo cogito sum," "I think that I think, therefore I think that I am."

Your second quote reminded me of a play on Caesar's words found in a far less reputable source: "Vedi, vici, veni." I'm sure you can translate it.

[Julilla]

My personal motto is officium ante proprium bonum, which means, roughly, service above self.

[Carus Andiae]

One which I picked up whilst studying the Crusades - Non nobis, domine, non nobis, sed nomine tua [or tuo ] da gloriam - from one of the Pslams, but used as the motto of the Knights Templar: "Not unto us, Lord, not unto us, but to thy name give glory". I just like the rhythm of it as much as anything!

Several on a less serious note:

Morituri nolumnus mori - (Dog?)-Latin, "We who are about to die don't want to", from the Pratchett book 'The Last Hero'. Another one of his, this time the singularly appropriate family motto of the Von Uberwald family of werewolves in 'The Fifth Elephant': Homo homini lupus, "Man is a wolf to his fellow man".

Then there is my signature until quite recently: Catapultam habeo. Nisi pecuniam omnem mihi dabis, ad caput tuum saxum immane mittam (I have a catapult. Give me all your money or I will fling an enormous rock at your head)

My current signature is:

Internecate! Consiste! Vel te interneceris! Captivi Dalekum estis!

(Exterminate! Stop! Or you will be exterminated! You are now a prisoner of the Daleks!) In the British sci-fi series Doctor Who a group of Daleks (armoured mutant blob alien invaders) were seen in a conquered Germany chanting this in German. This caused great delight (as the Daleks usually speak English) so there was a rash of traslations into other languages. Doesn't exactly roll off the tongue, but imagine it said in an aggressive, grating electronic voice and it comes across quite well.

The original scene.

[Jona Lendering]

Peregrinando quaerimus. It means we are investigating things while we are wandering, or, a bit more freely, that we are like knights-errant searching for truth. I like it because it also implies that our answers are just temporary - today's certainties will be errors once we progress on our voyage.

It used to be the motto of one of the great Jewish sages, Menasseh ben Israel; for a Jew, the "wandering" is of course the Diaspora, but for me personally it has a second meaning, because I feel a bit lost now that I am no longer working for a university. [size=75:2u16f74k][Note to moderator: where is the "being full of self-pity" emoticon?][/size]

[Robert Vermaat]

And I've never heard a better or more approriate thing to say at a funeral than
sit tibi terra levis

Sit tibi terra levis (commonly abbreviated as S.T.T.L.) was an inscription (in Latin) used on funerary items from Ancient Roman times onward. The English language translation is approximately, "May the earth rest lightly on you".

Mine is: Homo Homini Lupus "Man is a wolf to man." A popular Roman proverb by Plautus (dead 184 BC), in his Asinaria.

[Jona Lendering]

Sit tibi terra levis (commonly abbreviated as S.T.T.L.) was an inscription (in Latin) used on funerary items from Ancient Roman times onward. The English language translation is approximately, "May the earth rest lightly on you".

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

To your shades, Fronto and Flacilla, this child
I commend: she was my sweet and my delight.
Little Erotion shall not fear the darkened shades
nor the vast mouths of the Tartarean hound.
She’d have completed her sixth chill winter,
if she’d not lived a mere six days too few.
Now let her frisk and play among old friends
now let her chatter, and so lisp my name.
And let the soft turf cover her brittle bones:
earth, lie lightly on her: she lay lightly on you.

[Wander]

That is wonderfully beautiful; thank you, Jona.