Tattoo “We cannot think of being acceptable to others until we have first proven acceptable to ourselves.”

Rowdyshell

New Member

Last request for this tattoo. I promise! This site is amazing and you all are too.
I have limited room to get these points/messages across and I am looking for something perfect as it will be permanent.

Can you please help and translate this:
“We cannot think of being acceptable to others until we have first proven acceptable to ourselves.”

Thank you all tons and tons!

Michelle Davis
 

Pacifica

grammaticissima

  • Aedilis

Location:
Belgium
For now I can think of a bit of a shortened version:

Ceteris probari non prius sperare possumus quam nobismet probati simus.
We can't hope to be approved by others before we are approved by ourselves.
 

Rowdyshell

New Member

Thank you! With that in mind, is there any other way to say it in English that would condense it even more? I want something personal to me, but I'm ending up with lengthy stuff both English and Latin version.
I'm looking for something to say love yourself. Working on that task myself in life.

How about 'first love yourself'

I've seen the 'F L Y' but that's corny to me.

Or... 'happiness depends on ourselves'

Hope that's not a dupe somewhere in my posts...
 

Pacifica

grammaticissima

  • Aedilis

Location:
Belgium
"First love yourself": primum temet ama.
"Happiness depends on ourselves": a nobis pendet beatitudo.
 

Abbatiſſæ Scriptor

Senex

  • Civis Illustris

The English seems excessively convoluted, perhaps for emphasis sake but this might capture most of the sense the sense.
Non possumus nos aliis aceptabiles facescere, donec probauimus nobis ut acceptabiles summus.
 

Pacifica

grammaticissima

  • Aedilis

Location:
Belgium
Non possumus nos aliis aceptabiles facescere, donec probauimus nobis ut acceptabiles summus.
* Facere, acceptabiles, sumus.

But the ut clause really doesn't work. You'd need an acc.-inf. nos acceptabiles esse.
I think you'd normally find the subjunctive after donec.

I still prefer my version, though it's less litteral with regards to "acceptable" and maybe the word itself is important... The op could give us some precision about what it means to her but anyway it seems like she has now decided to abandon this sentence and go for something shorter.
 

Pacifica

grammaticissima

  • Aedilis

Location:
Belgium
It looked veri simile enough for me to check in my dics, but it isn't there! :)
 

Abbatiſſæ Scriptor

Senex

  • Civis Illustris

Well, we are supposed to be able to form incoatives whenever we need them by simply infixing '-sc-' after the present stem. I would think that would be fair, quid malum:(
 

Pacifica

grammaticissima

  • Aedilis

Location:
Belgium
Facescere is a well formed inchoative, which might even have existed in the mouths of one or a few Romans, who knows? But it isn't attested...
 
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