Your favorite Latin quote/word/idiom? And why?

[bathtime]

The last post on this subject seemed to be from 2015, so I thought I'd make one for the new year.

Also, this will make for good translating practice.


Word: ignosce [mihi] (forgive [me])

Just looks and sounds cool.


Idiom: maximam partem (for the most part)

It reminds me of those not jokes which were so popular in the late 80's.


Phrase: nullus est locus instar domus (there is no place like home)

It's from the Latin version of The Wizard of Oz and rings true for me.


I'd like to hear yours if you'd like to share!

 

[Dantius]

Idiom: maximum partem (for the most part)

*maximam

Anyway, I don't really know if this counts, but I like impersonal passive constructions in general. A few weeks ago I accidentally used one in English in conversation and barely noticed it.

 

[Pacifica]

I don't know what my favorite Latin quote/word/idiom is. I like many.

A few weeks ago I accidentally used one in English in conversation and barely noticed it.

Really? What did you say? (If you can remember it.)

 

[Dantius]

Really? What did you say? (If you can remember it.)

Something with "it is arrived at...", I think. I can't remember any more than that. It was a construction something like sic itur ad astra.

 

[Dantius]

I love historical infinitives, especially when they're used in a nice series to create a really fast pace.

 

[rothbard]

I love historical infinitives, especially when they're used in a nice series to create a really fast pace.

I too started liking them after reading Sallust's Bellum Catlinae.

 

[Godmy]

My favourite quotes:

1) quare religio pedibus subiecta vicissim
opteritur, nos exaequat victoria caelo.
(Dē Rērum Nātūrā, Lucrētius) - not just for the content, but also for the sound of it

2) non omnis moriar multaque pars mei / vitabit Libitinam
(Horace)

3) omnem crede diem tibi diluxisse supremum
grata superveniet quae non sperabitur hora
(Horace)

4) Ille mi par esse deo videtur,
ille, si fas est, superare divos,
(Catullus)

5) Omnis mundi creatura / quasi liber et pictura / nobis est, et speculum, / nostrae vitae, nostrae mortis / nostri status, nostrae sortis / fidele signaculum.
(Rhythmus alter, attributed to Alain de Lille alias Alānus ab Īnsulīs)

(I know this one tramples more into a "favourite poem", but I'll be satisfied with this 'little' bit alone)

6) Fortūnae plangō vulnera stillantibus ocellīs
(maybe some monk from Benediktbeuern in the 13th century)

(a similar case as with the no. 5 )

 

[Godmy]

A favourite piece of grammar:

future participle, infinitives, indirect speech : P
(maybe)

 

[bathtime]

Let's see if I can translate these:

quare religio pedibus subiecta vicissim opteritur, nos exaequat victoria caelo.
(Dē Rērum Nātūrā, Lucrētius) - not just for the content, but also for the sound of it

Religion which is thrown under our feet, in turn, tramples [as] victory from the heaven equalizes us.?

Another quote that I like:

lacrima nihil citius arescit, nothing dries faster than a tear.
Cicero quoting Apollonius.

As for grammar, I like indirect speech (oratio obliqua)—Caesar seems to have lots of it.

 

[Godmy]

"And for that reason the religion, having been thrown under our feet, gets trampled on again, and the victory (=over knowledge / in science) makes us equal to gods (=heaven)."

Cicero made that it was published

^I approve of that quote of yours, very beautiful

 

[Dantius]

As for grammar, I like indirect speech (oratio obliqua)—Caesar seems to have lots of it.

I'm rather fond of Caesar's 17-sentence indirect statement in 1.44. However if you really want a long indirect statement, there's a 39-sentence indirect statement (almost 2 pages long) in Justin 38.4-7 (quoting from Pompeius Trogus's Phillipic History).

 

[bathtime]

I'm rather fond of Caesar's 17-sentence indirect statement in 1.44. However if you really want a long indirect statement, there's a 39-sentence indirect statement (almost 2 pages long) in Justin 38.4-7 (quoting from Pompeius Trogus's Phillipic History).

Yes, read that one many times (DBG, 1.44).

That reminds me of another general thing that I like so much about Latin (yes, this thread is a bit derailed but the better for it)—the sentence length, which I find is generally much longer than English and flows much better, interweaving and transitioning so gracefully.

I have this uncommon belief that a well written sentence should not end until the point is fully made, as seems much the style of prose of the 17th and 18th century (i.e., Gibbon's Decline & Fall... which I have forever been trying to get Godmy to read ), and while I prefer to write long sentences, most people don't care for it—better yet, they shun it, saying it's excessive; they seem to want cut up sentences like children who want their steak cut up into little bits.

Oh!—and one other thing, which may seem contrary to the last point, is that I like the brevity of Latin; there's very little fluff in it, and one can read knowing that the time is well spent as the point is clear and strong—minimal wastage, unlike those novels today that take that already cut up steak and smother it in so much sauce that one cannot taste the meat: one orders the steak to taste the steak...

 

[Godmy]

Oh, I forgot, I think the favourite quote of all times for me is what can be seen in my signature:

Post nūbila Phoebus

(not necessarily because I would be that kind of optimist, but for the sound of it and for its inclusion in one song that I heard before I even started with Latin, with a very ominous melody)

 

[Lysandra]

My favourite word of all time:
eugepae!

I remember seeing it in one of the very first passages in my Latin textbook. I think it was an adaption of Plautus' Aulularia where the old man Euclio exclaims 'Euge! Eugepae!'

 

[Dantius]

My favourite word of all time:

In any language or just in Latin?

 

[Lysandra]

In any language

 

[Mafalda]

I like sandwiched prepositions. Like in summa cum celeritate, or obscuram per silvam, or duobus in proeliis hostes vicimus.

 

[Matthaeus]

Me too. Cf. Cic. in Cat. I, 1: constrictam iam horum omnium scientia coniurationem tuam teneri non vides?
Although I'm sure there are even longer examples.

 

[Dantius]

I like sandwiched prepositions. Like in summa cum celeritate, or obscuram per silvam, or duobus in proeliis hostes vicimus.

I like those, when it's adjective-prep.-noun. I don't like weird different orders, like ripam apud Euphratis or ripam ad Euphratis (both of those phrases, and others like them, are used repeatedly in Tacitus). I especially don't like when a gerundive comes before a preposition like augendam ad invidiam (although this technically does fit the adj.-prep.-noun pattern).

Me too. Cf. Cic. in Cat. I, 1: constrictam iam horum omnium scientia coniurationem tuam teneri non vides?
Although I'm sure there are even longer examples.

There are definitely longer examples, but sometimes it actually makes the sentence awkward and difficult. Here's one from DBG 8 (Hirtius's supplement):
Fasces, ut consueverant (namque in acie sedere Gallos consuesse superioribus commentariis Caesaris declaratum est), per manus stramentorum ac virgultorum, quorum summa erat in castris copia, inter se traditos ante aciem collocarunt extremoque tempore diei signo pronuntiato uno tempore incenderunt.
But this example is not very stylistically good, unlike the Cicero one. stramentorum ac virgultorum, which directly modifies fasces, is placed way too far away from it, and per manus and inter se express basically the same idea.

 

[Big Horn]

I love non nulli sunt. It is so pithy and concise. It's impossible to correctly express it in English without elaborate paraphrase. It does not mean some are.