What's your favorite Latin phrase?

[Imber Ranae]

With negative inversion it sounds quite good to me: 'Never does nature say one thing and wisdom another.'

 

[Pacifica]

Good. We have our official translation then.

 

[Pacifica]

I went back to look at some quotations I had compiled thinking they might be useful some day; here are a few that might interest you:

Nil sine magno vita labore dedit mortalibus.
Life has given nothing to mortals without great effort.
(Horace)

Ipse alimenta sibi maxima praebet amor.
Love provides itself with the greatest aliments.
(Sextus Propertius)

Quantum oculis, animo tam procul ibit amor.
Love will go as far from the heart/mind as it goes far from the eyes.
(Sextus Propertius)

Letum non omnia finit.
Death does not end everything.
(Sextus Propertius)

Honesta turpitudo est pro causa bona.
Honorable is turpitude for a good cause.
(Publilius Syrus)

Quid sis interest, non quid habearis.
What matters is what you are, not what you are considered to be.
(Publilius Syrus)

Maiore tumultu planguntur nummi quam funera.
Coins are bewailed with greater tumult than deaths.
(Juvenal)

Fata viam invenient.
Fate will find a way.
(Vergil)

Fama, malum qua non aliud velocius ullum
mobilitate viget virisque adquirit eundo
Rumor, which no other evil beats in speed,
thrives with mobility and gains strength as it goes.
(Vergil)

Sunt facta verbis difficiliora.
Deeds are more difficult than words.
(Cicero)

Nemo est qui tibi sapientius suadere possit te ipso.
There is no one who can advise you more wisely than yourself.
(Cicero - he was saying this to someone in particular, not in general, but I guess the sentence on its own could be re-interpreted as general)

Epistula (enim) non erubescit.
(For) a letter doesn't blush.
(Cicero)

Qui semel verecundiae fines transierit, eum bene et naviter oportet esse impudentem.
Once one has crossed over the limits of modesty, one ought to be well and diligently shameless.
(Cicero)

Habet (enim) praeteriti doloris secura recordatio delectationem.
(For) the secure remembrance of past pain has some pleasure to it.
(Cicero)

Vsquequaque sapere oportet: id erit telum acerrimum.
You must be wise in every circumstance: that will be your sharpest weapon.
(Cicero)

Non facile diiudicatur amor verus et fictus.
True and false love are not easily differenciated.
(Cicero)

Fiet (enim) quodcumque volent qui valebunt; valebunt autem semper arma.
(For) what happens will be whatever those who prevail want; and those who prevail will always be weapons.
(Cicero)

Tuo tibi iudicio est utendum.
You should use your own judgment.
(Cicero)

Ita sunt altae stirpes stultitiae.
So deep are the roots of foolishness.
(Cicero)

Est (enim) proprium stultitiae aliorum vitia cernere, oblivisci suorum.
(For) it is proper to foolishness to see the vices of others and forget one's own.
(Cicero)

Ne illa quidem firmissima consolatio est, quamquam et usitata est et saepe prodest: 'non tibi hoc soli.'
Not even that is the strongest consolation, even though it is commonly used and often helps: "you're not the only one this happens to".
(Cicero)

Plura sunt quae nos terrent quam quae premunt, et saepius opinione quam re laboramus.
There are more things that frighten us than things that afflict us, and we suffer in imagination more often than in fact.
(Seneca Minor)

Perit aliqua navis in portu: sed quid tu accidere in medio mari credis?
It happens for a ship to be destroyed in the port: but what do you think happens in the middle of the sea?
(Seneca Minor)

Nemo tam timidus est ut malit semper pendere quam semel cadere.
No one is so timid as to prefer always to hang than to fall once.
(Seneca Minor)

 

[Nooj]

seneca - thyestes

Vitae est avidus quisquis non vult
Mundo secum pereunte mori

he is greedy for life who does not want
when the world is dying, to die with it

i am taking secum as referring to the world. is it possible to be taken as referring to the greedy one?

 

[Pacifica]

It refers to the greedy one. He does not want to die with the world dying with him. Don't forget that se is reflexive, so if it referred to the world it would mean "the world dying with itself", which doesn't make that much sense.

 

[Nooj]

i see. what tripped me up is the 'rule', although i've seen some contradictions to it, that the abl abs must be syntactically separate from the rest. a reflexive referring back to the subject (avidus) would break that rule no?

 

[Pacifica]

I have seen both reflexive and non-reflexive pronouns and possessives being used in an abl. abs. to refer to the subject of the main clause, and I must say that I'm not sure what the rule is. If I had to make a guess, I'd say that the reflexive was used when the "link" of the abl. abs. with the subject was strong (as is manifestly the case here, mundo secum pereunte being very closely connected with mori, in a wish of the subject, and a non-reflexive wouldn't look right), and that non-reflexives were used when the abl. abs. was just more loosely adding some circumstance to the main clause. This is all my theory though.

 

[Imber Ranae]

It refers to the greedy one. He does not want to die with the world dying with him. Don't forget that se is reflexive, so if it referred to the world it would mean "the world dying with itself", which doesn't make that much sense.

The translation he gave still works, though: 'is unwilling to die even when the world is dying with him' = 'does not want, when the world is dying, to die with it'. The sentiment feels the same.

 

[Matthaeus]

One of my favorites.
homo sum, humani nihil a me alienum puto