“We all live in a state of ambitious poverty.”
Hic vivimus ambitiosa paupertate omnes.
III, line 182.
Satires, Satire III
xy
@xy, member from Sept. 25, 2023“No man ever became extremely wicked all at once.”
Nemo repente fuit turpissimus.
II, line 83.
Compare: "There is a method in man’s wickedness, — It grows up by degrees
Beaumont and Fletcher, A King and No King, Act v, scene 4.
Satires, Satire II
“You should pray for a sound mind in a sound body.”
Orandum est ut sit mens sana in corpore sano.
X, line 356; see mens sana in corpore sano.
Variant translation: One should pray to have a sound mind in a sound body.
Satires, Satire X
“Bitter poverty has no harder pang than that it makes men ridiculous.”
Nil habet infelix paupertas durius in se,
quam quod ridiculos homines facit.
Nil habet infelix paupertas durius in se,
quam quod ridiculos homines facit.
III, line 152-3.
Variant translations:
Of all the Griefs that harrass the Distrest,
Sure the most bitter is a scornful Jest.
As translated by Samuel Johnson
The hardest thing to bear in poverty is the fact that it makes men ridiculous.
Wretched poverty offers nothing harsher than this: it makes men ridiculous.
Satires, Satire III
“The traveller with empty pockets will sing in the thief's face.”
Cantabit vacuus coram latrone viator.
X, line 22.
Satires, Satire X
“But you will soon pay for it, my friend, when you take off your clothes, and with distended stomach carry your peacock into the bath undigested! Hence a sudden death, and an intestate old age; the new and merry tale runs the round of every dinner-table, and the corpse is carried forth to burial amid the cheers of enraged friends!”
Poena tamen praesens, cum tu deponis amictus
turgidus et crudum pavonem in balnea portas.
hinc subitae mortes atque intestata senectus;
it nova nec tristis per cunctas fabula cenas:
ducitur iratis plaudendum funus amicis.
Poena tamen praesens, cum tu deponis amictus
turgidus et crudum pavonem in balnea portas.
hinc subitae mortes atque intestata senectus;
it nova nec tristis per cunctas fabula cenas:
ducitur iratis plaudendum funus amicis.
I, line 142.
Satires, Satire I
III, lines 75-78, John Dryden, trans.
Satires, Satire III
“But who will guard the guardians themselves?”
Sed quis custodiet ipsos custodes?
VI, line 347
Variant translations:
But who is to guard the guards themselves?
Translated by Lewis Evans, in The Satires of Juvenal, Persius, Sulpicia, and Lucilius (1861), p. 51
Who watches the watchmen?
Famous variant used in the graphic novel, Watchmen by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons.
The original context is that a husband might lock his wife in the house to prevent her adulteries, but she is cunning and will start with the guards; hence, who guards the guards? The phrase has come to be applied broadly to people or organisations acting against dishonesty or corruption, esp. in public life. See Quis custodiet ipsos custodes? at Wikipedia.
Satires, Satire VI
“Censure pardons the raven, but is visited upon the dove.”
Dat veniam corvis, vexat censura columbas.
II, line 63.
Satires, Satire II
“Count it the greatest sin to prefer life to honor, and for the sake of living to lose what makes life worth living.”
Summum crede nefas animam praeferre pudori
et propter vitam vivendi perdere causas.
VIII, line 83.
Satires, Satire VIII
“The people that once bestowed commands, consulships, legions, and all else, now meddles no more and longs eagerly for just two things — bread and circuses!”
Nam qui dabat olim
imperium, fasces, legiones, omnia, nunc se
continet atque duas tantum res anxius optat,
panem et circenses.
Nam qui dabat olim
imperium, fasces, legiones, omnia, nunc se
continet atque duas tantum res anxius optat,
panem et circenses.
X, line 78; see bread and circuses.
Satires, Satire X
“Virtue is the one and only nobility.”
Nobilitas sola est atque unica virtus.
VIII, line 20.
Compare : We'll shine in more substantial honours, And to be noble we'll be good.
Thomas Percy, Winifreda (1720).
Satires, Satire VI
Variant: Nobility is the one only virtue.
“Honesty is praised and starves.”
Probitas laudatur et alget
I, line 74.
Variant translation: Honesty is praised and is left out in the cold.
Satires, Satire I
“The Indian tiger lives in perfect peace with the fierce
Tigress, and savage bears live together in harmony.”
Indica tigris agit rabida cum tigride pacem
perpetuam, saevis inter se convenit ursis.
XV, lines 163-164; translation by A.S. Kilne
Satires, Satire XV
Niels Bohr (1885–1962) Danish physicist
As quoted in a letter written from J. Kalckar to John A. Wheeler dated June 10, 1977, which appears in Wheeler's "Law Without Law," pg 207.
Niels Bohr (1885–1962) Danish physicist
Speech on quantum theory at Celebrazione del Secondo Centenario della Nascita di Luigi Galvani, Bologna, Italy (October 1937)
“Oh, what idiots we all have been. This is just as it must be.”
Niels Bohr (1885–1962) Danish physicist
In response to Frisch & Meitner's explanation of nuclear fission, as quoted in The Physicists - A generation that changed the world (1981) by C.P.Snow, p. 96
Niels Bohr (1885–1962) Danish physicist
Niels Bohr, "Discussions with Einstein on Epistemological Problems in Atomic Physics," in Paul Arthur Schilpp, Albert Einstein: Philosopher Scientist (1949) pp. 199-241.
Niels Bohr (1885–1962) Danish physicist
Said to Wolfgang Pauli after his presentation of Heisenberg's and Pauli's nonlinear field theory of elementary particles, at Columbia University (1958), as reported by F. J. Dyson in his paper “Innovation in Physics” (Scientific American, 199, No. 3, September 1958, pp. 74-82; reprinted in "JingShin Theoretical Physics Symposium in Honor of Professor Ta-You Wu," edited by Jong-Ping Hsu & Leonardo Hsu, Singapore; River Edge, NJ: World Scientific, 1998, pp. 73-90, here: p. 84).
Your theory is crazy, but it's not crazy enough to be true.
As quoted in First Philosophy: The Theory of Everything (2007) by Spencer Scoular, p. 89
There are many slight variants on this remark:
We are all agreed that your theory is crazy. The question which divides us is whether it is crazy enough.
We are all agreed that your theory is crazy. The question is whether it is crazy enough to be have a chance of being correct.
We in the back are convinced your theory is crazy. But what divides us is whether it is crazy enough.
Your theory is crazy, the question is whether it's crazy enough to be true.
Yes, I think that your theory is crazy. Sadly, it's not crazy enough to be believed.