Explore well-known and useful Latin quotes, phrases and sayings. In Latin with translation.
— William of Ockham medieval philosopher and theologian 1287 - 1347
Summa Totius Logicae, i. 12, cited in "Ockham's Razor" by Paul Newall at Galilean Library (25 June 2005) http://www.galilean-library.org/manuscript.php?postid=43832
— Dante Alighieri Italian poet 1265 - 1321
Canto XXX, line 103 (tr. Longfellow).
— Tacitus Roman senator and historian 58 - 120
Context: To abandon your shield is the basest of crimes; nor may a man thus disgraced be present at the sacred rites, or enter their council; many, indeed, after escaping from battle, have ended their infamy with the halter.
Chapter 6
— Horace Roman lyric poet -65 - -8 BC
Book I, epistle i, line 14
— Julius Caesar Roman politician and general -100 - -44 BC
Reported by Marcus Tullius Cicero in a letter to Atticus.
Variant translations:
There is nothing I like better than that I should be true to myself and they to themselves.
— Giovanni Pico della Mirandola humanist and philosopher from Italy 1463 - 1494
8. 40-42; translation by A. Robert Caponigri
— Julius Caesar Roman politician and general -100 - -44 BC
Book VI
— Julius Caesar Roman politician and general -100 - -44 BC
Book I, Ch. 1
— Giovanni Pico della Mirandola humanist and philosopher from Italy 1463 - 1494
25. 158-159; translation by A. Robert Caponigri
— Anicius Manlius Severinus Boethius philosopher of the early 6th century 480
Prose IV, line 2
— Persius ancient latin poet 34 - 62
Satire IV, line 23 (translated by John Dryden).
— Sueton Roman historian 70 - 126
Ch. 30
— Publius Flavius Vegetius Renatus writer of the Later Roman Empire 400 - 450
Context: The courage of a soldier is heightened by his knowledge of his profession, and he only wants an opportunity to execute what he is convinced he has been perfectly taught. (Book 1)
— Tertullian Christian theologian 155 - 230
Variant translations
It is by all means to be believed, because it is absurd.
It is is entirely credible, because it is inept.
It is certain because it is impossible.
De Carne Christi 5.4
Often paraphrased or misquoted as "Credo quia absurdum."
Also paraphrased as "It is so extraordinary that it must be true."
Two lines from De Carne Christi have often become conflated into the statement: "Credo quia impossibile" (I believe it because it is impossible), which can be perceived as a distortion of the actual arguments that Tertullian was making.
— Galén Roman physician, surgeon and philosopher 129 - 216
Title of a treatise; cited from Judith Perkins The Suffering Self (London: Routledge, 1995) p. 154.
— Statius Roman poet of the 1st century AD (Silver Age of Latin literature) 40 - 96
Preface, line 10
