Explore well-known and useful Latin quotes, phrases and sayings. In Latin with translation.
— Hannibal military commander of Carthage during the Second Punic War -247 - -183 BC
Latin proverb, most commonly attributed to Hannibal in response to his generals who had declared it impossible to cross the Alps with elephants; English translation as quoted in Salesmanship and Business Efficiency (1922) by James Samuel Knox, p. 27.
Original: (la) Aut viam inveniam aut faciam.
— Seneca the Younger Roman Stoic philosopher, statesman, and dramatist -4 - 65 BC
Letter XXVII
Epistulae Morales ad Lucilium (Moral Letters to Lucilius)
Original: (la) Sola virtus praestat gaudium perpetuum, securum; etiam si quid obstat, nubium modo intervenit, quae infra feruntur nec umquam diem vincunt.
Context: Virtue alone affords everlasting and peace-giving joy; even if some obstacle arise, it is but like an intervening cloud, which floats beneath the sun but never prevails against it.
— Marcus Tullius Cicero Roman philosopher and statesman -106 - -43 BC
Book I, section 13
Variant translation: Above all, the search after truth and its eager pursuit are peculiar to man. And so, when we have leisure from the demands of business cares, we are eager to see, to hear, to learn something new, and we esteem a desire to know.
De Officiis – On Duties (44 BC)
Original: (la) In primisque hominis est propria veri inquisitio atque investigatio. Itaque cum sumus necessariis negotiis curisque vacui, tum avemus aliquid videre, audire, addiscere cognitionemque rerum aut occultarum aut admirabilium ad beate vivendum necessarian! ducimus. Ex quo intellegitur, quod verum, simplex sincerumque sit, id esse naturae hominis aptissimum. Huic veri videndi cupiditati adiuncta est appetitio quaedam principatus, ut nemini parere animus bene informatus a natura velit nisi praecipienti aut docenti aut utilitatis causa iuste et legitime imperanti; ex quo magnitudo animi existit humanarumque rerum contemptio.
Context: The distinguishing property of man is to search for and to follow after truth. Therefore, when relaxed from our necessary cares and concerns, we then covet to see, to hear, and to learn somewhat; and we esteem knowledge of things either obscure or wonderful to be the indispensable means of living happily.* From this we understand that truth, simplicity, and candour, are most agreeable to the nature of mankind. To this passion for discovering truth, is added a desire to direct; for a mind, well formed by nature, is unwilling to obey any man but him who lays down rules and instructions to it, or who, for the general advantage, exercises equitable and lawful government. From this proceeds loftiness of mind, and contempt for worldly interests.
— Terence, Heauton Timorumenos
Act I, scene 1, line 25 (77).
Variant translations:
I am a human and consider nothing human alien to me.
I am human, I consider nothing human to be alien to me.
I am human, therefore nothing relating to humanity is outside of my concern.
I am a man; I consider nothing human alien to me.
I am a man, I regard nothing that is human alien to me.
I am a man, I count nothing human foreign to me.
Heauton Timorumenos (The Self-Tormentor)
Original: (la) Homo sum: humani nil a me alienum puto.
Original: (la) Plurima versat,
pessimus in dubiis augur, timor.
Source: Thebaid, Book III, Line 5
Original: (la) Vixi, et, quem dederat cursum Fortuna, peregi;
Et nunc magna mei sub terras ibit Imago.
Source: Aeneid (29–19 BC), Book IV, Lines 653–654 (tr. Allen Mandelbaum)
— Roger Bacon medieval philosopher and theologian 1220 - 1292
Cited in: LIFE, 8 sept 1958, p. 73
Variant translation: Half of science is asking the right questions.
Original: (la) Prudens quaestio dimidium scientiae.
— Marcus Tullius Cicero Roman philosopher and statesman -106 - -43 BC
Book I, section 22
De Officiis – On Duties (44 BC)
Original: (la) Non nobis solum nati sumus ortusque nostri partem patria vindicat, partem amici.
— Ennius Roman writer -239 - -169 BC
As quoted by Aulus Gellius in Noctes Atticae (Attic Nights), Book XIX, Chapter X
Iphigenia
Original: (la) Otioso in otio animus nescit quid velit.
Original: (la) Dine hunc ardorem mentibus addunt,
Euryale, an sua cuique deus fit dira cupido?
Source: Aeneid (29–19 BC), Book IX, Lines 184–185 (tr. Fagles)
— Quintilian ancient Roman rhetor 35 - 96
Book X, Chapter VII, 15
De Institutione Oratoria (c. 95 AD)
Original: (la) Pectus est enim quod disertos facit, et vis mentis.
— Marcus Annaeus Seneca Roman scholar -54 - 39 BC
From Epigrammata: De Qualitate Temporis 7, 7 as quoted in L. De Mauri, Angelo Paredi, Gabriele Nepi, 5000 proverbi e motti latini https://books.google.gr/books?id=hjiMpXCMCvsC&printsec=, Hoepli Editore, 1995, p. 384 and Hubertus Kudla, Lexikon der lateinischen Zitate https://books.google.gr/books?id=2Vtf_GVrdbgC&dq=, C. H. Beck, 2007, p. 416. The full text can be found in Anthologia Latina I, fasc. 1 (Walter de Gruyter, 1982) https://books.google.gr/books?id=PHWq0avQcGIC&pg=, ed. by D. R. Shackleton Bailey, p. 164. Harold Edgeworth Butler ( Post-Augustan Poetry: From Seneca to Juvenal https://books.google.gr/books?id=2gR48lrVJ-cC&dq=, Library of Alexandria, 1969, ch. 2, sec. 2) attributes De Qualitate Temporis to Seneca the Younger.
Misattributed
Original: (la) Omnia mors poscit. Lex est, non poena, perire.
— Marcus Annaeus Seneca Roman scholar -54 - 39 BC
Book I, Chapter I; slightly modified translation from Norman T. Pratt Seneca's Drama (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1983) p. 140
Controversiae
Original: (la) Iniquum est conlapsis manum non porrigere; commune hoc ius generis humani est.
— Marcus Annaeus Seneca Roman scholar -54 - 39 BC
Book II, Chapter VI; translation from Michael Winterbottom, Declamations of the Elder Seneca (London: Heinemann, 1974) vol. 1 p. 349
Some editions of Seneca prefer the reading Bibamus, moriendum est (Let us drink – we must die).
Controversiae
Original: (la) Vivamus, moriendum est.
I, line 30.
Satires, Satire I
Original: (la) Difficile est saturam non scribere.
— Isaac Newton British physicist and mathematician and founder of modern classical physics 1643 - 1727
These are notes in Latin that Newton wrote to himself that he titled: Quaestiones Quaedam Philosophicae [Certain Philosophical Questions] (c. 1664)
Variant translations: Plato is my friend, Aristotle is my friend, but my best friend is truth.
Plato is my friend — Aristotle is my friend — truth is a greater friend.
This is a variation on a much older adage, which Roger Bacon attributed to Aristotle: Amicus Plato sed magis amica veritas. Bacon was perhaps paraphrasing a statement in the Nicomachean Ethics: Where both are friends, it is right to prefer truth.
Original: (la) Amicus Plato — amicus Aristoteles — magis amica veritas
Original: (la) Sunt hic etiam sua praemia laudi,
Sunt lacrimae rerum et mentem mortalia tangunt.
Source: Aeneid (29–19 BC), Book I, Lines 461–462 (tr. Robert Fagles)
Bk. 9, no. 13; translation from S. Giora Shoham and Gill Sher (eds.) The Many Faces of Crime and Deviance (White Plains, N.Y.: Sheridan House, 1983) p. 32.
Variae
Original: (la) Mater criminum necessitas tollitur.
Book II, epistle i, lines 156–157
Epistles (c. 20 BC and 14 BC)
Original: (la) Graecia capta ferum victorem cepit et artes intulit agresti Latio.
— Robert Burton, book The Anatomy of Melancholy
Section 2, member 4, subsection 4.
The Anatomy of Melancholy (1621), Part I
Original: (la) Hinc quam sic calamus sævior ense, patet.
