Latin quotes

Latin quotes with translation | page 3

“For if vicious propensity is, as it were, a disease of the soul like bodily sickness, even as we account the sick in body by no means deserving of hate, but rather of pity, so, and much more, should they be pitied whose minds are assailed by wickedness, which is more frightful than any sickness.”
Nam si uti corporum languor ita vitiositas quidam est quasi morbus animorum, cum aegros corpore minime dignos odio sed potius miseratione iudicemus, multo magis non insequendi sed miserandi sunt quorum mentes omni languore atrocior urguet improbitas.

“Censure pardons the raven, but is visited upon the dove.”
Dat veniam corvis, vexat censura columbas.

“But at power or wealth, for the sake of which wars, and all kinds of strife, arise among mankind, we do not aim; we desire only our liberty, which no honorable man relinquishes but with his life.”
At nos non imperium neque divitias petimus, quarum rerum causa bella atque certamina omnia inter mortales sunt, sed libertatem, quam nemo bonus nisi cum anima simul amittit.

“The Roman state survives by its ancient customs and its manhood.”
Moribus antiquis res stat Romana virisque.

“But who will guard the guardians themselves?”
Sed quis custodiet ipsos custodes?

“Because they didn't know better, they called it "civilization," when it was part of their slavery.”
Idque apud imperitos humanitas vocabatur, cum pars servitutis esset.

“None, none descends into himself, to find
The secret imperfections of his mind.”
Ut nemo in sese tentat descendere! nemo! Sed praecedenti spectatur mantica tergo.

“By first recognizing false goods, you begin to escape the burden of their influence; then afterwards true goods may gain possession of your spirit.”
Tu quoque falsa tuens bona prius incipe colla iugo retrahere: Vera dehinc animum subierint.

“Death may overwhelm them, but not fear; unconquerable they stand their ground, and their courage well-nigh outlives their lives.”
Mors obruit illos,<br/>non timor; invicti perstant animoque supersunt<br/>jam prope post animam.

“Unrighteous fortune seldom spares the highest worth; no one with safety can long front so frequent perils. Whom calamity oft passes by she finds at last.”
Iniqua raro maximis virtutibus fortuna parcit ; nemo se tuto diu periculis offerre tam crebris potest ; quem saepe transit casus, aliquando invenit.

“Would that the Roman people had but one neck!”
Utinam populus Romanus unam cervicem haberet!

“We are born between feces and urine.”
Inter faeces et urinam nascimur.

“Medicine was so advanced in Salerno that there was no place for illness.”
Tum medicinali tantum florebat in arte, posset ut hic nullus languor hobere locum

“Man proposes, but God disposes.”
Homo proponit, sed Deus disponit.

“My name shall never be forgotten.”
Nomenque erit indelebile nostrum.

“Chaos, a rough and unordered mass.”
Chaos, rudis indigestaque moles.

“Shameful it is to say, yet the common herd, if only we admit the truth, value friendships by their profit.”
Turpe quidem dictu, sed, si modo vera fatemur, vulgus amicitias utilitate probat.

“Either don't try at all or make damned sure you succeed.”
Aut non rem temptes aut perfice.

“Seize Time; his swift foot can't be held.”
Utendum est aetate: cito pede labitur aetas.

“Jupiter from above laughs at lovers' perjuries.”
Iuppiter ex alto periuria ridet amantum.

“He gains wisdom in a happy way, who gains it by another’s experience.”
Feliciter is sapit, qui alieno periculo sapit.

“Our charms depart all on their own, so pluck the bloom.
For if you don't, it meets a wasted doom.”
Nostra sine auxilio fugiunt bona; carpite florem, Qui, nisi carptus erit, turpiter ipse cadet.

“They come to see; they come that they themselves may be seen.”
Spectatum veniunt, veniunt spectentur ut ipsae.

“Whom none could overcome with iron or gold.”
Quem nemo ferro potuit superare nec auro.

“Are you going to offer yourselves here to the weapons of the enemy, undefended, unavenged? Why is it then you have arms? And why have you undertaken an offensive war? You who are ever turbulent in peace, and laggard in war. What hopes have you in standing here? Do you expect that some god will protect you and bear you hence? A way is to be made with the sword. Come you, who wish to behold your homes, your parents, your wives, and your children; follow me in the way in which you shall see me lead you on. It is not a wall or rampart that blocks your path, but armed men like yourselves. Their equals in courage, you are their superiors by force of necessity, which is the last and greatest weapon.”
Vos telis hostium estis indefensi, inulti? quid igitur arma habetis, aut quid ultro bellum intulistis, in otio tumultuosi, in bello segnes? quid hic stantibus spei est? an deum aliquem protecturum uos rapturumque hinc putatis? ferro via facienda est. hac qua me praegressum uideritis, agite, qui uisuri domos parentes coniuges liberos estis, ite mecum. non murus nec uallum sed armati armatis obstant. virtute pares, necessitate, quae ultimum ac maximum telum est, superiores estis'.

“How fast passes away the glory of this world.”
O quam cito transit gloria mundi.

“Light propagates and spreads not only directly, through refraction, and reflection, but also by a fourth mode, diffraction.”
Lumen propagatur seu diffunditur non solum Directe, Refracte, ac Reflexe, sed etiam alio quodam quarto modo, Diffracte.

“Leave her alone. A fallow field soon shows its worth,
And rain is best absorbed by arid earth.”
Da requiem: requietus ager bene credita reddit

“Whoever worships the gods in good faith, loves their priests too.”
Qui bona fide deos colit amat et sacerdotes.

“Quiet authority accomplishes what violence cannot, and that mandate compels more which comes from a commanding calm.”
Peragit tranquilla potestas<br/>quod violenta nequit; mandataque fortius urget<br/>imperiosa quies.

“Rage is for beasts, but shining peace for man.”
Candida pax homines, trux decet ira feras.

“The Aitolians, the Akarnanians, the Macedonians, men of the same speech, are united or disunited by trivial causes that arise from time to time; with aliens, with barbarians, all Greeks wage and will wage eternal war; for they are enemies by the will of nature, which is eternal, and not from reasons that change from day to day…”
Aetolos Acarnanas Macedonas, eiusdem linguae homines, leues ad tempus ortae causae diiungunt coniunguntque: cum alienigenis, cum barbaris aeternum omnibus Graecis bellum est eritque; natura enim, quae perpetua est, non mutabilibus in diem causis hostes sunt...

“Open your eyelids, will you all, and let your brains leave sleep behind.”
Pandite sultis genas et corde relinquite somnum.

“If you are wise, mingle these two elements: do not hope without despair, or despair without hope.”
Si sapis, alterum alteri misce: nec speraveris sine desperatione nec desperaveris sine spe.

“Nothing is miserable but what is thought so, and contrariwise, every estate is happy if he that bears it be content.”
Adeo nihil est miserum nisi cum putes, contraque beata sors omnis est aequanimitate tolerantis.

“These things are not for the best, nor as I think they ought to be; but still they are better than that which is downright bad. (translator Henry Thomas Riley)”
Non optuma haec sunt neque ut ego aequom censeo : verum meliora sunt quam quae deterruma.

“The more numerous the laws, the more corrupt the government.”
Corruptissima re publica plurimae leges.

“The mind wanders unsure, except in that life is lived.”
Incerte errat animus; praeterpropter vitam vivitur.

“Pointing to a pile of dust, that had collected, I foolishly begged to have as many anniversaries of my birth, as were represented by the dust. But I forgot to ask that the years should be accompanied by youth.”
Ego pulveris hausti ostendens cumulum, quot haberet corpora pulvis, tot mihi natales contingere vana rogavi; excidit, ut peterem iuvenes quoque protinus annos.

“Note too that a faithful study of the liberal arts humanizes character and permits it not to be cruel.”
Adde quod ingenuas didicisse fideliter artes emollit mores nec sinit esse feros.

“Thus, where'er the drift of hazard
Seems most unrestrained to flow,
Chance herself is reined and bitted,
And the curb of law doth know.”
Sic quae permissis fluitare videtur habenis Fors patitur frenos ipsaque lege meat.

“No species remains constant: that great renovator of matter
Nature, endlessly fashions new forms from old: there’s nothing
in the whole universe that perishes, believe me; rather
it renews and varies its substance. What we describe as birth
is no more than incipient change from a prior state, while dying
is merely to quit it. Though the parts may be transported
hither and thither, the sum of all matter is constant.”
Nec species sua cuique manet, rerumque novatrix ex aliis alias reparat natura figuras: nec perit in toto quicquam, mihi credite, mundo, sed variat faciemque novat, nascique vocatur incipere esse aliud, quam quod fuit ante, morique desinere illud idem. cum sint huc forsitan illa, haec translata illuc, summa tamen omnia constant.

“And it is a smaller thing to suffer the punishment than to have deserved it.”
Estque pati poenam quam meruisse minus.

“You are the grandson of the sky and sea.”
Tu caeli pelagique nepos.

“When I am here, I do not fast on Saturday; when at Rome, I do fast on Saturday.”
Quando hic sum, non iuieno Sabbato; quando Romae sum, iuieno Sabbato.

“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.

“But he whom reason, not anger, animates is a peer of the gods.”
Dis proximus ille est,<br/>quem ratio non ira movet.

“It is a complaint without foundation that "to very few people is granted the faculty of comprehending what is imparted to them, and that most, through dullness of understanding, lose their labor and their time." On the contrary, you will find the greater number of men both ready in conceiving and quick in learning, since such quickness is natural to man. As birds are born to fly, horses to run, and wild beasts to show fierceness, so to us peculiarly belong activity and sagacity of understanding.”
Falsa enim est querela, paucissimis hominibus vim percipiendi quae tradantur esse concessam, plerosque vero laborem ac tempora tarditate ingenii perdere. Nam contra plures reperias et faciles in excogitando et ad discendum promptos. Quippe id est homini naturale, ac sicut aves ad volatum, equi ad cursum, ad saevitiam ferae gignuntur, ita nobis propria est mentis agitatio atque sollertia.

“Tis hard, I admit, yet virtue aims at what is hard, and gratitude for such a service will be all the greater.”
Difficile est, fateor, sed tendit in ardua virtus et talis meriti gratia maior erit.

“To ask the proper question is half of knowing.”
Prudens quaestio dimidium scientiae.

“To every man posterity gives his due honour”
Suum cuique decus posteritas rependit

“My dear Tiberius, you must not give way to youthful emotion or take it to heart if anyone speaks ill of me; let us be satisfied if we can make people stop short at unkind words.”
Aetati tuae, mi Tiberi, noli in hac re indulgere et nimium indignari quemquam esse, qui de me male loquatur; satis est enim, si hoc habemus ne quis nobis male facere possit.

“The ape, vilest of beasts, how like to us!”
Simia quam similis turpissima bestia nobis!

“It belongs to human nature to hate those you have injured.”
Proprium humani ingenii est odisse quem laeseris.

“O mortals, from your fellows' blood abstain,
Nor taint your bodies with a food profane:
While corn, and pulse by Nature are bestow'd,
And planted orchards bend their willing load;
While labour'd gardens wholesom herbs produce,
And teeming vines afford their gen'rous juice;
Nor tardier fruits of cruder kind are lost,
But tam'd with fire, or mellow'd by the frost;
While kine to pails distended udders bring,
And bees their hony redolent of Spring;
While Earth not only can your needs supply,
But, lavish of her store, provides for luxury;
A guiltless feast administers with ease,
And without blood is prodigal to please.”
Parcite, mortales, dapibus temerare nefandis corpora! sunt fruges, sunt deducentia ramos pondere poma suo tumidaeque in vitibus uvae, sunt herbae dulces, sunt quae mitescere flamma mollirique queant; nec vobis lacteus umor eripitur, nec mella thymi redolentia florem: prodiga divitias alimentaque mitia tellus suggerit atque epulas sine caede et sanguine praebet.

“The histories of Tiberius, Caius, Claudius, and Nero, while they were in power, were falsified through terror, and after their death were written under the irritation of a recent hatred. Hence my purpose is to relate a few facts about Augustus - more particularly his last acts, then the reign of Tiberius, and all which follows, without either bitterness or partiality, from any motives to which I am far removed.”
Tiberii Gaique et Claudii ac Neronis res florentibus ipsis ob metum falsae, postquam occiderant, recentibus odiis compositae sunt. inde consilium mihi pauca de Augusto et extrema tradere, mox Tiberii principatum et cetera, sine ira et studio, quorum causas procul habeo.

“The greater a man is, the more can his wrath be appeased; a noble spirit is capable of kindly impulses. For the noble lion 'tis enough to have overthrown his enemy; the fight is at an end when his foe is fallen. But the wolf, the ignoble bears harry the dying and so with every beast of less nobility. At Troy what have we mightier than brave Achilles? But the tears of the aged Dardanian he could not endure.”
Quo quisque est maior, magis est placabilis irae, et faciles motus mens generosa capit. corpora magnanimo satis est prostrasse leoni, pugna suum finem, cum iacet hostis, habet: at lupus et turpes instant morientibus ursi et quaecumque minor nobilitate fera. maius apud Troiam forti quid habemus Achille? Dardanii lacrimas non tulit ille senis.

“The judge is condemned when the guilty is absolved.”
Iudex damnatur ubi nocens absolvitur.

“Habit makes all things bearable.”
Quod male fers, adsuesce, feres bene.

“Let the orator whom I propose to form, then, be such a one as is characterized by the definition of Marcus Cato, a good man skilled in speaking. But the requisite which Cato has placed first in this definition—that an orator should be a good man—is naturally of more estimation and importance than the other.”
Sit ergo nobis orator quem constituimus is qui a M. Catone finitur vir bonus dicendi peritus, verum, id quod et ille posuit prius et ipsa natura potius ac maius est, utique vir bonus.

“You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless until they rest in you.”
Fecisti nos ad te et inquietum est cor nostrum donec requiescat in te.

“I do not merely assert that the ideal orator should be a good man, but I affirm that no man can be an orator unless he is a good man. For it is impossible to regard those men as gifted with intelligence who on being offered the choice between the two paths of virtue and of vice choose the latter, nor can we allow them prudence, when by the unforeseen issue of their own actions they render themselves liable not merely to the heaviest penalties of the laws, but to the inevitable torment of an evil conscience.”
Neque enim tantum id dico, eum qui sit orator virum bonum esse oportere, sed ne futurum quidem oratorem nisi virum bonum. Nam certe neque intellegentiam concesseris iis qui proposita honestorum ac turpium via peiorem sequi malent, neque prudentiam, cum in gravissimas frequenter legum, semper vero malae conscientiae poenas a semet ipsis inproviso rerum exitu induantur.

“Then the omnipotent Father with his thunder made Olympus tremble, and from Ossa hurled Pelion.”
Tum pater omnipotens misso perfregit Olympum fulmine et excussit subiectae Pelion Ossae.

“What then is time? If no one asks me, I know what it is. If I wish to explain it to him who asks, I do not know.”
Quid est ergo tempus? Si nemo ex me quaerat, scio; si quaerenti explicare velim, nescio.

“Love is a thing full of anxious fears.”
Res est solliciti plena timoris amor.

“The traveller with empty pockets will sing in the thief's face.”
Cantabit vacuus coram latrone viator.

“It is pointless to do with more what can be done with fewer.”
Frustra fit per plura, quod potest fieri per pauciora.

“What is to prevent one from telling truth as he laughs, even as teachers sometimes give cookies to children to coax them into learning their A B C?”
Quamquam ridentem dicere verum quid vetat? ut pueris olim dant crustula blandi doctores, elementa velint ut discere prima.

“The pen worse than the sword.”
Hinc quam sic calamus sævior ense, patet.

“How, then, shall I respond to him who asks, “What was God doing before he made heaven and earth?” I do not answer, as a certain one is reported to have done facetiously (shrugging off the force of the question). “He was preparing hell,” he said, “for those who pry too deep.” It is one thing to see the answer; it is another to laugh at the questioner--and for myself I do not answer these things thus. More willingly would I have answered, “I do not know what I do not know,” than cause one who asked a deep question to be ridiculed--and by such tactics gain praise for a worthless answer.”
Ecce respondeo dicenti, 'quid faciebat deus antequam faceret caelum et terram?' respondeo non illud quod quidam respondisse perhibetur, ioculariter eludens quaestionis violentiam: 'alta,' inquit, 'scrutantibus gehennas parabat.' aliud est videre, aliud ridere: haec non respondeo. libentius enim responderim, 'nescio quod nescio' quam illud unde inridetur qui alta interrogavit et laudatur qui falsa respondit.

“A field becomes exhausted by constant tillage.”
Continua messe senescit ager.

“Not chaffering war but waging war, not with gold but with iron—thus let us of both sides make trial for our lives”
Nec cauponantes bellum sed belligerantes; Ferro non auro vitam cernamus utrique.

“When she [Philosophy] saw that the Muses of poetry were present by my couch giving words to my lamenting, she was stirred a while; her eyes flashed fiercely, and said she, "Who has suffered these seducing mummers to approach this sick man? Never do they support those in sorrow by any healing remedies, but rather do ever foster the sorrow by poisonous sweets. These are they who stifle the fruit-bearing harvest of reason with the barren briars of the passions: they free not the minds of men from disease, but accustom them thereto."”
Quae ubi poeticas Musas uidit nostro assistentes toro fletibusque meis uerba dictantes, commota paulisper ac toruis inflammata luminibus: Quis, inquit, has scenicas meretriculas ad hunc aegrum permisit accedere, quae dolores eius non modo nullis remediis fouerent, uerum dulcibus insuper alerent uenenis? Hae sunt enim quae infructuosis affectuum spinis uberem fructibus rationis segetem necant hominumque mentes assuefaciunt morbo, non liberant.

“For the spiritual power of a sacrament is like light in this way: it is both received pure by those to be enlightened, and if it passes through the impure it is not defiled.”
Spiritalis enim virtus Sacramenti ita est ut lux: et ab illuminandis pura excipitur, et si per immundos transeat, non inquinatur.

“No doubt, there was peace after all this, but it was a peace stained with blood.”
Pacem sine dubio post haec, verum cruentam.

“The gods behold all righteous actions.”
Di pia facta vident.

“The result justifies the deed.”
Exitus acta probat.

“For those things which were done either by our fathers, or ancestors, and in which we ourselves had no share, we can scarcely call our own.”
Nam genus et proavos et quae non fecimus ipsi, Vix ea nostra voco.

“God became man so that man might become God.”
Factus est Deus homo ut homo fieret Deus.

“There will be vices as long as there are men.”
Vitia erunt donec homines

“The mind, conscious of rectitude, laughed to scorn the falsehood of report.”
Conscia mens recti famae mendacia risit

“We can endure neither our vices nor the remedies for them.”
Nec vitia nostra nec remedia pati possumus

“God created everything by number, weight and measure.”
Numero pondere et mensura Deus omnia condidit.

“Right it is to be taught even by the enemy.”
Fas est et ab hoste doceri.

“Therefore do not seek to understand in order to believe, but believe that thou mayest understand.”
Ergo noli quaerere intelligere ut credas, sed crede ut intelligas.

“If first you rid yourself of hope and fear
You have dismayed the tyrant's wrath:
But whosoever quakes in fear or hope,
Drifting and losing his mastery,
Has cast away his shield, has left his place,
And binds the chain with which he will be bound.”
Nec speres aliquid nec extimescas, exarmaueris impotentis iram; at quisquis trepidus pauet uel optat, quod non sit stabilis suique iuris, abiecit clipeum locoque motus nectit qua ualeat trahi catenam.

“History is written for the purpose of narration and not in order to give proof.”
Historia et scribitur ad narrandum non ad probandum.

“So give to the poor; I’m begging you, I’m warning you, I’m commanding you, I’m ordering you.”
Date ergo pauperibus: rogo, moneo, praecipio, iubeo.

“Conquered Greece took captive her savage conqueror and brought her arts into rustic Latium.”
Graecia capta ferum victorem cepit et artes intulit agresti Latio.

“Leave off wishing to deserve any thanks from anyone, or thinking that anyone can ever become grateful.”
Desine de quoquam quicquam bene velle mereri, Aut aliquem fieri posse putare pium.

“Grasp the subject, the words will follow.”
Rem tene, verba sequentur.

“Fortune is given to brave men.”
Fortibus est fortuna viris data.

“Bitter poverty has no harder pang than that it makes men ridiculous.”
Nil habet infelix paupertas durius in se, quam quod ridiculos homines facit.

“For it is an ordinance of nature that nothing great can be achieved in a moment, and that all the fairest tasks are attended with difficulty, while on births as well she has imposed this law, that the larger the animal, the longer should be the period of gestation.”
Nihil enim rerum ipsa natura voluit magnum effici cito, praeposuitque pulcherrimo cuique operi difficultatem: quae nascendi quoque hanc fecerit legem, ut maiora animalia diutius visceribus parentis continerentur.

“For the salvation of their soul.”
Pro salutae animae sua.

“But if you think that life can be prolonged by the breath of mortal fame, yet when the slow time robs you of this too, then there awaits you but a second death.”
Quodsi putatis longius vitam trahi mortalis aura nominis, cum sera vobis rapiet hoc etiam dies iam vos secunda mors manet.

“Death is the penalty of sin.”
Mors est poena peccati.

“Spying a young plane tree with long stem and countless branches and summit aspiring to heaven.”
Primaevam visu platanum, cui longa propago innumeraeque manus et iturus in aethera vertex.

“An adversary is more hurt by desertion than by slaughter. (General Maxims)”
aduersarium amplius frangunt transfugae quam perempti.