Latin Proverbs Quotations

Latin proverbs

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This is a list of Latin and Roman proverbs and sayings.

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A B C D E F G H I or J L M N O P Q R S T U V - Mock Latin - See also - References

A

• A lasso rixa quaeritur
  • Translation: "Weariness loves a wrangle", "It is the weary one who picks a quarrel". Seneca

• A mari usque ad mare
  • Translation: "From sea to sea," national motto of Canada.

• A bove maiore discit arare minor
  • Translation: "From the old ox, the young one learns to plow."; "A good example makes a good job."

• A Deo rex, a rege lex
  • Translation: "The king is from God, the law from the king". Attributed to James I of England

• A posse ad esse non valet consequentia
  • Translation: "From a thing's possibility one cannot be certain of its reality." See also Ab esse ad posse.

• Ab amicis honesta petamus
  • Translation: "One should only ask from a friend what he is capable of." Cicero

• Ab esse ad posse valet, a posse ad esse non valet consequentia.
  • Translation: "From a thing's reality one can be certain of its possibility, from its possibility one cannot be certain of its reality."

• Ab igne ignem capere
  • Translation: "To take fire from fire or To fight fire with fire." Cicero

• Ab obice saevior ibit
  • Translation: "The resistance only makes him attack more ferociously."

• Ab ovo (usque ad mala)
  • Translation: "From the egg to the apples."; "From the beginning to the end." (The Roman meal usually started with eggs and ended with fruit.)

• Ab urbe condita
  • Translation: "From the founding of the city", 'city' meaning Rome

• Abeunt studia in mores
  • Translation: "What one trains frequently, will become part of his character" Ovidius

• Abiistis, dulces caricae
  • Translation: "You're finished, sweet figs" Petronius

• Abiit iam et reverti debet
  • Translation: "He has been gone for long and must once return." Tertullianus

• Absens haeres non erit
  • Translation: "The absent will not be an heir.", "Out of sight, out of mind"

• Absentem laedit, qui cum ebrio litigat.
  • Translation: "He who fights with a drunken person hurts an absentee." (I.e., the "sober" version of the drunken person)

• Absint offensae, cum fit celebratio mensae.
  • Translation: "Insults shouldn't be made when people are celebrating."

• Absit iniuria verbis.
  • Translation: "Let injury by words be absent."

• Absit invidia (verbo).
  • Translation: "Don't take this the wrong way."

• Absit omen.
  • Translation: "May this not be an omen."

• Absit reverentia vero
  • Translation: "The truth shouldn't be silenced to spare someone."

• Absque argento omnia vana
  • Translation: "Without money, all efforts are in vain."

• Abstulit qui dedit
  • Translation: "He who gave it, took it."

• Ab uno disce omnes
  • Translation: "Judge all by this one"

• Abusus non tollit usum
  • Translation: "Abuse is no argument against proper use", legal phrase meaning that just because something can be abused there is no reason for putting an end to its legitimate use

• Abyssus abyssum invocat
  • Translation: "Deep calleth unto deep" (Psalm 42:7)

• A cane non magno saepe tenetur aper.
  • Literally: "A boar is often held by quite a small dog."

• A capite ad calcem
  • Translation: "From head to heel"

• Accipe quam primum, brevis est occasio lucri.
  • Translation, Literally: "Act now, the chance on profit is short." ; more commonly known as: "Strike while the iron is hot"

• Acquiris quodcumque rapis
  • Lit.: "You acquire what you reap (or take by force)", often mistranslated as: "you reap what you sow"

• Acquirit qui tuetur
  • Translation, Literally: "He who preserves something, will have something"; more commonly known as: "Sparing is the first gaining"

• Acta est fabula
  • (Caesar Augustus's last words) Translation: "So ends the story." or "The story has been completed." (perhaps with the meaning of "What has happened was a story/fable.")

• Acta Non Verba
  • Translations: "Deeds, not words" - motto of the United States Merchant Marine Academy, at Kings Point, New York, USA.

• Actum est de republica
  • Translation: "It is all over with the state/republic"

• Ad astra per aspera
  • Translation: "To the stars through adversity" - motto of Kansas (more frequently as "per ardua ad astra", which is the motto of the Royal Air Force)

• Ad augusta per angusta
  • Translation: "To high places by narrow roads."

• Adeo in teneris consuescere multum est
  • Translation, Literally: "It is very important to be well trained in your youth"; more commonly known as: "Who learns young, forgets not when he is old."

• Adaequatio rei et intellectus
  • Traslation: "The intellect (of the knower) must be adequate to the thing (known)", also meaning the thought must be based on the thing. From St. Thomas Aquinas

• Adhuc tua messis in herba est
  • Translation, Literally: "Your crops are still in grass", equivalent to: "There is still a lot to be done"

• Ad impossibilia nemo tenetur
  • Translation: "No one is obliged to do the impossible." (Literally, "No one is held to impossible [things].")

• Ad maiorem Dei gloriam
  • Translation: "For the greater glory of God." Motto of the Jesuits / St. Ignatius of Loyola

• Adde parvum parvo magnus acervus erit.
  • Translation: "Add little to little and there will be a big pile" — Ovid.

• Adsum, qui feci
  • Translation: "Here I am who did it"

• Aegroto dum anima est, spes est.
  • Translation: "As long as a sick person is conscious, there is still hope." Commonly "While there's life there's hope."

• Aevo rarissima nostro simplicitas
  • Translation: "These days (lit.: in our days) simplicity is very rare"

• Age quod agis
  • Translation: "Do what you do", in the sense of "Do well what you do", "Do well in whatever you do" or "Be serious in what you do"

• Age si quid agis
  • Translation: "Do when you do something", "If you do something, do it well" see also "Age quod agis"

• Alea iacta est.
  • Translation: "The die is cast!" (said by Julius Caesar when he crossed the Rubicon, contrary to law.)
  • Apparently said in Greek, not in Latin as is commonly thought, according to Tom Holland's Rubicon: The Last Years of the Roman Republic.

• Aliam vitam, alio mores
  • Translation: "Another life, other values", more commonly known as: "Other times, other manners"

• Aliis si licet, tibi non licet
  • Translation: "If others are allowed to, that does not mean you are"

• Aliquando et insanire jucundum est
  • Translation: "It is fun to do something foolish every now and then"

• Alius et idem
  • Translation: "Something else, yet still the same"

• Alta alatis patent
  • Translation: "The sky is open to those who have wings"

• Alter ego est amicus
  • Translation: "A friend is another me", originally in Greek by either Zeno or Plato, see also 'Alter ipse amicus'

• Alter ipse amicus
  • Translation: "A friend is another self.", see also 'Alter ego est amicus'

• Alterius non sit, qui potest esse sui
  • Translation: "Don't depend on someone else if you can be your own master"

• Altus Quinque
  • Translation: "High Five."

• Ama nesciri
  • Translation: "Love the obscurity" in the sense of "Do not seek fame"

• Amare et sapere vix deo conceditur
  • Translation: "Even a god can barely love and still have all his wits about him"

• Amat Victoria Curam
  • Translation: "Victory loves preparation"

• Amici, diem perdidi.
  • Translation: "Friends, I lost a day.", spoken by Titus in the context that he has done no good deed during that day. Source: Suetonius’ Life of Titus 8.1

• Amicus certus in re incerta cernitur.
  • Translation: "A true friend is discerned during an uncertain matter" (Cicero)

• Amicus optima vitae possessio.
  • Translation: "A friend is the greatest treasure in life"

• Amor patriae nostra lex.
  • Translation: "Love of the fatherland is our law." Motto of the Polish Winged Hussars.

• Amor vincit omnia.
  • Translation: "Love conquers all". Often quoted in this form, but originally Omnia vincit amor (same translation) ((Virgil, Eclogues 10:69).

• Amore, more, ore, re
  • Translation: (with) "love, behaviour, words, actions" from "Verus amicus amore more ore re cognoscitur" Virgilius (Latin for : True friend becomes known in the love, the disposition, the speeches, the deeds.)

• Amor mundum fecit
  • Translation: "Love created the earth."

• Amor omnibus idem
  • Translation: "Love is equal to all"

• Amor patitur moras
  • Translation: "Love is patient"

• Amor tussisque non celatur
  • Translation: "Love, and a cough, cannot be concealed"

• A mundo condito
  • Translation: "From the creation of the world"

• Anguis in herba (latet)
  • Translation: "A snake (is hidden) in the grass." There is something malevolent hidden. (Virgil)

• Animo deliberato
  • Translation: "Deliberately"

• Animus imperat
  • Translation: "The mind rules"

• An nescis, mi fili, quantilla prudentia mundus regatur? (alternatively: regatur orbis)
  • Translation: "Don't you know, my son, with how little wisdom the world is governed?
  • Axel Oxenstierna (1583 – 1654), 1648 letter to son, who was involved in negotiating the Peace of Westphalia^[1]
  • Sometimes attributed to Cardinal Richelieu. Variant form due to John Selden

• Aquila non capit muscas.
  • Translation: "The eagle does not hunt flies."

• Aqua et igne interdictus
  • Translation: "To be denied water and fire" in the sense of "banished"

• Arma potentius aequum
  • Translation: "Justice is more powerful than weapons"
• Ars Amandi
  • Translation: The Art of Love.

• Ars celare artem
  • Translation: "The greatest art is to hide art"

• Ars est celare artem
  • Translation: "Art is to conceal art" or "The art is in concealing the art"

• Ars gratia artis
  • Translation: "Art for art's sake"
  • Motto of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.

• Ars longa, vita brevis.
  • Translation: "Art is long, life is short." The Latin translation by Horace of a phrase from Hippocrates, often used out of context. The art referred to in the original aphorism was the craft of medicine, which took a lifetime to acquire. Has been used recently to mean a person's artistic creations will long outlive them.

• Atqui, e lotio est.
  • Translation: Yet it comes from urine.
  • Emperor Vespasian to his son Titus, when the latter, complaining about the former's urine tax, acknowledged a coin collected had no odor.
  • Suetonius Tranquillus, Gaius (9 December 2003) [121 CE]. "Divus Vespasianus". University of Chicago. pp. section 23.3, page 317. Retrieved on 2006-09-09.
  • English translation: "The Life of Vespasian". University of Chicago. 9 December 2003. Retrieved on 2006-09-09.

• At spes non fracta
  • Translation: "But hope has not been broken yet"

• Audaces fortuna iuvat
  • Translation: "Fortune favors the brave."(Virgil, Aeneid 10,284)

• Audentes fortuna juvat
  • Translation: "Fortune favors the bold." (Motto of the 366th Fighter Wing at Mountain Home AFB, ID)

• Audere est facere
  • Translation: "To dare is to do." (Motto of Tottenham Hotspur Football Club)

• Audi, vide, tace, si tu vis vivere (in pace).
  • Translation: "Hear, see, be silent, if you wish to live (in peace)." Roman proverb, according to this.

• Audiatur et altera pars.
  • Translation: "The other part should be heard as well."

• Auri sacra fames.
  • Translation: "The accursed hunger for gold." - Seneca

• Aurum est potestas.
  • Translation: "Gold is power." (Motto of the Fowl Family)

• Aut agere aut mori
  • Translation: "Either act or die"

• Aut amat aut odit mulier, nil est tertium
  • Translation: "A woman either loves or hates, she does not know a third alternative"

• Aut bibat aut abeat
  • Translation: "Let him either drink or leave"

• Aut disce aut discede
  • Translation: "Either learn or leave."

• Aut dosce, aut disce, aut discede
  • Translation: "Either teach, or learn, or leave." Inscription in St. Paul's School according to the Diaries of Samuel Pepys.

• Aut nunc, aut numquam
  • Translation:"Now or never"

• Aut omnia, aut nihil
  • Translation: "All or none"

• Aut pati, aut mori
  • Translation: "Either tolerate or die"

• Aut viam inveniam aut faciam.
  • Translation: "I will either find a way or I will make one."

• Aut vincere, aut mori
  • Translation: "Either conquer or die"

• Avarus nisi cum moritur, nil recte facit
  • Translation: "The only good thing a miser does, is dying"

• Ave Caesar! Morituri te salutant!
  • Translation: "Hail Caesar! Those who are about to die salute you!" - Said by gladiators before they fought during the reign of Claudius I (10 BC- AD 54). Often cited with "salutamus" ("we . . . salute") in place of "salutant.", cited by Suetonius as "Ave Imperator!..."

• Avaritia facit bardos
  • Translation: "Greed makes you stupid."

B

• Beati hispani, quibus vivere bibere est
  • Translation: "Happy [are] the Spaniards, for whom to live is to drink" - A reference to the Latin accent of the Spanish, in which "v" was pronounced as "b".

• Beati pauperes spiritu
  • Translation: "Blessed are the poor in spirit" (Vulgate, Matthew 5:3)

• Beatus, qui prodest, quibus potest.
  • Translation: "He is lucky who helps everyone he can." or, very differently, "He is lucky the one who gets an advantage from those on which he has some power." (???)

• Bella gerant alii, tu felix Austria nube.
  • Translation: "Others may lead wars, you, happy Austria, marry." Referring to Austria's cunning policy in early modern times to marry into all important royal houses.

• Bellum se ipsum alet
  • Translation: "War will feed on itself"

• Bene diagnoscitur, bene curatur.
  • Translation: "Something that is well diagnosed can be cured well."

• Bene qui latuit bene vixit
  • Translation: "He lives well who lives unnoticed"
  • Ovid, Tristia, III.iv.25

• Bis dat, qui cito dat.
  • Translation: "He gives twice who gives promptly." (Publilius Syrus)
  • quoted in E. Cobham Brewer, Dictionary of Phrase and Fable (1898)

• Bis repetita non placent
  • Translation: "Repetitions are not well received." (Horace, Ars Poetica 365)

• Bona diagnosis, bona curatio.
  • Translation: "Good diagnosis, good cure."

• Bona valetudo melior est quam maximae divitiae.
  • Translation: "Good health is worth more than the greatest wealth."

• Boni pastoris est tondere pecus, non deglubere.
  • Translation: "A good shepherd shears his sheep, he doesn't flay them" (Tiberius to his regional commanders) i.e. don't tax the populace excessively

C

• Caedite eos. Novit enim Dominus qui sunt eius.
  • Translation: "Kill them all. The Lord will know His own."
  • Variation: "Kill them all. Let God sort them out."
  • Supposed statement by Abbot Arnold Amaury before the massacre of Béziers during the Albigensian Crusade, recorded 30 years later, according to Caesar of Heisterbach.
  • Cited in The Perfect Heresy by Stephen O'Shea

• Caesar si viveret, ad remum dareris
  • Translation: "If Caesar were alive, you'd be chained to an oar."

• Carpe diem
  • Translation: "Seize the day." By Horace, Odes I,11,8, to Leuconoe: carpe diem, quam minimum credula postero ("take hold of the day, believing as little as possible in the next"). The verb "carpere" has the literal meaning "to pick, pluck," particularly in reference to the picking of fruits and flowers, and was used figuratively by the Roman poets to mean "to enjoy, use, make use of."

• Carthago delenda est
  • Translation: "Carthage must be destroyed." Actually, ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam ("Apart from that, I conclude that Carthage must be destroyed") Cato the Elder used to end every speech of his to the Senate, on any subject whatsoever, with this phrase. Mentioned to indicate that someone habitually harps on one subject.

• Cave ab homine unius libri
  • Translation: "Beware the man of one book."

• Cave canem
  • Translation: "Beware the dog."

• Caveat emptor.
  • Translation: "Let the buyer beware."

• Cedo nulli
  • Translation: "I yield to no one."

• Ceteris paribus
  • Translation: "Other things being equal."

• Cibi condimentum est fames
  • Translation: "Hunger is a spice for any meal."

• Circumornatae ut similitudo templi
  • Translation: "To be as the polished cornerstones of the temple."

• Citius Altius Fortius
  • Translation: "Faster, Higher, Stronger" (Olympic Games motto)

• Civis Romanus sum.
  • Translation: "I am a Roman" (Cicero)

• Clara pacta, boni amici.
  • Translation: "Clear agreements, good friends."

• Claude os, aperi oculos!
  • Translation: "Shut your mouth, open your eyes."

• Cogito ergo sum
  • Translation: "I think, therefore I am." Argument used by René Descartes as proof of his own existence. Descartes actually meant it in the sense of "I am thinking, therefore I am."

• Concordia civium murus urbium.
  • Translation: "Harmony of citizens is the wall of cities."

• Concordia salus.
  • Translation: "Well-being through harmony."

• Confíteor Deo omnipoténti, beátæ Maríæ semper Vírgini, beáto Michaéli Archángelo, sanctis Apóstolis, ómnibus Sanctis.
  • Translation: "I confess to God Almighty, and to the Holy Eternal Virgin Maria, to the Holy Apostles and to Almighty Christ./ "I confess to God Almighty, to Saint Mary always Virgin, to Saint Michael the Archangel, to the Holy Apostles, to all Saints."
  • part of the Confiteor, Roman Catholic confession, used in the hunchback of Notre Dame song Hellfire

• Consilio et Animis
  • Translation: "By wisdom and courage"
  • Motto of the Virginia Military Institute

• Consuetudinis magna vis est
  • Translation: "The power of habit is great."
  • Cicero, Tusculanae Quaestiones, II.37

• Consuetudo altera natura est
  • Translation: "Habit is second nature."

• Contra vim mortis non est medicamen in hortis
  • Translation: "There's no herb against the power of death."

• Contraria contrariis curantur
  • Translation: "Opposites are cured by their opposites."

• Corruptissima re publica plurimae leges
  • Translation: "The greater the degeneration of the republic, the more of its laws" (Tacitus)

• Credo quia absurdum
  • Translation: "I believe it because it is absurd." Attributed to Tertullian; see fideism.

• Crucis in Signo Vinces
  • Translation: Conquer in the Sign of the Cross motto of Cardinal Dougherty High School in Philadelphia, PA

• Crudelius est quam mori semper timere mortem.
  • Translation: "It is crueller to be always afraid of dying than to die. (Seneca)

• Cuius regio, eius religio
  • Translation: "He who rules, his religion": the privilege of a ruler to choose the religion of his subjects, established at the Peace of Augsburg in 1555.

• Cuiusvis hominis est errare
  • Translation: "Every human can make a mistake." (Cicero)

• Cuiusvis hominis est errare, nullius nisi insipientis in errore perseverare. — Marcus Tullius Cicero, Philippica XII, ii, 5
  • English Translation: "Any man can make a mistake; only a fool keeps making the same one."
  • English Equivalent Proverb: "Fool me once and shame on you, fool me twice and shame on me."

• Cuivis dolori remedium est patientia.
  • Translation: "Patience is the cure for all suffering."

• Cum grano salis.
  • Translation: "With a grain of salt." Take something not literally, but with due consideration. (Pliny the Elder)

• Cum recte vivis, ne cures verba malorum
  • Translation: "If you live properly, don't worry about what the evil ones say" (Cato the younger)

• Cura te ipsum
  • Translation: "Cure thyself." An exhortation to medical doctors or experts in general.

• Cura Omnia Potest
  • Translation: "Determination is omnipotent."

• Curae pii Diis sunt
  • Translation: "The pious are [in] the care of the gods."

• currant verba licet, manus est velocior illis; nondum lingua suum, dextra peregit opus.
  • Translation: "Although the words run speedily, the hand is swifter than they; the tongue has not yet, the hand has already, completed its work."
  • From Notarius, by Cicero

D

• Damnant quod non intellegunt.
  • Translation: "They condemn what they do not understand." often quoted "People fear what they do not understand."

• De gustibus non est disputandum.
  • Translation: "In matters of taste there is no dispute."
  • Commonly rendered as "There's no accounting for taste."
  • Alternative form:
• De gustibus et coloribus non est disputandum.
  • Translation: “There’s no arguing about tastes and colors.”

• De minimis non curat praetor. (or rex or lex)
  • Translation: "The authority" (or "king", or "law") "does not care about trivial things."

• De mortuis nihil nisi bonum.
  • Translation: "Of the dead, nothing but good." i.e., "Say only good things about the dead." Probably a translation from a Greek sentence by Chilon

• Deliriant isti Romani.
  • Translation: "They are mad, those Romans!"; — René Goscinny, Asterix and Obelix comic
  • Probably a reprise of an italian game of words "S.P.Q.R. - Sono Pazzi Questi Romani!" ("They are mad, those Romans")

• Deo Vindice.
  • Translation: "[With] God as [our] protector" — motto of the Confederate States of America.

• Deo volente
  • Translation: "God willing"

• Deorum iniuriae Diis curae.
  • Translation: "Offences to the gods are the concern of the gods."

• Deserta faciunt et pacem appellant.
  • Translation: "They create a desolation and they call it peace." - Tacitus

• Desinit in piscem mulier formosa superne.
  • Translation: "The woman, beautiful above, ends in a fish tail." - Horace, Ars poetica

• Deus ex machina.
  • Translation: "God out of a machine."

• Deus [lo] vult!
  • Translation: "God wills it!," slogan of the Crusades.

• Dic, hospes, Spartae nos te hic vidisse iacentes, dum sanctis patriae legibus obsequimur.
  • Translation: "Traveller, tell in Sparta that you saw us here where we rest, abiding by the sacred laws of the homeland." (Simonides of Ceos, translated by Cicero)

• Dictum sapienti sat est.
  • "The said is enough for the wise" — understandable for a wise one without the need for explanations. Commonly "A word to the wise is sufficient." (Plautus), also as: sat sapienti and sapienti sat.

• Diem perdidi.
  • Translation: "I lost the day" (Emperor Titus, passed down in Suetonius's biography (8))

• Difficile est saturam non scribere
  • Translation: "It is hard not to write satire." (Juvenal)

• Dis volentibus (diis volentibus)
  • Translation: Gods willing, if the gods are willing

• Disce ut semper victurus, vive ut cras moriturus
  • Translation: "Learn as if you will live forever, live as if you will die tomorrow."

• Divide et impera.
  • Translation: "Divide and govern." Attributed to Julius Caesar.

• Do ut des
  • Translation: I give, that you may give

• Docendo discimus.
  • Translation: "We learn by teaching" (Seneca)

• Dominus Illuminatio Mea.
  • Translation: "The Lord is my light," motto of Oxford University; Psalm 27.

• Donec eris felix multos numerabis amicos. / Tempora si fuerint nubila solus eris.
  • Translation: "As long as you are happy, you will have many friends. / If times are becoming moggy you will be alone." (Ovid, Tristia I,9,5-6)

• Donec eris sospes, multos numerabis amicos. Tempora si fuerint nubila, solus eris.
  • Translation: "As long as you are wealthy, you will have many friends. When the tough times come, you will be left alone."

• Dosis facit venenum.
  • Translation: "It is the dose that makes the poison."

• Ductus Exemplo
  • Translation: "Lead by Example."

• Dulce enim etiam nomen est pacis.
  • Translation: "The name 'peace' is sweet itself."

• Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori.
  • Translation: "It is sweet and honorable to die for the fatherland." By Horace, Odes III, 2, 13, frequently quoted on war memorials, and notably in the poem Dulce Et Decorum Est by Wilfred Owen, who calls it "the old lie".

• Dum spiro, spero.
  • Translation: "As long as I breathe, I hope." Translated as "While I breathe, I hope" the motto of the State of South Carolina [[1]]

• Dum vivimus, vivamus!
  • Translation: "While we live, let us live!"

• Dum vita est, spes est.
  • Translation: "While life is, hope is. / While there is life, there is hope."

• Dum vixi tacui, mortua dulce cano.
  • Translation: "Living, I was mute, dead, I sweetly sing." (Found written on some musical instruments - especially keyboard ones. Refers to the tree the wood of which was used to make the instrument.)

• Duo cum faciunt idem, non est idem.
  • Translation: "When two do the same, it isn't the same." (Terence)

• Duobus litigantibus, tertius gaudet.
  • Translation: "While two men argue, the third one rejoices."

• Dura lex, sed lex.
  • Translation: "The law is harsh, but it is the law."

• Dura necessitas.
  • Translation: "Necessity is harsh."

E

• E fructu arbor cognoscitur.
  • Translation: "The tree can be recognized by its fruits."
  • St. Ignatius of Loyola, paraphrasing Jesus Christ

• E mare libertas
  • Translation: "From the sea, freedom"
  • The motto of the self-proclaimed Principality of Sealand.

• E pluribus unum
  • Translation: "Out of many, one"
  • The motto of the United States of America, see wikipedia e pluribus unum on the origin of the phrase.

• Ego sum qui sum.
  • Translation: "I am who I am."
  • Holy Bible; Exodus 3:14

• Errare humanum est. Perseverare diabolicum.
  • Translation: "To err is human. To repeat error is of the Devil." (Seneca)

• Esse est percipi
  • Translation: "To be is to be perceived", the doctrine of the Idealists, said by George Berkeley.

• Esse quam videri
  • Translation: "To be, rather than to seem" (state motto of North Carolina)

• Estote parati
  • Translation: "Be prepared" (Scout motto in Italy)

• "Et in perpetuum, frater, ave et vale."
  • Translation: "And into eternity, brother, hail and farewell.", written by Catullus, mourning the death of his brother

• Et ipsa scientia potestas est.
  • Translation: "And knowledge itself, is power" (Francis Bacon, Meditationes sacrae)

• Et nunc reges, intellegite erudimini qui iudicatis terram...
  • Translation: "And now kings, be warned, you who judge on earth..." (Vulgate, Psalms 2:10)

• Eventus stultorum magister.
  • Translation: "Events are the teacher of stupid persons." Stupid people learn by experience, bright people calculate what to do.

• Ex abundancia cordis, enim os loquitor.
  • Translation: "From the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks." Matthew 12:34.

• Ex astris, Scientia
  • Translation: "From the stars, Knowledge" (the motto of Starfleet Academy in Star Trek, a variation on the motto of the Apollo 13, Ex luna, Scientia, "from the moon, knowledge".)

• Ex fructu arbor agnoscitur.
  • Translation: "The tree is recognized by its fruit."
  • Jesus Christ, translated by St. Jerome (Matthew 12:33, Vulgate)

• Ex Imperiis, Veritas
  • Translation: "From Power, Truth" (the motto of the Scorpio Research Institute)

• Ex nihilo nihil fit
  • Translation: "Nothing comes from nothing" (you need to work for something; also the Conservation Law in philosophy and modern science) (Lucretius). This is also a famous Shakespeare quote in King Lear.

• Ex oriente lux
  • Translation: "Light from the east", i.e. 'From the East comes the light [i.e. culture]'

• Excusatio non petita, accusatio manifesta
  • Translation: "Unwanted excuse implies/means manifest accusation"

• Excretus ex fortuna
  • Translation: "Shit out of luck", Beggars' Guild motto in Terry Pratchett's Discworld series
• Exegi monumentum aere perennius
  • Translation: "I have built a monument more durable than bronze." (Horace, Odes III, 30, 1, of his poetry).

• Exitus acta probat
  • Translation: "The results justify the deed", or "The ends justify the means".
  • Ovid, Heroides (c. 10 BC). See also: Means and ends.

• Experto credite
  • Translation: "Believe me, for I have experienced" (Virgil)

• Ex Sciencia Tridens
  • Translation: "From knowledge, comes (sea) power." Motto of the United States Naval Academy

• Extra Ecclesiam nulla salus
  • Translation: "Outside the Church there is no salvation"

F

• "Frustra fit per plura quod fieri potest per pauciora"
  • Translation: "It's a bad choice, to make with a lot of facilities, what can be made with less" . Ockham's razor
• Faber est suae quisque fortunae
  • Translation: "Each is the maker (smith) of his own fortune." (Appius Claudius Caecus)

• Fabricando fit faber.
  • Translation: "Practice makes perfect."

• Facilis descensus Averno
  • Translation: "The descent to hell is easy."

• Fama crescit eundo
  • Translation: "Rumors grow through circulation."

• Felicitas est parvus canis calidus."
  • Translation: "Happiness is a warm puppy." from an early 1960's Peanuts comic strip by the late Charles Schultz

• Felix qui potuit rerum cognoscere
  • Translation: "Lucky [is the person] who could realize things" (variant of Virgil, Georgica 2, 490).

• Festina lente !
  • Translation: "Make haste slowly" (i.e. proceed quickly but with caution, a motto of Augustus Caesar).

• Fiat iustitia et pereat mundus
  • Translation: "Let justice be done, though the world perish" (Ferdinand I)

• Fiat iustitia ruat caelum
  • Translation: "Let justice be done though the heavens fall."

• Fiat lux
  • Translation: "Let there be light," motto of the University of California

• Fide, sed qui, vide.
  • Translation: "Trust but take care whom."

• Finis coronat opus.
  • Translation: "The end crowns the work."

• Flet victus, victor interiit.
  • Translation: "The conquered moans, the conqueror is undone."

• Floreat Etona!
  • Translation: "May Eton Flourish!" Motto of Eton College.

• Flores curat Deus.
  • Translation: "God takes care of the flowers."

• Fluctuat nec mergitur
  • Translation: "Shaken by the waves, but it will not sink" (inscription on Paris' coat of arms).

• Forsan et haec olim meminisse iuvabit
  • Translation: "Perhaps even this will one day be pleasant to look back on" from Virgil's Aeneid, possibly a translation from Aesop.

• Fortasse erit, fortasse non erit
  • Translation: "Maybe it will be, maybe it will not"

• Fortes fortuna iuvat
  • Translation: "Fortune favors the brave." (cf. Audaces fortuna iuvat.) (Terence)

• Fortis cadere, cedere non potest
  • Translation: "A brave man may fall, but he cannot yield."

• Fortiter in re, suaviter in modo
  • Translation: "Resolutely in deed, sweetly in manner"

• Fortuna est caeca
  • Translation: "Fortune is blind." (Cicero)

• Fortuna amicos parat, inopia amicos probat.
  • Translation: "Fortune is preparing friends, scarcity is in testing them."

G

• Gallia est omnis divisa in partes tres
  • Translation: "The whole of Gaul is divided into three parts." (First sentence of C. Julius Caesar in "Commentarii de Bello Gallico")

• Gaudeamus igitur iuvenes dum sumus
  • Translation: "Thus let us enjoy ourselves as long as we are young." (From an old German student's song. It is now regularely used in many different Universities, for example St-Andrews in Scotland)

• Gloria victis.
  • Translation: "Glory to the defeated."

• Gloriosum est iniurias oblivisci.
  • Translation: "It is glorious to forget injustice."

• Graeca fides, nulla fides
  • Translation: "No one trusts a Greek (Greek honesty is no honesty)".

• Graeca sunt, non leguntur
  • Translation: "They are Greek, and are not read". Similar to the expression "It's Greek to me"

• Graecia capta ferum victorem cepit, et artes intulit agresti Latio
  • Translation: "Captive Greece captured her ferocious victor, and brought the arts into the rustic Latium" (Horace's "Epistulae")

• Gutta cavat lapidem
  • Translation: "A drop hollows out the stone" (Ovid, Epistles)

• Gutta cavat lapidem non bis, sed saepe cadendo; sic homo fit sapiens non bis, sed saepe legendo.
  • Translation: "A drop hollows out the stone by falling not twice, but many times; so too is a person made wise by reading not two, but many books." (Giordano Bruno, Il Candelaio)

• "Gutta cavat lapidem; consumitur annulus usu"
  • Translation: A drop of water hollows out a stone; a ring is worn away by use. --Ovid

H

• Habent sua fata libelli.
  • Translation: "Books have their fate." (Terentianus Maurus)

• Habitus non facit monachum
  • Translation: "A habit does not make a monk"

• Hannibal ad portas!
  • Translations: "Hannibal before the gates!" Refers to the threat to Rome imposed by Hannibal's Italian campaign. Conveys a sense of greater distress than Hannibal ante portas, for ad suggests, unlike ante, a movement towards the gates. Cicero, Philippica I; Livius, Ab urbe condita XXIII It is used to refer to those who dither in times of great peril.

• Hannibal ante portas.
  • Translation: "Hannibal before the gates." See above.

• Hic Rhodus, hic salta.
  • Translation: "Here is Rhodos, jump here." Aesop (referring to someone who bragged about jumping a long distance "on Rhodos") in Greek: "?d?? ? ??d??, ?d?? ?a? t? p?d?µa"

• Hinc illae lacrimae.
  • Translation: "Therefore these tears."

• Historia est vitae magistra.
  • Translation: "History is the tutor of life."

• Hodie mihi, cras tibi.
  • Translation: "What's to me today, tomorrow to you."

• Hominem, memento te.
  • Translation: "[You are] a man, I remind you." Said by the slave holding the laurel leaves over the general's head in a Roman triumph. Its basic meaning was, "Don't presume, merely because you are dressed as an image of Mars and processing through the streets like the deity of a religious festival, that you really are a god."

• Homines quod volunt credunt.
  • Translation: "Men believe what they want to." (Julius Caesar)

• Homo homini lupus est.
  • Translation: "Man is a wolf to man." (Plautus)

• Homo proponit, sed Deus disponit
  • Translation: "Man proposes, God disposes." (Thomas à Kempis)

• Homo sui iuris.
  • Translation: "Man his own judge."

• Homo sum, humani nihil a me alienum puto.
  • Translation: "I am human, so nothing that is human is foreign to me." (Terence)

• Honores mutant mores.
  • Translation: "Honors change behavior"

• Hora incerta, mors certa
  • Translation: "Hour uncertain, death certain"

• Horum omnium fortissimi sunt Belgae
  • Translation: "Of all of those [the Gauls] the Belgians are the bravest" (Julius Caesar)

• Hypotheses non fingo.
  • Translation: "I feign no hypotheses" (I do not assert that any hypotheses are true). Newton, Principia

I

Note: I and J are the same letter in Latin.

• Iactura poucorum serva multos
  • Translation: "Offer some to save many"

• Iesus Nazarenus Rex Iudaeorum (INRI)
  • Translation: "Jesus from Nazareth, King of Jews"

• Igitur si vis pacem, para bellum.
  • Translation: "If you want peace prepare for war" (Vegetius, Epitoma rei militaris)
  • Generally paraphrased as: Si vis pacem, para bellum

• Ignorantia iuris nocet
  • Translation: "Being ignorant of law harms."

• Ignorantia legis non excusat
  • Translation: "Ignorance of the law is no excuse."

• Ignoti nulla cupido
  • Translation: "The unknown does not tempt."

• Imperare sibi maximum imperium est.
  • Translation: "To rule yourself is the ultimate power." (Seneca) the older or the younger as not sure about who of the Seneca's I quote

• In Fidem
  • Translation:"For confirmation, such as attestation" ( used in protocolls, juris diction)

• In Nuce
  • Translation: "In a nutshell"

• INRI -Iesus Nazarenus Rex Iudaeorum-
  • Translation:Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews

• In cauda venenum
  • Translation: "The poison is in the tail" (as in a scorpion) commonly said "Beware of which you cannot see.".

• In diem vivere
  • Translation: "To live for the day"

• In dubio pro reo
  • Translation: "When in doubt, in favour of the accused". (Corpus Juris Civilis)

• In hoc signo vinces
  • Translation: "By this sign you will conquer" (Constantine's vision before the Battle of Milvian Bridge).

• In magnis voluisse sat est
  • Translation: "In big things it's enough to just have the will."

• In medio stat virtus.
  • Translation: "Virtue stands in the middle." Virtue is in the moderate, not the extreme position.

• In necessariis unitas, in dubiis libertas, in omnibus caritas
  • Translation: "In necessary things unity, in doubtful things liberty, in all things charity" (often misattributed to St Augustine).

• In omnia paratus
  • Translation: "Ready for all things."

• In vino veritas.
  • Translation: "Truth is in wine" That is, "Wine will bring out truth."

• In vitium ducit culpae fuga, si caret arte.
  • Translation: "Fleeing from error leads into fault if skill is lacking." Horace, De Arte Poetica

• Infinitus est numerus stultorum
  • Translation: "Infinite is the number of fools" (Vulgate, Ecclesiastes 1:15).

• Inter arma enim silent leges (Musae).
  • Translation: "During wars laws" (or "arts") "are silent." Cicero, Oratio Pro Annio Milone (IV)

• Inter caecos regnat strabo
  • Translation: "Among blind people the squinting one rules." (Erasmus)

• Interdum dormitat bonus Homerus
  • Translation: "Sometimes even the good Homer slumbers" (i.e. even the best of us makes mistakes); originally quandoque bonus dormitat Homerus, Horace, Ars Poetica

• Ira furor brevis est.
  • Translation: "Anger is brief insanity" (Horace, epistles I, 2, 62).

• Is fecit, cui prodest.
  • Translation: "Done by the one who profits from it."

• Iura novat curia.
  • Translation: "The law is known to the court." This is the principle that it is the court's job to interpret the law, and the constitution.

• Iurare in verba magistri.
  • Translation: "Swear by the words of the teacher."

• Iustitia omni auro carior.
  • Translation: "Justice is more precious than all gold."

• Iustitia omnibus.
  • Translation: "Justice for all.", motto of the District of Columbia.

• In lumine tuo, videbimus lumen.
  • Translation: "In your light, we shall see light.", motto of Columbia University.

K

The letter "k" was not commonly used in Classical Latin.

L

"Latet enim veritas, sed nihil pretiosius veritate" Francisco Sanchez de las Brozas (Minerva I, 1, 40, 16).

• • Translation: " Truth is hidden, anything its most beautiful that the truth"
• Labor omnia vincit.
  • Translation: "Work conquers all things." Motto of the State of Oklahoma; Motto of Sydney Girls High School, Sydney, Australia; and Motto of Dannhauser Primary, Kwazulu Natal, Republic of South Africa, Motto of St. Xavier's Institution, Penang; Motto of Malanda State High School, Malanda, Queensland, Australia; Motto of St. Jago High School, Spanish Town, St. Catherine, Jamaica, and of the Unique High School, Dayrell's Road, Christ Church, Barbados.

• Laborare est orare.
  • Translation: "To work is to pray." A common school motto.

• Lex et honor.
  • Translation: "Law and honour." Motto of the Romanian police.

• Libertati viam facere.
  • Translation: "Making a road to freedom."

• Licet volare si in tergo aquilae volat.
  • Translation: "A man can fly if he wishes, if he rides on the back of an eagle."

• Lucus a non lucendo
  • Translation: "The word for grove is lucus because it is not light [non lucet] in a grove." Used as an example of absurd etymology.

• Luctor et emergo
  • Translation: "I struggle and arise." Motto of the Dutch province Zeeland.

• Lupus in fabula.
  • Translation: "A wolf in the story." Said about someone who has just appeared and it was talked about him.

• Lux et veritas.
  • Translation: "Light and truth." School motto of [Yale University],Indiana University.

• Lux sit.
  • Translation: "Let there be light." School motto of University of Washington.

M

• Macte animo! Generose puer sic itur ad astra!
  • Translation: "Be strong, young man! Through this way one gets to the stars." (Motto of the Brazilian Air Force Academy)

• Major e longinquo reverentia
  • Translation: "Viewed from a distance, everything is beautiful." Tacitus, annals 1,47

• Mala herba cito crescit
  • Translation: "Weeds grow fast."

• Mala malus mala mala dat
  • Translation: "A bad apple tree gives bad apples" ("Evil begets evil")

• Mali principii malus finis.
  • Translation: "The bad end of a bad beginning."
• Malum consilium quod mutari non potest.
  • Translation: "It is a bad plan that cannot be changed (A plan that cannot be changed is a bad one)."

• Malum quidem nullum esse sine aliquo bono.
  • Translation: "There is, to be sure, no evil without something good."

• Manus manum lavat
  • Translation: "One hand washes the other."

• Mater artium necessitas.
  • Translation: "Necessity is the mother of invention" (Apuleius)

• Maxima debetur puero reverentia
  • Translation: "One owes the greatest possible care for the child" (Juvenal)
• Mea Culpa
  • Translation: "My fault" /"I am the one to blame"

• Medicus curat, natura sanat
  • Translation: "The doctor cares [for his patient], nature heals [him]." or "Doctor cures, nature saves"

• Medio tutissimus ibis
  • Translation: "In the middle shall you walk the safest" i.e. the middle path is the safest one (Ovid)

• Melior morior bellator, quam ago profugus.
  • Translation: "Better to die fighting man, how to spend time fleeing", meaning "Better to die fighting, than live fleeing." often quoted as "Better to die on your feet, than to live on your knees."

• Memento audere semper.
  • Translation: "remember to be always daring", meaning that you should make an effort and do not mind that you make a mistake. (Gabriele D'annunzio)

• Memento mori.
  • Translation: "Remember you will die".
• Memento Vivere
  • Translation: "Remember to live."

• Mens sana in corpore sano.
  • Translation: "A sound mind in a sound body" (Juvenal)

• Montani Semper Liberi
  • Translation: "Mountaineers are Always Free" — Motto of the U.S. State of West Virginia

• Morituri te salutant
  • Translation: "Those who are about to die greet you." (traditional greeting of the gladiators prior to battle; passed on by Suetonius, Claudius 21). (Morituri te salutamus would express "We who are about to die greet you.")
  • See also: Ave Caesar! Morituri te salutant!

• Mors Certa, Vita Incerta
  • Translation: "Death is certain, life is not."

• Mortui vivos docent
  • Translation: "The dead teach the living."

• Mulier est hominis confusio.
  • Translation: "Woman is man's ruin."
  • "Part of a comic definition of woman" from the Altercatio Hadriani Augusti et Secundi.^[2] Famously quoted by Chauntecleer in Geoffrey Chaucer's Canterbury Tales.

• Mundus vult decipi, ergo decipiatur.
  • Translation: "The world desires to be deceived; therefore it is" (Attributed to Petronius)

• Munit haec et altera vincit.
  • Translation: "One defends and the other conquers" (motto of Nova Scotia.)

N

• Natura non facit saltum (saltus)

• • Translation: "Nature makes no leaps" i.e. the development of nature is gradual (Maximus Tyrius)

• Naturalia non sunt turpia
  • Translation: "Natural things are not shameful"

• Natura abhorret a vacuo.
  • Translation: "Nature abhors a vacuum."

• Natura in minima maxima.
  • Translation: "Nature is the greatest in the smallest things."

• Navigare necesse est, vivere non est necesse.
  • Translation: "To sail is necessary, to live is not necessary," Attributed by Plutarch to Gnaeus Pompeius who, during a severe storm, commanded sailors to bring food from Africa to Rome

• Ne Cede Malis.
  • Translation: "Do not yield to evil" or "Do not give way to evil."

• Ne Jupiter quidem omnibus placet.
  • Translation: "Not even Jupiter (supreme God) can please everyone."

• Ne nuntium necare
  • Translation: "Don't kill the messenger"

• Ne quid nimis
  • Translation: "Nothing too much", moderation in all thing (Terence)

• Ne sutor supra crepidam
  • Translation: "Shoemaker, not above the sandal", do not criticise things you know nothing of (attributed to Apelles (352-308 BC), the famous Greek painter. He had asked a cobbler to view a painting he was working on to help him (Apelles) paint the sandals correctly. The cobbler explained what was wrong with the sandals, but then began to criticize other aspects of the painting. Apelles stopped him with this famous line, meaning that, while the cobbler was certainly an expert at making shoes, he was not qualified to offer opinions as to anything else---particularly art.)

• Nec Hercules contra duos.
  • Translation: "Even Hercules [can't] against two"

• Nemo ante mortem beatus dicendus
  • Translation: "No one should be considered truly happy before his death."

• Nemo iudex in causa sua.
  • Translation: "No-one is a judge in his own case".

• Nemo me impune lacessit.
  • Translation: "No-one attacks me with impunity," the Scottish and Montresor mottos.

• Nemo saltat sobrius
  • Translation: "Nobody dances sober" (Cicero)

• Nemo sine vitio est.
  • Translation: "No one is without fault." (Seneca the Elder)

• Nemo solus satis sapit
  • Translation: "Nobody [alone] is clever enough".

• Neque ignorare [medicum] oportet quae sit aegri natura.
  • Translation: "Nor does it behoove [the doctor] to ignore the sick man's temperament." A. Cornelius Celsus, 'De Medicina', Prooemium.

• Nihil lacrima citius arescit.
  • Translation: "Nothing dries more quickly than a tear."

• Nihil Sine Deus.
  • Translation: "Nothing without God." used as a motto by the German Hohenzollern royal family-Sigmaringen dynasty. The *Nihil Sine Deo formula was the motto of the Kingdom of Romania as ruled by the Hohenzollern Sigmaringen (1878 - 1947).

• Nihil tam munitum quod non expugnari pecunia possit.
  • Translation: "Nothing is so fortified that it can't be conquered with money." (Cicero)

• Nil admirari
  • Translation: "To not admire anything" you shouldn't let yourself be taken away by anything (Horace)

• Nil desperandum
  • Translation: "Never give up", motto of Conway House (Marist College Canberra)

• Nil desperandum auspice deo.
  • Translation: "When God is on our side there is no cause for despair." or "Do not despair, have faith in God" or "Don’t despair, in God we trust". City of Sunderland (UK) motto since 1849 [2].

• Nil satis nisi optimum
  • Translation: "Nothing but the best is good enough." The motto of Everton football club.

• Nil sine magno labore vita dedit mortalibus
  • Translation: "life does not give mortals anything but hard labor" (Horace)

• Nil sine numine.
  • Translation: "Nothing without Providence," the motto of Colorado.

• Non bene pro toto libertas venditur auro.
  • Translation: "Freedom is not sold for all the gold in the world."

• Non ducor, duco.
  • Translation: "I am not lead, I lead." the motto of the city of São Paulo.

• Non est ad astra mollis e terris via.
  • Translation: "There is no smooth way from the earth to the stars." (Seneca Maior)

• Non plus ultra
  • Translation: "There is no more beyond this", the uttermost point that can be attained.

• Nolens Volens
  • Transaltion: With or without against ones will ( no choice)

• Nomen Nescio (N.N.)
  • Translation:" The Name is not known to me"

• Nomina Sunt Odiosa
  • Translation: Names are to be hated, hateful, No Names! (Cicero - 43 B.C.)

• Noli turbare circulos meos
  • Translation: "Don't move my circles" commonly attributed last words of Archimedes

• Nomen est omen.
  • Literally "Name is omen." Implies that the name is fitting for the object or person.

• Nomina stultorum scribuntur ubique locorum
  • Translation: "Fools have the habit of writing their names everywhere"

• Nomina sunt odiosa
  • Translation: "Names are odious" (Cicero, Pro Roscio Amerino)

• Non bis in idem.
  • Translation: "Not twice in the same (matter)." Legal principle forbidding Double jeopardy.

• Non cuivis homini contingit adire Corinthum.
  • Translation: "It is not every man's lot to go to Corinth" Corinth was at this time known for its many and lavish brothels

• Non fecit taliter omni nationi.
  • Translation: " He [God] has not done this for any other nation" Psalm 147, verse 20 (Virgin of Guadalupe [Mexico])

• Non fui, fui, non sum, non curo.
  • Translation: "I was not, I was, I am not, I don't care." (found on tombstones abbreviated NFFNSNC)

• Non habes iure provocare mihi.
  • Translation: "You don't have the right to provoke me."

• Non licet omnibus adire Corinthum
  • Translation: "Not everybody is granted [the privilege of] going to Corinth" (Horace, epistles I, 17, 36)

• Non multae sed multum.
  • Translation: "Not many, but much."

• Non nobis solum nati sumus
  • Translation: "We are not born for ourselves alone"

• Non olet
  • Translation: "It [money] doesn't smell" (according to Suetonius, Emperor Vespasian was challenged by his son Titus for taxing the public lavatories, the emperor held up a coin before his son and asked whether it smelled)

• Non omnia possumus omnes.
  • Translation: "All of us cannot do everything." (Virgil)

• Non quia difficilia sunt non audemus, sed quia non audemus, difficilia sunt.
  • Translation: "It is not because things are difficult that we do not dare, but because we do not dare, things are difficult." (Seneca, Letter to Lucilius, letter 104, section 26, line 5 )

• Non scholae, sed vitae discimus.
  • Translation: "We learn not for school but for life." (Seneca's original quotation is "Non vitae, sed scholae discimus.")

• Non ut edam vivo, sed ut vivam edo.
  • Translation: "I don't live to eat, but I eat to live."

• Non vestimentum virum ornat, sed vir vestimentum.
  • Translation: "Not the raiment graces the man, but the man the raiment."

• Non vini vi no, sed vi no aquae.
  • Translation: "I swim not thanks to the wine, but thanks to the water."

• Non semper erit aestas.
  • Translation: "It will not always be summer." (be prepared for hard times)

• Nondum amabam, et amare amabam.
  • Translation: "I did not love, even if I yearned to love."

• Nosce te ipsum!
  • Translation: "Know thyself!" (Cicero, from the Greek gnothi seauton, on the Temple of Apollo at Delphi). See also: Temet nosce

• Novus Ordo Seclorum.
  • Translation: "A new order for the ages."

• Nulla dies sine linea.
  • Translation: "No day without a line."

• Nulla est medicina sine lingua Latina.
  • Translation: "Medicine is nothing without Latin."

• Nulla poena sine lege
  • Translation: "No punishment without a law."

• Nulla regula sine exceptione.
  • Translation: "No rule without exception."

• Nulla res tam necessaria est quam medicina.
  • Translation: "Nothing is so necessary as medicine."

• Nulli Secundus.
  • Translation: "Second to none."

• Nunc aut numquam
  • Translation: "Now or never"

• Nunc est bibendum
  • Translation: "Now it's time to drink" (Horace, Odes I, 37, 1)

• Nihil verum nisil mors
  • Translation:"nothing is true but death"

O

• O fortunatos nimium sua si bona norint, agricolas
  • Translation: "Oh fortunate farmers [i.e., non-mariners], if only they would see their luck" (Virgil, Georgica 2, 458ff.)

• O sancta simplicitas!
  • Translation: "O sacred simplicity" (attributed to Jan Hus as he was burned at the stake)

• O tempora, o mores
  • Translation: Oh, the times! Oh, the morals! (Spoken by Cicero during his denunciation of the Conspiracy of Catilina in 63 BC)

• Obscuris vera involvens
  • Translation: "Obscurity envelops truth" (Virgil).

• Occasio aegre offertur, facile amittitur.
  • Translation: "Opportunity is offered with difficulty, lost with ease." (Publius Syrus)

• Occasio facit furem.
  • Translation: "Opportunity makes a thief."

• Oculi plus vident quam oculus.
  • Translation: "Several eyes see more than only one."

• Oderint dum metuant
  • "Let them hate, so long as they fear" — attributed by Seneca to the playwright Lucius Accius, and said to be a favourite saying of Caligula.

• Omne ignotum pro magnifico.
  • Translation: "Everything unknown passes for miraculous."

• Omne tulit punctum, qui miscuit utile dulci
  • Translation: "He has gained every point who has mixed the useful and the agreeable." (Horace)

• Omne vivum ex ovo
  • Translation: "Everything living comes from the egg"

• Omnes homines sibi sanitatem cupiunt, saepe autem omnia, quae valetudini contraria sunt, faciunt.
  • Translation: "All men wish to be healthy, but often they do everything that's disadvantageous to their health."

• Omnes hore vulnerant, Ultima Hore Necat
  • Translation: "Every passing hour wounds; the last hour kills" (Unknown Posted under medieval sundials to remind people to enjoy life)

• Omnes viae Romam ducunt
  • Translation: "All roads lead to Rome."

• Omnia mea mecum porto.
  • Translation: "All that's mine I carry with me."

• Omnia munda mundis.
  • Translation: "Everything is pure for the one who is pure"

• Omnia vincit amor
  • Translation: "Love conquers all" More fully, Omnia vincit amor, et nos cedamus amori: "Love conquers all, let us too yield to love" (Virgil, Eclogues 10:69).

• Omnium artium medicina nobilissima est.
  • Translation: "Medicine is the noblest of all arts."

• Optimum medicamentum quies est.
  • Translation: "Peace is the best medicine."

• Ora et labora.
  • Translation: "Pray and work." (Benedictine motto)

• Orbis non sufficit.
  • Translation: "The world is not enough" - James Bond's family motto.

P

• Pacem in Terris
  • Translation: "Peace on Earth"

• Pacta sunt servanda
  • Translation: "Agreements must be honoured."

• Parturiunt montes, nascetur ridiculus mus
  • Translation: "The mountains are in labour, and a ridiculous mouse shall be born" — i.e. "much ado about nothing"; from Horace, Ars Poetica.
  • Often quoted in the present tense (parturiunt), but likely to have been in the future tense (parturient) in the original (see Horace page).

• Parva scintilla saepe magnam flamam excitat.
  • Translation: "A small spark often initiates a large flame."

• Parvus numero - magnus merito.
  • Translation: "Small in number - Great in merit."; motto of the Royal Netherlands Air Force.

• Pax (Romain language, not pure latin)
  • Translation: "Peace" (in common, not specified).

• Pax melior est quam iustissimum bellum.
  • Translation: "Peace is better than the most just war."

• Pecunia non olet.
  • Translation: "Money does not smell." (Remark by Roman emperor Vespasian on the plan to tax public urinals.)

• Pede poena claudo.
  • Translation: "Punishment comes limping." Retribution comes slowly, but surely.

• Peior est bello timor ipse belli.
  • Translation: "Worse is the fear of war than war itself."

• Per ardua ad astra.
  • Translation: "Through adversity to the stars" also "Through the heights or difficult places, to the stars or heaven or immortality" (motto of the Royal Air Force). The Latin words offer shades of meaning so that each translation colours the others.

• Per ardua ad alta.
  • Translation: "Through hard work to the heights". Motto of Birmingham University.

• Per aspera ad astra
  • Translation: "Through hardships to the stars" (motto of NASA) from Seneca

• Per fas et nefas
  • Translation: "With right and wrong" by any means necessary, cited by William James in Pragmatism second paragraph

• Per scientiam ad salutem aegroti.
  • Translation: "To heal the sick through knowledge."

• Perge modo - (Vergil, Aeneid 1.389)
  • Translation: "Only go on." - the equivalent of the colloquial 'suck it up'

• Periculum in mora
  • Translation: "[There's] danger in delay" (Livy)

• Philosophum non facit barba.
  • Translation: "A beard doesn't make a philosopher." (Plutarch)

• Pietate et doctrina tuta libertas.
  • Translation: "Religion and learning, the bulwark of liberty" (motto of Dickinson College)

• Piscem natare doces
  • Translation: "You teach a fish to swim."

• Piscis primum a capite foetet
  • Translation: "Fish stinks from the head first"

• Plaudite, amici, comedia finita est.
  • Translation: Applaud, my friends, the comedy is over. (Said by Ludwig van Beethoven on his deathbed.)

• Plenus venter non studet libenter.
  • Translation: "A full belly doesn't like studying."

• Plures crapula quam gladius perdidit.
  • Translation: "Drunkenness takes more lives than the sword."

• Plus ultra.(motto of Spain)
  • Translation: "Further beyond." (With reference to nec plus ultra, "no further beyond", referring to Finisterre as the limit of exploration. It is a translation of King Charles I of Spain's French motto plus oultre; the adjective is ulterior).

• Poeta nascitur, non fit.
  • Translation: A poet is born, not made.

• Post cenam non stare sed mille passus meare.
  • Translation: "Do not rest after dinner, but walk a mile."

• Post hoc, ergo propter hoc.
  • Translation: "'After this, therefore because of this.'"
  • Meaning: Encapsulates the logical fallacy that, because one event follows another, the first must have caused the second.

• Post mortem nihil est, ipsaque mors nihil.
  • Translation: "' After death, nothing, and death itself is nothing'."

• Post Tenebras Lux
  • Translation: "After the darkness the light" (motto of the canton Geneva, Switzerland)

• Potius sero quam numquam
  • Translation: "Better late then never" (Livy)

• Praemonitus, praemunitus
  • Translation: "Forewarned (is) forearmed"

• Praesente medico nihil nocet.
  • Translation: "In the presence of a doctor nothing can harm."

• Praevenire melius est quam praeveniri.
  • Translation: "It is better to precede than to be preceded."

• Primum ego, tum ego, deinde ego.
  • Translation: "First I, then I, thereafter I." (The author of this confident statement, a Roman emperor, will be added soon!)

• Primum non nocere
  • Translation: "First, do no harm" (often falsely attributed to the Hippocratic Oath).

• Principiis obsta
  • Translation: "Resist the beginnings" (i.e. undesirable trends should be nipped in the bud).

• Pro aris et focis
  • Translation: "For altar and hearth" i.e. for our homes (Cicero)

• Pro Deo et patria
  • Translation: "For God and Country" (Unknown)

• Progressio et Concordia
  • Translation: Progression and High Flying (Michael H)

• Proximus sum egomet mihi
  • Translation: "I am closest to myself" (Terence)

• Prudens quaestio dimidium scientiae
  • Translation: "to know what to ask is already to know half", cited by Will Durant, "The Story of Philosophy", ch.II

• Pulvis et umbra sumus
  • Translation: "We are dust and shadow" (Horace, Carmina, Book IV, 7, 16).

Q

• Quae communiter possidentur communiter negliguntur
  • Translation: "(Things) which are possessed in community are neglected in community."

• Quaecumque sunt vera
  • Translation: "Whatsoever things are true." Northwestern University's motto.

• Qualis rex, talis grex
  • Translation: "Like king, like people"

• Quam bene vivas refert, non quam diu.
  • Translation: "How well you live makes a difference, not how long." (Seneca)

• Quantum Satis
  • Translation: "As much as needed, enough."

• Quem di diligunt, adulescens moritur
  • Translation: "Whom the gods love dies young" (Plautus, Bacchides, IV, 7, 18). In the comic play, a sarcastic servant says this to his aging master. The rest of the sentence reads: dum valet, sentit, sapit, "while he is full of health, perception and judgement."

• Quem dii odere, paedagogum fecere (also Quem dii oderunt, paedagogum fecerunt)
  • Translation: "Whom the gods hated, they made them pedagogues"

• Qui audet vincit.
  • Translation: "Who dares wins"

• Qui dormit non peccat.
  • Translation: "He who sleeps does not sin"

• Qui habet aures audiendi audiat
  • Translation: "Those who have ears to hear, hear!" (Vulgate, Matthew 11:15)

• Qui multum habet, plus cupit.
  • Translation: "He who has much desires more." (Seneca)

• Qui non proficit, deficit.
  • Translation: "He who does not go forward, loses ground." or "He who does not accomplish anything, is a failure/has shortcomings."

• Qui pro innocente dicit, satis est eloquens.
  • Translation: "He who speaks for the innocent is eloquent enough." (Publius Syrus)

• Qui rogat, non errat.
  • Translation: "(One) who asks, doesn't err."

• Qui scribit, bis legit.
  • Translation: "Who writes, reads twice."

• Qui tacet consentire videtur, ubi loqui debuit ac potuit.
  • Translation: "Who is silent, when he ought to and might have spoken, is seen to agree."

• Qui transtulit sustinet.
  • Translation: "He who transplanted still sustains." (motto of Connecticut referring to the transplantation of settlers from England to the New World.)

• Qui vult dare parva non debet magna rogare.
  • Translation: "He who wishes to give little shouldn't ask for much."

• Quia suam uxorem etiam suspiciore vacare vellet.
  • Translation: "Caesar's wife may not be suspected" (Plutarch, Caesar 10)
    • Caesar's second wife Pompeia was attending a women-only celebration at the home of the Vestal Virgins. Clodius attended this event in disguise, and was accused of having an affair with Pompeia. In the following trial, Caesar claimed that though she had done no wrong, he still had to divorce her.

• Quid est veritas?
  • Translation: "What is truth?" Pontius Pilate to Jesus.

• Quid me nutrit, me destruit.
  • Translation: "That which nourishes me, also destroys me."

• Quid pro quo
  • Translation: "Do for me and I will do for you"

• Quid Saulus inter prophetas?
  • Translation: "What is Saul doing among the prophets?" (a fifth wheel)

• Quidquid agis, prudenter agas, et respice finem!
  • Translation: "Whatever you do, may you do it prudently, and look to the end!"

• Quidquid discis, tibi discis
  • Translation: "Whatever you learn, you learn it for yourself."

• Quieta non movere
  • Translation: "Don't move settled things" (i.e. "Don't rock the boat", "Let sleeping dogs lie.")

• Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?
  • Translation: "Who will watch the watchers themselves?" or "Who will guard the guardians themselves?" (Juvenal)

• Quo vadis?" - Acts of Peter
  • Translation: Where are you going?

• Quod erat demonstrandum.
  • Translation: QED "Which was to be demonstrated." Commonly translated as: "That has been demonstrated."

• Quod licet Iovi, non licet bovi.
  • Translation: "All that is allowed to Jupiter is not necessarily allowed to an ox."

• Quod me nutrit me destruit.
  • Translation: "What nourishes me, destroys me."

• Quod medicina aliis, aliis est acre venenum.
  • Translation: "What is medicine to some, is bitter poison to others."

• Quod natura non dat, Salmantica non praestat
  • Translation: Literally,"What Nature does not give, Salamanca won't provide".
    • Explanation: It means that if you are not naturally intelligent, Salamanca (a famous university, i.e. a symbol for education) won't make you intelligent.

• Quod nocet, saepe docet
  • Translation: "That which harms, often teaches"

• Quod non est in actis, non est in mundo
  • Translation: "What is not in the documents does not exist" (From Roman Law)

• Quos amor verus tenuit, tenebit.
  • Translation: "Those whom true love has held, it will go on holding." - Seneca

• Quos Deus vult perdere, prius dementat.
  • Translation: "Those whom God wills to destroy he first deprives of their senses." - (Euripides); more colloquially, "Whom the gods destroy, they first make mad."

• Quot capita, tot sententiae.
  • Translation: "As many opinions as people."

• Quot linguas calles, tot homines vales.
  • Translation: "You are worth as many people as the languages that you speak."

R

• Radix malorum est cupiditas
  • Translation: "Greed is the root of all evil." ( Vulgate 1 Timothy 6:10) (theme of the Pardoner's Tale from the Canterbury Tales)
• Rara Avis
  • Translation: A very rare bird.

• Recta linea brevissima, recta via tutissima
  • Translation: "Straight line is the shortest, straight road is the most safe."

• Reddite ergo quae sunt Caesaris, Caesari
  • Translation: "Then give Caesar what's Caesar's" (w:Vulgate:, Matthew 22:21 as well as Luke 20:25)

• Rem tene verba sequentur
  • Translation: "if you know what you are talking about, then words came along" (Marco Porcio Catón)

• Repetita iuvant.
  • Translation: "Repetition is useful", or "Repeating things helps".

• Repetitio est mater studiorum.
  • Translation: "Repetition is the mother of study."

• Repetitio mater memoriae est.
  • Translation: "Repetition is the mother of memory."

• Requiescat in pace (R.I.P.)
  • Translation: "rest in peace" — a benediction for the dead, often inscribed on tombstones or other gravestones.

• Rete non tenditur milvio
  • Translation: "The net is not extended to the kite" (i.e. things (of the air) fall where they may).

• Ridendo castigat mores
  • Translation: "laugh corrects customs", or "satire corrects habits."

• Ridendo dicere verum
  • Translation: "To tell the truth while laughing (i.e., joking)"

• Roma die uno non aedificata est
  • Translation: "Rome wasn't built in a day."

• Roma locuta, causa finita est
  • Translation: "Rome (i.e. the Pope) has spoken, the cause (i.e. discussion) is finished."

• Roma traditoribus non premia
  • Translation: "Rome does not reward traitors" (Told by Scipio to the lieutenaunts of Viriato, a Lusitan rebel leader, after they assasinated him in hopes of getting a reward)

• Risus abundat in ore stultorum
  • Translation: "Laughs are plentiful in the mouth of the foolish."

• Rustica progenies semper villana fuit.
  • Translation: "A rustic ancestry will always remain field-slaves." "Villana" in Roman times meant the slaves attached to an estate (villa), and is the root of the term villein (and by extension, villain). Villa is also the root of "village," because the descendants of estate-slaves tended to stay near the estate through the Dark Ages, though by the time of Charlemagne they had proven this saying false by changing from slaves to serfs.

S

• Saepe morborum gravium exitus incerti sunt.
  • Translation: "The effects of serious illnesses are often unknown."

• Salus aegroti suprema lex.
  • Translation: "The well-being of the patient is the most important law."

• Salus populi suprema lex esto.
  • Translation: "Let the welfare of the people be the supreme law." (motto of the U.S. state of Missouri).

• Sapere aude.
  • Translation: "Dare to be wise." (Horace) (Motto of the University of New Brunswick)

• Sapiens dominabitur astris.
  • Translation: "A wise (man) will rule (or possibly, be ruled by) the stars."
  • Alt. Translation "A Wise Man Is Limited By The Stars"

• Sapiens omnia sua secum portat
  • Translation: "A wise man takes everything he owns with himself" (i.e. in his head, his wealth is his wisdom)

• Sapientia est potentia.
  • Translation: "Wisdom is power."

• Scientia non habet inimicum nisi ignorantem.
  • Translation: "Knowledge has no enemies but the ignorant."

• Scio me nihil scire
  • Translation: "I know that I know nothing" (Socrates)

• Scire aliquid laus est, pudor est nihil discere velle.
  • Translation: "It is commendable to know some things, it is disgraceful to refuse to learn." (Seneca)

• Semper fidelis
  • Translation: "Always faithful", motto of the United States Marine Corps & Serviciul de Protectie si Paza

• Semper inops quicumque cupit.
  • Translation: "Whoever desires is always poor." (Claudian)

• "Semper Paratus."
  • Translation: "Always Ready", motto of the United States Coast Guard

• Senatores boni viri, senatus autem mala bestia
  • Translation: Senators are good men, however Senate is a malicious animal

• Sero venientibus ossa.
  • Translation: "The bones for those who come late."

• Serpens, nisi serpentem comederit, non fit draco.
  • Translation: "A serpent, if it does not devour a serpent, does not become a dragon."
  • Francis Bacon, Essays (1612), apparently translating a Greek proverb.^[3]
  • Michael Apostolius, Proverbs (15th century), translates the Greek proverb: Serpens nisi serpentem edat, non fiet draco.^[4]
  • Erasmus, Adages (16th century), translates the Greek proverb: Serpens ni edat serpentem, draco non fiet.^[5]
  • Attributed to Pliny the Elder (Natural History, c. 77-79 AD) by Richard Brathwaite,^[6] but Robert Nares believes Brathwaite is mistaken.^[3] A search of the text returns many remarks on dragons and serpents, but nothing like this statement.

• Servo Fidem
  • Translation: "I keep the faith", motto of Marist College Canberra

• Si decem habeas linguas, mutum esse addecet.
  • Translation: "Even if you had ten tongues, you should hold them all."

• Si Deus pro nobis, quis contra nos?
  • Translation: "If God is with us, who can be against us", (Vulgate, Romans 8:31)

• Sidere mens eadem mutato
  • Translation: "Though the stars may change, our spirits remain the same" (motto of Sydney University).

• Si fueris Romae, Romano vivito more, si fueris alibi, vivito sicut ibi.
  • Translation: "If you are in Rome, live in the Roman way, if you are somewhere else, live like there." (attributed to Ambrose of Milan)

• Silent leges inter arma.
  • Translation: "During war, laws are silent." (Cicero)

• Sine scientia ars nihil est.
  • Translation: "Art without knowledge is nothing." (An art or skill is nothing without knowledge; specifically, architecture depends on knowing physics, or structural engineering. Source: [Jean Mignot, 14th century])

• Si quaeris peninsulam amoenam circumspice
  • Translation: "If you seek a pleasant peninsula, look about you" (the motto of the U.S. state of Michigan).

• Si tacuisses, philosophus mansisses.
  • Translation: "If you had kept your silence, you would have stayed a philosopher." Can be used as a trap for those who don't know Latin, as was demonstrated in TV sitcom Yes, Prime Minister.

• Si uno adhuc proelio Romanos vincemus, funditus peribimus!
  • Translation: "Another victory like that, and I'm done for!" (literally, "If we defeat the Romans in a battle like this, we will completely perish.") (Plutarch, Pyrrhus 21, 14) Attributed to King Pyrrhus of Epirus after a victory with heavy casualties. See Pyrrhic victory

• Si vales, valeo
  • Translation: "If you are well, I am well"

• Si vis amari, ama
  • Translation: "If you want to be loved, love" (Seneca)

• SIC! (medical termology.)
  • Translation: "Read the words exatly as they are written! = *Do AS told/It is an ultimate order* (the exclamtion sign is obligate)

• Si vis pacem, para bellum.
  • Translation: "If you want peace, prepare for war."
  • Paraphrase of Igitur qui desiderat pacem, praeparet bellum (Vegetius, Epitoma rei militaris)
  • Origin of the name parabellum for some ammunition and firearms, e.g. Luger parabellum

• Si vis pacem, para iustitiam.
  • Translation: "If you want peace, prepare justice."

• Sic Itur Ad Astra
  • Translation: "Thus do we reach the stars" (motto of the Canadian Air Force)

• Sic semper tyrannis
  • Translation: "Thus always[ever] to tyrants" (motto of, and on the seal of, the U.S. state of Virginia; attributed to assassin Brutus, George Wythe, and perhaps John Wilkes Booth also).

• Sic transit gloria mundi.
  • Translation: "Thus passes the glory of the world." Repeated during the coronation of the Pope.

• Silent enim leges inter arma
  • Translation: "Laws are silent in times of war"

• Similia similibus curantur.
  • Translation: "Like cures like." - Samuel Hahnemann

• Sine labore non erit panis in ore.
  • Translation: "Without work there won't be any bread in your mouth."

• Sine sole sileo
  • Translation: "Without sun I am silent." (inscription on sundials)

• Sit tibi terra levitas (S.T.T.L.)
  • Translation: "May the earth rest lightly on you" — a benediction for the dead, often inscribed on tombstones or other gravestones.

• Sol lucet omnibus
  • Translation: "The sun shines for everyone" (Gaius Petronius Arbiter, Satyricon 100)

• Soli Deo gloria
  • Translation: "Glory to God alone"

• Splendor sine occasu
  • Translation: "Splendour without diminishment." (motto of British Columbia)

• Stat crux dum volvitur orbis
  • Translation: "The Cross stands firm while the world is turning" (motto of the order of Carthusians)

• Stat sua cuique dies
  • Translation: "The date is set for each and everyone" (Virgil)

• Studiosus sine studio sus
  • Translation: "A student without work is a pig"

• Sub Cruce Lumen
  • Translation: "the light (of learning) under the (Southern) Cross" (Motto of the University of Adelaide, Australia)

• Sudetia non cantat.
  • Translation: "One doesn't sing on the Sudeten Mountains." (Saying from Haná region)

• Sum quod eris; fui quod es.
  • Translation: "As you are, I was. As I am, you will be." (used on Roman tombstones).

• Summum ius summa inuria.
  • Translation: "More law, less justice." (Cicero, De officiis I, 10, 33)

• Sunt facta verbis difficiliora
  • Translation: "Works are harder than words." i.e. "Easier said than done."

• Sunt pueri pueri pueri puerilia tractant
  • Translation: "Boys are boys and boys will act like boys."

• Sursum corda!
  • Translation: "Lift up your hearts!"

• Sutor, ne ultra crepidam!
  • Translation: "Cobbler, no further than the sandal!" I.e. don't offer your opinion on things that are outside your competence. It is said that the Greek painter Apelles once asked the advice of a cobbler on how to render the sandals of a soldier he was painting. When the cobbler started offering advice on other parts of the painting, Apelles rebuked him with this phrase (but in Greek).

• Suum cuique
  • Translation: "To each what he deserves"
  • Literally: "To each his own"

T

• Tarde venientibus ossa.
  • Translation: "For those who come late, only the bones."

• Teneas simium meum.
  • Translation: "Hold my monkey!"
• Temet nosce
  • Translation: "Know yourself" (Rendering in the movie The Matrix of the Greek gnothi seauton, from the Temple of Apollo at Delphi. Traditionally rendered in Latin as: Nosce te ipsum!)

• Tempora mutantur et nos mutamur in illis.
  • Translation: "The times are changed, and we are changed in them." -- Cicero

• Tempori parce!
  • Translation: "Save time!"

• Tempus fugit
  • Translation: "Time flees" (i.e., "time flies"). Originally as Sed fugit interea, fugit irreparabile tempus - translation: "Meanwhile the irreplaceable time flees" (Virgil)

• Tempus fugit, aeternitas manet
  • Translation: "Time flees, eternity dwells"

• Tempus fugit, amor manet
  • Translation: "Time flees, love stays"

• Teneo te, Africa!
  • Translation: "I have you, Africa!" Svetonius attributes this to Caesar, when the emperor was on the African coast.

• Testis unus, testis nullus.
  • Translation: "A single witness is no witness."

• Timeo Danaos et dona ferentes
  • Translation: "I fear the Danaens even if they bring presents" (Virgil, Aeneid, 2, 49) Uttered by Laocoön as he warns his fellow Trojans against accepting the Trojan Horse.

• Timendi causa est nescire.
  • Translation: "The cause of fear is ignorance." (Seneca)

• Timendo tutus
  • Tranlsation: "Fear makes you safe"

• Tres faciunt collegium.
  • Translation: "Three makes a company."

• Tolle, lege; Tolle, lege!
  • Translation: "Take up and read; take up and read!" (Augustinus)

• Tu quoque Brute, fili mi?
  • Translation: "Even you Brutus, my son?" attributed to Julius Caesar on the 15th of March after being fatally wounded.

• Tunc tua res agitur, paries cum proximus ardet
  • Translation: "It also concerns you when the nearest wall is burning"

U

• Ubi bene, ibi patria
  • Translation: "Where one feels good, there is one's country."

• Ubi concordia, ibi victoria.
  • Translation: "Where there is harmony, there is victory."

• Ubi dubium, ibi libertas.
  • Translation: "Where there is doubt, there is freedom." legal, meaning when in doubt the prisoner has to be freed.

• Ubi fumus, ibi ignis.
  • Translation: "Where there's smoke, there's fire."

• Ubi maior, minor cessat.
  • Translation: "When the bigger (greater, older) speaks, the less (younger) quits (speaking)"

• Ubi mel ibi apes
  • Translation: "Where there's honey, there are bees."

• Ubicumque Felix
  • Translation: "Always happy" (Has been motto of Napoleon, in times of despair and loss)

• Ubi tu Gaius, ibi ego Gaia.
  • Translation: "Where you are, Gaius, there I, Gaia, will be. (This is said to have been a nuptial formula, but it is only known from Greek sources.)

• Ubi uber, ibi tuber
  • Translation: "Where the soil is rich, you will find roots" (Apuleio)

• Ultima forsan
  • Translation: "Perhaps the last" (inscribed on clocks as a reminder that this hour could be your last)

• Ultra posse nemo obligatur
  • Translation: "Nobody is bound beyond ability"

• Ulula cum lupis, cum quibus esse cupis.
  • Translation: "Who keeps company with wolves, will learn to howl."

• Una hirundo non facit ver
  • Translation: "One swallow doesn't make spring"

• Una salus victus nullam sperare salutem
  • Translation: "The only [hope of ]safety for the defeated is to relinquish all hope of safety." (Virgil, Aeneid, II, 354)

• Unum castigabis, centum emendabis.
  • Translation: "If you reprove one error, you will correct a hundred."

• Usus magister est optimus.
  • Translation: "Experience is the best teacher." (i.e., "Practice makes perfect.")

• Ut ameris, amabilis esto.
  • Translation: "Be amiable, then you'll be loved."

• Ut desint vires, tamen est laudanda voluntas
  • Translation: "Even if the powers are missing, the will deserves praise" (Ovid)

• Ut incepit fidelis, sic permanet.
  • Translation: "Loyal she began, and loyal she remains" (motto of Ontario).

• Ut sementem feceris, ita metes.
  • Translation: "You'll reap what you sow." (Cicero, "De oratore")

• Ut sis nocte levis, sit cena brevis!
  • Translation: "That your sleeping hour be peaceful, let your dining hour be brief!" (Sis is one hour before sunset.) (modern: Sleep hard, Sleep fast, Sleep well)

• Uxor formosa et vinum sunt dulcia venena.
  • Translation: "Beautiful women and wine are sweet venom."

V

• Vae Victis
  • Translation: "Woe to the conquered." Attributed by Livy to the chief of the Gauls (Brennus) as they sacked Rome in 390 BC.

• "Vade retro !" !" (Terence, Formio In, 4, 203)
  • Translation: "Go back !"

• "Vade retro satana !" (Matt. 16: 23)
  • Translation: "Go away from my mind and hand - vision of Satan!"

• "Vade mecum!"
  • Translation: "Go with me!" - a vade-mecum is hence something that always accompanies one.

• Vanitas vanitatum et omnia vanitas
  • Translation: "Vanity of vanities and everything is vanity." (Vulgate, Ecclesiastes 1:2)

• Varitatio delectat
  • Translation: "Change pleases."

• Varium et mutabile semper femina
  • Translation: "Woman is always a changeable and capricious thing." (Aeneid 6:126)

• Vasa vana plurimum sonant
  • Translation: "Empty pots make the most noise."

• Veni, vidi, vici.
  • Translation: "I came , I saw, I conquered." (Julius Caesar, after defeating the forces of Pharnaces II of Pontus)

• Venies sub dentem
  • Translation: "You will come under [my] tooth."

• Ventis secundis, tene cursum.
  • Translation: "Go even against the flow."

• Verba docent, exempla trahunt.
  • Translation: "Words instruct, illustrations lead."

• Verba volant, scripta manent.
  • Translation: "Words fly, written stays."

• Veritas odium paret
  • Translation: "Truth creates hatred" (Terence, Andria 68)

• Veritas vos liberabit
  • Translation: "The truth will set you free" (Gospel of John, 8:32)

• Veritate et Virtute
  • Translation: "Truth and Virtue" (Motto of the Sydney High School)

• Veritatem dies aperit.
  • Translation: "Time discloses the truth."

• Verus amicus est alter ego.
  • Translation: "A true friend is another self."

• Vestigia terrent
  • Translation: "The traces deter" (Horace) Refers to the old fable of the wolf who refused an offer to enter the lion's den as he saw many traces leading into it, but none out.

• Via, Veritas, Vita
  • Translation: "The Way, the Truth and the Life". Motto of Glasgow University

• Vi Veri Veniversum Vivus Vici
  • Translation: "By the power of truth, I, while living, have conquered the universe."

• Victoria Concordia Crescit
  • Translation: "Victory from Harmony". Motto of Arsenal F.C.

• Victrix causa diis placuit sed victa Catoni
  • Translation: "The victorious cause was pleasing to the Gods, but the lost cause to Cato" (Lucanus, Pharsalia 1, 128) (Dedication on the south side of the Confederate Memorial at Arlington National Cemetery)

• Video meliora proboque deteriora sequor
  • Translation: "I see the better and acknowledge it, but I follow the worse (Ovid)

• Videre videnda
  • Translation: "See what should be seen."

• Vincere scis, Hannibal, victoria uti nescis.
  • Translation: "You know how to win victory, Hannibal, you do not how to use it." According to Livy a cavalry colonel, Maharbal, told Hannibal this after the victory at Cannae in 216 BC, meaning that Hannibal should have marched on Rome directly.

• Vincit omnia veritas.
  • Translation: "Truth conquers all."

• Vincit qui patitur. - motto Berea College, Berea, KY
  • Translation: "He who perseveres, conquers."

• Vincit qui se vincit
  • Translation: "He conquers who conquers himself"

• Vinum et musica laetificant cor
  • Translation: "Wine and music delight the heart" - Vulgate, Ecclesiasticus 40:20

• Vir prudens non contra ventum mingit.
  • Translation: "Wise man does not urinate towards the wind."

• Virtus sola nobilitat
  • Translation: "Virtue alone ennobles" - motto of Waverley College NSW, Australia.

• Virtus, non copia vincint
  • Translation: "Courage, not multitude, wins"

• Virtus unita fortis agit
  • Translation: "United we act stronger" - motto of the Engineering College of the University of Porto (FEUP)

• Vis Unita Fortior.
  • Translation: "United strength is stronger."

• Vita brevis, ars longa
  • Translation: Life is short, art is longer

• Vive Ut Vitas
  • Translation: "Live, so that you may live." or "Live life to the fullest."

• Volenti non fit iniuria
  • Translation: "To a willing person one cannot do injustice."

• Vox audita perit littera scripta manet.
  • Translation: "The spoken word perishes, the written words remain."

• Vox clamantis in deserto
  • Translation: "The voice of one crying in the wilderness" - Vulgate, Matthew 3:3; Motto of Dartmouth College

• Vox populi, vox dei.
  • Translation: "The voice of the people is the voice of God."

• Vulpes pilum mutat, non mores!
  • Translation: "A fox may change its skin but never its character" - Suetonius

Mock Latin

Modern creations meant to satirically play upon classical Latin proverbs

• Carpe jugulum
  • Translation: "Go for the throat."
  • The title of a Terry Pratchett novel and the motto of the Von Magpyr family of vampires in that novel.

• Carpe noctem.
  • Translation: "Seize the night."
  • Dean Koontz, Seize the Night (1998)
  • Also a title of a song in the Jim Steinman musical Tanz der Vampire

• Carpe pugam.
  • Translation: "To pluck buttocks."

• Carpe carpionem.
  • Translation: "Seize the carp."

• Cave ne ante ullas catapultas ambules.
  • If I were you, I wouldn't walk in front of any catapults.

• Da mihi sis bubulae frustrum assae, solana tuberosa in modo gallico fricta, ac quassum lactatum coagulatum crassum.
  • Translation: Give me a hamburger, french fries, and a thick shake.

• E clunibus tractum
  • Translation: Pulled from the buttocks. (i.e. Pulled out of my arse.)

• Nil illegitimi carborundum.
  • Translation: "Don't let the bastards grind you down."
  • Carborundum is a chemical used as an abrasive. See Wikipedia: Illegitimi non carborundum.

• Nil significat, nisi oscillat.
  • It don't mean a thing if it ain't got that swing.

• Nunc id vides, nunc ne vides
  • Translation: "Now you see it, now you don't."
  • The motto of Terry Pratchett's Unseen University.

• Quidquid latine dictum sit, altum videtur.
  • Translation: "Everything said in Latin, seems deep."

• Romanes eunt domus
  • Mistranslation: "Romans go home."
  • A slogan painted on a wall by Brian in Monty Python's Life of Brian. A Roman soldier catches him at it, ridicules the bad grammar ("Some people called Romanes, they go, the house?!") and forces him, not to remove it, but to correct it to Romani ite domum.

• Si Non Oscillas, Noli Tintinnare
  • If you don't swing, don't ring.
  • (Inscription on the door of Hugh Hefner's Chicago mansion.)

• Sic gorgiamus allos subjectatos nunc
  • Translation: "We gladly feast on those who would subdue us" (motto of The Addams Family).

• Roccaturi te salutant!
  • We who are about to rock salute you!

• Semper ubi sub ubi
  • Always wear underwear.
  • The Latin is literally "always where under where", the joke is to read "wear" for "where".

• Sentio aliquos togatos contra me conspirare.
  • I think some people in togas are plotting against me.
  • Henry Beard, Latin for All Occasions.

See also

• Latin Via Proverbs: 4000 Proverbs, Mottoes and Sayings for Students of Latin
• Henry Beard (Latin for All Occasions)
• Latin Proverbs Organized by Subject
• Golden Proverbs - A nice collection of Latin proverbs

References

• O'Shea, Stephen (2000). The Perfect Heresy: The Revolutionary Life and Death of the Medieval Cathars. ISBN 0-8027-1350-5.
• Jenny's First Year Latin

Notes

1. ↑ Classical and foreign quotations, William Francis Henry King, 1889, p. 40, quote #300
2. ↑ Larry D. Benson, ed. The Riverside Chaucer. 3rd ed. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1987. p. 939, n. 3164.
3. ↑ ^{a b} Robert Nares, A Glossary, p. 781.
4. ↑ Michael Apostolius, Paroemiae [Proverbs]. Ed. Daniel Heinsius. Leiden, 1619. p. 187
5. ↑ Erasmus III iii 61, translated in William Watson Barker, ed. The Adages of Erasmus, p. 272
6. ↑ Richard Brathwaite, The English Gentleman 1630, p. 237.

 

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