I started posting some of these quotes yesterday, but there were just too many good ones, so I split it up into two posts. So here are some more of my favorite Latin quotations that I came across in researching for my novel (some of which made it into my novel(s) and many which probably won't):
Non est ad astra mollis e terries via - There is no easy way from the Earth to the stars. (Seneca the Younger)
Non nobis solum nati sumus ortusque nostri partem patria vindicat, partem amici - We are not born, we do not live for ourselves alone; our country, our friends have a share in us. (Cicero)
Nos numerus sumus et fruges consumere nati - We are but numbers, born to consume resources. (Horace)
Non omnia possumus omnes - We cannot all do everything. (Virgil, Eclogues)
Non qui parum habet, sed qui plus cupit, pauper est - It is not the man who has too little, but the man who craves more, that is poor. (Seneca the Younger)
Non satis est puris versum perscribere verbis - Tis not sufficient to combine well-chosen words in a well-ordered line. (Horace)
Nullum esse librum tam malum, ut non aliqua parte prodesset - No book was so bad but that some good might be got out of it. (Pliny the Younger, repeating what his father, Pliny the Elder, used to say)
Nullumst iam dictum quod non dictum sit prius - Nothing is said that has not been said before. (Terence, Eunuchus)
Omnia fert aetas, animum quoque - Time bears away all things, even our minds. (Virgil, Ecologues)
Otium et reges prius et beatas perdidit urbes - Often has leisure ruined great kings and fine cities. (Catullus)
Quae fuit furum pati, meminisse dulce est - Things that were hard to bear are pleasant to remember. (Seneca the Younger)
Qui e nuce nucleum esse vult, frangat nucem - He who would eat the kernel must crack the shell. (Plautus, Curculio, I.1)
Quidquid multis peccatur inultum est - The sin of thousands always goes unpunished. (Lucan)
Rarum id quidem nihil enim aeque gratum est adeptis quam concupiscentibus - An object in possession seldom retains the same charm that it had in pursuit. (Pliny the Younger)
Sapiens vivit quantum debet, non quantum potest - The wise man will live as long as he ought, not as long as he can. (Seneca the Younger)
Satius est supervacus acire quam nihil - It is better to know useless things than nothing at all. (Seneca the Younger)
Scribimus indocti doctique poemata passim - Learned or not, we shall write poems without distinction ("Fools also write").
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What I love most about these quotes (and all of the research I ended up doing about Ancient Rome) is noting how little has changed between then and now, despite the passing of two millennia. Humans still ponder these same questions, repeat these same words, make the same mistakes, have the same insights, make the same arguments...
Even back then, they were saying that everything had already been said, that there was nothing new under the sun. And yet - it is new. Over and over again, it's new again. Just because someone already realized something two thousand years ago doesn't diminish the excitement we feel when we realize it again in our own lives in 2016.
I don't know - when I read quotes like this, it makes me feel really small/insignificant but at the same time an important, significant piece of a cyclical, multi-layered world. (Somehow those feelings aren't contradictory. They coexist rather peacefully.) And that's why I was drawn to do all this research in the first place.
Non est ad astra mollis e terries via - There is no easy way from the Earth to the stars. (Seneca the Younger)
Non nobis solum nati sumus ortusque nostri partem patria vindicat, partem amici - We are not born, we do not live for ourselves alone; our country, our friends have a share in us. (Cicero)
Nos numerus sumus et fruges consumere nati - We are but numbers, born to consume resources. (Horace)
Non omnia possumus omnes - We cannot all do everything. (Virgil, Eclogues)
Non qui parum habet, sed qui plus cupit, pauper est - It is not the man who has too little, but the man who craves more, that is poor. (Seneca the Younger)
Non satis est puris versum perscribere verbis - Tis not sufficient to combine well-chosen words in a well-ordered line. (Horace)
Nullum esse librum tam malum, ut non aliqua parte prodesset - No book was so bad but that some good might be got out of it. (Pliny the Younger, repeating what his father, Pliny the Elder, used to say)
Nullumst iam dictum quod non dictum sit prius - Nothing is said that has not been said before. (Terence, Eunuchus)
Omnia fert aetas, animum quoque - Time bears away all things, even our minds. (Virgil, Ecologues)
Otium et reges prius et beatas perdidit urbes - Often has leisure ruined great kings and fine cities. (Catullus)
Quae fuit furum pati, meminisse dulce est - Things that were hard to bear are pleasant to remember. (Seneca the Younger)
Qui e nuce nucleum esse vult, frangat nucem - He who would eat the kernel must crack the shell. (Plautus, Curculio, I.1)
Quidquid multis peccatur inultum est - The sin of thousands always goes unpunished. (Lucan)
Rarum id quidem nihil enim aeque gratum est adeptis quam concupiscentibus - An object in possession seldom retains the same charm that it had in pursuit. (Pliny the Younger)
Sapiens vivit quantum debet, non quantum potest - The wise man will live as long as he ought, not as long as he can. (Seneca the Younger)
Satius est supervacus acire quam nihil - It is better to know useless things than nothing at all. (Seneca the Younger)
Scribimus indocti doctique poemata passim - Learned or not, we shall write poems without distinction ("Fools also write").
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What I love most about these quotes (and all of the research I ended up doing about Ancient Rome) is noting how little has changed between then and now, despite the passing of two millennia. Humans still ponder these same questions, repeat these same words, make the same mistakes, have the same insights, make the same arguments...
Even back then, they were saying that everything had already been said, that there was nothing new under the sun. And yet - it is new. Over and over again, it's new again. Just because someone already realized something two thousand years ago doesn't diminish the excitement we feel when we realize it again in our own lives in 2016.
I don't know - when I read quotes like this, it makes me feel really small/insignificant but at the same time an important, significant piece of a cyclical, multi-layered world. (Somehow those feelings aren't contradictory. They coexist rather peacefully.) And that's why I was drawn to do all this research in the first place.
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