Latin Proverbs I

A

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

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

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

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

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

* Ab amicis honesta petamus
o 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.
o 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
o Translation: "To light a fire with a fire." Cicero

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

* Ab ovo (usque ad mala)
o 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
o Translation: "From the founding of the city", 'city' meaning Rome

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

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

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

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

* Absentem laedit, qui cum ebrio litigat.
o 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.
o Translation: "Insults shouldn't be made when people are celebrating."

* Absit inuiria verbis.
o Translation: "Let injury by words be absent."

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

* Absit omen.
o Translation: "May this not be an omen."

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

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

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

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

* Abusus non tollit usum
o 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
o Translation: Literally, "Hell invokes Hell"; more commonly known as, "One misdeed precedes another"; or more colloquially known as, "Two wrongs do not make a right".

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

* A capite ad calcem
o Translation: "From head to heel"

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

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

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

* Acta est fabula
o (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
o Translations: "Deeds, not words" - motto of the United States Merchant Marine Academy, at Kings Point, New York, USA.

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

* Ad astra per aspera
o 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
o Translation: "To high places by narrow roads."

* Adeo in teneris consuescere multum est
o 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
o 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
o Translation, Literally: "Your crops are still in grass", equivalent to: "There is still a lot to be done"

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

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

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

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

* Aegroto dum anima est, spes est.
o 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
o Translation: "These days (lit.: in our days) simplicity is very rare"

* Age quod agis
o 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
o Translation: "Do when you do something", "If you do something, do it well" see also "Age quod agis"

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

* Amat Victoria Curam
o Translation: "Victory loves preparation"

* Amici, diem perdidi.
o 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.
o Translation: "A true friend is discerned during an uncertain matter" (Cicero)

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

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

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

* Amore, more, ore, re
o 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
o Translation: "Love created the earth."

* Amor omnibus idem
o Translation: "Love is equal to all"

* Amor patitur moras
o Translation: "Love is patient"

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

* A mundo condito
o Translation: "From the creation of the world"

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

* Animo deliberato
o Translation: "Deliberately"

* Animus imperat
o Translation: "The mind rules"

* An nescis, mi fili, quantilla prudentia regatur orbis?
o Translation: "Don't you know, my son, with how little wisdom the world is governed?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

* Aut agere aut mori
o Translation: "Either act or die"

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

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

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

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

* Aut nunc, aut numquam
o Translation:"Now or never"

* Aut omnia, aut nihil
o Translation: "All or none"

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

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

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

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

* Ave Caesar! Morituri te salutant!
o 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
o Translation: "Greed makes you stupid."

B

* Beati hispani, quibus vivere bibere est
o 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
o Translation: "Blessed are the poor in spirit" (Vulgate, Matthew 5:3)

* Beatus, qui prodest, quibus potest.
o 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.
o 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
o Translation: "War will feed on itself"

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

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

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

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

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

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

* Boni pastoris est tondere pecus, non deglubere.
o 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.
o Translation: "Kill them all. The Lord will know His own."
o Variation: "Kill them all. Let God sort them out."
o Supposed statement by Abbot Arnold Amaury before the massacre of Béziers during the Albigensian Crusade, recorded 30 years later, according to Caesar of Heisterbach.
o Cited in The Perfect Heresy by Stephen O'Shea

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

* Carpe diem
o 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
o 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
o Translation: "Beware the man of one book."

* Cave canem
o Translation: "Beware the dog."

* Caveat emptor.
o Translation: "Let the buyer beware."

* Cedo nulli
o Translation: "I yield to no one."

* Ceteris paribus
o Translation: "Other things being equal."

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

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

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

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

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

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

* Cogito ergo sum
o 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.
o Translation: "Harmony of citizens is the wall of cities."

* Concordia salus.
o Translation: "Well-being through harmony."

* Confíteor Deo omnipoténti, beátæ Maríæ semper Vírgini, beáto Michaéli Archángelo, sanctis Apóstolis, ómnibus Sanctis.
o 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."
o part of the Confiteor, Roman Catholic confession, used in the hunchback of Notre Dame song Hellfire

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

* Cuius regio, eius religio
o 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
o 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
o English Translation: "Any man can make a mistake; only a fool keeps making the same one."
o English Equivalent Proverb: "Fool me once and shame on you, fool me twice and shame on me."

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

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

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

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

* Cura Omnia Potest
o Translation: "Determination is omnipotent."

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