Friday, March 02, 2007

Latin Via Proverbs 37

I hope these notes will help you tackle this group of proverbs in Latin Via Proverbs. This group again features third declension adjectives, with more forms of the adjective omnis.

Please note: to read the proverbs in Latin, you need to acquire a copy of the book from lulu.com! What I am providing here in the blog are notes to help people who are making their way through the book either in a Latin class or on their own.

Group 37

504. The whole hedgehog is prickly. (Notice that omnis can mean "all, every," but also "all, entire." So in Erasmus's Adagia, you can find this version of the same saying: Totus echinus asper, 2.9.59.)

505. From god comes every remedy. (This is a saying from the Biblical book of Ecclesiasticus.)

506. All excellence consists in moderation. (You can find this saying in Seneca.)

507. All slavery is wretched. (You can find this saying in Cicero.)

508. The beginning of every sin is pride. (Another saying from Ecclesiasticus.)

509. The hindrance to every excellence is fear. (This is a saying of Publilius Syrus.)

510. We are all earth. (Notice that omnes here agrees with the implied subject of sumus, "we all.")

511. We are all easily broken. (This saying can be found in Thomas à Kempis.)

512. All people are either free or slaves. (This is a saying from the Roman legal tradition: Summa itaque de iure personarum divisio haec est, quod omnes homines aut liberi sunt aut servi, "Thus the chief division of persons by law is that all people are either free or slaves.")

513. We are all citizens of the world. (Again, note that omnes agrees with the implied subject of sumus, "we all.")

514. Not all fields are fruitful. (You will find this saying in Cicero.)

515. Oh, if only all people acted so! (Although the verb is only implied in the Latin, it is hard to translate this saying into English without supplying a verb.)

516. Justice for all. (This is the motto of the District of Columbia.)

517. Death is common to all. (You can find this sentiment embedded in a little speech by Patridge in Fielding's Tom Jones: "Ay, sure, Mors omnibus communis: but there is a great difference between dying in one's bed a great many years hence, like a good Christian, with all our friends crying about us, and being shot to-day or to-morrow, like a mad dog; or, perhaps, hacked in twenty pieces with the sword, and that too before we have repented of all our sins. O Lord, have mercy upon us!") Mors omnibus communis.

518. A friend to everybody, a friend to nobody. (Compare this similar saying Inimicus sibi, amicus nemini, "An enemy to oneself, a friend to nobody.")


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