I hope these notes will help you tackle this group of proverbs in Latin Via Proverbs. This group features the final set of proverbial sayings based on the comparative form of the adjective!
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 56
740. Better late than never. (You can find this saying in Livy.)
741. By skill rather than by force. (This is a commonly found family motto.)
742. More quiet than a fish. (This is a saying you can find in Erasmus's Adagia, 1.5.29.)
743. More danger from the doctor than from the disease. (You can find this saying cited in Robert Burton's Anatomy of Melancholy.)
744. Never less alone than when alone. (You can find this saying cited in Cicero's De Officiis.)
745. The thing is better than hope. (It's hard to capture the nice Latin word play res...spes in English!)
746. The voice of the doing is louder than the voice of the mouth. (The idea is that deeds speak louder than words, a saying you can find a sermon of Saint Bernard of Clairvaux.)
747. Safer is a place on the land than in the high seats. (This is a metrical saying in hexameter verse.)
748. Conscience is worth more than what everyone says. (You can find this saying in one of Cicero's letters.)
749. The eyes are greeder than the stomach. (Compare the English saying, "his eyes are bigger than his stomach.")
750. He is faster with the tongue than with a hand. (In other words, quick to promise but slow to act! You can find this saying in Sallust.)
751. The pain of the soul is more serious by far than that of the body. (This is a saying you can find in Publilius Syrus.)
752. A friend is more necessary than are water and fire. (This is a saying that you can find in Erasmus's Adagia, 2.2.75.)
753. The peace of a village is better than a war of Rome. (The idea is that a village at peace may be less powerful than the Roman empire, but that is better than being at war.)
754. A bird in the right hand is better than four birds outside it. (You can find many different variants on this saying, such as Melior est avis in manu quam decem in aere, "A bird in the hand is better than ten in the air," etc. )
755. An eye-witness is worth more than ten witnesses by hearsay. (You can find this saying Plautus's Truculentus.)
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