I hope these notes will help you tackle this group of proverbs in Latin Via Proverbs. This group features sayings with forms of nullus.
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 63
839. No disaster comes singly. (Compare a similar saying: nullum infortunium venit solum, "no misfortune comes singly.")
840. Alone, among many. (Notice that this is quite the opposite of the saying e pluribus unum, "one out of many.")
841. The glory is to God alone. (Careful with the adjective solus; the form soli is dative, as in the similar words cui, illi, etc.)
842. There is no trusting in appearances. (The word frons means, literally, "forehead," although metaphorically it came to stand for "appearances" in general.)
843. After death, there is no pleasure. (This is from the genre of epitaph writing. A fuller form of the saying is Edamus, bibamus, gaudeamus: post mortem nulla voluptas, "let us eat, drink and be merry: after death, there is no pleasure.")
844. Outside of the church there is no salvation. (This phrase expresses a tenet of the Roman Catholic Church, dating back to the Middle Ages.)
845. No acquisition is better than a gift. (This is a lovely saying, I think; acquiring things never affords the same pleasure as the exchange of gifts.)
846. There is no mountain without a valley. (Applied metaphorically, this a very encouraging proverb: you have to traverse that valley to reach the mountain.)
847. Much talk, and no results. (This is a saying you can find in Bernard of Clairvaux, De Consideratione.)
848. There is no one among mankind who is happy in everything. (Compare this similar saying: Nihil ex omni parte beatum, "Nothing is blessed in every aspect.")
849. The best odor in the body is no odor. (This is a saying you can find in Seneca.)
850. One witness is no witness. (This is the principle that requires confirmation of any piece of evidence from a second witness.)
851. The voice of one person is the voice of no one. (This is a variation on the saying testis unus, testis nullus, "one witness is no witness.")
852. A pleasant possession is of no good without friends. (The saying is based on Seneca.)
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