Latin Via Proverbs 66

I hope these notes will help you tackle this group of proverbs in Latin Via Proverbs. This is another set of proverbs using nil and nihil.

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 66

880. Nothing under the sun is eternal. (You can see this motto illustrated in Otto Vaenius's Q. Horatii Flacci Emblemata, published in 1612.)

881. Nothing in life is sure. (This is the Bunbury family motto.)

882. Either Caesar or nothing. (You can also find this in the phrase Aut Caesar aut nullus. The idea is something like "all or nothing.")

883. Nothing from nothing. (You can also find this in the form ex nihilo nihil fit, "nothing comes from nothing.")

884. Creation from nothing. (This is a phrase associated with the theology of divine creation, although there are some Christian theologians who have rejected the premise of creatio ex nihilo.)

885. For God, nothing is impossible. (The full form of this saying, taken from Tertullian, is Deo nihil impossibile, nisi quae non vult, "For God nothing is impossible, unless that which he does not want.")

886. For the brave and the faithful, nothing is difficult. (This is a popular family motto, as seen here in the Dean family crest.)

887. Nothing is enough to satisfy desire. (The full form of the phrase as found in Seneca is Cupiditati nihil satis est, naturae satis est etiam parum, "Nothing is enough for desire, even a little thing is enough for nature.)

888. A voice, and nothing more besides. (The saying is from Plutarch's Laconic Apophthegms, an exclamation uttered where someone plucks a nightingale and is surprised by the tiny size of its actual body.)

889. About the dead, nothing except good. (The idea being to speak well of the dead, although the Latin saying does not need the verb.)

890. About the living, nothing except the truth. (You can find this saying used by Samuel Johnson in his Lives of the Poets.)

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