I hope these notes will help you tackle this group of proverbs in Latin Via Proverbs. This set of sayings features the use of quantus and quot.
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 72
953. O Cupid, how great you are! (You will find this express in Plautus.) O Cupido, quantus es!
954. A little bit of profit, so much loss. (This saying is adapted from Terence: paullum lucri quantum ei damnum adportet, "a little bit of profit brings him so much loss.")
955. There are as many enemies as there are servants. (You can find this saying in many forms, such as Quot servos habemus, totidem habemus hostes, "As many as we have servants, just so many enemies do we have," as found in Erasmus's Adagia, 2.3.31.)
956. There are as many customs as there are regions. (You can also find this saying in the form tot populi, tot mores, "so many peoples, so many customs.")
957. There are as many bits of silliness as there are people. (This saying is a humorous variant on the more traditional form, as in Terence: quot homines, tot sententiae, where stultitiae, "sillinesses" has replaced sententiae, "opinions.")
958. So many heads, so many opinions. (Compare the variant: quot homines, tot sententiae, where the people homines are replaced here metonymically by capita, "heads." You can read a nice little note about this saying and its variants at Laudator Temporis Acti.)
959. So many heads, so many fleas. (You can also find this with lice rather than fleas: Quot capita, tot pediculi.)
960. As many as are the shells on the shore, so many are the pains in love. (This is a saying taken from Ovid's Ars Amatoria.)
961. As many as blades of grass in the fields, so many are the dangers in love. (This saying is a nice variant on the saying from Ovid cited above, #960.)
962. A man without a friend is worth just as much as a body without a spirit. (Notice the use of the genitive here to express value. You can find this saying in Publilius Syrus.)
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