Latin Via Proverbs 155

I hope these notes will help you tackle this group of proverbs in Latin Via Proverbs. This group includes more sayings with third conjugation verbs, present active indicative.

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. You can find more Study Guide material at the LatinViaProverbs.com wiki website.

Group 155

1984. It is a sneaky thief who can take away the goods from another thief. (Compare a similar English saying, "It takes a thief to catch a thief.")

1985. Love of money increases as the cash itself increases. (This saying is adapted from Juvenal.)

1986. There is no one more full of pride than a poor man who rises to high position. (Compare Claudianus: asperius nihil est misero dum surgit in altum.)

1987. Someone who scorns smaller gifts loses greater ones. (Compare this similar saying: maiora perdes, parva nisi servaveris.)

1988. He rightly loses what was his when he seeks what belongs to another. (This is the moral of Phaedrus's story of the dog and his shadow.)

1989. Someone who has desires or fears is a slave. (Compare Horace: qui metuens uiuet, liber mihi non erit umquam.)

1990. A friend is one whom you live as you love your own soul. (This saying is adapted from the Book of Deuteronomy.)

1991. The sick man arranges things badly for himself when he makes his doctor his heir. (You will find this saying in Publilius Syrus.)

1992. There is nothing more foolish than the one who seeks understanding from a fool. (Note that stultius is the neuter singular comparative form of stultus, stultior.)

1993. He who paints a flower cannot paint the flower's scent. (Read more of this poem Suscipe flos: Flos in pictura / non est flos, immo figura; / qui pingit florem / non pigit floris odorem.)

1994. Boys read one way, men another way, old men another way. (In English, there is no easy way to extend "one...another" to three items, as is the case here with the Latin!)

1995. A donkey does not stumble twice against the same stone. (Compare this version of the saying without the donkey: Sapientis haud est bis in eodem lapide labi.)

1996. When the cat is snoring, a mouse never runs into its mouth. (You can read a commentary at AudioLatinProverbs.com.)

1997. The whole flock falls in the field from the infection of a single animal. (This saying can be found in Juvenal.)

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This blog post is part of an evolving Study Guide for users of the book Latin Via Proverbs.

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