Latin Via Proverbs 156

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 156

1998. I desire nothing too much. (You can find this cited in Pliny.)

1999. Unless what we do is useful, fame is foolish. (You can find this in Phaedrus's story of the gods and their trees.)

2000. Into the same stream we do not enter twice. (This is a paraphrase of the Greek philosopher Heraclitus supplied by Seneca.)

2001. You are a rabbit and yet you are looking for meat? (Erasmus includes this saying from Terence in his Adagia, 1.6.7.)

2002. You sow for yourself, you reap for yourself. (This saying is adapted from Plautus.)

2003. Some sow, others reap. (Compare this similar saying: Alius est qui seminat, et alius est qui metit.)

2004. They say one thing, they do another. (The Latin actually uses the plural, alia, but I was not sure how to render that with a plural in English!)

2005. After the leaves, the trees fall upon you. (This saying is adapted from Plautus.)

2006. They understand one another like thieves in the marketplace. (Compare the English version: "They agree like pickpockets in a fair.")

2007. The poor man is the one for whom his own possessions are not enough. (Compare a related saying from Horace: Pauper enim non est, cui rerum suppetit usus.)

2008. Happy is the man whom other people's dangers have made cautious. (This was included in Ben Franklin's Poor Richard's Almanack.)

2009. If one blind man leads another, they both fall into the ditch. (This saying is adapted from the Gospel of Luke. For a discussion, see Erasmus's Adagia 1.8.40.)

2010. Two anchors are better at protecting a ship. (This saying can be found in Propertius.)

2011. It is extremely hard to make a stand against two evils. (You can find this saying in Erasmus's Adagia, 3.8.78.)

2012. It is no small thing to know oneself. (For the famous motto, nosce teipsum, see Erasmus's Adagia, 1.6.95. The Greek saying was supposedly written upon the gate to the temple of Apollo at Delphi.)

2013. It is utterly wretched to live at the whim of another person. (You will find this saying in Publilius Syrus.)

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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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