Monday, July 04, 2011

Scala 29 (1401-1450)

<== Go back to Scala 28 (1351-1400)

1401. Veneris quis gaudia nescit?

Here the goddess of love, Venus, stands by metonymy for love itself. You can find these words in the Satyricon of Petronius: Nam quis concubitus, Veneris quis gaudia nescit?

1402. Curis gaudia misce.

[misceo: mix] Here cura is used in the negative sense of worry or anxiety, something that needs to be mitigated with joys, gaudia.

1403. Misce utile dulci.

This is advice given in Horace's Ars Poetica - a writer should mix what is useful (utile) into what is sweet (dulci).

1404. Dulcia mixta sunt amaris.

While the previous proverb was about the sweet and the useful, here we have the sweet things and the bitter, dulcia et amara.

1405. Sunt bona mixta malis, sunt mala mixta bonis.

Notice the parallel structure: bona-mala, malis-bonis.

1406. Non miscentur contraria.

[contrarius: opposite, contrary] This is an idea that Seneca advances in his treatise, De Providentia: Nihil accidere bono viro mali potest: non miscentur contraria, "Nothing bad can happen to a good man: opposites do not mix." Compare the English saying: "opposites do not attract."

1407. Contraria numquam uniuntur.

[unio: unite, join into one] This expresses the same idea as in the previous saying, but this time with the verb uniuntur, "be made into one."

1408. Vis, unita, fortior.

The noun vis is feminine, hence the feminine form of the participle unita. The comparative form of fortis, fortior, has the same form for both masculine and feminine singular.

1409. Virtus unita fortius agit.

Here you have the neuter form of the comparative, fortius, being used adverbially: fortius agit, "acts more strongly."

1410. Dissimilia non facile uniuntur.

[dissimilis: unlike, dissimilar] The word dissimilia is neuter plural, "things which are not alike."

1411. Dissimiles, sed morte pares.

[par: equal, like; adv. pariter] The words are from the poet Claudian's panegyric on the fourth consulship of the Emperor Honorius.

1412. Nemo potest dominis pariter servire duobus.

Note the adverbial form, pariter. You have seen similarly formed proverbs already, as in this motto: Fortiter, fideliter, feliciter.

1413. Par praemium labori.

The adjective par takes a dative complement as you can see here: Let the reward (praemium) be equal to the labor (par labori).

1414. Par erit fortuna labori.

The idea here is that luck is not just some random thing, but something that follows in proportion to the effort you expend: par labori.

1415. Pares in labore, pares in honore.

The rhyme of this proverb, labore-honore, reveals the medieval origins of this saying.

1416. Primus inter pares.

You can read about the history of the use of this proverb here at Wikipedia.

1417. Tempora sic fugiunt pariter, pariterque sequuntur et nova sunt semper.

The words are from Ovid's Metamorphoses, 15.

1418. Transeunt omnia, et tu cum eis pariter.

Note the parallel structure: Transeunt omnia, et tu cum eis pariter (transis).

1419. Firmissima est inter pares amicitia.

[firmus: steady, solid, strong, firm] You can find these words in Curtius' History of Alexander the Great, 7.

1420. Firma spes.

This is a motto of the Moncreiff family.

1421. Firmus maneo.

This is a motto of the Lindsay family.

1422. Firmum in vita nihil.

As you have seen before, the indeclinable noun nihil is regarded as a neuter noun, hence the neuter adjective firmum.

1423. Firma durant.

[duro: be hard, last, endure] In this saying, firma is neuter plural, "firm things, solid things." This is a motto of the Lesly family.

1424. Omnia ad tempus certum durant.

All things do last, omnia durant - but only for a certai period of time, ad tempus certum!

1425. Nihil perpetuo durat.

[perpetuus: continuous, everlasting, perpetual] Here the word perpetuo is adverbial: in perpetuity, for a peretual period of time. There are actually three different adverbial forms of perpetuus which you will find listed in the dictionary - perpetuo, perpetue, and even perpetuum - but perpetuo is the form you will find most commonly used.

1426. Nulli est homini perpetuum bonum.

Notice how the dative phrase, nulli...homini, wraps nicely around the verb.

1427. Nihil est perpetuum datum.

You can find this observation in Plautus's Cistellaria.

1428. Nox est perpetua una dormienda.

The words are from Catullus, 5. Note the use of the gerundive, feminine singular, agreeing with nox, night.

1429. Vita perpetuum proelium.

Note the nice alliteration in perpetuum-proelium.

1430. Esto perpetua.

This is the motto of the state of Idaho. Note that the future imperative can take both second- and third-person subjects, which is the case here: esto is a third-person future imperative (something like the use of the subjunctive sit) - "May she (Idaho) last forever!"

1431. Sola virtus gaudium perpetuum.

[solus: only, alone, sole] Here you have a subject noun phrase, sola virtus, and a predicate noun phrase, gaudium perpetuum. Note that while a predicate adjective does have to agree with its subject, that is not the case for noun phrases; you can certainly have a feminine noun phrase as the subject and a neuter noun phrase as the predicate, just as you see here in this saying. The words are adapted from Seneca's Epistulae, 3.27.

1432. Homo non sibi soli natus, sed patriae.

Note the contrasting dative phrases: "for oneself alone," sibi soli, and "for the country," patriae. Although the forms soli and patriae are ambiguous, the word sibi is a good clue that you are dealing with datives!

1433. Nemo sibi soli, sed aliis nascitur.

Here instead of patriae (as in the previous saying), the statement is generalized: aliis, for others.

1434. Non nobis solum nati sumus.

You can also find this saying in an abbreviated form: Non nobis solum. Note that the neuter solum is adverbial here, "non nobis solum," "not only for us/ourselves."

1435. Non sibi solum.

This is an even more abbreviated form of the same idea, now with sibi as the dative and the adverbial solum: Not for oneself only. This is the motto of the Pike School in Andover, Massachusetts.

1436. Si pro te solo oras, pro te solus oras.

Here you have solo in the ablative, agreeing with te: pro te solo, on your behalf alone. Then, you also find solus in the nominative, agreeing with the subject of oras: you pray alone.

1437. Ego meorum solus sum meus.

You can find these words in Terence's Phormio.

1438. Non est bonum esse hominem solum.

Here you have bonum as a substantive adjective: a good thing - non est bonum, it is not a good thing. Meanwhile, hominem and solum are in the accusative, because the subject of an infinitive goes into the accusative case. The infinitive itself, meanwhile, is the subject for the sentence, which you can render into English this way: A man being alone is not a good thing, For a man to be alone is not a good thing, It is not a good thing for a man to be alone, etc. The words are God's, from Genesis 2, when he is deciding to create a companion for Adam.

1439. Solum certum nihil esse certi.

Note how the noun phrase "nihil...certi" - nothing (of) certain - wraps around the infinitive: The one thing that is certain (solum certum) is that there is nothing certain (nihil esse certi).

1440. Cum tuus es, noli servire, nisi tibi soli.

The verb servire takes a dative complement, hence "tibi soli," you alone (remember that solus is one of those special adjectives that has -ius in the genitive and -i in the dative for all genders).

1441. Nemo solus satis sapit.

[sapio: taste, have sense, be wise] You can find these words in Plautus's Miles Gloriosus.

1442. Nemo mortalium omnibus horis sapit.

You can also find this abbreviated form of the saying: Nemo omnibus horis sapit.

1443. Nisi per te sapias, frustra sapientem audias.

This is another one of the sayings collected by Publilius Syrus. It shows the etymological connection between the verb sapio, and the word "sapiens," which is that verb's participle. Note also the hypothetical subjunctives: sapias...audias.

1444. Qui sero sapit, frustra sapit.

As often, the antecedent of the relative pronoun is not expressed: (Is), qui sero sapit, frustra sapit.

1445. Frustra sapiens qui sibi non sapit.

Compare the saying you saw earlier: Aliis cavet; non cavet ipse sibi.

1446. Prima felicitatis pars sapere.

Here the infinitive sapere is being used as a noun: Prima felicitatis pars (est) sapere.

1447. Feliciter bis sapit qui alieno periculo sapit.

You can find these words in Plautus's Mercator. Of course, more dangerous alternative is to acquire wisdom from making your own mistakes: Suo malo sapit.

1448. Ride si sapis.

You will find this sentiment in one of Martial's epigrams, 2.41.

1449. Sape et tace.

This is the motto of the Connellan family.

1450. Sapere aude.

You can find this advice in Horace's Epistles, 1.2.

Scala 30 (1451-1500)

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