Summa est in silvis fames dum lupus lupum vorat

In English: In the woods it is the height of famine when wolf devours wolf.

Following up on the proverbs about wolves in the past few days, I thought this would be a good item to include! As we've learned, wolves would definitely prefer to be eating sheep, but if there is nothing else to eat, then the wolves will even turn upon each other, making it a "wolf eat wolf" world. Or, as an English saying has it, "It's a hard winter, when one wolf eats another."

There are some nice variants on this saying as well. For example, here's one about bears rather than about wolves: In nemore alta fames, ursus si devorat ursum, "it's high famine in the grove if bear devours bear."

My favorite variant, though, is this one about the she-wolf, lupula, which goes like this: quando lupum lupula vorat esurit undique silva, "when the she-wolf devours the wolf, the woods are hungry everywhere."

Curious about the word lupula? It is a diminutive of the word lupa, meaning she-wolf. This is a process of Latin word formation that you can see for other feminine nouns, such as ancilla-ancillula, "maid-servant," villa-villula, "country house," etc.

Probably the most famous example of this kind of diminutive is the word animula in the little poem supposedly composed by the emperor Hadrian as he was dying:

animula vagula blandula,
hospes comesque corporis,
quae nunc abibis in loca
pallidula rigida nudula
nec, ut soles, dabis iocos!

Sweet little wandering soul, guest and companion of the body, you who will now depart into those places, gloomy, unbending, bare, you who will no longer joke around, as you normally do.

Meanwhile, back to today's proverb - here it is read out loud:

1193. Summa est in silvis fames dum lupus lupum vorat.

The number here is the number for this proverb in Latin Via Proverbs: 4000 Proverbs, Mottoes and Sayings for Students of Latin.

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Lupi apud oves custodes

In English: The wolves are watching over the sheep.

I thought that after yesterday's proverb about the wolf in sheep's clothing, I would post some more proverbs about wolves and sheep. Even if we no longer are a pastoral people, we can still appreciate the metaphorical relationship between the wolves and sheep. If the wolves have been put in charge of guarding the sheep, things are not looking good for the sheep!

You can find this proverbial notion of the wolves guarding the sheep in Plautus's Pseudolus, and it's also a motif found in Aesop's fables. For example, there is a fable about a man who foolishly decided to raise wolf cubs to guard his sheep, and to also prey on the flocks of his neighbors. I don't have a Latin version of this story (Perry 209; compare Perry 366), but here's a translation of a Greek version:

A shepherd found some wolf cubs and he brought them up, thinking that the fully grown wolves would both guard his flock and steal other people's sheep to bring back to his sheepfold. But when the cubs grew up, the first thing they did was to destroy the man's own flock. The man groaned and said, 'It serves me right! Why didn't I kill them when they were little?'

Here's a version of the same idea where a shepherd foolishly comes to trust a grown wolf (Perry 234):

A wolf followed along after a flock of sheep without doing them any harm. At first the shepherd kept his eye on the wolf as a potential enemy to the flock and never let him out of his sight. But as the wolf continued to accompany the shepherd and did not make any kind of attempt to raid the flock, the shepherd eventually began to regard the wolf more as a guardian of the flock than as a threat. Then, when the shepherd happened to have to go to town, he commended the sheep to the wolf in his absence. The wolf seized his chance and attacked the sheep, slaughtering most of the flock. When the shepherd came back and saw that his flock had been utterly destroyed, he said, 'It serves me right! How could I have ever trusted my sheep to a wolf?'

For a Latin fable, here's a delightful little story by the medieval preacher, Odo of Cheriton:

Contigit quod quidam paterfamilias habuit XII oves. Voluit peregrinari et commendavit oves suas Ysemgrino, id est lupo, compatri suo. Et compater iuravit quod bene conservaret eas. Profectus est statim. Ysemgrinus interim cogitavit de ovibus et uno die comedit de una, altera die de alia, ita quod vix tres invenit paterfamilias, quando reversus est. Quaerebat a compatre quid factum fuerit de aliis ovibus. Respondit Ysemgrinus quod mors ex temperalitate venit super eas. Et dixit paterfamilias: Da mihi pelles; et inventa sunt vestigia dentium lupi. Et ait paterfamilias: Reus es mortis; et fecit lupum suspendi.

It happened that a certain householder had 12 sheep. he wanted to go on a pilgrimage and he entrusted his sheep to Isengrimus, that is, to the wolf, his compadre. And his compadre swore that he would take care of the sheep. The man then departed straightaway. The wolf, meanwhile, kept thinking about those sheep and one day he ate one sheep, and the next day another, and so there were scarcely three sheep left when the man returned hom. He asked his compadre what had happened to the other sheep. The wolf answered that death had unexpectedly come upon the sheep. And the householder said: Give me their skins, and the marks of the wolf's teeth were found there. And the householder said: You are condemned to death; and he had the wolf hanged."

So, remember to watch out for those wolves when you are deciding what to do with your sheep while you are on vacation this summer!

Meanwhile, here is today's proverb read out loud:

406. Lupi apud oves custodes.

The number here is the number for this proverb in Latin Via Proverbs: 4000 Proverbs, Mottoes and Sayings for Students of Latin.

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Pelle sub agnina latitat mens saepe lupina

In English: Beneath the lamb's skin often lurks a wolf's mind.

After the delightful rhyme of yesterday's proverb, In vestimentis non est sapientia mentis, I wanted to do another rhyming proverb today: Pelle sub agnina latitat mens saepe lupina. Classical Latin avoided rhyme, but medieval writers embraced it, and I will confess to being very fond of rhyme myself, so I like today's proverb very much!

The motif of the "wolf in sheep's clothing" is very common, and even has a Biblical precedent, as in Matthew 7, when Jesus warns of false prophets: Adtendite a falsis prophetis qui veniunt ad vos in vestimentis ovium intrinsecus autem sunt lupi rapaces, "Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing but who inwardly are ravening wolves."

I was also intrigued to find another saying with the phrase pelle sub agnina, but this one does not rhyme. Instead, it is an elegiac couplet:

Sub nive pix, et fel sub melle, lutumque sub auro:
Pelle sub agnina corda lupina latent.

Tar beneath snow, bile beneath honey, and mud beneath gold: beneath the lamb's skin the wolf's mind is hiding.

There's also a great Aesop's fable about a wolf in sheep's clothing - but this wolf gets caught, and hanged, by the shepherd, as you can see in this dramatic illustration by Francis Barlow. Here's the story:

Lupus ovis pelle indutus, ovum se emiscuit gregi, quotidieque aliquam ex eis occidebat, quod cum Pastor animadvertisset, illum in altissima arbore suspendit. Interrogantibus autem ceteris Pastoribus, cur ovem suspendisset, respondebat: Pellis quidem est ovis, opera autem erant Lupi.

A wolf, dressed in a sheep's skin, blended himself in with the flock of sheep, every day killed one of the sheep. When the shepherd noticed this was happening, he hanged the wolf on a very tall tree. When other shepherds asked him why he had hanged a sheep, the shepherd answered: The skin is that of a sheep, but the activities are those of a wolf.

I really like the fact that the other shepherds think that their colleague has hanged a sheep - not realizing that it's a wolf in sheep's clothing

So, hoping your flocks have been free of wolves, here is today's proverb read out loud:

1186. Pelle sub agnina latitat mens saepe lupina.

The number here is the number for this proverb in Latin Via Proverbs: 4000 Proverbs, Mottoes and Sayings for Students of Latin.

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In vestimentis non est sapientia mentis

In English: Wisdom of mind is not in the clothing.

Today's saying has a message very similar to the message of yesterday's proverb, Sub pallio sordido sapientia, "Beneath a filthy cloak, wisdom." Today's proverb makes the same point from the opposite direction: not only does wisdom lurk under filthy clothes, but if somebody is dressed elegantly, this does not mean there is anything elegant about their intelligence.

The real charm of today's proverb is in the special form that it takes in the Latin, with the rhyme that is characteristic of so many medieval Latin proverbs: In vestimentis non est sapientia mentis.

To come up with an English translation that really does justice to the form of the Latin, we might say: "You can't tell from his clothes what somebody knows."

There's another rhyming medieval Latin proverb which offers yet another way of expressing this same basic idea: In vili veste nemo tractatur honeste, "In shabby clothes, no one is treated decently." A rhyming version...? How about: "If your clothes look shabby, you'll be treated badly." Okay, it's not a perfect rhyme - but it's close!

If you put these three sayings together, you get a pretty good sense of how mixed-up the world can be: sometimes a person in shabby clothes is really wise, while a person dressed in fancy clothes is not necessarily smart - but it's the person dressed in shabby clothes who is bound to be treated badly.

Of course, as you listen to my disembodied voice here, you cannot tell if I am just wearing an old t-shirt or a tuxedo (thank goodness!)...

385. In vestimentis non est sapientia mentis.

The number here is the number for this proverb in Latin Via Proverbs: 4000 Proverbs, Mottoes and Sayings for Students of Latin.

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Sub pallio sordido sapientia

In English: Beneath a filthy cloak, wisdom.

This is yet another addition to the recent proverbs I've included about wisdom, sapientia. Today's proverb is about how looks can be deceiving. You might not expect to find wisdom in someone wearing a filthy cloak, but this proverb alerts you to that this is indeed where wisdom might be lurking.

There are many variations on this saying, such as the version quoted in Cicero's Tusculan Disputations: Saepe est etiam sub palliolo sordido sapientia, "It often happens that even under a filthy little cloak, there is wisdom." This version features the diminutive palliolo instead of pallio.

A famous example of wisdom lurking beneath a filthy cloak would be the cynic philosopher Diogenes, who delighted in scandalizing the public by his shabby lifestyle, residing, as he did, in a barrel! There are many wonderful anecdotes about Diogenes recorded in Diogenes Laertius's Lives and Opinions of the Eminent Philosophers.

For example, the story goes that Diogenes was inspired to his way of life by observing the habits of a mouse:

And when, as Theophrastus tells us, in his Megaric Philosopher, he saw a mouse running about and not seeking for a bed, nor taking care to keep in the dark, nor looking for any of those things which appear enjoyable to such an animal, he found a remedy for his own poverty. He was, according to the account of some people, the first person who doubled up his cloak out of necessity, and who slept in it; and who carried a wallet, in which he kept his food; and who used whatever place was near for all sorts of purposes, eating, and sleeping, and conversing in it.

Diogenes constantly sought to divest himself of anything material that he could do without. Just as he was inspired by the mouse, he was inspired by the way in which some poor children managed to do without the accoutrements of daily life:

On one occasion he saw a child drinking out of its hands, and so he threw away the cup which belonged to his wallet, saying, "That child has beaten me in simplicity." He also threw away his spoon, after seeing a boy, when he had broken his vessel, take up his lentils with a crust of bread.

Needless to say, his cloak became rather filthy in the process! Here's a story about what happened when he went into a rich man's fancy house:

Once, when a man had conducted him into a magnificent house, and had told him that he must not spit, after hawking a little, he spit in his face, saying that he could not find a worse place.

Diogenes was both a philosopher and a beggar, and he is supposed to have said this very wise thing about the difference between these two professions:

When asked why people give to beggars and not to philososophers, he said, "Because they think it possible that they themselves may become lame and blind, but they do not expect ever to turn out philosophers."

Ingenious!So, hoping you are feeling at home in whatever cloak you happen to be wearing, here is today's proverb read out loud:

148. Sub pallio sordido sapientia.

The number here is the number for this proverb in Latin Via Proverbs: 4000 Proverbs, Mottoes and Sayings for Students of Latin.

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Sapientis est mutare consilium

In English: It is for the wise person to change his mind.

I'm carrying on with saying about wisdom and wise people, and I thought this would be a great addition. Being able to change your mind, especially to admit that you might have made a mistake, is a great sign of wisdom.

There are a wide range of variations on this saying that give some different nuances to the idea. Seneca, for example, tells us that it is not a shameful thing to change your mind depending on the situation, non est turpe cum re mutare consilium. Here Seneca emphasizes one factor that would lead a person to change his mind: the res, the situation, can change, necessitating a change in plans.

Publilius Syrus emphasizes that the nature of a good plan is that it is a plan that can be changed: Malum est consilium, quod mutari non potest, "A bad plan is one that cannot be changed." This is a saying that our President might do well to ponder these days. A variant on this particular saying insists that there is no plan that cannot be changed: Nullum consilium est quod mutari non potest.

Finally, my favorite variation on today's saying is one that highlights the contrast between the wise man on the one hand, and the foolish man on the other: Prudentis est mutare consilium; stultus sic luna mutatur, "It's for the prudent man to change his mind; the foolish man changes like the moon." So the idea is that you do not want to be constantly changing, as the moon does, different with every single passing day. You do need to be able to change your mind, though, if needed.

And here is today's proverb read out loud:

1244. Sapientis est mutare consilium.

The number here is the number for this proverb in Latin Via Proverbs: 4000 Proverbs, Mottoes and Sayings for Students of Latin.

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Salomone sapientior

In English: Wiser than Solomon.

Given that I've been posting proverbs about wisdom, sapientia, it made sense to choose this saying about the wise King Solomon. Just as Croesus was the proverbial rich man, King Solomon was the proverbial wise man. To be wiser than Solomon would be very wise indeed.There is a fascinating story in the Bible, I Kings 3, about Solomon and God's gift of wisdom. Here is the Latin, along with the King James English version:

5 Apparuit autem Dominus Salomoni per somnium nocte, dicens: Postula quod vis ut dem tibi. In Gibeon the LORD appeared to Solomon in a dream by night: and God said, Ask what I shall give thee.

6 Et ait Salomon: Tu fecisti cum servo tuo David patre meo misericordiam magnam, sicut ambulavit in conspectu tuo in veritate et justitia, et recto corde tecum: custodisti ei misericordiam tuam grandem, et dedisti ei filium sedentem super thronum ejus, sicut est hodie. And Solomon said, Thou hast shewed unto thy servant David my father great mercy, according as he walked before thee in truth, and in righteousness, and in uprightness of heart with thee; and thou hast kept for him this great kindness, that thou hast given him a son to sit on his throne, as it is this day.

7 Et nunc Domine Deus, tu regnare fecisti servum tuum pro David patre meo: ego autem sum puer parvulus, et ignorans egressum et introitum meum. And now, O LORD my God, thou hast made thy servant king instead of David my father: and I am but a little child: I know not how to go out or come in.

8 Et servus tuus in medio est populi quem elegisti, populi infiniti, qui numerari et supputari non potest præ multitudine. And thy servant is in the midst of thy people which thou hast chosen, a great people, that cannot be numbered nor counted for multitude.

9 Dabis ergo servo tuo cor docile, ut populum tuum judicare possit, et discernere inter bonum et malum. Quis enim poterit judicare populum istum, populum tuum hunc multum? Give therefore thy servant an understanding heart to judge thy people, that I may discern between good and bad: for who is able to judge this thy so great a people?

10 Placuit ergo sermo coram Domino, quod Salomon postulasset hujuscemodi rem. And the speech pleased the LORD, that Solomon had asked this thing.

11 Et dixit Dominus Salomoni: Quia postulasti verbum hoc, et non petisti tibi dies multos, nec divitias, aut animas inimicorum tuorum, sed postulasti tibi sapientiam ad discernendum judicium: And God said unto him, Because thou hast asked this thing, and hast not asked for thyself long life; neither hast asked riches for thyself, nor hast asked the life of thine enemies; but hast asked for thyself understanding to discern judgment;

12 ecce feci tibi secundum sermones tuos, et dedi tibi cor sapiens et intelligens, in tantum ut nullus ante te similis tui fuerit, nec post te surrecturus sit. Behold, I have done according to thy words: lo, I have given thee a wise and an understanding heart; so that there was none like thee before thee, neither after thee shall any arise like unto thee.

13 Sed et hæc quæ non postulasti, dedi tibi: divitias scilicet, et gloriam, ut nemo fuerit similis tui in regibus cunctis retro diebus. And I have also given thee that which thou hast not asked, both riches, and honour: so that there shall not be any among the kings like unto thee all thy days.

14 Si autem ambulaveris in viis meis, et custodieris præcepta mea et mandata mea, sicut ambulavit pater tuus, longos faciam dies tuos. And if thou wilt walk in my ways, to keep my statutes and my commandments, as thy father David did walk, then I will lengthen thy days.

15 Igitur evigilavit Salomon, et intellexit quod esset somnium And Solomon awoke; and, behold, it was a dream.

A dream? Or not? I've always found that a tantalizing story.

Meanwhile, there is a book of the Bible called "The Wisdom of Solomon." It forms part of the Catholic and Orthodox Bibles, but it is assigned to the apocryphal books in King James and other Protestant Bibles, and it does not form part of the Hebrew Bible. You can read the Latin and Greek texts of the book at the Sacred Texts website. That book is written as if by Solomon in the first person. If you are interested in learning more about it, I've written up some information at the Religious Reading blog.Meanwhile, wishing you all the wisdom of Solomon, here is today's proverb read out loud:

648. Salomone sapientior.

The number here is the number for this proverb in Latin Via Proverbs: 4000 Proverbs, Mottoes and Sayings for Students of Latin.

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Forma raro cum sapientia

In English: Brains together with beauty are rare.

I thought this was a good contribution to the previous days' proverbs about wisdom, sapientia. Today's saying is also about "wisdom," although I've used the word "brains" here in the English translation since the alliteration of "brains" and "beauty" in English was hard to resist!

The Latin word for beauty is very interesting: forma literally means "form" or "shape," but it also has all kinds of positive connotations, something like the English word "shapely."

There's a related adjective formosus, "full of form, full of shapeliness, beautiful." This is the word which gave the island of Formosa, now Taiwan, its name. The Portuguese sailors called Taiwan "Formosa" because it was so beautiful.

In Spanish, the word for pretty, hermoso, is derived directly from the Latin formosus (based on the usual rule where Latin f- becomes Spanish h-, as in fabulare-hablar, factum-hecho, etc.).

In Phaedrus, you can find a saying about how external beauty is no indicator of inner quality: formosos saepe inveni pessimos, et turpi facie multos cognovi optimos, "I have often found the beautiful people to be worthless, and I have known many who were ugly to look at to be the best sort of people."

Now, the Romans were also doubtful not only about the brains of the beautiful people, but also of the tall people! Another Latin saying states, Homo longus raro sapiens, "A tall man is rarely wise." There's even a great Aesop's fable about why the tall people ended up short on intelligence!

After Zeus had fashioned the human race, he ordered Hermes to give them intelligence. Hermes divided intelligence into equal portions and then applied it to each person. The result was that short people became wise, since they were more completely suffused with the standard dose of intelligence, while the tall people turned out stupid, since the potion that was poured into their bodies did not even reach as high as their knees.

So, with no hard feelings for the beautiful people and tall people who might be reading this blog, here is today's proverb read out loud:

28. Forma raro cum sapientia.

The number here is the number for this proverb in Latin Via Proverbs: 4000 Proverbs, Mottoes and Sayings for Students of Latin.

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Dubium sapientiae initium

In English: Doubt is the beginning of wisdom.

I thought this would be a good follow-up to the recent proverbs I've posted about wise people and about wisdom. Today's proverb is a very simple proverb, the sort of thing you can probably include in the first week or a beginning Latin class, and it contains a message of profound importance for students. In order to really learn something and gain wisdom, you need to have some question in your mind, a question that you want to answer. That moment of doubt is the spur to your best learning.

There is a grammatically more complex version of this same saying: Dubitando ad veritatem pervenimus, "by means of doubt, we arrive at the truth." (I've seen this saying attributed to Cicero, although I am not sure in what work you will find it.)

In the Prologue to Abelard's Sic et Non, the process of learning by doubting is broken up into two distinct stages: Dubitando quippe ad inquisitionem venimus; inquirendo veritatem percipimus, "by doubt indeed we come to questioning; by questioning, we perceive the truth."

Abelard calls questioning the "key to wisdom," Haec quippe prima sapientiae clavis definitur assidua scilicet seu frequens interrogatio.

Abelard's Sic et Non treatise is a perfect example of the learning that can be provoked by doubt. As the title indicates, what Abelard does here is to arrange contradictory statements from the church fathers, putting them side by side, thus provoking all kinds of doubt and deliberation. There are 158 "doubtful" topics for you to ponder in this treatise, such as whether God is the cause of the son, or not (quod deus pater sit causa filii, et contra), whether God can do all things, or not (quod omnia possit deus et non), whether Adam is buried in the placed called Calvary, or not (quod Adam in loco Calvariae sepultus sit et non), whether all the apostles except for John had wives, or not (quod omnes apostoli excepto Iohanne uxores habuerint et contra), etc.

So much doubt - and so much wisdom to be gained as a result!

So, wishing you lots of questions on your road to truth, here is today's proverb read out loud:

134. Dubium sapientiae initium.

The number here is the number for this proverb in Latin Via Proverbs: 4000 Proverbs, Mottoes and Sayings for Students of Latin.

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Omnia sapientibus facilia

In English: All things are easy for the wise.

Like yesterday's proverb, today's saying is about the advantages of being wise. In today's proverb, the emphasis is on what the wise person is capable of doing. Anything at all is easy for the wise person to do. You can also find this phrase expressed in variant forms, such as Facilia sapientibus cuncta, and the superlative version, Omnia sapientibus facillima.

Note the shared root in the Latin word for "easy," facilis, and the verb meaning "to do," facere. "Easy" in Latin means "easy-to-do." To keep that connection in the English translation, we might say "all things are do-able for the wise."

You can find this saying in Erasmus's Adagia (2.9.56), who adds the following comments: Nihil est tam arduum, quod prudenti consilio non facile conficiatur, "Nothing is so difficult that it cannot be easily accomplished with careful planning." So, that is one reason why things are easy for people who are wise. If you are wise, you can think things through in advance, and if you think things through in advance, it will all go much more easily!

Yet Erasmus adds another comment which deepens the notion of just what is involved in being wise: Aut, nihil tam acerbum, quod sapiens non aequo animo facileque ferat, ratione cuncta leniente, "Plus, there is nothing so bitter, that the wise person is not able to bear it easily with equanimity, since thoughtful reflection alleviates everything."

This seems to me the heart of wisdom - something like the famous serenity prayer: "Grant to us the serenity of mind to accept that which cannot be changed; the courage to change that which can be changed, and the wisdom to know the one from the other." I'm not sure that's the kind of wisdom we are teaching in school, but it is definitely the kind of wisdom we would all do well to have!

Meanwhile, here is today's proverb read out loud:

494. Omnia sapientibus facilia.

The number here is the number for this proverb in Latin Via Proverbs: 4000 Proverbs, Mottoes and Sayings for Students of Latin.

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Sapiens a se ipso pendet

In English: The wise man relies on himself.

I thought this would make a good follow-up to yesterday's proverb, which told us that Nemo nisi sapiens liber est, "No one, unless he is wise, is free." Today's proverb provides a different perspective on this same idea. The wise man's freedom consists in self-sufficiency. Someone who is wise can rely on his own knowledge, rather than having to depend on other people's knowledge.

If you push at the Latin word pendet you can see the idea of freedom emerging. From the same root as Latin pendere, "to hang," comes the word dependere, "to hang on something, to depend."

Now, just negate that word: in-dependent. Someone that is in-dependent does not hang on something or somebody else. Independence is freedom - which is how we ended up with a "Declaration of Independence" back in 1776.

So, the wise man in today's proverb is someone who "pends on himself," so to speak, and does not depend on anybody else. The wise man is independent, taking us back to yesterday's proverb which asserted that no man, in fact, can be free (independent), unless he is wise.

So, with good wishes to all of you out there exploring the independence of wisdom, here is today's proverb read out loud:

1516. Sapiens a se ipso pendet.

The number here is the number for this proverb in Latin Via Proverbs: 4000 Proverbs, Mottoes and Sayings for Students of Latin.

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Nemo nisi sapiens liber est

In English: No one, unless he is wise, is free.

This is the latest in the series of nemo proverbs. It also happens to be a proverb that resonates really nicely with a project I've been thinking about a lot lately since reading a book by Stephen Prothero, Religious Literacy: What Every American Needs to Know--And Doesn't. The main argument of the book is that religious literacy, or the lack of it, is a real problem for American democracy today. This book was so thought-provoking for me that I've started up a new blog, ReligiousReading.com, collecting teaching materials I can use to promote religious literacy in my classes.

The connection between education and democracy is a theme that John Dewey wrote about very eloquently many years ago, insisting that effective education is a vital component in the functioning of democracy. If the citizenry is not educated, then how can they participate responsibly in civic life? You can read John Dewey's Democracy and Education online at the ILTweb site.

The idea that only the wise man is free is a topic much studied by ancient philosophers. As Cicero explains in his Paradoxa: dictum est igitur ab eruditissimis viris nisi sapientem liberum esse neminem, "therefore it has been said by the most educated men that no one can be free unless he is wise."

To put a positive twist on this topic, consider this encouraging motto: Liber ac sapiens esto, "be free and wise!" (a motto you can find in Persius). Now, I'm not so sure that this is the personal motto that all of my students have adopted as they pursue their studies at the university, but it's a motto I would fully endorse.

So, with happy thoughts of education as liberation, here is today's proverb read out loud:

878. Nemo nisi sapiens liber est.

The number here is the number for this proverb in Latin Via Proverbs: 4000 Proverbs, Mottoes and Sayings for Students of Latin.

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Nemo ante mortem beatus

In English: No one (can be called) happy before his death.

Here is another of the nemo proverbs; this time it is a warning about not calling anyone blessed or happy, beatus, before he's experienced all that life has had to offer.

There are a variety of different forms of this particular saying. For example, you might say obitus instead of mors: Ante obitum nemo beatus. Other versions of the saying are more specific about not being too quick to call someone happy: Ante obitum nemo beatus dici potest, "Before his passing, no one can be called happy."

For a literary source, consider Ovid's Metamorphoses:

[...] scilicet ultima semper
exspectanda dies hominis, dicique beatus
ante obitum nemo supremaque funera debet.

For a man's final day is always to be waited for, and no one should be called blessed before his passing and his last funeral rites.

The context is the story of Cadmus, who has just founded the city of Thebes and taken the goddess Harmonia as his wife. All seems to be going well for Cadmus:

Iam stabant Thebae, poteras iam, Cadme, videri
exilio felix: soceri tibi Marsque Venusque
contigerant; huc adde genus de coniuge tanta,
tot natos natasque et, pignora cara, nepotes,
hos quoque iam iuvenes...

Thebes was now standing, and you could now seem, Cadmus, to be happy in your exile. Mars and Venus have become your parents-in-law; add to this your offspring by such a wife, so many sons and daughters, and grandchildren, those precious descendants, and they too grown into men...

Unfortunately, Cadmus's offspring bring him all kinds of grief! His daughter Autonoe had a son, Actaeon, who was eaten by his own dogs. Another daughter, Semele, was burned up in the fiery blaze of Zeus's epiphany. Yet another daughter, Agave, killed her own son in a fit of madness, and Cadmus's fourth daughter, Ino, when pursued by her husband in a murderous rage, jumped into the sea desperately trying to save herself and her son.

Sadly, in the end, after all these disasters had undone all his success, Cadmus turned into a snake, as did his wife. They are gentle snakes, Cadmus and Harmonia, as Ovid explains:

nunc quoque nec fugiunt hominem nec vulnere laedunt
quidque prius fuerint, placidi meminere dracones,

even now they do not flee from a person nor do they bite, peaceable dragons, they remember what they once were.

So, remembering the fate of the mighty Cadmus and his wife Harmonia, here is today's proverb read out loud:

412. Nemo ante mortem beatus.

The number here is the number for this proverb in Latin Via Proverbs: 4000 Proverbs, Mottoes and Sayings for Students of Latin.

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Nemo non formosus filius matri

In English: No one fails to be a beautiful son for his mother.

Here's another proverb built on the Latin nemo, as we've seen in the previous days' sayings. Today's saying says that there is nobody who is not beautiful, at least so far as his mother is concerned! Quintilian asks the rheotorical question, quis enim non est formosus filius matri?, "who indeed is not a beautiful son for his mother?" The answer, as today's proverb, tells us: nemo, there is no one who is not a beautiful son in his mother's eyes.

There are many Aesop's fables about the special love between a mother and her children, or a father and his children, which might seem ridiculous to an outside observer. My favorite example is the story of the frog and his slippers as told by the medieval preacher Odo of Cheriton:

Contigit quod animalia celebraverunt concilium. Bufo misit illuc filium suum. Sed oblitus sotulares suos novos, quaesiuit Bufo aliquod animal velox, qui posset ad concilium accelerare; videbatur sibi quod Lepus bene curreret. Vocavit eum et, mercede constituta, dixit ei quod deferret sotulares novos filio suo. Respondit Lepus: Quomodo potero discernere filium tuum in tali concilio? Dixit Bufo: Ille qui pulcherrimus est inter omnia animalia est filius meus. Dixit Lepus: Numquid Columba uel Pavo est filius tuus? Respondit: Nequaquam, quoniam Columba habet nigras carnes, Pavo turpes pedes. Dixit Lepus: Qualis est igitur filius tuus? Et dixit Bufo: Qui tale habet caput quale est meum, talem ventrem, tales tibias, tales pedes, ille pulcher filius meus. Illi deferas sotulares. Venit Lepus cum sotularibus et narravit Leoni et ceteris bestiis qualiter Bufo pre ceteris filium suum commendavit. Et ait Leo: Si quis amat Ranam, Ranam putat esse Dianam.

It once happened that the animals were holding a council. The toad sent his son there, but his son forgot his new shoes, so the toad sought some fast animal who could hurry to the council. It seemed to the toad that the rabbit could run quickly so he summoned the rabbit and, having a reward had been agreed upon, he told the rabbit to take the new shoes to his son. The rabbit replied, "How will I be able to recognize your son in such a council?" The toad said, "The one who is the most beautiful among all the animals is my son." The rabbit said, "So is the dove or the peacock your son?" The toad replied, "Not at all! The dove has black flesh and the peacock has ugly feet." The rabbit said, "What is your son like then?" And the toad said, "The one who has a head like mine and a belly like mine, and legs and feet like mine, that good-looking creature is my son. You should take the shoes to him." The rabbit came with the shoes and told the lion and the other beasts that the toad had praised his son more highly than all the others. And the lion said, "If someone loves a frog, he thinks that frog is the goddess of love."

The last bit depends on a bit of rhyme in Latin: Si quis amat Ranam, Ranam putat esse Dianam, "if someone loves a frog, he thinks the frog is Diana" (who is a goddess, but not the goddess of love; Diana's virtue here is that she rhymes with rana, "frog").

So, with best wishes to all you beautiful children out there and all you doting children, here is today's proverb read out loud:

332. Nemo non formosus filius matri.

The number here is the number for this proverb in Latin Via Proverbs: 4000 Proverbs, Mottoes and Sayings for Students of Latin.

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Absque sanitate nemo felix

In English: Without good health, no one is happy.

Like yesterday's proverb, today's saying is based on the Latin nemo. The word I really want to focus on today, though, is sanitas, "health, good health, sanity."

As you can see, the Latin noun sanitas is based on the adjectival root, sanus, meaning "healthy." We have both the words "sanity" and "sane" in English, yet these have pretty much become limited to the field of mental health. When you say that someone is sane, you are referring to their soundness of mind, and if you say they are insane, they are suffering from some kind of mental problem, rather than any other form of ill health.

Yet the sense of "health" can be seen in other English words that ultimately derive from Latin sanus, such as "sanitary," "sanitize," and "sanatorium." These are all terms that pertain to general physical health, rather than mental health.

Originally, the word "sanity" conveyed the sense of good physical health in English, too. For example, Thomas Browne, writing in 1646, could say that "Therapeuticke or curative Physicke, we tearm that which restoreth the Patient unto sanity." The Oxford English Dictionary also provides 18th-century citations, such as this one: "A raging wind clears the country of all the Flies and Fleas it meets with, and restores sanity to the air."

As for the English meaning of "sanity" referring to mental health, it seems appropriate that the first citation provided by the OED is from Shakespeare's play devoted to that melancholy madman, Hamlet: "A happinesse, That often Madnesse hits on, Which Reason and Sanitie could not So prosperously be deliuer'd of."

In Latin, sanitas could also refer to mental health, of course, but it is very interesting how this has become pretty much the exclusive meaning of the word in English. I'm guessing that this has to do with the fact that the Germanic word "health" occupied the space devoted to physical healthiness in English, so the word "sanity" had to specialize if it wanted to play a vital part in English vocabulary.

So, hoping you are enjoying "sanity" in both its physical and mental varieties, here is today's proverb read out loud:

441. Absque sanitate nemo felix.

The number here is the number for this proverb in Latin Via Proverbs: 4000 Proverbs, Mottoes and Sayings for Students of Latin.

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Nemo sine sapientia beatus est

In English: Without wisdom, no man is happy.

Like yesterday's proverb, this saying uses the Latin nemo, ne-homo, "nobody, no man." You can find today's saying in Augustine's treatise on free will. Here is the complete sentence: Ut ergo constat nos beatos esse uelle, itanos constat esse uelle sapientes, quia nemo sine sapientia beatus est, "As therefore it is agreed that we want to be happy, so it is agreed that we want to be wise, because no man is happy without wisdom."

I was glad to include today's proverb because it fits in perfectly with a blog post I did over at my new ReligiousReading.com blog, providing an overview of the Book of the Wisdom of Solomon, an apocryphal book of the Bible. I'm doing a "Bible Book of the Week" series; you can learn more about that over at SchoolhouseWidgets.com.

The Book of Wisdom contains some beautiful passages in praise of wisdom, such as the following: Omnibus enim mobilibus mobilior est sapientia: attingit autem ubique propter suam munditiam. Vapor est enim virtutis Dei, et emanatio quaedam est claritatis omnipotentis Dei sincera, et ideo nihil inquinatum in eam incurrit: candor est enim lucis aeternae, et speculum sine macula Dei majestatis, et imago bonitatis illius, "For wisdom is more moving than all things that move: she penetrates everywhere because of her purity. For she is the breath of the power of God, a pure outpouring of the radiance of almighty God, and thus nothing polluted assails her, for she is the brightness of the eternal light, and a mirror without spot of God's majesty, and an image of his goodness."

So, with kudos to all the seekers of wisdom out there, here is today's proverb read out loud:

356. Nemo sine sapientia beatus est.

The number here is the number for this proverb in Latin Via Proverbs: 4000 Proverbs, Mottoes and Sayings for Students of Latin.

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Nemo cum sarcinis enatat

In English: No one swims away with his bundles.

After yesterday's proverb about nemo est supra leges, I thought I would do some more proverbs with the wonderful Latin nemo, "nobody" (ne-homo, "no-man").

Today's proverb is cited by Seneca, and it is beautifully illustrated in a story about the poet Simonides, which is recounted in one of the fables of Phaedrus. As Phaedrus tells us, Simonides was able to "swim out" of a shipwreck to safety precisely because he didn't have any bundles to weigh him down:

A learned man always has rich inner resources. Simonides, that extraordinary author of lyric poems, found an excellent remedy for his straitened circumstances by travelling around the most famous cities of the Asia, singing the praises of victorious athletes in exchange for a fee. When he had grown wealthy in this venture, he was ready to take a sea voyage and go back to his native land (he was born, so they say, on the island of Ceos). He boarded a ship, but a terrible storm (plus the sheer age of the ship) caused it to sink in the middle of the sea. Some of the passengers grabbed their money belts, while others held onto their valuables and any possible means of subsistence. A passenger who was more curious than the rest asked the poet, 'Simonides, why aren't you taking along any of your own stuff?' He replied, 'All that is mine is right here with me.' It turned out that only a few were able to swim ashore, while the majority drowned, weighed down by what they were carrying. Then bandits arrived and took from the survivors whatever they had brought ashore, stripping them naked. As it happened, the ancient city of Clazomenae was not far off, which is where the shipwrecked people then turned. In this city there lived a man inclined to literary pursuits who had often read Simonides's compositions and who was his great admirer from afar. He recognized Simonides simply from his manner of speaking and eagerly invited him to his house, regaling him with clothes and money and servants. Meanwhile, the rest of the survivors carried around placards, begging for food. When Simonides happened to run into them, he took one look and exclaimed, 'Just as I said: all that is mine is right here with me, but everything that you took with you has now vanished.'

If you are interested in reading the Latin text, I've got the text and some reading tips at the LatinViaFables.com website.

This is a story that has a special meaning for me right now as I am in the process of moving. My preference when moving is to get rid of stuff and to take with me as little as possible - and I've never regretted the things I've gotten rid of in order to lighten my load when moving. So, as I get ready to "swim out" of Norman, Oklahoma sometime within the next month, I'll be trying to get rid of as many sarcinae as possible!

So, with a nod to Simonides, here is today's proverb read out loud:

1153. Nemo cum sarcinis enatat.

The number here is the number for this proverb in Latin Via Proverbs: 4000 Proverbs, Mottoes and Sayings for Students of Latin.

If you are reading this via RSS: The Flash audio content is not syndicated via RSS; please visit the Latin Audio Proverbs blog to listen to the audio.

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Nemo est supra leges

In English: No one is above the laws.

I thought this would be a good follow-up to yesterday's saying about Caesar not being above the grammarians. Today's saying is standard fare in legal Latin. You can also find it in a variant form, nemo est supra legem, "no one is above the law."

The notion of who is, and isn't, above the law is a problem that plagues all societies which have a legal code. I found a great passage in Pliny the Younger's Panegyric for the Emperor Trajan, which praises Trajan precisely because he did not place himself above the law (at least, not according to Pliny's glowing assessment). Pliny is delighted that Trajan does "the same thing as a prince that he did when a private citizen; the same thing as emperor, as when he was the emperor's subject," idem principem, quod privatum; idem imperatorem, quod sub imperatore.

There is clearly a difference between princes and private citizens and laws are written for private citizens, not for princes - yet according to Pliny, Trajan willingly subjected himself to those laws: ipse te legibus subiecisti: legibus, Caesar, quas nemo principi scripsit.

For Pliny, this is something completely unheard of. Quod ego nunc primum audio, nunc primum disco, "I am hearing this for the first time, I am discovering this for the first time." And just what it is that Pliny has discovered? Non est princeps supra leges, sed leges supra principem, "The prince is not above the laws, but the laws are above the prince."

So, that's why I chose this passage from Pliny as a commentary on today's proverb. Nemo est supra leges, not even Prince Trajan.

As for our own Prince, George W., well... I doubt he will find himself as elegant a panegyric writer as Trajan had in Pliny.

Meanwhile, here is today's proverb read out loud:

408. Nemo est supra leges.

The number here is the number for this proverb in Latin Via Proverbs: 4000 Proverbs, Mottoes and Sayings for Students of Latin.

If you are reading this via RSS: The Flash audio content is not syndicated via RSS; please visit the Latin Audio Proverbs blog to listen to the audio.

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Caesar non supra grammaticos

In English: Caesar is not superior to the grammarians.

I thought this saying would make a good follow-up to yesterday's proverb which also invoked the privileges of Caesar. Yesterday's proverb was about the claims of God and the claims of Caesar. Today's proverb is about the competing claims of Caesar and the rules of grammar - with the rules of grammar coming out on top.

This particular Latin saying dates to a legendary incident at the Council of Constance in 1414. The Holy Roman Emperor Sigismund used the word schisma, "schism," as if it were a feminine noun. As a matter of fact, the word is neuter in gender. It is a borrowing from Greek, and like other Greek words ending in -ma, it is neuter (that's how you end up with "il problema" in modern Italian).

Members of the Council explained to Sigismund that he had made a mistake, but Sigismund declared that, because he was the Holy Roman Emperor, the word schisma would now be a feminine noun, even if it had been a neuter noun previously.

A certain archbishop then rose to his feet and declared, Caesar non supra grammaticos, "Caesar is not superior to the grammarians." Consequently, the word schisma remains neuter in gender.

There's a similar incident recorded about the Roman emperor Tiberius, as recorded in the history written by Cassius Dio:

The following year Gaius Caecilius and Lucius Flaccus received the title of consuls. And when some brought Tiberius money at the beginning of the year, he would not accept it and published an edict regarding this very practice, in which he used a word that was not Latin. After thinking it over at night he sent for all who were experts in such matters, for he was extremely anxious to have his diction irreproachable. Thereupon one Ateius Capito declared: "Even if no one has previously used this expression, yet now because of you we shall all cite it as an example of classical usage." But a certain Marcellus replied: "You, Caesar, can confer Roman citizenship upon men, but not upon words." And the emperor did this man no harm for his remark, in spite of its extreme frankness.

Sigismund could take a lesson from Tiberius here!So, giving all due respect to the grammarians, here is today's proverb read out loud:

409. Caesar non supra grammaticos.

The number here is the number for this proverb in Latin Via Proverbs: 4000 Proverbs, Mottoes and Sayings for Students of Latin.

If you are reading this via RSS: The Flash audio content is not syndicated via RSS; please visit the Latin Audio Proverbs blog to listen to the audio. You can also hear this saying read aloud at a Polish website: Wladyslawa Kopalinskiego Slownik wyraz?w obcych i zwrot?w obcojezycznych (weblink).

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Quod dei deo, quod Caesaris Caesari

In English: That which is God's, to God; that which is Caesar's, to Caesar.

I thought this would be a good follow-up to the sayings of the past few days about opposing pairs with the dative. The datives this time are deo-caesari, what is to for God, and what is for Caesar.

This famous saying is found in many forms, of course. Here are the different versions given in the gospels of Matthew, Luke and Mark (it does not appear in John):

Here is the saying as reported in Matthew 22: Reddite ergo, quae sunt Caesaris, Caesari et, quae sunt Dei, Deo, "Therefore give back those things that are Caesar's to Caesar and those things that are God's to God."

The saying is basically the same in Luke 20, with just a slight difference in word order: Reddite ergo, quae Caesaris sunt, Caesari et, quae Dei sunt, Deo, "Therefore give back those things that Caesar's are to Caesar and those things that God's are to God."

Here is Mark 12, again with differences in word order: Quae sunt Caesaris, reddite Caesari et, quae sunt Dei, Deo., "Those things which are Caesar's, give back to Caesar and those things that are God's, to God."

As with all kinds of wisdom sayings, there are actually many different ways to interpret the actual meaning in the words. It's quite fascinating to look at the various interpretations listed in the wikipedia article about the scene. The words could be used to justify the separation of church and state, but they can also provide a justification for obeying authority and paying taxes. Yet others can argue that this saying is instead a rejection of civil authority; what, after all, is not God's and instead can be said to belong to Caesar? At best, it seems that it is risky to cooperate with the state; perhaps the words really mean that we should devote our lives to God. Although if you can practice a complete indifference to wealth, then it is easy to give Caesar's coin to Caesar. Finally some people contend that the point of the proverb is simply to put Jesus's critics into an embarrassing situation from which they cannot easily extract themselves; the saying is not didactic, but purely rhetorical.

As often, translating the words into English is just the beginning of study, not the end. What meaning do these famous words of Jesus hold for you?

So, pondering that thought, here is today's proverb read out loud:

922. Quod dei deo, quod Caesaris Caesari.

The number here is the number for this proverb in Latin Via Proverbs: 4000 Proverbs, Mottoes and Sayings for Students of Latin.

If you are reading this via RSS: The Flash audio content is not syndicated via RSS; please visit the Latin Audio Proverbs blog to listen to the audio. You can also hear a variation on this saying read aloud at a Polish website: Wladyslawa Kopalinskiego Slownik wyraz?w obcych i zwrot?w obcojezycznych (weblink).

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Ars varia vulpi, ars una echino maxima

In English: The fox has various tricks, the hedgehog has one trick, a great one.

I thought this would be a fantastic follow-up to yesterday's post about proverbs which take the form "dative-x, y; dative-not-x, not-y." In today's saying, the two paired sets are the dative pair, vulpi-echino and the corresponding pair ars varia - ars una maxima. The idea is that while the fox knows all kinds of tricks that he can use to try to escape from trouble, the hedgehog knows just one trick he can use, but it is an excellent trick: he rolls up into a spiny ball.

The Latin saying is an adaptation of a line found in the archaic Greek poet Archilochus, who lived in the 7th century B.C.E.: "The fox knows many things, but the hedgehog knows one big thing." (Here is the Greek for those of you who are interested: πόλλ' οἶδ' ἀλώπηξ ἀλλ' ἐχῖνος ἕν μέγας .)

The saying received a new lease on life from its use as the title of Isaiah Berlin's famous essay on the Russian writer, Tolstoy. Berlin uses the dichotomy between the fox and the hedgehog as a rough way of classifying human endeavors: "The first kind of intellectual and artistic personality belongs to the hedgehogs, the second to the foxes; and without insisting on a rigid classification, we may, without too much fear of contradiction, say that, in this sense, Dante belongs to the first category, Shakespeare to the second; Plato, Lucretius, Pascal, Hegel, Dostoevsky, Nietzsche, Ibsen, Proust are, in varying degrees, hedgehogs; Herodotus, Aristotle, Montaigne, Erasmus, Molière, Goethe, Pushkin, Balzak, Joyce are foxes."

Well, probably needless to say, I am an incorrigible fox, and glad to find myself in the company of Erasmus here!

So, for all you fellow foxes and all you hedgehogs, too, here is today's proverb read out loud:

860. Ars varia vulpi, ars una echino maxima.

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The number here is the number for this proverb in Latin Via Proverbs: 4000 Proverbs, Mottoes and Sayings for Students of Latin.

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Vita misero longa, felici brevis

In English: For the wretched man, life is long; for the happy man, it is brief.

This is a saying, a particularly wise one it seems to me, from the proverb collection of Publilius Syrus.

I thought this would be a good follow-up to yesterday's proverb, Vivis piscibus aqua, mortuis vinum, "Water for the live fish, wine for the dead ones," not because the two proverbs share the same theme (they don't), but because they share a very similar underlying grammatical structure: dative-x, y; dative-not-x, not-y.

Although that kind of analysis admittedly abstracts all the meaning out of the proverb, it is still an important step in understanding how the proverb works to achieve its meaning. If you understand the basic formational structure of a proverb, it can help you recognize other proverbial sayings - and it can also give you a prompt for writing your own sayings, too!

In yesterday's proverb, there were two pairs of elements: the dative pair vivis piscibus - mortuis (piscibus) plus aqua-vinum. These two opposed pairs were then fit into a relationship: Vivis piscibus aqua, mortuis vinum.

In today's proverb, there are also two pairs: the dative pair misero-felici and vita longa (est) - (vita) brevis (est). These two pairs were then put into a mutual relationship: Vita misero longa, felici brevis.

You could easily create your own proverbs imitating this structure. Just take a pair of opposed items in the dative, and a pair of opposed nominative phrases or declarative statements, and you are good to go! For example, stulto consilium sterile, sapienti salutare, "for a fool, advice is futile; for a wise man, it is helpful." Okay, admittedly, the English doesn't sound so good - but I did try to achieve some nice sound play in the Latin. In fact, I rather like it!

Anyway, once you are armed with this formal understanding of a proverb's structure, you can appreciate the generative nature of the proverb enterprise. The proverb's structure is kind of like the tune of a song. You can add new lyrics to the same old tune, creating a completely new song. That's basically what happens when the same proverbial structure gets filled up with new ideas.

So, here is today's proverb read out loud... and if you don't like today's proverb, perhaps it will inspire you to make up one of your own instead!

425. Vita misero longa, felici brevis.

The number here is the number for this proverb in Latin Via Proverbs: 4000 Proverbs, Mottoes and Sayings for Students of Latin.

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Vivis piscibus aqua, mortuis vinum.

In English: Water for the live fish, wine for the dead ones.

I thought this would be a good follow-up for yesterday's proverb about the fish and the water. A variant form of the saying is Piscis captivus vinum vult; flumina vivus, "When it's captured, a fish wants wine; while it's alive, it wants rivers."

Fish are perfectly happy to swim in water, but after they are caught and end up on someone's dinner table, they are swimming in wine instead. The humor of this proverb is based on the confusion of categories. Someone who tried to keep a live fish in a fishbowl full of wine would regret it, and someone who found live fish inside their soup would be very distressed, no doubt!

I will confess that my fondness for this proverb goes back to a very old Saturday Night Live sketch featuring Eric Idle, called "The Undersea World of Jacques Cousteau," where in the spirit of fine French cuisine, cheesecake is dumped into an aquarium full of fish, and a bottle of wine is poured into the water. I always wondered about the poor fish in that tank. After all, just as the proverb tells us, "water is for live fish, wine is for dead ones." Somehow I don't think they would be able to claim that "no animals were harmed in the marking of this sketch."

The scene of the food and wine floating around in that aquarium was both terrible and funny at the same time. You know that wine is not supposed to be poured into an aquarium with live fish, and exactly because it's incongruous, it makes you laugh.

There's a whole section of the Humor article in the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy devoted to this "incongruity theory" of humor. You can see some eminent philosophers such as Aristotle, Kant and Schopenhauer et al. explain just why it strikes us as funny when things are out of place.

Meanwhile, here is today's proverb read out loud, hoping you didn't find any live fish in your Soupe De Poissons!

335. Vivis piscibus aqua, mortuis vinum.

The number here is the number for this proverb in Latin Via Proverbs: 4000 Proverbs, Mottoes and Sayings for Students of Latin.

If you are reading this via RSS: The Flash audio content is not syndicated via RSS; please visit the Latin Audio Proverbs blog to listen to the audio.

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Keep up with the latest posts... Subscribe by Email. I also post a daily round-up of all the Bestiaria Latina blogs: fables, proverbs, crosswords, and audio.

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Find out about these and other children's books in Latin!