“When you have a great and difficult task, something perhaps almost impossible, if you only work a little at a time, every day a little, suddenly the work will finish itself.”
– Isak Dinesen (thanks Mum)

There are some bloody brilliant quotes out there, many of which are super fun to say in latin.

SOME FAMOUS LATIN QUOTATIONS – ENJOY!
á Kempis, Thomas
De duobus malis, minus est semper eligendum
Of two evils, the lesser must always be chosen

Appius Claudius (App. Claudius Caecus)
Est unusquisque faber ipsae suae fortunae
Every man is the artisan of his own fortune

Augustus (Imperator C. Iulius Caesar Octavianus Augustus)
Festina lente
Make haste slowly

Bacon, Francis
Ipsa scientia potestas est
Knowledge itself is power

Caesar (C. Julius Caesar)
Libenter homines id quod volunt credunt
Men gladly believe that which they wish for

Puri sermonis amator (said of Terence)
A lover of pure speech

Veni, vidi, vici
I came, I saw, I conquered

Cato the Elder (M. Porcius Cato)
Vir bonus, dicendi peritus
A good man, skilled in speaking

Catullus (C. Valerius Catullus)
Cui dono lepidum novum libellum?
To whom do I give my new elegant little book?

Difficile est longum subito deponere amorem
It is difficult to suddenly give up a long love

Odi et amo
I hate and I love

Risu inepto res ineptior nulla est
There is nothing more foolish than a foolish laugh

Cervantes
Bis dat qui cito dat
He gives twice who quickly gives

Cicero (M. Tullius Cicero)
Assiduus usus uni rei deditus et ingenium et artem saepe vincit
Constant practice devoted to one subject often outdues both intelligence and skill

Cum tacent clamant
When they remain silent, they cry out

Inhumanitas omni aetate molesta est
Inhumanity is harmful in every age

In virtute sunt multi ascensus
There are many degrees in excellence

Legum servi sumus ut liberi esse possimus
We are slaves of the law so that we may be able to be free

O tempora! O mores!
Oh, the times! Oh, the morals!

Trahimur omnes laudis studio
We are all led by our eagerness for praise

Curtius Rufus
Canis timidus vehementius latrat quam mordet
A timid dog barks more violently than it bites

Medici graviores morbos asperis remediis curant
Doctors cure the more serious diseases with harsh remedies

Dionysius Cato
Struit insidias lacrimis cum femina plorat
When a woman weeps, she is setting traps with her tears

Ennius
Moribus antiquis res stat Romana virisque
On ancient ways and heroes stands the Roman state

A. Gellius
Video barbam et pallium; philosophum nondum video
I see the beard and cloak, but I don’t yet see a philosopher

Hippocrates
Ars longa, vita brevis
Art is long, life is short

Q. Horatius Flaccus
Aequam memento rebus in arduis servare mentem
Remember to keep a clear head in difficult times

Amoto quaeramus seria ludo
Joking aside, let us turn to serious matters

Aut insanit homo, aut versus facit (Satires, II.vii.117)
The fellow is either mad or he is composing verses

Bis repetita placent
The things that please are those that are asked for again and again

Caelum non animum mutant qui trans mare currunt

They change the sky, not their soul, who run across the sea

Carpe diem, quam minimum credula postero
Seize the day, trust as little as possible in tomorrow

Coram populo
In the presence of the people

Culpam poena premit comes
Punishment closely follows crime as its companion

Nec verbum verbo curabis reddere fidus interpres
As a true translator you will take care not to translate word for word
br> Sedit qui timuit ne non succederet
He who feared he would not succeed sat still

Juvenal (D. Junius)
Insanabile cacoëthes scribendi (Satires)
An incurable passion to write

Maxima debetur puero reverentia
The greatest respect in owed to a child

Mens sana in corpore sano
A sound mind in a sound body

Sed quis custodiet ipsos custodes? (Satires
But who will guard the guardians themselves?

Laberius (D. Laberius)
Necesse est multos timeat quem multi timent
He must fear many, whom many fear

Livius Andronicus (L. Livius Andronicus)
Virum mihi, Camena, insece versutum
Tell me, O Muse, of the skillful man

Livy (T. Livius)
Caeca invidia est
Envy is blind

Lucan (M. Annaeus Lucanus)
Nil actum reputa si quid superest agendum
Don’t consider that anything has been done if anything is left to be done

Lucilius (C. Lucilius)
O curas hominum! O quantum est in rebus inane!
Ah, human cares! Ah, how much futility in the world!

Manilius
Per varios usus artem experientia fecit
Through different exercises practice has brought skill

Naevius (Cn. Naevius)
Novem Iovis concordes filiae sorores (Bellum Poenicum
You nine daughters of Jupiter, sisters of one heart

Ovid (P. Ovidius Naso)
Ars est celare artem
It is art to conceal art

Donec eris felix, multos numerabis amicos; tempora si fuerint nubila, solus eris (Tristia)
As long as you are lucky, you will have many friends; if cloudy times appear, you will be alone

Ingenio maximus, arte rudis
Greatest in genius, rough in skill

Leve fit, quod bene fertur, onus
A burden which is done well becomes light

Materiam superabat opus
The workmanship surpassed the subject matter

Perfer et obdura; dolor hic tibi proderit olim
Be patient and tough; some day this pain will be useful to you

Qui non est hodie cras minus aptus erit
He who is not prepared today will be less so tomorrow

Saepe creat molles aspera spina rosas
Often the prickly thorn produces tender roses

Persius (A. Persius Flaccus)
Gigni de nihilo nihil; in nihilum nil posse reverti (Satires)
Nothing can be produced from nothing; nothing can be returned into nothing

Petrarch
Vos vestros servate, meos mihi linquite mores
You stick to your own ways and leave mine to me

Petronius (C. Petronius Arbiter)
In alio pediculum, in te ricinum non vides
You see a louse on someone else, but not a tick on yourself

Plautus d. c. 184. B.C.
Dictum sapienti sat est
What’s been said is enough for anyone with sense

Pliny the Younger (C. Plinius Caecilius Secundus)
Difficile est tenere quae acceperis nisi exerceas
It is difficult to retain what you may have learned unless you should practice it

Nullus est liber tam malus ut non aliqua parte prosit
There is no book so bad that it is not profitable in some part

Propertius (Sex. Propertius)
Expertus dico, nemo est in amore fidelis (Elegiae)
I say as an expert, no one is faithful in love

Quintilian (M. Fabius Quintilianus)
Satura tota nostra est
Satire is wholly ours

Seneca the Younger (L. Annaeus Seneca)
Aliquando et insanire iucundum est
It is sometimes pleasant even to act like a madman

Bonitas non est pessimis esse meliorem
It is not goodness to be better than the worst

Diligentia maximum etiam mediocris ingeni subsidium
Diligence is a very great help even to a mediocre intelligence

Exigo a me non ut optimis par sim, sed ut malis melior
I require myself not to be equal to the best, but to be better than the bad

Facilius per partes in cognitionem totius adducimur
We are more easily led part by part to an understanding of the whole

Fallaces sunt rerum species
The appearances of things are deceptive

Non est ad astra mollis e terris via (Hercules Furens)
There is no easy way from the earth to the stars

Nullum saeculum magnis ingeniis clausum est
To great talents no era is closed

Otium sine litteris mors est et hominis vivi sepultura (Epistualae morales)
Leisure without literature is death, or rather the burial of a living man

Potest ex casa magnus vir exire
A great man can come from a hut

Qui dedit beneficium taceat; narrat qui accepit
Let him who has given a favor be silent; let him who has received it tell it

Quos amor verus tenuit, tenebit
Those whom true love has held, it will go on holding

Timendi causa est nescire
Ignorance is the cause of fear

St.Benedict
Ora et labora
Pray and labor

Syrus (Publilius Syrus)
Aliena nobis, nostra plus aliis placent
Other people’s things are more pleasing to us, and ours to other people

Terence (P. Terentius Afer)
Amantium irae amoris integratio’st (Andria)
The quarrels of lovers are the renewal of love

Dictum sapienti sat est
A word to the wise is sufficient

Nullum’st iam dictum quod non sit dictum prius
Nothing is already said which wasn’t said before

Tertullian (Q. Septimius Florens Tertullianus)
Certum est quia impossibile (De Carne Christi
It is certain because it is impossible

Tibullus
Credula vitam spes fovet et melius cras fore semper dicit
Credulous hope supports our life, and always says that tomorrow will be better

Divina natura dedit agros, ars humana aedificavit urbes
The divine nature produced the fields, human skill has built cities

Virgil (P. Vergilius Maro)
Aspirat primo Fortuna labori
Fortune smiles upon our first effort

Wren, Sir Christopher
Si monumentum requiris circumspice (epitaph in St. Paul’s Cathedral, London)
If you seek a monument, gaze around
(attr. to the son of the architect, Sir Christopher Wren)

Here are some very interesting quotes on history. My favorite is from Flaubert, “Our ignorance of history causes us to slander our own times.”

“We learn from history that we learn nothing from history.” – George Bernard Shaw

“Those who cannot learn from history are doomed to repeat it.” – George Santayana

“What experience and history teach is this — that people and governments never have learned anything from history, or acted on principles.” – George Wilhelm Hegel

“Patriotism ruins history.” – Goethe

“Our ignorance of history causes us to slander our own times.” – Gustave Flaubert

“History repeats itself, first as tragedy, second as farce.” – Karl Marx

“When the rhetorician is more persuasive than the scientist, the ignorant changes the mind of the ignorant more than he who has knowledge.” Socrates (Gorgias, 459a)

Tip of the hat to Professor Pranab Das

“The most beautiful experience we can have is the mysterious. It is the fundamental emotion that stands at the cradle of true art and true science.” Albert Einstein, The World as I See It, 1931

“Mmmmmm… Lemming sex. Hot.”

“Please tell all men that the simplest way to woo a woman is to touch her face and hair when he kissed her. It’s really that easy. Thank God not everyone has forgotten that. Oh, and the best way to get to the kiss is to joke about the awkwardness of the moment and ASK HER POLITELY. Seriously. This works.” Consider them told.

“You can’t say, ‘Please don’t be mean to me. Please let me win sometimes.’ Give me a break here,” Clinton said. “If you don’t want to fight for the future and you can’t figure out how to beat these people then find something else to do.” Via Daily Kos and AP

“House Democratic leaders are holding a closed-door meeting with members of their caucus this afternoon to discuss a new slogan for the 2006 midterm elections.” Together, We Can Do Better? Well, Democrats, you really can’t do worse. Via The Hill & The Club for Growth Blog

I just received a Skype call from a gentleman who thanked me for the article I wrote about my response to our — the United States’ — short sighted and self-destructive foreign policy, entitled America Does Not Go Abroad in Search of Monsters to Destroy. Please check it out…

America Does Not Go Abroad in Search of Monsters to Destroy

Has anyone checked the label on the prescription that we in the United States have been given to treat permanent tyranny around the world? The side effects are much worse than the cure.

The most important side effect is that until the population of a sovereign nation-state is ready to join the emergent worldwide free market economy, any attempt at imposing either democracy or capitalism will fail once external influence is removed. The blowback from this imposition and resulting failure is that the resulting system will be similar or worse than the preceding system, and when it comes to the global balance of power, the devil you know is always better than the devil you don’t.

On the 13th of February Meet the Press, Natan Sharansky debated Pat Buchanan over the book A Case for Democracy, about which President Bush admits he is passionate and which the White House intends to use as a foreign policy roadmap for the next four years. I have yet to read either Mr. Sharansky’s book or Mr. Buchanan’s controversial response, Where the Right Went Wrong, but I do have an opinion based wholly on the debate and the transcript of the debate.

I found myself in strong agreement with a lot of what Pat Buchanan recommended on foreign policy. For example, “In my judgment, what happened on 9/11 was a result of interventionism. Interventionism is the cause of terror. It is not a cure for terror.”

The President’s premise that domestic terrorism is the direct result of envy, jealousy, or insecurity is flawed. As Pat Buchanan states in the interview, “the United States was not attacked because we are free. Bin Laden was not attacking the Bill of Rights. We were attacked because the United–over here because the United States’ military and political presence is massive over there. Bin Laden in his fatwah, his statement of declaration of war on the United States, said the infidels were standing on the sacred soil of Saudi Arabia. They want us out of the Middle East. They don’t care whether we have a separation of church and state.”

All systems reject invasion, even our bodies. Even in the case of a transplanted organ which is welcome, one must continue taking medicine for life in order to keep the body from rejecting the invader, even though the invader is pink, healthy, not poisoned and dying like the original. Internationally, it doesn’t matter if our prescription, our pink and healthy liver, our strong heart, is going to cure what ails the world, because that just isn’t the point. Curing the world’s ills requires that we will need to make sure the patient is constantly taking its “for the rest of your life” anti-rejection medications. Even if this is delivered forcibly under restraint, “for your own good” and “it hurts me more than it hurts you.”

One of the obvious outcomes of this stated overt (and not covert) intention “to help democratic institutions in every region in every nation on earth is a formula for permanent war,” says Mr. Buchanan,

Buchanan went on to state very clearly that it is not in America’s best interest to intervene in affairs of sovereign nation-states, governments that are in fact recognized by the world. To again quote Pat Buchanan, paraphrasing John Quincy Adams, “America does not go abroad in search of monsters to destroy. She is the champion of freedom everywhere, but the vindicator only of her own.”

John Quincy Adams said it better himself, “America does not go abroad in search of monsters to destroy. She is the well-wisher to freedom and independence of all. She is the champion and vindicator only of her own.”

When it comes down to it, there is no legal mandate that we as a nation or as a member of the world government may aggressively pursue this sort of agenda. Again, Pat Buchanan, “where in the Constitution do we get the right to intervene in the internal affairs of countries that do not threaten us and do not attack us? If they don’t, their internal politics are their own business,” adding that “the president of the United States has no constitutional authority to do this.”

And even after all that, one might realize that the only form of government that can in fact be transplanted like an organ is an authoritarian dictatorship. In this case I will intentionally misappropriate Senator Charles Grassey’s quote when he said, in the same episode of Meet the Press, “I think that there’s a movement towards freedom that people are naturally born free, they want to be free, and you don’t impose democracy. Democracy is natural. You can only impose dictatorship.”

Even though we want to believe that all functioning systems need to have an emergent pattern that is democratic, this is not exclusively the case. Governments are really visible manifestations of their culture. There has never really been a long-lasting government that has been out of step with its mother culture. We know that a family’s culture is deep and very difficult to influence. A company’s takes either a lot of time or a total radical amputation to truly change the culture. Since nation-states are in fact artificial constructs anyway, it is almost impossible to make drastic changes without Draconian measures, the majority of which are morally and ethically offensive and more costly than their intended good.

My interpretation on this quote is that a Vanguard of Democracy is as futile as a Vanguard of the Proletariat. That imposing democracy is as futile and as temporary as imposing Marxist-Leninism, communism, capitalism, or even the free market. And when this Vanguard of Democracy and the free market system was imposed on Russia, the blowback was arguably the complete dissolution of realpolitik, resulting in an entire country run by the Russian Mafia in a very effective and complete power grab. Is this democracy? Where is the Nation-State in a country that can’t even contain its nuclear assets? The biggest weak link in the entire underground weapons-grade plutonium economy? A country that has a larger rift between haves and have nots than ever before, A true playground for the neo robber baron. Where the super rich can ignore traffic laws if they posses the official flashing blue lights on their Mercedes-Benz S600 sedans. In the case of Russia, we have a culture that has never known either democracy or freedom, from the Czars to the Communists. On a systemic level, the Russian system broke under this imposition.

And there are a surplus of sovereign governments worldwide unready or unwilling to accept an imposed “freedom,” “democracy” and “the free market” systemically from the top-down. These desires happen in emergence, through bubbling up from the bottom. From discontent, from desire, from education, and through participation in a global market and global economy. By willing hearts and minds legitimately as opposed to through heavy-handed coercion.

So, in that regard, Natan Sharansky’s naive comment, although correct on the surface, is not a very complex argument, “I believe that all the people, when given opportunity to choose between living in fear or living in freedom, choose to live in freedom,” What he forgot to mention is that his argument doesn’t include a very important missing piece, which is, “all things being equal.”

I agree with the following premise, “All things being equal, I believe that all the people, when given opportunity to choose between living in fear or living in freedom, choose to live in freedom.” But in developing nations, in nations that are still tribal or predominately rural, in nations that don’t have a history of education or are based on tribalism, monarchy, or religion, and in nations that have high scarcities or are under crushing debt, the resulting unintended consequences of imposing democracy, capitalism, or the free market economy usually results in a situation much worse, or at least much less predictable, than the original. I hate to use “better the devil we know than the devil we don’t” but the jury is out as to whether an Iraq with no boarders and a forced, unnatural, system of government will chomp at the bit until it is given an opportunity to revert to something similar but different.

Again, to quote Pat Buchanan in support of the above — the devil we know is better than the devil we don’t theory of foreign policy, “We cannot make the enemy the best of the good . . . we have had occasions, the last great crusade for democracy was Woodrow Wilson going across the sea with an army to make the world safer. We brought down all the monarchs and we got instead Lenin and Stalin and Mussolini and Hitler.”

Posted by Chris Abraham at March 10, 2005 01:17 PM

All the most eligible bachelors in Washington are making their first date a hike at Great Falls.

It shows that you’re healthy, happy, and have great skills. “Girls only want boyfriends who have great skills.”

If you’re a guy in DC and you want to take a girl on a popular first date, forgo Kramer Books & Afterwords and invite her for a hike at Great Falls.

“Here I am, brain the size of a planet, and they ask me to take you to the bridge. Call that job satisfaction, ’cause I don’t.”

Here’s a list of quotes attributed to Albert Einstein. My current favorite is, “Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one.”

“Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius — and a lot of courage — to move in the opposite direction.”

“Imagination is more important than knowledge.”

“Gravitation is not responsible for people falling in love.”

“I want to know God’s thoughts; the rest are details.”

“The hardest thing in the world to understand is the income tax.”

“Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one.”

“The only real valuable thing is intuition.”

“A person starts to live when he can live outside himself.”

“I am convinced that He (God) does not play dice.”

“God is subtle but he is not malicious.”

“Weakness of attitude becomes weakness of character.”

“I never think of the future. It comes soon enough.”

“The eternal mystery of the world is its comprehensibility.”

“Sometimes one pays most for the things one gets for nothing.”
“Science without religion is lame. Religion without science is blind.”

“Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new.”

“Great spirits have often encountered violent opposition from weak minds.”

“Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler.”

“Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by age eighteen.”

“Science is a wonderful thing if one does not have to earn one’s living at it.”

“The secret to creativity is knowing how to hide your sources.”

“The only thing that interferes with my learning is my education.”

“God does not care about our mathematical difficulties. He integrates empirically.”

“The whole of science is nothing more than a refinement of everyday thinking.”

“Technological progress is like an axe in the hands of a pathological criminal.”

“Peace cannot be kept by force. It can only be achieved by understanding.”

“The most incomprehensible thing about the world is that it is comprehensible.”

“We can’t solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them.”

“Education is what remains after one has forgotten everything he learned in school.”

“The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing.”

“Do not worry about your difficulties in Mathematics. I can assure you mine are still greater.”

“Equations are more important to me, because politics is for the present, but an equation is something for eternity.”

“If A is a success in life, then A equals x plus y plus z. Work is x; y is play; and z is keeping your mouth shut.”

“Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I’m not sure about the the universe.”

“As far as the laws of mathematics refer to reality, they are not certain, as far as they are certain, they do not refer to reality.”

“Whoever undertakes to set himself up as a judge of Truth and Knowledge is shipwrecked by the laughter of the gods.”

“I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones.”

“In order to form an immaculate member of a flock of sheep one must, above all, be a sheep.”

“The fear of death is the most unjustified of all fears, for there’s no risk of accident for someone who’s dead.”

“Too many of us look upon Americans as dollar chasers. This is a cruel libel, even if it is reiterated thoughtlessly by the Americans themselves.”

“Heroism on command, senseless violence, and all the loathsome nonsense that goes by the name of patriotism — how passionately I hate them!”

“No, this trick won’t work…How on earth are you ever going to explain in terms of chemistry and physics so important a biological phenomenon as first love?”

“My religion consists of a humble admiration of the illimitable superior spirit who reveals himself in the slight details we are able to perceive with our frail and feeble mind.”

“Yes, we have to divide up our time like that, between our politics and our equations. But to me our equations are far more important, for politics are only a matter of present concern. A mathematical equation stands forever.”

“The release of atom power has changed everything except our way of thinking…the solution to this problem lies in the heart of mankind. If only I had known, I should have become a watchmaker.”

“Great spirits have always found violent opposition from mediocrities. The latter cannot understand it when a man does not thoughtlessly submit to hereditary prejudices but honestly and courageously uses his intelligence.”

“The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and all science. He to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead: his eyes are closed.”

“A man’s ethical behavior should be based effectually on sympathy, education, and social ties; no religious basis is necessary. Man would indeeded be in a poor way if he had to be restrained by fear of punishment and hope of reward after death.”

“The further the spiritual evolution of mankind advances, the more certain it seems to me that the path to genuine religiosity does not lie through the fear of life, and the fear of death, and blind faith, but through striving after rational knowledge.”

“Now he has departed from this strange world a little ahead of me. That means nothing. People like us, who believe in physics, know that the distinction between past, present, and future is only a stubbornly persistent illusion.”

“You see, wire telegraph is a kind of a very, very long cat. You pull his tail in New York and his head is meowing in Los Angeles. Do you understand this? And radio operates exactly the same way: you send signals here, they receive them there. The only difference is that there is no cat.”

“One had to cram all this stuff into one’s mind for the examinations, whether one liked it or not. This coercion had such a deterring effect on me that, after I had passed the final examination, I found the consideration of any scientific problems distasteful to me for an entire year.”

“…one of the strongest motives that lead men to art and science is escape from everyday life with its painful crudity and hopeless dreariness, from the fetters of one’s own ever-shifting desires. A finely tempered nature longs to escape from the personal life into the world of objective perception and thought.”

“He who joyfully marches to music rank and file, has already earned my contempt. He has been given a large brain by mistake, since for him the spinal cord would surely suffice. This disgrace to civilization should be done away with at once. Heroism at command, how violently I hate all this, how despicable and ignoble war is; I would rather be torn to shreds than be a part of so base an action. It is my conviction that killing under the cloak of war is nothing but an act of murder.”

“A human being is a part of a whole, called by us _universe_, a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings as something separated from the rest… a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty.”

“Not everything that counts can be counted, and not everything that can be counted counts.” (Sign hanging in Einstein’s office at Princeton)

Copyright: Kevin Harris 1995 (may be freely distributed with this acknowledgement)