Latin
Quotations D

 

De inimico non loquaris male, sed cogites
Don't speak ill of your enemy; plan for it
Publilius Syrus
This is not very polite, but we are trying to run an adult resource here

De minimis non curat lex
The law does not deal with trifles

De mortuis nil nisi bonum
Of the dead, [say] nothing but good
attributed by Diogenes Laertius (Lives of the Philosophers) to Chilon

Deo volente
God [being] willing
Vergil, Aeneid 1:303
the original is in a fancier order: volente Deo

Deorum inurias dis curae
Injuries done to the gods are the concern of the gods
Tacitus, Annales 1:73:

Desinas ineptire
Cease your folly [in loving an unworthy woman]
Catullus 8:1
for the following phrase, see at Quod vides

Dictis facta suppetant
Let deeds correspond with words
Plautus, Pseudolus 1:107
this is the basic Sywndzian Legalism

Diem perdidi
I have lost a day [by doing no good in it]
Suetonius, Life of Titus 8:1

Difficile est saturam non scribere
It is hard not to write satire
Juvenal, Satires 1:30
the local subject matter continually suggests such treatment

Diffugere nives
The snows have fled
Horace, Carmina 4/7:1
thus begins one of Horace's most beautiful poems; by all means look it up

Dis aliter visum
The gods thought otherwise
Vergil, Aeneid 2:428

Disiecti membra poetae
The limbs, however dismembered, of a poet
Horace, Satires 1/4:62, speaking of Ennius
here given as usually quoted, but more intelligible with the original preceding Invenias

Divina natura dedit agros, ars humana aedificavit urbes
Divine nature gave the fields, human art built the cities
Marcus Terentius Varro, De Re Rustica 3:1

Do ut des
I give in order that you should give [back]
Digesta 9/15:5
the Roman legal principle of reciprocity

Ducunt volentem fata, nolentem trahunt
The Fates lead those who submit; those who do not, they drag
Seneca, Epistulae Morales, Ad Lucilium (#107)
The Roman version of the Free Will doctrine (there is no Free Will)

Dulce est desipere in loco
It is pleasant to relax once in a while
Horace, Carmina 4/12:28

Dumque punitur scelus, crescit
Even as crime is punished, it increases
Seneca, Thyestes 31

Durante bene placito
At the pleasure [of the monarch or other appointing authority]
Mediaeval legal Latin phrase, relevant to the independence of the judiciary
compare Hazlitt on the Muse of Poetry, in On the Prose-Style of Poets

 

 

16 Feb 2007 / Contact The Project / Exit to Latin Index Page