Latin
Quotations L

Labor ipse voluptas
The pleasure is in the work itself
motto of Leopold von Ranke

Lacrimae rerum
The poignancy of things
Vergil, Aeneid 1:462
the phrase sums up mediaeval European sensibility; for the line, see at Sunt

Latius est impunitum relinqui facinus nocentis
It is better to let the crime of the guilty go unpunished
Ulpian, Digesta 5:6
. . . than to condemn the innocent, quam innocentem damnari

Laudator temporis acti
A eulogist of time gone by
Horace, Ars Poetica 173, which continues in line 174 se puero "when he was a boy"
of a complaining old man

Lectio brevior potior
The shorter reading is the better [a wrong maxim in text criticism]
Codified, but simultaneously refuted, by J J Griesbach

Littera scripta manet
The written word endures
attributed to Horace
for the preceding phrase, see at Vox

Longissimus dies cito conditur
Even the longest day soon ends
Pliny the Younger, Epistles 9/36:4

Lucida sidera
The shining stars [examples for ordinary people]
Horace, Carmina 1/3:2

Lucus a non lucendo
"[It is called] a grove because it is not light there"
derived from Quintilian 1/6:34, caricaturing the absurd reverse etymologies then current
the Quintilian form is parum luceat "[being darkened by shade] it does not shine"

Lupus est homo homini
A wolf is man to man
Plautus, Asinaria 198
for a version more polished by later use, see at Homo

 

 

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