Latin
Quotations P

Panem et circenses
Bread and circuses
Juvenal, Satires 10:81
referring to the only things the Roman populace really cared about

Parcere personis, dicere de vitiis
To spare persons, and speak rather against vices
Martial, Epigrams 10/33:10
the author's own statement of the aim of his satires; compare at Hominem

Parturient montes, nascetur ridiculus mus
Mountains will labor, and there will be born a ridiculous mouse
Horace, Ars Poetica 139
the disproportionate effort of the unskilful writer

Parvi enim sunt foris arma, nisi est consilium domi
Little indeed is the use of arms abroad, without [good] counsel at home
Cicero, De Officiis 1/22:76

Percontatorem fugito, nam garrulus idem est
Flee the assiduous inquirer, for he is also a blabber
Horace, Epistles 1/18:69

Pereant qui ante nos, nostra dixerunt
Death to those who said our good things before we did
Aelius Donatus, cited in Jerome's Commentary to Ecclesiastes 1
compare Benjamin Bacon's variant, at Vivant

Periculum in mora
There is danger in delay
attributed to Livy

Platon amicus, magis amica veritas
Plato my friend, but truth my greater friend
source unknown
Wolfgang Schadewalt, of his friend Rudolf Bultmann

Plura consilio quam vi perficimus
We accomplish more by counsel than by force
derived from Tacitus, Annales 2:26
originally in indirect discourse: se . . . plura consilio quam vi perfecisse "that they . . ."

Pluris est oculatus testis unus, quam auriti decem
One eyewitness has more weight than ten hearsays
Plautus, Truculentus 2/6:8 (or 485)
compare the contrary legal maxim, at Testis

Ponderantur, non numerantur
[items of evidence] are weighed, not counted
Tradional heuristic maxim; compare the opposite at Numerantur

Possunt quia posse videntur
They could because they thought they could
Vergil, Aeneid 5:231

Postquam docti prodierunt, boni desunt
After the learned proliferate, the good become rare
Seneca, Epistulae Morales 95:13
perhaps coincidentally echoing DDJ

Primum non nocere
First of all, to do no harm
Hippocrates, Epidemics
customarily but wrongly regarded as part of the Hippocratic Oath

Primus in orbe deos fecit timor
It was fear that first made gods in the world
Petronius [fragment]

Proprium humani ingenii est odisse quem laeseris
It belongs to the human sprit to hate those whom we have injured.
Tacitus, Agricola 42:4
see also the saying of Seneca at Quos

Propter vitam, vivendi perdere causas
For the sake of staying alive, to squander the means of living
Juvenal, Satires 8:84

Punica fide
With true Carthaginian trustworthiness [sarcastic]
Sallust, Bellum Jugurthinum 108:3

 

 

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