My Virtual Reading Room

We must not forget the classics, right?...

"Carthago delenda est, ceterum censeo Carthaginem delendam esse."

(yes, I mean figuratively and alas that it has come to this...)

and

"If of all sad words of tongue and pen,
The saddest are these: 'It might have been',
Far sadder are those we daily see:
'It is, but it isn't ought to be.'"


Я книгу взял, восстав от сна, и прочитал я в ней:
"Бывали хуже времена, но не было подлей."

....

"...И два часа в струях потока
Бой длился. Резались жестоко
Как звери, молча, с грудью грудь,
Ручей телами запрудили.
Хотел воды я зачерпнуть…
(И зной и битва утомили
Меня), но мутная волна
Была тепла, была красна.

....

И с грустью тайной и сердечной
Я думал: жалкий человек.
Чего он хочет!.. небо ясно,
Под небом места много всем,
Но беспрестанно и напрасно
Один враждует он — зачем?..."

(Dum spiro spero, dum spero amo, dum amo vivo)

~Cicero

How to deal with tick bites, from Medstar Washington Hospital Center

20 of the funniest school signs ever

A free course: Intro to classical Latin

"Time and the Fates of Man" sculpture in Brookgreen Gardens, SC

About the sculpture

Sago palm, aka a pinecone on a palm

Quem Deus Vult Perdere, Prius Dementat

"Whom the gods would destroy, they first make mad" (spoken by Prometheus in Longfellow's poem The Masque of Pandora). Prior Latin version: Quem deus vult perdere, dementat prius (Boswell’s Johnson, 1783).

Translated.—Whom the Lord wishes to ruin, he first deprives of reason; or, “When God will punish, he will first take away the understanding.”
Geo. Herbert.—Jacula Prudentum. 2

Misattributed to Euripides; see further here: http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Euripides

A story I'd read as a child:

~~
"Sed ultra crepidam", most commonly translated as,  "shoemaker, stick to your last".

A last is "a block or form shaped like a human foot and used in making or repairing shoes." The phrase means, "Stick with what you know," or "Don't try to talk about/do stuff when you don't know what you're talking about/doing."

Origin, from Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable:

"There is a story of a cobbler who detected a fault in a shoe latchet in a painting by Apelles. The artist rectified the fault. The cobbler then ventured to critcize the legs, but Apelles answered: 'Keep to your trade: you understand about shoes, but not about anatomy.' "

 Classical and Foreign Quotations (W. Francis H. King, ed.) quotes the phrase as Ne supra crepidam sutor judicaret, (“A cobbler should stick to his last”) explaining: “When a cobbler, not content with pointing out defects in a shoe of Apelles’ painting, presumed to criticise the drawing of the leg, the artist checked him with the rebuke here quoted. It is often said of those who offer opinions on subjects with which they are not professionally acquainted.”

The verbatim Latin translation is actually "Cobbler, no higher than the sandal" -- the painter's direct address to the cobbler.
~~

And, just the other day, while discussing this story with a friend, she and I came upon this word:

Ultracrepidarian: A person who gives opinions and advice on matters outside of one's knowledge

...As I'd said, knew the story for quite a few years, but didn't know there is such a word!

More cool words can be found here: http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/jacketcopy/2012/07/visions-of-scripturience-say-what.html and here: http://shakespeherianrag.tumblr.com/post/54889888650

And interesting dictionaries can be found here: http://mentalfloss.com/article/51779/6-alternative-dictionaries-your-bookshelf-needs

Quod licet Jovi non licet bovi.

De mortuis nil nisi bonum.

Hi all,

Anybody here could tell me the exact translation of this quotation from Francis Bacon?

"Natura enim non nisi parendo vincitur."

Thank you!

Cat