“No one can wear a mask for very long; affectation soon returns to true nature”
nemo enim potest personam diu ferre, ficta cito in naturam suam recidunt
Month: October 2011
Aristotle Politics 1253a 7-11
“It is clear that man is a political animal, more than every bee and herd animal: for nature makes nothing in vain and man alone of living things has reason.”
διότι δὲ πολιτικὸν ὁ ἄνθρωπος ζῷον πάσης μελίττης καὶ παντὸς ἀγελαίου ζῴου μᾶλλον, δῆλον. οὐθὲν γάρ, ὡς φαμέν, μάτην ἡ φύσις ποιεῖ·
Livy, Ab urbe condita 23.3.14
Sophocles, Fragment 873
Whoever does business with a tyrant is
That man’s slave, even if he starts out free.
ὅστις γὰρ ὡς τύραννον ἐμπορεύεται
κείνου ‘στι δοῦλος, κἂν ἐλεύθερος μόλῃ.
Vergil, Aeneid 2.490
“fortunate he who could understand the causes of things”
felix qui potuit rerum cognoscere causas
Xenophon, Memorabilia 2.6.23
Sallust, Catilinae coniuratio 20.4
Plato, Euthydemus 280a6
“Wisdom makes men lucky everywhere”
ἡ σοφία ἄρα πανταχοῦ τοὺς ἀνθρώπους εὐτυχεῖν
See the full text here
Cicero, Pro Sestio 143
“Let us spurn the rewards of today and look to future glory; let us deem best what is most honorable; let us hope for what we want, but bear what befalls us; finally, let us consider that even the bodies of brave men and great citizens are mortal; but that activity of the mind and the glory of virtue are for ever.”
praesentis fructus neglegamus, posteritatis gloriae serviamus; id esse optimum putemus quod erit rectissimum; speremus quae volumus, sed quod acciderit feramus; cogitemus denique corpus virorum fortium magnorum hominum esse mortale, animi vero motus et virtutis gloriam sempiternam
