Collection
The Poets' Latin
Horace, Virgil and Cicero, still quoted in the original.
- 01
carpe diem (idiom)
Seize the day — make use of today rather than counting on tomorrow.
Horace, Odes 1.11.
- 02
tempus fugit (idiom)
Time flies — said when far more of it has gone than you expected.
Virgil, Georgics.
- 03
memento mori (idiom)
A reminder that you are going to die, and that this should change how you spend the time.
The warning in the chariot.
- 04
in vino veritas (idiom)
People say what they actually think once they have had a drink.
Pliny the Elder.
- 05
festina lente (idiom)
Make haste slowly — move quickly, but never faster than you can do it properly.
Augustus' favourite motto.
- 06
to err is human (idiom)
Making mistakes is part of being a person, so a mistake alone is not a scandal.
Cicero, then Pope.
- 07
homo homini lupus (idiom)
Man is a wolf to man — people are dangerous to each other.
Plautus, Asinaria.
- 08
alter ego (idiom)
A second self — either a trusted other person or a different side of yourself.
Cicero on friendship.
- 09
tabula rasa (idiom)
A blank slate — a mind or a situation with nothing yet written on it.
The scraped wax tablet.
- 10
magnum opus (idiom)
Somebody's greatest work — the one they will be remembered for.
The great work.
- 11
in medias res (idiom)
Starting in the middle of the action rather than at the beginning.
Horace, Ars Poetica.
- 12
non sequitur (idiom)
A conclusion or remark that does not follow from what came before.
The rhetorician's verdict.
- 13
ad nauseam (idiom)
Repeated so often that everyone is sick of it.
Past what an audience bears.