Dr. G.'s Latin

per aspera ad astra

[drglatin]

LQOW for 4/14/2026:

"annosa vulpes haud capitur laqueo"

Common Latin expression. Related: https://drglatin.tumblr.com/post/673003012149608448/multa-novit-vulpes-verum-echinus-unum-magnum

[drglatin]

Latin Quote of the Week for 4/6/2026

Nihil sub sole novum

(From the Vulgate, Ecclesiastes 1.10; the immediate context for this quote is the passage from 1.9-1.10: Quid est quod fuit? Ipsum quod futurum est. Quid est quod factum est? Ipsum quod faciendum est. Nihil sub sole novum, nec valet quisquam dicere: Ecce hoc recens est: jam enim praecessit in saeculis quae fuerunt ante nos.)

[drglatin]

LQOW for the week of 9/22/2025

contra stultitiam caelestes ipsi nequiquam luctantur

Dr. G.'s Latin rendition of Friedrich Schiller's "Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens," from the Maid of Orleans)

[drglatin]

LQOW for the week of 4/21/2025

Cuiusvis hominis est errare, nullius nisi insipientis in errore perseverare.

Cicero, Phil. 12.2.5

[drglatin]

LQOW for 4/8 and 4/9/2025

a diabolo, qui est simia dei

proverb recorded in Emanuel Strauss's Dictionary of European Proverbs

[drglatin]

LQOW for 2/10 and 2/11/25

fere libenter homines id quod volunt credunt

(Famous quote from Caesar’s de Bello Gallico 3.18)

[drglatin]

LQOW for 1/21 and 1/22, 2025

quid non mortalia pectora cogis, auri sacra fames!

(Virgil, Aeneid 3.56-57)

[drglatin]

LQOW for 1/7 and 1/8/2025

de gustibus non est disputandum

familiar expression from Latin, likely of medieval origin

[drglatin]

LQOW for 10/28-11/1/2024:

Sunt aliquid Manes: letum non omnia finit,     luridaque evictos effugit umbra rogos.

(Propertius 4.7, lines 1-2)

[drglatin]

LQOW for 9/3-9/6/2024

Quid est quod fuit? Ipsum quod futurum est. Quid est quod factum est? Ipsum quod faciendum est.

Nihil sub sole novum

(Ecclesiastes 1.9-10, Vulgate text)

[drglatin]

LQOW for 8/22 and 8/23/2024

nascentes morimur finisque ab origine pendet

[drglatin]

LQOW for 5/6/2024

in magna copia rerum aliud alii natura iter ostendit

(Sallust, Bellum Catilinae 2.9)

[drglatin]

Latin Quote(s) of the Week for 3/19/2024

non sibi sed suis

and

serit ut alteri saeclo prosit

The first is a common expression that is the motto of several educational institutions. The second is the state motto of North Dakota.

[drglatin]

LQOW for the week of 3/4/24

necessitudo, quae etiam timidos fortis facit

from Sallust, Bellum Catilinae 58.19 (said by Catiline, but even the bad guys sometimes say cool stuff)

[drglatin]

LQOW for the week of January 4, 2024

Hic sunt dracones

Terra incognita

Horror vacui

Phrases and expressions particular to the fields of geography and cartography.

[drglatin]

LQOW for 10/10/23

a verbis legis non est recedendum

(Latin formulation of a common legal principle)

[drglatin]

LQOW for the FIRST WEEK of 2023-2024

per aspera ad astra

(motto of Greenhill School, sometimes phrased as "ad astra per aspera," in one form or another the motto of the state of Kansas, Starfleet, the Italian Air Force, and many other schools. Seneca's line from Hercules Furens is similar: "non est ad astra mollis e terris via"). So are Virgil's lines from the Aeneid: "sic itur ad astra" and "opta ardua pennis astra sequi."

bonus moments from JFK's Moon Speech

"human history"

"why the moon?"