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Group 32: Latin

438. Vicinus bonus ingens bonum.

439. Nec vita nec fortuna hominibus perpes est.

440. Felix culpa.

441. Absque sanitate nemo felix.

442. Bis puer est senex.

443. Extra periculum audax.

444. Canis est audax iuxta proprias aedes.

445. Fallax vulgi iudicium.

446. Deus non est velox ad poenam.

447. Veritatis simplex oratio est.

448. Memoria beneficiorum fragilis est, iniuriarum tenax.

449. Longum iter est per praecepta, breve et efficax per exempla.

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Study Guide

438. A good neighbor is a great good. (Notice the gender of bonum, which is neuter. This is a substantive use of the adjective: a good thing.)

439. People's life is not ever-lasting, nor is their luck. (This is one of the sayings found in Publilius Syrus.)

440. The felicitous fault. (This is a saying made famous by Thomas Aquinas, in reference to the culpa of Adam and Eve, which led to their being expelled from the Garden of Eden, but which prepared the way for the coming of Christ. The phrase is part of the Latin Catholic mass: O felix culpa quae talem et tantum meruit habere redemptorem, "O felicitious fault which merited our having such a good and great redeemer.")

441. Without health, no one is happy. (You can read a brief essay about this saying at the AudioLatinProverbs.com blog.)

442. An old man is a boy for the second time. (You can find this phrase embedded in this wonderful passage from The Anatomy of Melancholy by Robert Burton: "or we are ad unum omnes, all mad, semel insanivimus omnes, not once, but always so, et semel, et simul, et semper, ever and altogether as bad as he; and not senex bis puer, delira anus, but say it of us all, semper pueri, young and old, all dote, as Lactantius proves out of Seneca; and no difference betwixt us and children, saving that, majora ludimus, et grandioribus pupis, they play with babies of clouts and such toys, we sport with greater baubles.")

443. Bold, when out of danger. (This is one of those proverbs about hypocrisy, like the ones we had earlier, such as Proverb 393. "In peace, lions; in time of war, deer.")

444. A dog is bold near his own home. (Compare Proverb 2157: "The rooster in his own dung-heap can accomplish great things.")

445. The judgment of the crowd is not to be believed. (As you can see here, fallax has just one nominative ending, so the form is masculine, feminine or neuter, depending on context. In this saying, it's neuter.)

446. God is not swift to punish. (Compare a proverb we had earlier, Proverb 220. "The gods are slow but certain avengers")

447. Speech about something true is straight-forward. (This is a phrase quoted by Seneca, which he attributes to the Greek tragic playwright, Euripides.)

448. The memory of good deeds is fleeting, but the memory of wongs is tenacious. (This is another saying from Publilius Syrus.)

449. The way is long by means of rules, but quick and efficient by means of examples. (This is another passage from the Roman author Seneca.)