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Group 37: Latin

 

504. Omnis echinus asper.

505. A deo est omnis medela.

506. Omnis in modo virtus.

507. Omnis est misera servitus.

508. Initium omnis peccati superbia.

509. Virtutis omnis impedimentum est timor.

510. Omnes terra sumus.

511. Omnes fragiles sumus.

512. Omnes homines aut liberi sunt aut servi.

513. Cives mundi omnes sumus.

514. Agri non omnes frugiferi.

515. O si sic omnes!

516. Iustitia omnibus.

517. Mors omnibus communis.

518. Amicus omnibus, amicus nemini.

 

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Proverbs 501-510  Proverbs 511-520  

 

Study Guide

 

504. The whole hedgehog is prickly. (Notice that omnis can mean "all, every," but also "all, entire." So in Erasmus's Adagia, you can find this version of the same saying: Totus echinus asper, 2.9.59.)

 

505. From god comes every remedy. (This is a saying from the Biblical book of Ecclesiasticus.)

 

506. All excellence consists in moderation. (You can find this saying in Seneca.)

 

507. All slavery is wretched. (You can find this saying in Cicero.)

 

508. The beginning of every sin is pride. (Another saying from Ecclesiasticus.)

 

509. The hindrance to every excellence is fear. (This is a saying of Publilius Syrus.)

 

510. We are all earth. (Notice that omnes here agrees with the implied subject of sumus, "we all.")

 

511. We are all easily broken. (This saying can be found in Thomas à Kempis.)

 

512. All people are either free or slaves. (This is a saying from the Roman legal tradition: Summa itaque de iure personarum divisio haec est, quod omnes homines aut liberi sunt aut servi, "Thus the chief division of persons by law is that all people are either free or slaves.")

 

513. We are all citizens of the world. (Again, note that omnes agrees with the implied subject of sumus, "we all.")

 

514. Not all fields are fruitful. (You will find this saying in Cicero.)

 

515. Oh, if only all people acted so! (Although the verb is only implied in the Latin, it is hard to translate this saying into English without supplying a verb.)

 

516. Justice for all. (This is the motto of the District of Columbia.)

 

517. Death is common to all. (You can find this sentiment embedded in a little speech by Patridge in Fielding's Tom Jones: "Ay, sure, Mors omnibus communis: but there is a great difference between dying in one's bed a great many years hence, like a good Christian, with all our friends crying about us, and being shot to-day or to-morrow, like a mad dog; or, perhaps, hacked in twenty pieces with the sword, and that too before we have repented of all our sins. O Lord, have mercy upon us!") Mors omnibus communis.

 

518. A friend to everybody, a friend to nobody. (You can read a brief essay about this proverb at the AudioLatinProverbs.com blog.) 

 

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