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Group 49: Latin

653. Amor est pretiosior auro.

654. Libertas pretiosior auro.

655. Mens opulentior auro.

656. Pax potior bello.

657. Sole splendidior veritas.

658. Fato prudentia maior.

659. Prudentia maior viribus.

660. Bonus est potentior malo.

661. Malleus sapientior manubrio.

662. Sanguis aqua densior est.

663. Rana gyrino sapientior.

664. Fortior leone iustus.

665. Auribus oculi fideliores sunt.

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Study Guide

653. Love is more precious than gold. (The comparison pretiosior auro, "more precious than gold" is used for various objects of comparison: virtus fulvo pretiosior auro, "virtue is more precious than yellow gold," etc.)

654. Freedom is more precious than gold. (This saying is also found in the expanded form: Libertas fulvo pretiosior auro, "freedom is more precious than yellow gold.")

655. The mind more splendid than gold. (You can find this saying in the ancient Latin poem, Laus Pisonis, a poem probably written by Titus Calpurnius Siculus.)

656. Peace is preferable to war. (You will also see the neuter form of potior, being used as an adverb meaning "rather," potius.)

657. Truth is more brilliant than the sun. (The word sole is from the noun sol, meaning "sun." It is not from the adjective solus, "only.")

658. Prudence is greater than fate. (This is a phrase found in Vergil's Georgics which, taken out of that context, has come to have an independent meaning in the emblem tradition.)

659. Prudence is greater than force. (This is the moral to the Aesop's fable of the crow and the pitcher, as told by the poet Avianus.)

660. A good (man) is more powerful than a bad (man). (Note the substantive use of the adjectives bonus and malus here.)

661. The hammer is wiser than the handle. (This is a saying found in Plautus's Epidicus.)

662. Blood is thicker than water. (This is a Latin motto that circulates on the Internet, although it does not appear to have an ancient source and is probably a translation of the familiar English saying. The Romans placed a high value on kinship by blood, of course, so this is a proverb they would have liked, I suspect.)

663. The frog is wiser than the tadpole. (This is a phrase that makes its way into Erasmus's Adagia, 2.1.34. You will also find tadpole as a feminine noun, gyrina. The word is from Greek, as the tell-tale "y' indicates, and in Greek the word is decidedly masculine, as is the word for frog.)

664. The just man is stronger than a lion. (This is a saying from the tradition of family heraldry.)

665. The eyes are more trustworthy than the ears.  (You can read a brief essay about this proverb at the AudioLatinProverbs.com blog.)

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