Latin Via Proverbs: Home - Previous - Next

Group 82: Latin

1082. Auro vitam venditat.

1083. Industriam adiuvat deus.

1084. Conscientia verberat animum.

1085. Stultus in tenebris ambulat.

1086. Cervus ad sagittam properat.

1087. Medicus curat, natura sanat.

1088. Assidua stilla saxum excavat.

1089. Malus malitiam sapientiam iudicat.

1090. Avarum irritat, non satiat pecunia.

1091. Dat veniam corvis, vexat censura columbas. 

Audio

Study Guide

1082. He's putting his life up for sale in exchange for gold. (I've got a commentary on this proverb at my Latin Audio Proverbs blog.)

1083. God helps hard work. (In other words, God helps those who help themselves. This saying made it into Erasmus's Adagia, 3.9.55.)

1084. Conscience scourges the soul. (This saying is cited in Erasmus's Adagia I.10.91, which is about the related saying, Conscientia mille testes, "Conscience is a thousand witnesses." The Latin word verberare, "to beat, strike" gives us the English word "reverberate," the sound that echoes after something has been struck.)

1085. A fools walks in the shadows. (I've got a commentary on this proverb at my Latin Audio Proverbs blog.)

1086. The stag rushes towards the arrow. (Although this is the kind of fable that sounds like it should have a fable to go with it, there is not an extant fable that I know of which tells the story of just why the stag brought about its own destruction in this way. You can remember the Latin word sagitta, "arrow" from the Latin name of the Zodiac sign, Sagittarius.)

1087. A doctor administers the cure; nature does the healing. (A more complete form of this saying is medicus curat, natura sanat morbos, "the doctor cures diseases, nature heals them.")

1088. The persistent drip hollows out a stone. (This proverb, which has many variant forms in Latin, is one of my favorites, using a natural phenomenon to prove that slow and steady effort is able to accomplish something that might at first seem very "hard" to do - hard as stone, in fact. This saying made its way into Erasmus's Adagia 3.3.3.)

1089. The wicked person thinks that wickedness is wisdom. (From the Latin word malitia we get the English word "malice." Notice that here the adjective malus is being used substantively, to mean "a bad man" or "a bad person.")

1090. Money provokes the greedy person; it doesn't satisfy him. (I've got a commentary on this proverb at my Latin Audio Proverbs blog.)

1091. The censor forgives the crows and harasses the doves. (I've got a commentary on this proverb at my Latin Audio Proverbs blog.)