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Group 110: Latin

1422. Contra vim non valet ius.

1423. Ratio contra vim parum valet.

1424. Omne capax movet urna nomen.

1425. Mors etenim certa est, funeris hora latet.

1426. Sub nomine pacis bellum latet.

1427. Vita e tenui filo pendet.

1428. Heres instar vulturis esse solet.

1429. Hac urget lupus, hac canis.

1430. Nec caput nec pedes habet.

1431. Unus vir non omnia videt.

1432. Ne Iuppiter quidem omnibus placet.

1433. Auriculas asini Mida rex habet.

1434. Aliena capella distentius uber habet.

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Study Guide

1422. Right does not prevail against might. (Be careful with Latin ius. You will find two words in the dictionary: ius meaning "law, justice," etc., and ius meaning sauce, as in a roast beef sandwich "au just.")

1423. Reason avails little against force. (Of course the Latin word vim has become an English word in its own right, as in "vim and vigor," but with much more strictly positively connotations than the Latin word, which means force or strength, but also violent force, overpowering strength, etc.)

1424. The capacious urn shakes every name. (You will find this saying in Horace, hence the decidedly poetic word order.)

1425. Death indeed is a sure thing; the hour of the funeral is hidden. (There are many variations on this same idea: Incertum est quando, certum est aliquando mori, "it is uncertain when, but death, at some point, is certain," mors certa, hora mortis incerta, "death is certain; its hour is uncertain," etc.)

1426. War hides beneath the name of peace. (As in our "Defense Department," which used to be called - more honestly, I think - the "War Department." You can find this saying in Cicero.)

1427. Life hangs by a slender thread. (Erasmus discusses the idiom de filo pendere in his Adagia, 1.9.72.)

1428. An heir is usually something like a vulture. (You can find this emblem in the Horatii Flacci Emblemata of Otto Vaenius, 1612.)

1429. On this side presses the wolf, and on that side the dog. (You can find this saying in Horace.)

1430. It's got neither head nor feet. (You can read a brief essay about this proverb at the AudioLatinProverbs.com blog.)

1431. One man cannot see all things. (You can find many variants on this saying: oculi plus vident quam oculus, "eyes see better than an eye," unus vir haud cernit omnia, "one man does not discern all things," etc.)

1432. Not even Jupiter can please everybody. (You can find this in Erasmsu's Adagia, 2.7.55. Note the construction ne...quidem, "not...even," with the noun Iuppter inserted in between the two components of the phrase, ne and quidem.)

1433. King Midas has donkey ears. (You can read a brief essay about this proverb at the AudioLatinProverbs.com blog.)

1434. The neighbor's goat has a more bursting udder. (You can find this saying expressed in a slightly different form in Horace. Compare the English saying, "the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence.")