Obscure Latin Quotes & Sayings

Translating from one language to another, unless it is from Greek and Latin, the queens of all languages, is like looking at Flemish tapestries from the wrong side, for although the figures are visible, they are covered by threads that obscure them, and cannot be seen with the smoothness and color of the right side. — Miguel De Cervantes Saavedra

As with a child, to commune with Athena demands a level of openness and intuition greater than that used in the usual discourse between adult humans of a common culture. — Sy Montgomery

The language of distinction ceases to be available; is no longer available. We must search CD Rom for meanings which once were clear, but now are obscure. The words are too big for the narrow column of the contemporary newspaper. We are all one-syllable people now, two at most. So we mumble and stumble into our futures. But it is still our task and our reward to scavenge through the universe , picking up the detritus of lost concepts, dusting them down, making them shine. Latin was the best polishing cloth of all, but we threw it away. — Fay Weldon

Taxonomy, also called systematics, is the science-based hierarchical classification of the world's species. The area had traditionally been an obscure academic discipline dominated by erudite and professional dons who would memorize and interpret thousands of Latin species names. Advances seldom made the newspapers and caustic disputes lingered in the dust scientific literature for generations. That academic innocence would be lost forever when precise taxonomic recognition of species and subspecies came to be the basis for protection under the Endangered Species Act. — Stephen J. O'Brien

I heard a shout on the horizon, the sobs of someone who perhaps had died a century earlier in the room. — Gabriel Garcia Marquez

I would get under Abbott's skin in question time if I recited some Latin words and phrases denoting Abbott's hypocrisy, assuming that Abbott's religious training would enable him to understand. I was sceptical, but at the same time enthusiastic. I never got around to it, but I kept my little list of Latin words and phrases in my question time folder for the whole of the period of the Gillard Government. My favourite was actually derived from Greek, the obscure word pseudologue, which means 'compulsive liar' - an accurate description of Abbott's behaviour in his scare campaign on carbon. — Greg Combet

On sober reflection, I find few reasons for publishing my Italian version of an obscure, neo-Gothic French version of a seventeenth century Latin edition of a work written in Latin by a German Monk toward the end of the fourteenth century ... First of all, what style should I employ? — Umberto Eco

The proper use, then, of all the good gifts we have received is the free and generous sharing of those gifts with others. No — John Calvin

Harmony is an obscure and difficult musical science, but most difficult to those who are not acquainted with the Greek language; because it is necessary to use many Greek words to which there are none corresponding in Latin. — Vitruvius

Grace began in the garden of Eden, when God covered Adam and Eve with animal skins. Grace continued as God extended it to the hard-hearted Israelites throughout the Old Testament. Jesus lived and extended grace throughout His entire ministry. Even after Jesus' death, grace continued as He, through His disciples, extended grace beyond the Jews to the Gentiles. — Wendy Blight

Our own sense of imperfection and insecurity shouldn't prevent a conscientious effort to nourish a sense of security in our kids. — Diane Medved

In later centuries, both Spanish and Italian patriots have claimed him; but in fact the background of this obscure map maker and sea captain is extremely vague. He himself was always quite evasive about his origins, although he claimed to come from Genoa. In Spain he referred to himself as a foreigner (extranjero), but he kept his journals and made marginal notations in his books in Spanish, not Italian; his letters to his brother Bartholome and his son Diego were also written in Spanish, and he wrote Latin in a recognizably Spanish manner. Yet his Spanish was the language of the fourteenth century, and his characteristics seemed to suggest a Catalan background. Furthermore, although he made an elaborate show of his Christian piety, he always kept company with Jews and Muslims. — Jane S. Gerber

The success of my rule does not rely on my ability to recite obscure Latin verse. — Sherry Thomas