Quotes

QUOTES
The ability to delude yourself may be an important survival tool.

- Jane Wagner
Don't part with your illusions. When they are gone you may still exist, but you have
ceased to live.
- Mark Twain, 1835 - 1910
What if everything is an illusion and nothing exists? In that case, I definitely overpaid for
my carpet.
- Woody Allen
All the problems of the world could be settled if people were only willing to think. The
trouble is that people very often resort to all sorts of devices in order not to think, because
thinking is such hard work.
Thomas John Watson, Sr, 1874 1956
If you want to achieve excellence, you can get there today. As of this second, quit doing
less-than-excellent work.
Praising God is one of the highest and purest acts of religion. In prayer we act like men;
in praise we act like angels.
Recently, I was asked if I was going to fire an employee who made a mistake that cost the
company $600,000. No, I replied, I just spent $600,000 training him. Why would I want
somebody to hire his experience?
Thomas John Watson, Sr, 1874 - 1956
Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former.
- Albert Einstein, 1879 1955
Ninety-nine percent of the people in the world are fools and the rest of us are in great
danger of contagion.
- Thornton Niven Wilder, 1897 - 1975
Good sense is of all things in the world the most equally distributed, for everyone thinks
himself so abundantly provided with it, that even those most difficult to please in all other
matters do not commonly desire more of it than they already possess.
Ren Descartes, 1595 - 1650

Believe those who are seeking the truth; doubt those who find it.
- Andr Gide, 1869 1951
Fanatic orthodoxy is never rooted in faith but in doubt. It is when we are not sure that we are doubly sure.
- Reinhold Niebuhr, 1892 1971
We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.
Oscar Wilde
Don't judge each day by the harvest you reap, but by the seeds you plant.
- Robert Louis Stevenson, 1850 1894
My wife and I tried to breakfast together, but we had to stop or our marriage would have
been wrecked.
- Winston Churchill, 1874 - 1965
The only reason for time is so that everything doesn't happen at once.
- Albert Einstein, 1879 1955
Our progress as a nation can be no swifter than our progress in education. The human
mind is our fundamental resource.
- John Fitzgerald Kennedy, 1917 - 1963
I always have a quotation for everything - it saves original thinking.
- Dorothy L. Sayers
Stronger than an army is a quotation whose time has come.

- W. I. E. Gates
It is a good thing for an uneducated man to read books of quotations.
- Winston Churchill, 1874 - 1965
Latin Quotes
"The dogmas of the quiet past, are inadequate to the stormy present. The occasion is piled
high with difficulty, and we must rise -- with the occasion. As our case is new, so we must
think anew, and act anew. We must disentrall ourselves, and then we shall save our
country."
Abraham Lincoln, From the December 1, 1862 Message to Congress

And Caesar's spirit, ranging for revenge,
With Ate' by his side come hot from Hell,
Shall in these confines with a monarch's voice
Cry "Havoc!" and let slip the dogs of war,
That this foul deed shall smell above the earth
With carrion men, groaning for burial.-Julius Caesar, Act III, Scene i, William Skaespeare
Fondly do we hope, fervently do we pray, that this mighty scourge of war may speedily pass
away. Yet, if God wills that it continue until all the wealth piled by the bondmans two-hundred
and fifty years of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn with the
lash shall be paid by another drawn with the sword, as was said three thousand years ago, so
still it must be said, The judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether.
Abraham Lincoln, Second Inaugural Address. March 4, 1865
At this place, at this moment of time, all mankind is us, whether we like it or not.
Attribution:Samuel Beckett (19061989), Irish dramatist, novelist. Vladimir, in Waiting for
Godot, p. 51, Grove Press (1954).
Wholly new forms of encyclopedias will appear, ready-made with a mesh of associative trails
running through them, ready to be dropped into the memex and there amplified. The lawyer
has at his touch the associated opinions and decisions of his whole experience, and of the
experience of friends and authorities. The patent attorney has on call the millions of issued
patents, with familiar trails to every point of his client's interest. The physician, puzzled by its
patient's reactions, strikes the trail established in studying an earlier similar case, and runs
rapidly through analogous case histories, with side references to the classics for the pertinent
anatomy and histology. The chemist, struggling with the synthesis of an organic compound, has
all the chemical literature before him in his laboratory, with trails following the analogies of
compounds, and side trails to their physical and chemical behavior.
Vannevar Bush As We May Think - The Atlantic Monthly, July 1945
I'm a proponent of the jujitsu method of innovation. Jujitsu teaches you to take advantage of
your opponent's momentum. I like to take advantage of what already exists -- to grab the
intellectual momentum and then use it to advance an application into the mainstream. When
Robert Kahn and I were creating TCP/IP ( a set of protocols that makes it possible to link
various networks around the world ), we decided not to require the networks that support it to
change in any way. Instead, we took advantage of what already existed, and we avoided adding
another layer of complexity.
People often take the view that standardization is the enemy of creativity. But I think that
standards help make creativity possible -- by allowing for the establishment of an
infrastructure, which then leads to enormous entrepreneurialism, creativity, and
competitiveness.
When it comes to innovation, the question is not how to innovate but how to invite ideas. How
do you invite your brain to encounter thoughts that you might not otherwise encounter?
Creative people let their minds wander, and they mix ideas freely. Innovation often comes from
unexpected juxtapositions, from connecting subjects that aren't necessarily related. Another
way to generate ideas is to treat a problem as though it were generic. If you're experiencing a
particular problem, odds are that other people are experiencing it too. Generate a solution,
and you may have an innovation.
Vinton Cerf ( cerfs-email@wcom.com ), together with Robert Kahn, devised TCP/IP

( Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol ), a set of standard protocols that serves
as the common "language" of the Internet. TCP/IP enables networks to communicate with
one another and to share information through "gateways" that process information according to
a single standard.
http://www.fastcompany.com/online/33/one.html#cerf
Fast Company, April 2000.
Standing, standing, standing - why do I have to stand all the time? That is the main
characteristic of social Washington.
Daniel J. Boorstin
Poetry is a rich, full-bodied whistle, cracked ice crunching in pails, the night that numbs the
leaf, the duel of two nightingales, the sweet pea that has run wild, Creation's tears in shoulder
blades.
Boris Pasternak
Art is either plagiarism or revolution.
Paul Gauguin
The internet is a great way to get on the net.
Bob Dole
The trouble with jogging is that the ice falls out of your glass.
Martin Mull
We can lick gravity, but sometimes the paperwork is overwhelming.
Wernher von Braun
It is better to be the hammer than the anvil.
Emily Dickinson
Politics is war without bloodshed, while war is politics with bloodshed.
Mao Zedong
Worlds can be found by a child and an adult bending down and looking together under the grass
stems or at the skittering crabs in a tidal pool.
Mary Catherine Bateson
The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much
it is whether we provide enough for those who have little.
Franklin D. Roosevelt
Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect.
Mark Twain
Our work is the presentation of our capabilities.
Edward Gibbon
Only those who attempt the absurd will achieve the impossible. I think it's in my basement...
let me go upstairs and check.
M. C. Escher
Drawing is the honesty of the art. There is no possibility of cheating. It is either good or
bad.
Salvador Dali
Be assured those will be thy worst enemies, not to whom thou hast done evil, but who have
done evil to thee. And those will be thy best friends, not to whom thou hast done good, but
who have done good to thee.
Tacitus
When your work speaks for itself, get out of the way.
Jacques Barzun
There are three roads to ruin; women, gambling and technicians. The most pleasant is with
women, the quickest is with gambling, but the surest is with technicians.
Georges Pompidou
Like the furtive collectors of stolen art, we [cell biologists] are forced to be lonely admirers
of spectacular architecture, exquisite symmetry, dramas of violence and death, mobility, selfsacrifice and, yes, rococo sex.
Lorraine Lee Cudmore
Globalization, as defined by rich people like us, is a very nice thing ... you are talking about
the Internet, you are talking about cell phones, you are talking about computers. This doesn't
affect two-thirds of the people of the world.
Jimmy Carter
You miss 100% of the shots you never take.
Wayne Gretzky
The next major explosion is going to be when genetics and computers come together. I'm
talking about an organic computer - about biological substances that can function like a
semiconductor.
Alvin Toffler
Free speech is not to be regulated like diseased cattle and impure butter. The audience that
hissed yesterday may applaud today, even for the same performance.
William O. Douglas
In a pond koi can reach lengths of eighteen inches. Amazingly, when placed in a lake, koi can
grow to three feet long. The metaphor is obvious. You are limited by how you see the world.
Vince Poscente
Fear of serious injury alone cannot justify oppression of free speech and assembly. Men feared
witches and burnt women. It is the function of speech to free men from the bondage of
irrational fears.
Louis D. Brandeis
Money is better than poverty, if only for financial reasons.
Woody Allen
There are two kinds of companies, those that work to try to charge more and those that work
to charge less. We will be the second.
Jeff Bezos
I paint with shapes.

Alexander Calder
"Leaders are visionaries with a poorly developed sense
of fear and no concept of the odds against them."
-- Dr. Robert Jarvik, inventor of the Jarvik-7,
an artificial heart
That this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom, and that government of the
people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.
Abraham Lincoln, Speech at Gettysburg, Nov. 19, 1863.
Anything simple always interests me.
David Hockney
We succeed in enterprises which demand the positive qualities we possess, but we excel in
those which can also make use of our defects.
Alexis de Tocqueville
Personality is born out of pain. It is the fire shut up in the flint.
J. B. Yeats
In the democracy of the dead all men at last are equal. There is neither rank nor station nor
prerogative in the republic of the grave.
John James Ingalls
I decided that if I could paint that flower in a huge scale, you could not ignore its beauty.
Georgia O'Keeffe
Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one.
Albert Einstein
Nobody's a natural. You work hard to get good and then work to get better. It's hard to stay on
top.
Paul Coffey
Microsoft is a bully. Microsoft is trying to hoodwink nontechnical people.
Stewart Alsop
Culture is one thing and varnish is another.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
I have tried to lift France out of the mud. But she will return to her errors and vomitings. I
cannot prevent the French from being French.
Charles De Gaulle
The four building blocks of the universe are fire, water, gravel and vinyl.
Dave Barry
When bad men combine, the good must associate; else they will fall one by one, an
unpitied sacrifice in a contemptible struggle.
Edmund Burke
I am not a scientist. I am, rather, an impresario of scientists.
Jacques Cousteau
Golf is a good walk spoiled.

Mark Twain
Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch
of genius - and a lot of courage - to move in the opposite direction.
E.F. Schumacker
"At what point then is the approach of danger to be expected? I answer, if it ever reach us, it
must spring up amongst us. It cannot come from abroad. If destruction be our lot, we must
ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen, we must live through all time, or
die by suicide."
Abraham Lincoln --From the January 27, 1838 Lyceum Address
Information is power. Diversity is strength. Complacency is death.

I hold every man a debtor to his profession; from the which as men of course do seek to
receive countenance and profit, so ought they of duty to endeavour themselves by way of
amends to be a help and ornament thereunto.
Francis Bacon, Maxims of the Law. Preface.
" . . . when pain is to be borne,
a little courage helps more than much knowledge,
a little sympathy more than much courage,
and the least tincture of then love of God more than all."
C. S. Lewis, The Problem of Pain
First they came for the Jews

and I did not speak out
because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for the Communists
because I was not a Communist.
Then they came for the trade unionists
because I was not a trade unionist.
Then they came for me
and there was no one left
to speak out for me.
Pastor Martin Niemller
When a distinguished but elderly scientist says that something is
possible, he is almost certainly right. When he says it is impossible, he is very probably wrong.
Sir Arthur C. Clarke's First Law, from Profiles of the Future
The only way of finding the limits of the possible is by going
beyond them into the impossible.
Sir Arthur C. Clarke's Second Law from Profiles of the Future
Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.
Sir Arthur C. Clarke's Third Law, from Profiles of the Future
Do you know what my favorite part of the game is? The opportunity to play.
Mike Singletary
Science investigates religion interprets. Science gives man knowledge which is power religion
gives man wisdom which is control.
Martin Luther King, Jr.
Never measure the height of a mountain until you have reached the top. Then you will see how
low it was.
Dag Hammarskjold
Be as a tower firmly set; Shakes not its top for any blast that blows.
Dante Alighieri
Believe and act as if it were impossible to fail.
Charles F. Kettering
Work like you don't need the money. Love like you've never been hurt. Dance like nobody's
watching.
Satchel Paige
I invent nothing, I rediscover.
Auguste Rodin
And in what way does he who thinks that wisdom is the
discernment of the tempers and tastes of the motley multitude,
whether in painting or music, or, finally, in politics, differ
from him whom I have been describing? For when a man consorts
with the many, and exhibits to them his poem or other work of
art or the service which he has done the State, making them
his judges when he is not obliged, the so-called necessity of
Diomede will oblige him to produce whatever they praise."
Plato, The Republic
Until one is committed, there is hesitancy, the chance to draw back, always ineffectiveness.
Concerning all acts of initiative and creation, there is one elementary truth the ignorance of
which kills countless ideas and splendid plans: that the moment one definitely commits
oneself, then providence moves too. All sorts of things occur to help one that would never
otherwise have occurred. A whole stream of events issues from the decision, raising in one's
favor all manner of unforeseen incidents, meetings and material assistance which no man could
have dreamed would have come his way. Whatever you can do or dream you can, begin it.
Boldness has genius, power and magic in it. Begin it now.
- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749 - 1832)
"Be bold, and mighty forces will come to your aid."
Basil King
Try not. Do. Or do not. There is no try.
- Yoda
Every great advance in natural knowledge has involved the absolute rejection of authority.
--Thomas Huxley
By 1997, some 19 million Americans were using the Internet. That number
tripled in one year, and then passed 100 million in 1999.
In the first quarter of 2000, more than five million Americans joined the
online world - roughly 55,000 new users each day, 2,289 new users each hour,
or 38 new users each minute.
The word "Internet" was essentially unknown in the news before the
mid-1980s, and appeared in all major American media only 346 times in 1990.
By 1995, the number of references to the Internet in all major media had
increased to only 70,944. References increased to 219,866 in 1997, then to
529,343 by 1999, and passed
700,000 in the first three quarters of 2000.
The Internet's capacity to carry information doubles every 100 days.
Earlier this year, the number of online, indexable documents passed the one
billion mark.
Every 24 hours, the content of the Worldwide Web increases by more than 3.2
million new pages and more than 715,000 images.
Late last year, the total number of hits on U.S. web pages passed the one
billion per day mark.
The number of electronic mailboxes worldwide jumped 84 percent to almost 570
million in 1999. While in 1998 the U.S. Postal Service delivered 101 billion
pieces of
paper mail, estimates of the number of e-mail messages transmitted that year
range to as high as four trillion.
After electricity became publicly available, 46 years passed before 30
percent of American homes were wired; 38 years passed before the telephone
reached 30 percent of U.S.
households, and 17 years for television. The Internet required only seven
years to reach 30 percent of American households.
How long as Internet users?

n Less than 1 year 21.4%
n 1-2 years 39.4%
n 2-4 years 23.4%
n 4+ years 15.8%
60% have been online 2 years or less!!
If you go to http://brunching.com/toys/toy-cyborger.html
and type in: downes
Number of Worldwide Internet Users Under the Age

of 18 to Exceed 77 Million by 2005
April 23, 1999
CARLSBAD, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE) via
NewsEdge Corporation -- Computer Economics
expects the number of Internet-using minors
worldwide to surpass 77 million by the year 2005.
"The reality is that you can't stop people when it comes
to acquiring the latest gadget in an economy where
people have far too much disposable income. And if you
don't try to support it, end-users will once again view
the IT department as a behind-the-times bottleneck that
prevents them from attaining data nirvana alongside
their latest stock quotes."
--Michael Vizard, InfoWorld Editor in Chief.
http://www.infoworld.com/articles/op/xml/00/10/02/001002opvizard.xml?1005thpm
"Man is the only animal that can remain on friendly terms with the victims
he intends to eat until he eats them."
- Samuel Butler (1835 - 1902)
"Idleness is only the refuse of weak minds."
- Earl of Chesterfield (1694 - 1773)
"An idea isn't responsible for the people who believe in it."
- Don Marquis (1878 - 1937)
The Rev. Ken Howard September 10, 2000 (Pentecost 13/Proper 8)
St. Nicholas Church James 1:17-27
"Be doers of the word, and not merely hearers who deceive themselves. For if any are hearers
of the word and not doers, they are like those who look at themselves in a mirror; for they look
at themselves and, on going away, immediately forget what they were like."
North America and the Asia Pacific area will continue
to experience the most growth in Internet usage
among children.
"The number of children throughout the world using
the Internet will increase dramatically over the next
six years and will become a huge market, " said
10
Computer Economics' Director of Research and

Advisory Services, Michael Erbschloe. "While growth
amongst European children will not be as rapid, the
market there of over 15 million Internet users under
18 years old will be nonetheless very significant."
Projected Growth
Country
Total Africa
Total Asia Pacific
Total Europe
Total Middle East
Total North America
Total South America
Total Worldwide
in Internet Users Under 18 Years Old

2001
2005
90,000
356,700
6,209,700
22,230,100
6,165,200
15,336,500
156,500
438,700
13,708,800
36,924,400
477,000
1,778,300
26,807,200
77,064,700
The number of Internet users in the Asia Pacific area

will increase nearly fourfold from 2001 to 2005.
However, even though the rate of growth will be
higher in the Asia Pacific area than in North America,
there will still be more kids using the Internet in North
America than in the Asia Pacific area in 2005.
Computer Economics is an independent research
firm specializing in helping IT decision makers plan,
manage, and control IT costs through advisory
services, analyst support, an innovative Web site,
and printed reports. Based in Carlsbad, Calif.,
Computer Economics serves 82 percent of the
Fortune 500. For further information, please visit the
Web site at http://www.computereconomics.com.
<<Business Wire, 04-22-99, 15:40 Eastern>>
CONTACT: Computer Economics Inc. | Adam
Harriss, 760/438-8100, ext. 108 |
aharriss@compecon.com |
http://www.computereconomics.com
[Copyright 1999, Business Wire
BREAK/BREAK
A few months ago, I asked this list to forward notable technology quotes to me for a
presentation I was giving at the time. I promised that I would post the collection to the list. I
apologize for the delay, but here is the list in it's
entirety. Note that many quotes came my way, not all directly related to
technology. However, I've included them all just in case you find them useful. I consider this a
list in progress, so please continue to forward additional quotes my way. Thank you.
Peggi Munkittrick
Director of Distance Education
11
Marywood University
Scranton, Pennsylvania
pmunk@ac.marywood.edu
======================================================
PREDICTIONS: Transportation Fumbles Quite
"The 'horseless carriage' is at present a luxury for the wealthy; and although
its price will probably fall in the future, it will never come into as common
use as the bicycle." (Literary digest, 1881)
"Heavier-than-air flying machines are impossible." (Lord Kelvin, President,
Royal Society, 1895)
"The flying machine will eventually be fast: they will be used in sport, but
they are not to be thought of as commercial carriers." (Octave Chanute, aviation pioneer, 1904)
"The idea of space travel is bilge". (Sir Richard Wooley, Astronomer Royal, UK, 1956)
"Airplanes are interesting toys but of no military value." (Marechal Ferdinand Foch, Professor of
Strategy, Ecole Superieure de Guerre)
"Landing and moving around on the moon offer so many serious problems for human beings that
it may take science another 200 years to lick them." (Lord Kelvin, physicist and mathematician,
1824-1907). Lord Kelvin also predicted that "X-rays are a hoax", and "Radio has no future."
"Professor Goddard does not know the relation between action and reaction and the need to
have something better than a vacuum against which to react. He seems to lack the basic
knowledge ladled out daily in high schools." (The New York Times editorial about Robert
Goddard's rocket work)
PREDICTIONS: Technology Fumbles
"This telephone has too many shortcomings to be seriously considered as a means of
communication. The device is inherently of no value to us." (Western Union, internal memo,
1876)
"The wireless music box has no imaginable commercial value. Who would pay for a message
sent to nobody in particular?" (Dadis Sarnoff's associates in response to his urgings for
investment in the radio, 1920's)
"I think there is a world market for maybe five computers." (Thomas Watson,
Chairman of IBM, 1943)
"Television won't be able to hold on to any market it captures after the first
six months. People will soon get tired of staring at a plywood box every
night." (Darryl F. Zanuck, Head of 20th Century fox, 1946)
"Computers in the future may weight no more than 1.5 tons." (Popular Mechanics, forecasting
the relentless march of science, 1949)
"I have traveled the length and breadth of this country and talked with the best people, and I
can assure you that data processing is a fad that won't last out the year." (The editor in charge
of business books for Prentice Hall, 1957)
12
"But... what is it good for?" (Engineer at the Advanced Computing Systems

Division of IBM, 1968, commenting on the microchip)
"There is no reason anyone would want a computer in their home." (Ken Olson, President,
Chairman, and founder of Digital Equipment Corporation, 1977)
"640K ought to be enough for anybody." (Bill Gates, Microsoft Corporation, 1981)
"Harvard University will become a distance education structure with no
face-to-face lectures by 2000." (Guthenberg II, well-known Canadian study of
technology in education, 1985)
So we went to Atari and said, "Hey, we've got this amazing thing ever built with some of your
parts, and what do you think about funding us? Or we'll give it to you. We just want to do it.
Pay our salary, we'll come work for you." and they said, "No.", so then we went to HewlettPackard, and they said, "Hey we don't need you. You haven't gotten through college yet."
(Steve Jobs, founder of Apple computer, commenting on Steve Wozniak's and his attempts to
market their personal computer.)
PREDICTIONS: Business Fumbles
"Drill for oil? You mean drill into the ground to try and find oil? You're
crazy." (Drillers who Edwin L. Drake tried to enlist to his project to drill for
oil in 1859)
"Who the heck wants to hear actors talk?" (H.M. Warner, Warner Brothers, 1927)
"Stocks have reached what looks like a permanently high plateau." (Irving
Fisher, Professor of Economics, Yale University, 1929)
"We don't like their sound, and guitar music is on the way out." (Decca
Recording Co. rejecting the Beatles, 1962)
"If I had thought about it, I wouldn't have done the experiment. The literature was full of
examples that said you can't do this." (Spencer Silver on work that lead to the unique adhesives
for Post-It Notes)
"The concept is interesting and well-formed, but in order to earn better than a 'C', the ideas
must be feasible." (A Yale University management professor in response to Fred Smith's paper
proposing reliable overnight delivery service. Smith went on to found Federal Express Corp.)
"A cookie store is a bad idea. Besides, the market research reports say America likes crispy
cookies, not soft and chewy cookies like you make." (response to Debbi Fields' idea of starting
Mrs. Field's Cookies)
"You want to have consistent and uniform muscle development across all of your muscles? It
can't be done. It's just a fact of life. You just have to accept
inconsistent muscle development as an unalterable condition of weight training." (Response to
Arthur Jones, who solved the unsolvable problem by inventing Nautilus)
PREDICTIONS: General Fumbles
13
"It is of course, altogether valueless... Ours has been the first, and will
doubtless be the last party of whites to visit this profitless location." (Lt.
Joseph Ives, Corps of Topographical engineers on the Grand Canyon, 1861)
"Louis Pasteur's theory of germs is ridiculous fiction." (Pierre Pachet,
Professor of Physiology at Toulouse, 1872)
"The abdomen, the chest, and the brain will forever be shut from the intrusion of the wise and
humane surgeon." (Sir John Eric Ericksen, British surgeon, appointed Surgeon-Extraordinary to
Queen Victoria, 1873)
"Everything that can be invented has been invented." (Charles H. Duell,
Commissioner, U.S. Office of Patents, 1899)
"I'm just glad it'll be Clark Gable who's falling on his face and not Gary
Cooper." (Gary Cooper on his decision not to take the leading role in Gone With The Wind)
MISCELLANEOUS:
"A mechanism of world inter-communication will be devised, embracing the whole planet,
freed from national hindrances and restrictions, and functioning with marvelous swiftness and
perfect regularity." (Shoghi Effendi, Guardian of the Baha'i Faith, 1936)
Getting information from the internet is like getting a drink of water from a
fire hose. (no attribution)
"Cyberspace, a term used to describe air filled with information that we
retrieve electronically. Electronically-generated information, invisible but
essential, floating along the airwaves, retrievable from who-knows where, is
making space more of an active player in our organizations." (Margaret Wheatley)
---------------------------------------------------------------------DEOS-L is a service provided to the Distance Education community by
The American Center for the Study of Distance Education, The Pennsylvania
State University. Opinions expressed are those of DEOS-L subscribers,
and do not constitute endorsement of any opinion, product, or service by
ACSDE or Penn State.
BREAK/BREAK
Dr. Vincent Cerf father of the Net
April 1995 NSF backbone turned off commercial Net is only 4 years old.
300 million users by Y2K
www invented in 1989
1992 Mosaic first browser
as of 1998:
13 million domain names
100 million net users
80-90% growth per year in last 10 years
by 2005 bigger than POTS
14
BREAK/BREAK
COMMENTS BY KEVIN KELLY
Published in Wired Magazine Sept 97
The grand irony of our times is that the era of computers is over. All the major
consequences of stand alone computers have already taken place.
All the most promising technologies making their debut now are chiefly due to
communication between computers that is, to connections rather than to computations.
We are now engaged in a grand scheme to augment, amplify, enhance, and extend the
relationships and communications between all objects. That is why the Network Economy
is a big deal.
We are moving from crunching to connecting. While the number of computer chips is
rising, the number of chips in objects other than computers is rising faster. When these
myriad low-power chips are connected, we get very powerful results.
There has always been a tipping point in any business, industrial or network, after which
success feeds upon itself. However the low fixed costs, insignificant marginal costs, and
rapid distribution that we find in the Network Economy depress tipping points below the
levels of industrial times; lower tipping points, in turn, mean that the threshold of
significance is also dramatically lower than it was
The prime law of networking is known as the law of increasing returns. Value explodes
with membership, and the value explosion sucks in more members, compounding the
result. Industrial economies of scale stem from the Herculean efforts of a single
origination networked increasing returns are created and shared by the entire network.
Rather than considering jobs as a fixed sum to be protected and augmented, Hicks argued,
the state should focus on encouraging economic churning. on continually re-creating the
states economy., will increasingly resemble networks of multiple and simultaneous
commitments with a constant churn of new skills and outmoded roles.
COMMENTS BY TOFFLER
Notes from War and AntiWar Long Version
A true revolution changes the rules of the game its equipment, the size and organization
0f teams, their training, doctrine, and tactics, etc. There have been only two previous
revolutions in military history, and the third (now beginning) will be the deepest of them
all.
Knowledge (data, information, images, symbols, culture, ideology, and values) are the
central resource of a Third Wave economy. The right knowledge inputs can reduce labor
requirements, cut inventory, save energy, save raw materials, and reduce the time, space
and money needed for production.
15
The success of Third Wave firms (and militaries increasingly depends upon their capacity
for acquiring, generating, distributing, and applying knowledge strategically and
operationally.
Robert Steele (USMC Intel) wants intelligence to draw on all distributed knowledge
available in (a) society. He proposes linking national intelligence with national
competitiveness making intelligence the apex of the knowledge infrastructure. He sees
Intel as part of a larger national construct which must also include our formal educational
process, our structured information-technology architecture, informal networks, etc.
COMMENTS BY GENERAL ERIC K. SHINSEKI

Address to Eisenhower Luncheon October 12, 1999
we intend to transform the Army, all components, into a standard design with internetted
C41SR packages that allow us to put a combat capable brigade anywhere in the world in 96
hours once we have received execute liftoff, a division on the ground in 120 hours, and five
divisions in 30 days.
COMMENTS BY GENERAL CHARLES C. KRULAK

Navy Times-Marine Corps Edition
Published 1-19-98
We have tremendous elements of national power that we just havent begun to tap into
and if we dont tap into them, we are going to be in real trouble.
You have to tap into some of that expertise outside of the federal government. New
combined effects for national power objectives. Im talking about getting the best and the
brightest from all over the place. That is our strength. Thats the strength of America. If
you think the strength of America comes just from our military, youre crazy.
Were talking about building a virtual capability to reach back to them.
Some organization that would go beyond jointness, beyond inner agency. It would
integrate and focus all the elements of national power. It would provide the national and
regional commander with the ability to consult and interact with subject matter experts.
Dont tell us it cant be done. Its just that we dont want to do it. We dont have the
guts to do it. Its tough and people give something up. You have to give something up to
do it.
FORBES TECHNOLOGY MAGAZINE ASAP

OCTOBER 4, 1999
BY BILL GATES
16
convergence has meantcoming together of the computer, consumer electronics, and

telecommunicationsPC, TV, and telephonepromise of exploding bandwidthIt will
deliver the power of the information age into the hands of everyone, anytime, anywhere.
smart devices also need to speak a common languageThe best way to achieve this is by
using existing open Internet standards.
BY JAMES BURKE
at the beginning, it will cause a massive differentiation of most areas of knowledge.

Because the engine driving convergence this time is information technology, we can expect
an innovative surge unlike any that went before, fragmenting knowledge into a large
number of new disciplines, as the one-plus-one-equals-three process goes into high gear.
Most of our institutions were established to handle the social processes of three or four
centuries ago.Many of them will have to be entirely redesigned. Some of them will pass
out of existence technology will bring into existence multiple virtual environments that
will replace the real world in a thousand different ways.
BY EDWARD O. WILSON
Rather, science is the organized, systematic enterprise that gathers knowledge of all
kinds about the world and condenses it into testable laws and principles. Scientific
knowledge is what humanity knows with a reasonable degree of certainty on the basis of
consistent, verifiable evidence. It is also the most democratic of all productions, available
immediately and equally to everyone.
Fast Company Notes

October 1999
To paraphrase Lily Tomlin; the problem with the rat race is that even if you win, youre still a
rat.
The challenge for the Net is to create new models for the new world, as opposed to porting
over old models. We take things from the physical world and put them on the Internet and then
wonder why theres no profit in it; of course, theres no profit in it! Shame on you.
Jay S. Walker, founder, Priceline.com
"We are in the twilight of a society based on data. As information and intelligence become the
domain of computers, society will place new value on the one human ability that can't be
automated: emotion. Imagination, myth, ritual -- the language of emotion -- will affect
everything from our purchasing decisions to how well we work with others."
Rolf Jensen, 57, director of the Copenhagen Institute for Futures Studies and the author of "The
Dream Society: How the Coming Shift from Information to Imagination Will Transform Your
Business"
17
I don't believe that there is a list of principles that make a good design. But I do believe that a
good design should reflect a sense of human history -- some aspect of where we've come from.
The word "lego" is a combination of the Danish words "Leg Godt," which means "to play well." In
Latin, lego means "I study," or "I put together."
In 1969, Hartmut Esslinger ( hartmute@frogdesign.com ) founded FrogDesign Inc., one of the
world's preeminent consulting and design agencies with clients that include Swatch, Lufthansa
Airlines, and SAP. Whether designing high-tech dentist chairs or elegant Louis Vuitton luggage,
Esslinger seeks to infuse each product with his credo: Form follows emotion. Esslinger also
designed the original Macintosh SE. Ole Kirk Christiansen, a master carpenter and joiner in
Billund, Denmark, founded Legos in 1932.
Design is not so much about the end product as it is about the process. This is especially true
for design in the world of the Web, where you can't even talk about the design of an
immutable, static object. Instead, you focus on sequential, ongoing activities -- a series of
interactions and experiences.
And ultimately, any well-designed product or experience acknowledges the user. It's that
respect for the user that makes a design great. That's true for a table, a chair, a book, a film,
or a Web site.
Clement Mok ( cmok@sapient.com ) was creative director at Apple Computer before starting
Clement Mok Designs in 1988. In August 1998, his company merged with Sapient Corp., an
innovative e-services consultancy.
Biology and complexity theory teach us that the organizations that are most likely to survive
are those that can balance themselves on the edge of chaos and between the forces of
change and the forces of stability.
Christian Gibbons
Director, business/industry affairs
New Economy Project
Littleton, CO
Chrisg@csn.net
The future is about more than superfast computers, designer genes, and neural networks.
Answering the life-altering questions posed by technology requires knowledge that goes beyond
simplistic ideas about "progress." We need a more holistic intelligence -- not just knowledge,
but wisdom.
Too often, what we learn in school prepares us for employment rather than for life. I see
examples in my work every day -- people who do well at a certain kind of task, but who don't
bring to their pursuits the values, as well as the richness of experience, that come from a
broad-based education. At McKinsey, some of our best people are those who studied literature
or the classics, and who later received business training. These people tend to understand the
array of forces at work in organizations, and they approach decisions in a very well-rounded
way. My advice to young people is to avoid the urge to focus too early. Learn to appreciate
literature, history, and art. That kind of knowledge will help you in your career, and it will help
you lead a richer life.
Rajat Gupta ( rajat_gupta@mckinsey.com ) joined McKinsey & Co.'s New York office in 1973. He
has served as the firm's worldwide managing director since 1994.
18
Memo to the folks in Silicon Valley: You will have good jobs for 20 more years. By 2020,
though, computer chips will be cheaper than bubble-gum wrappers, and PCs will be in
museums.
Michio Kaku ( mkaku@aol.com ) is the host of a syndicated radio program and the author of
"Visions: How Science Will Revolutionize the 21st Century" ( Doubleday, 1997 ). A codeveloper of
string-field theory, Kaku is now working to complete Einstein's unified field theory -- aka "the
theory of everything."
Too many of us grant our technology a special status. Too few us have a clear understanding of
what place it should have in our lives -- or in society at large. This intoxication zone is
dissatisfying, empty, and dangerous. Climbing out of that zone is impossible unless we first
recognize that we're in it. Marshall McLuhan liked to say that while he didn't know who
discovered water, he was sure that it wasn't a fish.
We should love progress. But that love need not be unconditional. Loving progress means
cherishing technology's virtues -- as well as admitting mistakes, facing up to problems, being
well informed, and welcoming alternative opinions. If we truly love technology, we won't be
reckless with it.
John Naisbitt and his daughter, Nana ( megatrends@naisbitt.com ), are the co-authors, with
Douglas Philips, of "High Tech-High Touch: Technology and Our Search For Meaning" ( Broadway
Books, October 1999 ). John Naisbitt is the author of the best-selling "Megatrends" series. The
original "Megatrends" ( Warner Books, 1982 ) has sold more than 8 million copies worldwide.
The next century is going to turn our world upside down. The Internet combines people and
ideas faster than they have ever been combined before. And that combination changes
everything.
Where is all of this leading? To a rediscovery of basic questions. People are discovering that the
question "What needs to be done?" is bigger and more important than the question "How can I
do it?" What do we see after we surf through page after page of business Web sites? In many
cases, we see organizations that shrewdly view the Web as another medium for answering the
question "Why does this organization exist in the first place? What is our purpose?" What do we
see when we wade through the vast array of online learning tools that are now available? We
see new ways to get at the most basic question of all: "What do you want to do with your life?"
Tim Berners-Lee ( timbl@w3.org ), the inventor of the World Wide Web, came to his career
naturally: His parents helped design the Ferranti Mark I, the world's first commercially
available computer. In his first book, "Weaving the Web" ( HarperSanFrancisco, Fall 1999 ),
Berners-Lee writes about the history of the Web and his role in that history. Berners-Lee
occupies the 3Com Founders chair at the MIT Laboratory for Computer Science.
19
Strategis Group: Over Half of US Adults Use the Internet

The number of US Internet users has just passed the 100 million mark,
representing half of the entire adult population, according to new
research from the Strategis Group. Just one year ago, that figure was
68 million.
The typical user sends six emails per day and the gap between home use
and work use is narrowing. Of those that surf on a daily basis, 60
percent do so from home while 69 percent do so from work.
Authors of the report believe that users are more savvy now, with over
77 percent of them able to send an attachment with their email. One
fifth have created or updated a page in the last three months.
http://strategis.commnow.com/
BREAK/BREAK
"One crucial issue for voters to ponder is this: Whose finger do you want on the ALT-CONTROLDELETE button?"
U.S. vice president Al Gore, trying to sell himself to the tech crowd after his tour of Microsoft,
Slate, 15 November 1999
"When I speak publicly, no matter what I say, no matter how much I bore you, I'm treated like
this visionary."
Red Hat CEO Bob Young, on how the Linux phenomenon has boosted him into the public eye,
MSNBC, 15 November 1999
"The Internet isn't about transporting bits anymore."
Ziff-Davis chairman Eric Hippeau, announcing a technological shift that will come as a surprise
to network engineers everywhere, in his remarks before introducing keynote speaker Bill
Gates, Comdex, 14 November 1999
"Paul Allen is building [cable company Charter Communications] from the bottom up and he's
doing it with acquisitions."
IPO.com analyst Jeff Hirschkorn, who no doubt believes the Microsoft billionaire also bakes his
cookies from scratch using frozen dough, News.com, 8 November 1999
"We have been rapidly learning about using the Internet to check on all types of facts and
sources for all sorts of stories."
USA Today managing editor John Hilkirk, offering mass computer illiteracy in the newsroom as
an excuse for getting duped by a fairly transparent models'-eggs hoax, The Boston Globe, 29
October 1999
20
"There's a huge advantage to being last. You can come up with a vision and a strategy that's
better."
AltaVista CEO Rod Schrock, on his company's less-is-more marketing strategy, ZDNN, 24 October
1999
"Before the Web existed, it was very difficult to explain what the Web was."
World Wide Web inventor Tim Berners-Lee, on the days before the computer industry had
invented vaporware, Seattle Times, 17 October 1999
21
Mark: For the History buff and ADL archive of interesting quotes and
factoids. VR/DJ
Fourth of July Message
> Have you ever wondered what happened to the 56 men who signed the
> > Declaration of Independence?
>>
> > Five signers were captured by the British as traitors,
and tortured
> > before they died.
>>
> > Twelve had their homes ransacked and burned.
>>
> > Two lost their sons serving in the Revolutionary Army;
another had two
> > sons captured.
>>
> > Nine of the 56 fought and died from wounds or hardships
of the
> > Revolutionary War.
>>
> > They signed and they pledged their lives, their
fortunes, and their
> > sacred honor.
>>
> > What kind of men were they?
> > Twenty-four were lawyers and jurists. Eleven were
merchants, nine were
> > farmers and large plantation owners; men of means, well
educated. But
> > they signed the Declaration of Independence knowing
full well that the
> > penalty would be death if they were captured.
>>
> > Carter Braxton of Virginia, a wealthy planter and
trader, saw his ships
> > swept from the seas by the British Navy. He sold his
home and
> > properties to pay his debts, and died in rags.
>>
> > Thomas McKeam was so hounded by the British that he was
forced to move
> > his family almost constantly. He served in the Congress
without pay,
> > and his family was kept in hiding. His possessions were
taken from him,
> > and poverty was his reward.
>>
> > Vandals or soldiers looted the properties of Dillery,
Hall, Clymer,
> > Walton, Gwinnett, Heyward, Ruttledge, and Middleton.
22
>>
> > At the battle of Yorktown, Thomas Nelson Jr, noted that
the British
his
> > General Cornwallis had taken over the Nelson home for
> > headquarters. He quietly urged General George

Washington to open fire.
> > The home was destroyed, and Nelson died bankrupt.
>>
> > Francis Lewis had his home and properties destroyed.
The enemy jailed
> > his wife, and she died within a few months.
>>
> > John Hart was driven from his wife's bedside as she was
dying. Their 13
> > children fled for their lives. His fields and his
gristmill were laid to
> > waste. For more than a year he lived in forests and
caves, returning
> > home to find his wife dead and his children vanished. A
few weeks later
> > he died from exhaustion and a broken heart.
>>
> > Norris and Livingston suffered similar fates.
>>
> > Such were the stories and sacrifices of the American
Revolution.
> > These were not wild-eyed, rabble-rousing ruffians. They
were
> > soft-spoken men of means and education. They had
security, but they
> > valued liberty more. Standing tall, straight, and
unwavering, they
> > pledged: "For the support of this declaration, with
firm reliance on
> > the protection of the divine providence, we mutually
pledge to each
> > other, our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor."
>>
> > They gave you and me a free and independent America. The
history books
> > never told you a lot about what happened in the
Revolutionary War. We
> > didn't fight just the British. We were British subjects
at that time
> > and we fought our own government!
>>
> > Some of us take these liberties so much for granted, but
we should not.
> > So, take a few minutes while enjoying your 4th of July
holiday and
> > silently thank these patriots. It's not much to ask for
the price they
> > paid.
>>
23
> > Remember: Freedom Is Never Free!

>>
> > I hope you will show your support by please sending this
to as many
> > people as you can. It's time we get the word out that
patriotism is NOT
> > a sin, and the Fourth of July has more to it than beer,
picnics, and
> > baseball games.
24
Dread Quotes
What They Said with Dread
by Declan McCullagh
8:55 a.m. 4.Jan.2000 PST
PLAGUE: "Plague will follow shortly. Most of the inhabitants of the northern cities will die
within a matter of a few weeks, from cold, disease, fires started in an attempt to keep warm,
or random violence. This is bad enough, of course, to qualify as a disaster ranking with the
Black Plague, if not the extinction of the dinosaurs."
--Consultant Cory Hamasaki's newsletter, July 1999
WORSE THAN OTHER MODERN DISASTERS: "The Year-2000 phenomenon is clearly such a jolt,
and we believe that it will be much more pervasive and serious than most of the [disasters]
we've experienced in modern history."
--Ed and Jennifer Yourdon in Time Bomb 2000
EXTINCTION OF THE HUMAN RACE: "We must also prepare ourselves for the very real possibility
that the outcome of this situation might well be the total extinction of the entire human race.
It really could be worse than I am predicting and I really am being optimistic. First, I would like
to assure you that I am not some kind of nut anxiously waiting for the end of the world...."
--Consultant Cory Hamasaki's newsletter, November 1998
DEPRESSION IN THE UNITED STATES: "Economic slowdown... unemployment rises... interruptions
in utilities... common use of heaters, cook stoves... increase in layoffs... some neighborhoods
form purchasing associations... [probability of this outcome or worse] is 65 percent."
--Consultant Bruce Webster, The Y2K Survival Guide
HIDING GUNS: "[You should cache] most of your arms and supplies, while this is still possible
and legal. Preferably, you should have several smaller caches known only to you and to a highly
trusted backup... someone who will pass the supplies on to your family or group if anything
happens to you... you need to convert most of your spare cash and paper investments into gold
and/or silver coins."
--Consultant Cory Hamasaki's newsletter, January 1998
CAN'T BUY FOOD BY JUNE 1999: "Problem is if only 1 percent of the people are preparing now
and the supply chain is overburdened, adding only another 1 percent will crush it. Come MayJune of '99 your chances of buying any long-term foods will be minimal. So then people will
start stocking canned goods and dog food. Not guaranteed, but there is a distinct possibility
that we could start seeing food shortages at the local grocery stores by July-Aug '99 as
everyone starts buying ten extra cans of food a week...."
IT'S OVER: "The problem will not be fixed. Everyone in authority will deny that time has run out
to get this fixed, right up until December 31, 1999... I'm saying that it's over. Right now. It
cannot be fixed. Whatever it does, the Millennium Bug will bite us."
--Christian Reconstructionist Gary North, early 1997
GREAT DEPRESSION: "I think it is going to be very bad. In fact, the best possible case for which
there is any hope is another Great Depression."
--Consultant Cory Hamasaki's newsletter, July 1999
MARTIAL LAW: "As 1999 progresses, as the global economy continues to decline and as more and
more of the early Y2K failures occur, there will be some sudden, critical failure which will
trigger a social crisis... Whatever the cause, governments all over the world will seize on this
as an excuse to put their plans for martial law into effect, hoping to have some kind of
25
emergency administration in place before their existing systems are wiped out by Y2K."
--Consultant Cory Hamasaki's newsletter, January 1998
'A VERY BAD FIRE:' "The Y2K 'fire' has not broken out yet, though we'll begin seeing the first few
flames in 1999, possibly as early as January 1, 1999. But like many of my Y2K colleagues, I can
already smell the smoke, and I believe, deeply and sincerely, that it's going to be a very bad
fire indeed."
--Consultant Ed Yourdon, March 1998
STOCK MARKET CRASHED: "The stock market crashed and there was a run on the banks... We've
been only too aware that the fractional reserve banking system was unwise and insecure... The
safest place in the whole universe right now is not in the center of the securest compound
money can buy. It is in the center of God's will."
--Authors Michael Hyatt and George Grant, in novel Y2K: The Day the World Shut Down
NEW YORK WILL RESEMBLE BEIRUT: "I recently sold our New York City apartment and bought a
house in a small town in New Mexico... I've often joked that I expect New York to resemble
Beirut if even a subset of the Y2K infrastructure problems actually materialize -- but it's really
not a joke... Y2K is sufficiently worrisome, in my opinion, that I'll make sure my family isn't
there when the clock rolls over to Jan 1, 2000."
--Consultant Ed Yourdon, July 1998
COMPLETE COLLAPSE: "We're looking at a complete collapse of the government's systems and
partial collapse (50 percent) of private industry's computer systems. Analogous to the
dissociation of the former Soviet Union. 10-20 percent of the military will resign when they
aren't paid for months. Rioting, looting, and burning in the usual places... DJI down 5000 points
in 6 months, hyper inflation for a couple years...."
--Consultant Cory Hamasaki's newsletter, republished by Gary North, March 1998
NIGHTMARE: "At 12 midnight on January 1, 2000... most of the world's mainframe computers
will either shut down or begin spewing out bad data. Most of the world's desktop computers
will also start spewing out bad data. Tens of millions -- possibly hundreds of millions -- of preprogrammed computer chips will begin to shut down the systems they automatically control.
This will create a nightmare for every area of life, in every region of the industrialized world."
--Christian Reconstructionist Gary North, early 1997
A DECADE OF DEPRESSION: "We're going to suffer a year of technological disruptions, followed
by a decade of depression... We're likely to be living in an environment much like the Third
World countries some of us have visited, where nothing works particularly well."
--Consultant Ed Yourdon, February 1999
CERTAIN SNAFUS: "The systems will break, this is a certainty. It is uncertain whether the
consequence is rioting, looting. Mad Max and Escape from New York or Little House on the
Prairie."
SCARED WITLESS: "I have been studying Y2K in every way possible to me since October of 1997.
On a daily basis. How many hours? I don't want to know. In that time I have become convinced
that we are going to get blasted. Big time blasted. Infomagic blasted. I have learned enough to
get real damn scared, scared motionless like a rabbit facing a snake."
CONSULTANTS OUT OF WORK: "My day-to-day work will suffer an increasing number of
interruptions, glitches, delays, inconveniences, and disruptions during the second half of 1999;
and I'm expecting that they'll be sufficiently pervasive after January 1, 2000 that my income
26
will drop to zero during the first six months of the new year."
Copyright 1994-2000 Wired Digital Inc. All rights reserved.
27
LATIN QUOTES
An nescis, mi fili, quantilla sapientia mundus regatur?
Don't you know then, my son, with how little wisdom the world is ruled?
(Said by the Swedish chancellor Axel Oxenstierna to encourage his son Johan when the son
doubted his ability to represent Sweden at the Westphalian peace conference.)
Arte et Marte.
With peaceful effort and warlike feats.
(Inscription on the House of Nobility, Riddarhuset, in Stockholm)
Bellum omnium contra omnes.
Everybody's war against everybody.
(Thomas Hobbes)
Cogito, ergo sum.
I think, therefore I am.
(Ren Descartes, Discours de la mthode)
Claris maiorum exemplis.
After the forefathers' brilliant example.
(Part of the inscription on the House of Nobility, Riddarhuset, in Stockholm.)
De duobus malis minus est semper eligendum.
One must always choose the lesser of two evils.
(Thomas a Kempis)
Divide et impera.
Divide and rule.
(Louis XI; adopted by Macchiavelli)
Dubitando ad veritatem venimus.
We arrive at the truth being sceptical.
(Pierre Ablard, Sic et non?)
Hoc coactus sum.
To this, I am forced and compelled.
(According to legend, a secret reservation written by bishop Hans Brask of Linkping and
hidden under his seal on a document he was reluctant to sign.)
Homo proponit, sed Deus disponit.
Man proposes, God disposes.
(Thomas a Kempis)
Ignoto militi
For the unknown soldier
(Inscription on the tomb of the Unknown Soldier.)
Illegitimis non est carborundum.
Don't let the b******s grind you down.
(Gen. Joseph "Vinegar Joe" Stilwell. The phrase is actually "fake", since - however Latin it may
sound - there is no Latin word carborundum.)
Illis quorum meruere labores.
28
For them whose labours have showed them deserving.

(The inscription on a Swedish service medal, instituted in 1785. Quoted from Propertius.)
Indicit Scyllam qui vult vitare Charybdin.
He falls into Scylla's hands who wants to avoid Charybdis.
(Gautier de Chtillon; from the story in Homer's Odyssee, about the sea monsters Scylla and
Charybdis who flanked a narrow strait and pulled down passing ships.)
In hoc signo vinces.
In this sign, you will be victorious.
(Acc. to Eusebios, words next to a cross in the sky seen by emperor Constantine the Great
before a battle.)
Inventas vitam iuvat excoluisse per artes.
Let us improve life through science and art.
(Inscription on the Nobel Prize winner medals. After Vergilius, Aenis.)
Locus enim est principum generationis rerum.
For place is the origin of things.
(Roger Bacon)
Mundus vult decipi, ergo decipiatur.
The world wants to be betrayed, therefore let it be betrayed.
(Sebastian Brant)
Nam et ipsa scientia potestas est.
For knowledge itself is power.
(Sir Francis Bacon)
Natura abhorret a vacuo. (Horror vacui.)
Nature abhors the void. (The fear of the void.)
(Rn Descartes)
Natura non facit saltus.
Nature doesn't make any leaps.
(Carl von Linn, Philosophia botanica)
Nemo nisi mors.
Nobody except death (will part us).
(Inscription in the wedding ring of the Swedish 16th century queen Katarina Jagellonica.)
Nihil est miserum nisi cum putes.
Nothing is unfortunate if you don't consider it unfortunate.
(Boethius, De consolatione philosophiae)
Nomina si nescis, perit et cognitio rerum.
If you do not know the names, the knowledge about the things vanishes as well.
(Carl von Linn, Critica botanica)
O sancta simplicitas!
Oh, holy simplicity!
(Jan Hus)
Peccavi!
I have Sindh/sinned!
29
(British general Sir Charles James Napier to his commanding officer, Lord Ellenborough, after
he had captured Sindh, in modern Pakistan.)
Pluralitas non est ponenda sine neccesitate.
Entities should not be multiplied unnecessarily.
(Principle known as Occam's Razor, used for example in physics.)
Primus inter pares.
First among equals.
(Used about someone who is the first in a group without having any authority over his/her
colleagues, e.g. the Swedish archbishop.)
Sic transit gloria mundi.
Thus departs the glory of the world.
(The introductory words of a medieval hymn used at the inauguration of a newly elected pope.)
Si tacuisses, philosophus manisses.
If you had kept quiet, you would have remained a philosopher.
(Boethius, De consolatione philosophiae)
Taceant colloquia. Effugiat risus. Hic locus est ubi mors gaudet succurrere vitae.
Let idle talk be silenced. Let laughter be banished. Here is the place where Death delights to
succour life.
(Inscription over the entrance to the New York morgue.)
Tempora mutantur, nos et mutamur in illis.
The times change, and we change with them.
(John Owen)
Ultima ratio regum.
The last argument of kings.
(Inscription on French cannons in the times of Louis XIV.)
Urbi et orbi.
To the city (Rome) and the world.
(Words usually pronounced by the Pope during his blessing, to show that they will spread to all
the world.)
Uva uvam vivendo varia fit.
A grape changes colour (ripens) when it sees (another) grape.
(This phrase derives from a scholia to Juvenal and is actually a misquotation of uvaque
conspecta livorem ducit ab uva - a grape assumes a sickly hue from a nearby grape.)
To Top
Last update: July 31, 2001 by Johanna Hansdotter Sundberg

A
Abiit, excessit, evasit, erupit.
He has left, absconded, escaped and disappeared.
(Cicero, In Catilinam)
30
Ab ovo usque ad mala.

From the egg right to the apple (i.e. from the beginning to the end).
(Horatius, Ars poetica)
Accipere quam facere praestat injuriam.
It is better to suffer an injustice than to do an injustice.
(Cicero, Tusculanae disputationes)
Acta est fabula, plaudite!
The play is over, applaud!
(Suetonius, Vitae Caesarum, Divus Augustus. Said to have been emperor Augustus' last words.
The phrase was often used at the end of Roman plays, to let the audience know that they had
reached the end of the piece.)
Ad Kalendas Graecas.
Until the Greek Kalendae.
(Suetonius, Vitae Caesarum, Divus Augustus. To postpone something "ad Kalendas Graecas"
meant it would never be done - the Roman name Kalendae for the first day of the month didn't
have a Greek equivalent.)
Ad nocendum potentes sumus.
We have the power to harm.
(Seneca Philosophus, De ira)
Aegroto, dum anima est, spes esse dicitur.
It is said that for a sick man, there is hope as long as there is life.
(Cicero, Ad Atticum)
Agnosco veteris vestigia flammae.
I recognise the vestige of that fading flame.
(Vergilius, Aenis)
Alea iacta est!
The die is cast!
(According to Suetonius, said by Julius Caesar when he crossed the Rubicon.)
Aliena nobis, nostra plus aliis placent.
We like other people's (things) the best; others like ours.
(Publilius Syrus)
Aliis si licet, tibi non licet.
Even though it is permitted for others, it isn't permitted for you.
(Terentius, Heautontimorumenos. Cf. quod licet Iovi, non licet bovi and duo cum faciunt idem,
non est idem.)
Amantium irae, amoris integratio est.
The anger of lovers is what brings love together.
(N/A)
Amicus certus in re incerta cernitur.
A sure friend shows himself in the uncertain. (A friend in need is a friend indeed.)
(Ennius, quoted by Cicero.)
Amicus verus est rara avis.
A true friend is a rare bird.
31
(N/A)
Amor est melle et felle est fecundissimus.
Love is rich with both honey and venom.
(Plautus, Cistellaria)
Amor vincit omnia et nos cedamus amori.
Love conquers all and let us yield to love.
(Vergilius, Eclogae)
Aquila non captat muscas.
The eagle doesn't capture flies.
(N/A)
Argentum accepti, dote imperium vendidi.
I have accepted the money and for a dowry sold my freedom.
(Plautus, Asinaria)
Ars longa, vita brevis.
Art is long, life is short.
(Seneca Philosophus, De brevitate vitae)
At non effugies meos iambos.
But you cannot escape my iambi.
(Catullus, fragments)
At vindicta bonum vita iucundius ipsa.
But revenge is sweeter than life itself.
(Juvenalis, Saturae)
Audentes fortuna iuvat.
Fortune favours the brave.
(Vergilius, Aenis)
Audiatur et altera pars.
May the other part also be heard.
(N/A. Cf. Qui statuit aliquid parte inaudita altera, aequum licet statuerit.)
Augescunt aliae gentes, aliae minuuntur; inque brevi spatio mutantur saecia animantum et
quasi cursores vitae lampada tradunt.
Some people increase, others diminish; and in a short space, the generations of living creatures
are changed and like runners pass on the torch of life.
(Lucretius, De Rerum Natura)
Aurora Musis amica.
Dawn is friend of the muses. (Early bird catches the worm.)
(N/A)
Ave, imperator, morituri te salutant.
Hail, emperor, those who will die salute you.
(Suetonius, Vitae Caesarum, Claudius. The fighters' greeting to the emperor before gladiatorial
games.)
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32
B
Bellaque matribus detestata.
The war, hated by mothers.
(Horatius, Carmina)
Benedictus qui venit in nomine Domini.
Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.
(From the Sanctus of the Catholic mass.)
Beneficium accipere libertatem est vendere.
To accept a favour is to sell freedom.
(Publilius Syrus)
Bene qui latuit, bene vixit.
One who lives well, lives unnoticed.
(Ovidius, Tristia)
Bibere humanum est, ergo bibamus.
To drink is human, let us therefore drink.
(N/A)
Bibamus, moriendum est.
Let us drink, death is inevitable.
(Seneca Rhetor, Controversiae)
Bis dat qui cito dat.
He gives twice, who gives promptly.
(Publilius Syrus)
Brevis ipsa vita est sed malis fit longior.
Our life is short but is made longer by misfortunes.
(Publilius Syrus)
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C
Caelum, non animum mutant, qui trans mare currunt.
They change the sky, but not their souls, who hasten across the sea.
(Horatius, Epistulae)
Canis timidus vehementius latrat quam mordet.
A timid dog barks more violently than it bites.
(Curtius Rufus)
Carpe diem, quam minimum credula postero!
Pluck the day; do not expect anything from tomorrow!
(Horatius, Carmina)
33
Caveat emptor.
Let the buyer beware.
(N/A)
Cave canem!
Beware of the dog!
(Inscription at the entry of Roman houses.)
Cedant arma togae, concedat laurea laudi.
May arms yield to the toga (the gown of peace), may the glory of war give way to the glory of
peaceful feats.
(Cicero, Poetica fragmenta)
Certum est, quia impossibile.
It is certain, because it is impossible.
(Tertullianus, De carne Christi. Later in the form Credo, quia absurdum - I believe, although it
is absurd.)
Cito enim arescit lacrima, praesertim in alienis malis.
Tears dry quickly, especially when they are for others' misfortunes.
(Cicero, De partitione oratoria)
Cogitationis poenam nemo patitur.
Nobody should be punished for his thoughts.
(Corpus Iuris Civilis. Cf. liberae sunt nostrae cogitationes.)
Commodum ex iniuria sua nemo habere debet.
No person ought to have advantage from his own wrong.
(N/A)
Concordia parvae res crescunt, discordia maximae dilabuntur.
Through unity the small thing grows, through disunity the largest thing crumbles.
(Sallustius, Jugurtha)
Coniecturalem artem esse medicinam.
Medicine is the art of guessing.
(Aulus Cornelius Celsus, De medicina)
Consuetudinis magna vis est.
The force of habit is great.
Consuetudo quasi altera natura.
Habit is our second nature.
(Cicero, De finibus)
Contraria contrariis curantur.
The opposite is cured with the opposite.
(Hippocrates)
Contumeliam si dices, audies.
If you insult, you will be insulted.
Plautus, Pseudolus)
34
Corruptissima re publica plurimae leges.

The more corrupt the state is, the more numerous are the laws.
(Tacitus, Annales)
Credo certe ne cras.
I believe with certainty that there is no tomorrow.
(A famous tomb inscription.)
Crescit amor nummi, quantum ipsa pecunia crevit.
The love of wealth grows as the wealth itself grows.
Cui bono?
To whose profit?
(Cicero, Pro Milone)
Cui peccare licet peccat minus.
One who is allowed to sin, sins less.
(Ovidius, Amores)
Cui placet obliviscur, cui dolet meminit.
He forgets that which pleases him, but remembers the pain he suffers.
(Cicero, Pro Murena)
Cuiusvis hominis est errare, nullius nisi insipientis in errore perseverare.
Anybody can err, but only the fool persists in his fault.
(Cicero, Philippicae orationes. Often quoted errare humanum est, ignoscere divinum - to err is
human, to forgive divine.)
Cum grano salis
With a grain of salt
(Plinius the Elder?)
Cum tacent, clamant.
When they are silent, they cry out.
(Cicero, In Catalinam)
Cura posterior.
A later concern.
(N/A)
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D
De gustibus non est disputandum.
You should not argue about taste.
(N/A)
De mortuis nihil nisi bene.
Nothing but good about the dead.
(Cheilon of Sparta; quoted by Horatius)
35
De nihilo nihil.
Nothing comes from nothing.
(Lucretius, De rerum natura)
Deus ex machina.
A god from the machine.
(Originally an expression from the ancient Greek theatre, where the conflict often was solved
by a god who entered the stage with the help of some kind of machinery. Today often used in a
transferred sense about an unexpected and unlikely denoument of a dramatic situation.)
Deus nobiscum, quis contra?
If God is for us, who can be against us?
(Versio Vulgata, Rom. 8.31)
Dictum, factum.
Said and done.
(Terentius, Heautontimorumenos)
Diem perdidi!
I have lost a day!
(Suetonius, Vitae Caesarum, Titus. Said to have been exclaimed by Emperor Titus when a day
had passed without him doing good to somebody.)
Difficile est saturam non scribere.
It is hard not to write satire.
Dimidium facti, qui coepit, habet.
He has done half, who has begun.
(Horatius, Epistula)
Dii minores
Lesser gods
(Cicero, Tusculanae disputationes. About the "lower class" gods in Roman mythology; sometimes
used jokingly about people who aren't very important or less important than others present.)
Dimidium facti qui coepit habet.
Half is done when the beginning is done.
Dira necessitas.
The dire necessity.
(Horatius, Carmina)
Docendo discimus.
We learn by teaching.
(After Seneca Philosophus, homines dum docent discunt - men learn while they teach.)
Dulce bellum inexpertis.
War is sweet for those who haven't experienced it.
(Translated from Pindaros)
Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori.
It is sweet and glorious to die for one's country.
36
(Horatius, Carmina)
Dulcis vita.
A pleasant life.
(Lucretius, De rerum natura)
Dum excusare credis, accusas.
When you believe you are excusing yourself, you are accusing yourself.
(St. Jerome? (probably one of his disciples), Epistulae)
Dum inter homines sumus, colamus humanitatem.
As long as we are among humans, let us be humane.
Dum spiro, spero.
While I breathe, I hope.
(Cicero, Epistulae ad Atticum)
Duo cum faciunt idem, non est idem.
When two do the same thing, it isn't the same (i.e. one can get away with doing something
while another cannot.)
(Terentius, Adelphoe. Cf. quod licet Iovi, non licet bovi and aliis si licet, tibi non licet.)
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E
Ecce homo!
Behold the man!
(Versio Vulgata, Ioh. 19.5)
Epistula non erubescit.
A letter doesn't blush.
(Cicero, Epistulae ad familiares)
Est deus in nobis.
There is a god inside us.
(Ovidius, Fasti)
Est quaedam flere voluptas.
There is a kind of pleasure in crying.
(Ovidius, Tristia)
Et in Arcadia ego.
I, too, have been in Arcadia. (I.e. Death is in Arcadia as well.)
(N/A)
Et tu, Brute.
And you, my Brutus.
(Julius Caesar's words when he saw his favourite, Brutus, among his assassins. In Shakespeare's
Julius Caesar, the words are in Latin, but according to Suetonius, they were in Greek - if ever
said.)
37
Exegi monumentum aere perennius.

I have made a monument more permanent than copper.
(Horatius, Carmina; referring to his poems.)
Exitus acta probat.
The result validates the deeds.
(Ovidius, Heroides. Cf. finis coronat opus.)
Exoriare aliquis nostris ex ossibus ultor.
May an avenger one day raise from my bones.
(Vergilius, Aenis)
Ex oriente lux, ex occidente lex.
From the east the light, from the west the law.
(N/A)
Extra ecclesiam nulla salus.
Outside the Church, no salvation.
(Cyprianus, Epistulae)
Ex ungue leonem.
You know the lion from its claw.
(N/A)
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F
Faber est suae quisque fortunae.
Every man is the artisan of his own fortune.
(Appius Claudius Caecus)
Facilius est multa facere quam diu.
It is easier to do many things than to do one for a long time.
(Quintilianus, Institutio oratoria)
Facis de necessitate virtutem.
You make necessity a virtue.
(St. Jerome, Adversus Rufum)
Facito aliquid operis, ut te semper diabolus inveniat occupatum.
Always do something, so that the devil always finds you occupied.
(St. Jerome, Epistulae)
Factum est illud, fieri infectum non potest.
Done is done, it cannot be made undone.
(Plautus, Aulularia)
Fama crescit eundo.
The rumour grows as it goes.
(N/A; cf. Vergilius, Aenis)
38
Fama volat.
The rumour has wings.
(Vergilius, Aenis)
Fas est et ab hoste doceri.
One should also learn from one's enemy.
(Ovidius, Metamorphoses)
Favete linguis.
Honour (the ceremony) with your tongues (i.e., be devoutly quiet).
(Horatius, Carmina; the Roman priest's exhortation to the people to be quiet during the sacred
ceremonies.)
Finis coronat opus.
The ending crowns the work.
(N/A. Cf. exitus acta probat.)
Fortuna multis dat nimis, nulli satis.
Fortune gives many too much but nobody enough.
(Martialis, Epigrammaton liber)
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G
Gloria in altissimis Deo et in terra pax hominibus bonae voluntatis.
Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace towards men of good will .
(Versio Vulgata, Luc. 2.14)
Graeca sunt, non leguntur.
It is Greek, you don't read that.
(N/A)
Grammatici certant, et adhuc sub iudice lis est.
The scholars quarrel, and the case lies still undecided in the hands of the judge. (On that point
the learned disagree.)
Gutta cavat lapidem, non vi sed saepe cadendo.
The drop excavates the stone, not with force but by falling often.
(Ovidius, Ex Ponto)
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H
Haec ego non multis (scribo), sed tibi: satis enim magnum alter alteri theatrum sumus.
39
I write this not to the many, but to you only, for you and I are surely enough of an audience for
each other.
(Epicurus, quoted by Seneca Philosophus.)
Hannibal ante portas.
Hannibal before the gates.
(Cicero, Philippicae orationes)
Haud semper errat fama, aliquando et eligit.
Rumour is not always in error, sometimes it chooses.
(Tacitus, Agricola)
Hic Rhodus, hic salta!
Here is Rhodes; jump here!
(According to legend, said to a man who boasted that he had made a huge jump on Rhodes.)
Hinc illae lacrimae.
Hence these tears.
(Terentius, Andria)
Hoc tempore obsequium amicos, veritas odium parit.
In these days friends are won through flattery, the truth gives birth to hate.
(Terentius, Andria)
Hominem ad duas res, ut ait Aristoteles, ad intelligendum et ad agendum, esse natum.
Man is born to two things, as Aristotle says: to understand and to act.
Homo novus
A new (self-made) man
(Used about somebody who had gained success but wasn't of the nobility. Cicero was a typical
homo novus.)
Honores mutant mores.
The honours change the customs. (Power corrupts.)
(N/A)
Honor est praemium virtutis.
Honour is virtue's reward.
(Cicero, Brutus)
Horas non numero nisi serenas.
I count only the bright hours.
(Inscription on ancient sundials.)
Humanum amarest, humanum autem ignoscerest.
It is human to love, it is also human to forgive.
(Plautus, Mercator)
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40
Id certum est quod certum reddi potest.

That is certain that can be made certain.
(N/A)
Idem velle atque idem nolle, ea demum firma amicitia est.
(To want) the same in intentions and disinclinations is what makes a firm friendship.
(Sallustius, Bellum Catilinae)
Ignorantia juris nocet.
Ignorance of the laws harm.
(N/A; legal maxim used to show that ignorance about the laws and regulations in force cannot
be used in court as grounds for an acquittal, or even as mitigating circumstances.)
Ille dolet vere, qui sine teste dolet.
He mourns honestly who mourns without witnesses.
Illi robur et aes triplex circa pectus erat, qui fragilem truci commisit pelago ratem primus.
As hard as oak and three times bronze was the heart of him who first committed a fragile
vessel to the keeping of wild waves.
(Horatius, Carmina)
Imitatores, servum pecus!
Imitators, you slavish crowd!
Imperium et libertas
Autocracy and freedom
(Tacitus, Agricola; praise to the Emperor Nerva for having been able to combine two otherwise
incompatible things.)
Impossibilium nulla obligatio est.
Nobody has any obligation to the impossible.
(Corpus Iuris Civilis: Digesta)
In aere aedificare.
Build (castles) in the air.
(St. Augustine, Confessiones)
Inde ira et lacrimae.
Hence wrath and tears.
In dubiis non est agendum.
In dubious cases, you should not act.
(N/A)
Ingenia levitas et erudita vanitas.
Inborn levity and learnt vanity.
(Cicero, Pro Flacco)
Iniqua nunquam regna perpetuo manent.
Stern masters do not reign long.
(Seneca Philosophus, Medea)
41
Iniuria non excusat iniuriam.

One wrong does not justify another.
(N/A)
In magnis et voluisse sat est.
To once have wanted is enough in great deeds.
(Propertius, Elegies)
Innocue vivite, numen adest.
Live without faults; the deity is present.
(Ovidius, Ars amandi)
Inquietum est cor nostrum, donec requiescat in te.
Our heart is anxious until it finds peace in you.
(St. Augustine, Confessiones)
In spiritu et veritate
In spirit and truth
Inter pocula
Between the cups
(Vergilius, Georgica)
In vino veritas
In wine is truth
(N/A)
Invita Minerva, ut aiunt.
Against Minerva's will, as they say (i.e. without aptitude and qualifications).
(Cicero, De officiis)
Ira furor brevis est.
Anger is a brief insanity.
Is fecit, cui prodest.
He has done it, whom it gains.
(N/A)
Iucundi acti labores.
Surmounted labours are pleasant.
Iurare in verba magistri.
Swear on the master's words.
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42
Labor improbus omnia vincit.

Assiduous labour conquers everything.
(Vergilius, Georgica)
Latet anguis in herba.
A snake lies in the grass.
Laudant illa, sed ista legunt.
Some (writing) is praised, but other is read.
Leges bonae ex malis moribus procreantur.
Good laws are born of bad customs.
(Macrobius, Saturnalia)
Libenter homines et id quod volunt, credunt.
What men wish, they like to believe
(Julius Caesar, Commentarii de bello Gallico)
Liberae sunt nostrae cogitationes.
Our thoughts are free.
(Cicero, Pro Milone. Cf. Cogitationis poenam nemo patitur.)
Liber librorum
The Book of Books
(I.e., the Bible)
Liber mihi opus est.
I need a book.
(N/A)
Libertas inaestimabilis res est.
Liberty is a thing beyond all price.
Licentia poetica.
Poetic licence.
(Seneca Philosophus, Quaestiones naturales)
Longum iter est per praecepta, breve et efficax per exempla.
The way is made long through rules, but short and effective through examples.
(Seneca Philosophus, Epistulae)
Lucus a non lucendo.
A grove is so called because it doesn't glow.
(After Quintilianus, De institutione oratoria. Often used as an example of incorrect etymology.)
Lupus est homo homini.
Man is man's wolf.
(Plautus, Asinaria)
Lupus in fabula.
The wolf in the tale. (I.e. speak of the wolf, and he will come)
43
(Terentius, Adelphoe)
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M
Magnas inter opes inops.
A pauper in the midst of wealth.
(Horatius, Carmina)
Magna vis veritatis quae facile se per se ipsa defendat.
Great is the power of truth that can easily defend itself with its own force.
(N/A)
Maior e longinquo reverentia.
Reverence grows at a distance.
(Tacitus, Annales)
Male parta male dilabuntur.
What has been wrongly gained is wrongly lost. (Ill-gotten gains seldom prosper.)
(Cicero, Philippicae orationes)
Malum quidem nullum esse sine aliquo bono.
There is no evil without something good.
(Plinius the Elder, Naturalis historia)
Manum de tabula!
(Remove) your hand from the board! (Enough! Hold it!)
Manus manum lavat.
One hand washes the other.
(Seneca Philosophus, Apocolocyntosis)
Margaritas ante porcos iacere.
Throw pearls before the swine.
(Versio Vulgata, Matt. 7.6)
Mater artium necessitas.
Necessity is the mother of invention.
(N/A)
Mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa.
My fault, my fault, my great fault.
(From the Catholic confession, the threefold repetition referring to faults in thoughts, words
and actions.)
Mea mihi conscientia pluris est quam omnium sermo.
My conscience means more to me than all speech.
(Cicero, Epistulae ad Atticum)
Medice, cura te ipsum!
44
Physician, heal thyself!

Medicus curat, natura sanat.
The physician treats, nature cures.
(N/A)
Medio tutissimus ibis.
You will go safest in the middle.
Melius est praevenire quam praeveniri.
Better to forestall than to be forestalled.
(N/A)
Melius frangi quam flecti.
It is better to break than to bend.
(N/A)
Mendacem memorem esse oportet.
A liar needs a good memory.
(Quintilianus, De institutione oratoria)
Mendaci homini, ne verum quidem dicenti, credere solemus.
Liars aren't believed even when they are telling the truth.
(Cicero, De divitatione)
Mens agitat molem.
The mind moves the matter.
(Vergilius, Aenis)
Mens sana in corpore sano.
A sound mind in a sound body.
Mirabile dictu.
Wonderful to relate.
(Vergilius, Aenis)
Mors ultima linea rerum est.
Death is everything's final limit.
Multos timere debet, quem multi timent.
He has to fear many who is feared by many.
(Publilius Syrus, Sententiae. Also in Seneca Philosophus as necesse est multos timeat, quem
multi timent, "it is necessary for him who is feared by many to fear many.")
Multum legendum esse, non multa.
You should read much, not many (books).
(Plinius the Younger; often quoted only as multum non multa, "much, not many".)
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45
N
Nam curiosus nemo est, quin sit malevolus.
For nobody is curious, who isn't malevolent.
(Plautus, ?)
Nam tua res agitur, paries cum proximus ardet.
It is your business when your neighbour's house is on fire.
Navigare necesse est.
To sail is necessary.
(From Plutarchos)
Ne bis in idem.
Not twice the same.
(Canones apostulorum; a legal maxim meaning that a person cannot be sentenced twice for the
same crime.)
Necessitatis non habet legem.
Necessity knows no law.
(N/A)
Nec quicquam insipiente fortunato intolerabilius fieri potest.
Nothing is more insufferable than a successful fool.
(Cicero, De amicitia)
Ne furtum facias.
Thou shalt not steal.
(The seventh commandment.)
Nemo ante mortem beatus.
Nobody should be called happy before his death.
Nemo autem regere potest nisi qui et regi.
But nobody can rule who cannot also be ruled.
Nemo enim fere saltat sobrius, nisi forte insanit.
Almost nobody dances sober, unless he happens to be insane.
Nemo me impune lacessit.
Nobody insults me with impunity.
(The motto of the Scottish crown.)
Nemo nascitur artifex.
Nobody is born an artist.
(N/A)
Nemo risum praebuit, qui ex se coepit.
Nobody is laughed at, who laughs at himself.
46
(Seneca Philosophus, De providentia)

Nemo sine vitio est.
Nobody is without fault.
(N/A)
Ne quid nimis.
Nothing in excess.
(Terentius, Andria)
Nervos belli, pecuniam. (Nervus rerum.)
The nerve of war, money. (The nerve of things.)
(Cicero, Pilippicae orationes)
Nihil agere delectat.
It is pleasant to do nothing.
(Cicero, De oratore)
Nihil est ab omni parte beatum.
Nothing is good in every part.
(Horatius, Carmina)
Nihil est incertius volgo.
Nothing is more uncertain than the (favour of the) crowd.
Nihil in hominum genere rarius perfecto oratore inveniri potest.
Nothing is more unusual amongst mankind than the perfect speaker.
Nihil inimicius quam sibi ipse.
Nothing is more hostile than oneself against oneself. (Man is his own worst enemy.)
(Cicero, Ad atticum)
Nihil peccat nisi quod nihil peccat.
His only fault is that he doesn't have any faults.
(Plinius the Younger, Epistulae)
Nihil tam munitum quod non expugnari pecunia possit.
No fort is so strong that it cannot be taken with money.
(Cicero, In Verrem)
Nil admirari.
To admire nothing.
(Horatius, Epistulae; described as a condition for human happiness.)
Nil agit exemplum, litem quod lite resolvit.
Not much worth is an example that solves one quarrel with another.
(Horatius, Satirae)
Nil desperandum!
Never despair!
(Horatius, Carmina)
Noli equi dentes inspicere donati.
47
Do not look a gift horse in the mouth.

(St. Jerome, Commentarius in epistulam Pauli ad Ephesos)
Noli me tangere!
Don't touch me!
Noli turbare circulos meos!
Don't upset my calculations!
(Said to have been Archimedes' words to a Roman soldier during the conquest of Syracuse. The
soldier answered by slaying him.)
Nomen et omen.
Name and omen (the name forebodes).
(Plautus, Persa)
Nomina sunt odiosa.
Names are hateful.
(Cicero, Pro Roscio)
Non amo te, Sabidi, nec possum dicere quare:
hoc tantum possum dicere, non amo te.
I do not like you, Sabidius, but I can't say why:
I can only say this, I do not like you.
Non est, crede mihi, sapientis dicere "Vivam." Sera nimis vita est crastina: vive hodie.
Believe me, "I shall live" is not the saying of a wise man. Tomorrow's life is too late: live today.
(Martialis, Epigrammata)
Non est vivere, sed valere vita est.
It is not to live but to be healthy that makes a life.
(Martialis, Epigrammata)
Non mortem timemus, sed cogitationem mortis.
We do not fear death, but the thought of death.
Non omne quod licet honestum est.
Not everything that is permitted is honest.
Non omne quod nitet aurum est.
Not all that glitters is gold.
(N/A)
Non omnia possumus omnes.
Everybody cannot do everything.
Non omnis moriar.
I will not die entirely.
(Horatius, Carmina - in reference to his written work.)
Non scholae sed vitae discimus.
48
We do not learn for school, but for life.

Non sibi se soli natum meminerit (homo), sed patriae, sed suis. (Aliis, non sibi.)
A man should remember that he is not born solely for his own sake, but for his country, and for
his family. (For others, not for oneself.)
Non ut edam vivo, sed vivam edo.
I do not live to eat, but eat to live.
(Quintilianus, Instituitio oratoria)
Nosce te ipsum.
Know thyself
(Inscription at the temple of Apollo in Delphi.)
Nuda veritas
The naked truth
(Horatius, Carmina)
Nulla regula sine exceptione.
No rule without exception.
(N/A)
Nulla res carius constat quam quae precibus empta est.
Nothing is so expensive as that which you have bought with pleas.
(Seneca Philosophus, De beneficiis)
Nullum esse librum tam malum ut non aliqua parte prodesset.
No book is so bad that no part of it is useful.
(Plinius the Younger, Epistulae)
Nullum est iam dictum quod non dictum sit prius.
Nothing is said that hasn't been said before.
(Terentius, Eunuchus)
Numero deus impare gaudet.
God loves odd numbers.
Numquam magnum ingenium sine mixtura dementiae fuit.
There has never been a great spirit without a touch of insanity.
(Seneca Philosophus, De tranquillitate animis)
Numquam non paratus.
Never unprepared.
(N/A)
Numquam sapiens irascitur.
The wise man never flies into a rage.
Numquam se minus solum quam cum solus esset.
You are never so little alone as when you are alone.
49
Nunc est bibendum, nunc pede libero pulsanda tellus.

Now is the time for drinking, now free feet will beat the earth.
(Horatius, Carmina; about the death of Cleopatra)
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O
Oderint, dum metuant.
May they hate me, if only they fear me.
(Suetonius, Vitae Caesarum, Caligula)
Odi et amo. Quare id faciam, fortasse requiris.
Nescio. Sed fieri sentio et excrucior.
I hate and I love. Perhaps you ask me why.
I don't know. But I feel, tormented, that it is so.
(Catullus, Carmina)
Odi profanum vulgus et arceo.
I loathe the uneducated mass and keep them away from me.
(Horatius, Carmina. Hence the expression "vulgus profanum", the uneducated mass.)
Oleum et operam perdidi.
I have wasted oil and toil.
(Plautus, Poenulus; the young girl's complaint about ointments as beauty preparation, and
Cicero, Ad Atticum; about the oil in the reading lamp.)
O fortunatam natam me consule Romam!
Oh, how lucky Rome is to have been born under my consulate!
Cicero, De consulatu suo)
Omen accipio.
I accept the omen. (A good omen.)
(Cicero, De divitatione.)
Omne ignotum pro magnifico est.
We have great notions of everything unknown.
(Tacitus, Agricola)
Omnes una manet nox.
The same night awaits us all.
(Horatius, Carmina)
Omne tulit punctum qui miscuit utile dulci.
He has won every vote who mingles profit with pleasure.
(Horatius, Ars Poetica)
Omnia mea mecum porto.
All that is mine, I carry with me.
(Cicero, Paradoxa)
50
Omnia mutantur, nihil interit.

Everything changes, nothing perishes.
Omnia praeclara rara.
All excellent things are rare. (Cicero, De amicitia)
Omnia vincit amor; et nos cedamus amori.
Love conquers all things; let us too surrender to love.
Omnibus omnia.
Everything for everybody.
(Versio Vulgata, 1 Cor. 9.22)
Omnium rerum principia parva sunt.
Everything has a small beginning.
Optima enim est legum interpres consuetudo.
Practice is the best interpreter of the law.
O tempora! O mores!
O times! O customs!
(Cicero, In Catilinam)
Otium cum dignitate.
Rest with dignity.
Otium sine litteris mors est et hominis vivi sepultura.
Rest without reading is like dying and being buried alive.
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P
Pacta sunt servanda.
Agreements are to be kept.
(Cicero, Philippicae Orationes)
Paete, non dolet.
It doesn't hurt, Paetus.
(Acc. to Plinius's, Epistulae, the Roman woman Arria's words to her husband Caecina Paetus,
who had taken part in an uprising against Emperor Claudius and been sentenced to commit
suicide. When her husband hesitated, she plunged the dagger into her own chest and then gave
it to him with these words.)
Panem et circencses
Bread and circuses
51
(Juvenalis, Saturae; referring to the distribution of corn and the setting up of circuses that
kept the popular favour in Rome.)
Pars maior lacrimas ridet et intus habet.
You smile at your tears but have them in your heart.
Pater patriae.
Father of the country.
(Cicero, Pro Sestio. Honorific given to Cicero after the conflict with Catalina in 63 B.C.)
Pater, peccavi.
Father, I have sinned.
Per aspera ad astra.
Through difficulties to the stars.
(Origin unknown; Seneca Philosophus, Hercules)
Pereant, qui ante nos nostra dixerunt!
Damn them, who before us have said what we wanted to say!
(St. Jerome, In Ecclesiasten commentarius)
Periculum in mora.
Danger in delay
(Livius, Ab urbe condita)
Perierat totus orbis, nisi iram finiret misericordia.
The entire world would have perished unless compassion had limited the hatred.
(Seneca Rhetor, Controversiae)
Per tot discrimina rerum tendimus in Latinum.
Through so many dangers, we arrived in Latinum.
(Vergilius, Aenis)
Pessimus inimicorum genus, laudantes.
The worst kind of enemies, are those who can praise.
(Tacitus, Agricola)
Pisces natare oportet.
Fish has to swim (i.e. when you eat fish, you have to drink).
(Petronius Arbiter, Satiricon)
Post hoc, ergo propter hoc.
After this, therefore because of it.
(N/A; used to describe an error in logical reasoning.)
Post festum.
After the feast (i.e. too late)
(Plato, Gorgias)
Potius sero quam numquam.
It's better late than never.
(Livius, Ab urbe condita)
52
Praeterea censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

Furthermore, I believe Carthage should be destroyed.
(Cato the Elder. After a journey to Carthage, the Roman senator concluded every speech before
the senate with this phrase, no matter the topic of discussion.)
Primum est non nocere.
First of all, do no harm.
(Hippocrates; The maxim has become an ethical guiding principle in medicine.)
Principiis obsta, sero medicina paratur cum mala per longas convaluere moras.
Resist in the beginning; too late is the medicine prepared when evil has grown strong for a long
time.
(Ovidius, Remedia amoris)
Pro aris et focis.
For house and hearth.
(Cicero, De natura deorum)
Promoveatur ut amoveatur.
Let him be promoted to get him out of the way.
(N/A)
Pro patria, pro liberis, pro aris atque focis suis certare.
For the country, for freedom, for house and hearth is our fight.
(Sallustius, Bellum Catilinae)
Proximus sum egomet mihi.
I am closest to myself. (Charity begins at home.)
(Terentius, Andria)
Pulvis et umbra sumus.
We are dust and shadow.
(Horatius, Carmina)
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Q
Qualis rex, talis grex.
Like master, like man.
(N/A)
Quam bene vivas refert, non quam diu.
The important thing isn't how long you live, but how well you live.
Quam multa non desidero!
How much there is that I do not want!
(Cicero, Tusculanae disputationes; said to have been exclaimed by Socrates.)
Quandoque bonus dormitat Homerus.
Sometimes, even the good Homer slumbers.
53

Quem di diligunt adolescens moritur.
He whom the gods love dies young.
(Plautus, Bacchides)
Quia natura mutari non potest idcirco verae amicitiae sempiternae sunt.
Since nature cannot change, true friendships are eternal.
(Horatius)
Qui desiderat pacem, praeparet bellum.
Let him who wishes for peace prepare for war.
(Vegetius. Also quoted si vis pacem, para bellum.)
Qui dormit, non peccat.
One who sleeps doesn't sin.
(N/A)
Quid me nutruit me destruit.
That which nourishes me, destroys me.
(N/A)
Quid rides? Mutato nomine de te fabula narratur.
Why are you laughing? Change the name and the story is about you.
(Horatius, Satirae)
Quidquid id est, timeo Danaos et dona ferentes.
Whatever this may be, I fear the Greeks even when they're bringing gifts.
(Vergilius, Aenis. The priest Laokoon's warning when seeing the Trojan horse.)
Qui genus jactat suum, aliena laudat.
He who boasts of his descent, praises the deeds of another.
(Seneca Philosophus, Hercules furens)
Qui ignorabat, ignorabitur.
One who is ignorant will remain unnoticed.
(N/A)
Qui nimium probat, nihil probat.
One who proves too much, proves nothing.
(N/A)
Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?
Who is to guard the guards themselves?
(Iuvenalis, Saturae)
Qui tacet, consentit
Silence gives consent.
(N/A)
Quis, quid, ubi, quibus auxiliis, cur, quomodo, quando?
Who, what, where, with what, why, how, when?
(N/A)
Qui statuit aliquid parte inaudita altera, aequum licet statuerit.
54
One who passes sentence on something without having heard the other part isn't just, even if
the sentence is juste.
(Seneca Philosophus, Medea. Cf. audiatur et altera pars.)
Quod bonum, felix faustumque sit!
May it be good, fortunate and prosperous!
(Words spoken when the Roman senate opened its session. Quoted by Cicero in De divitatione)
Quod licet Iovi, non licet bovi.
What Jupiter may do, the ox may not.
(I.e., what is permitted for a high-ranking person isn't permitted for everybody. Cf. aliis si
licet, tibi non licet. and duo cum faciunt idem, non est idem.)
Quod scripsi, scripsi.
What I have written, I have written.
Quousque tandem abutere, Catilina, patientia nostra?
How long now, Catalina, will you abuse our patience?
(Cicero, In Catilinam. The beginning of Cicero's first speech against Catalina.)
Quot homines, tot sententiae: suus quique mos.
How many men, so many thoughts: everyone has his customs.
(Terentius, Phormio)
Quo vadis, Domine?
Where are you going, Lord?
(Question said to be asked by St. Peter when he, fleeing the Rome and the persecutions of the
Christians by emperor Nero, met Jesus at the city gates.)
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R
Relata refero.
I tell what I have been told.
(Herodotos)
Respice post te, mortalem te esse memento.
Look around you, remember that you are mortal.
(According to Tertullianus, words whispered by a slave when his master entered Rome in
triumph after winning a battle.)
Rem tene, verba sequentur.
Keep to the subject and the words will follow.
(Cato the Elder, acc. to Iulius Victor)
Rerum concordia discors.
The concord of things through discord.
Rerum omnium magister usus.
55
Experience is teacher of all things.

(Julius Caesar, Commentarii de bello civili)
Res severa est verum gaudium.
True joy is a serious thing.
Ridentem dicere verum, quid vetat?
What prohibits us to tell the truth laughing (through a joke)?
(Horatius, Satirae)
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S
Saepe creat molles aspera spina rosas.
Often the prickly thorn produces tender roses
(Ovidius)
Salus populi suprema lex esto.
Let the welfare of the people be the supreme law.
(Cicero, De legibus)
Sapere aude!
Dare to be wise!
Sapiens ipse fingit fortunam sibi.
The wise man creates his destiny himself.
(Plautus, Trinummus)
Satis est potuisse videri.
It is enough to seem to have the power.
Satius est impunitum relinqui facinus nocentis, quam innocentem damnari.
It is better that a crime is left unpunished than that an innocent man is punished.
Sat sapienti.
Enough for a wise man.
(Plautus, Persa)
Secundae res mire sunt vitiis obtentui.
Prosperity has a wonderful way of hiding faults.
(Sallustius, Epistulae ad Caesarem)
Sed fugit interae, fugit irreparabile tempus.
But meanwhile, the irreplaceable time escapes.
(Vergilius, Georgica. Usually, you only quote the last three words.)
Semel emissum volat irrevocabile verbum.
56
Once released, the word flies irrevocably.

Semper idem.
Always the same.
(Cicero, Tusculanae disputationes. Said to have been Xantippa's words about Socrates' facial
expression.)
Senectus est natura loquacior.
Old age is talkative by nature.
(Cicero, De senectute)
Serva me, servabo te.
Save me and I will save you.
(Petronius Arbiter)
Sic erat in fatis.
Thus it was written in destiny.
(Ovidius, Fasti)
Sic itur ad astra.
Thus, you go to the stars (i.e. gain reputation)
(Vergilius, Aenis)
Sic volo, sic iubeo.
I want this, I order this.
Si dis placet
If it pleases the gods
(N/A)
Silent enim leges inter arma.
Laws are silent in times of war.
(Cicero, Pro Milone.)
Si libet, licet.
If it pleases you, it is allowed.
(Scriptores historiae augustae; said to have been the "stepmother" Julia's response when her
"stepson" Emperor Carcalla wanted her for his wife.)
Sine ira et studio.
Without anger or bias.
(Tacitus, Annales, about his history writing)
Sit venia verbo.
Let the word be allowed. (If I may say so.)
(A rephrasal of venia sit dicto, the said should be allowed; Plinius the Younger, Epistulae.)
Si vis amari, ama.
If you want to be loved, love
Si vis pacem, para bellum.
If you want peace, prepare for war.
57
(From Vegetius; a version of qui desiderat pacem, praeparet bellum.)

Solitudinem faciunt, pacem appelant.
They made a desert and called it peace.
(Tacitus, Agricola)
Spemque metumque inter dubiis.
Hover between hope and fear.
(Vergilius, Aenis)
S.P.Q.R. (Senatus Populusque Romanus)
The Senate and the Roman people
(Abbreviation used on banners and the like in ancient Rome to show the world the unity
between the Roman people and its rulers. Still officially used in Rome.)
Stat magni nominis umbra.
He stands in the shadow of a great name.
(Lucanus, Pharsalia. Said about Pompey.)
Stat sua cuique dies, breve et irreparabile tempus omnibus est vitae.
The day is decided for each and everyone, the lifespan is short and irreplaceable for
everybody.
(Vergilius, Aenis)
Stultum est timere quod vitare non potes.
It is foolish to fear what you cannot avoid.
(Publilius Syrus)
Summum ius, summa iniuria.
The extreme law is the greatest injustice.
Suum cuique.
To each and every one his own.
Suus cuique mos.
Everyone has his customs.
(Gellius, Noctes Atticae)
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T
Tamdiu discendum est, quamdiu vivas.
We should learn as long as we may live. (We live and learn.)
Tantae molis erat Romanam condere gentem.
So great a burden was it to establish the Roman race.
(Vergilius, Aeneis)
58
Tempora quid faciunt.

The times do change.
Tetigisti acu.
You have hit the nail on the head.
(Plautus, Rudens)
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U
Ubi bene, ibi patria.
Where one is happy, there is one's homeland.
(Pacuvius, Teucer)
Unus multorum.
One of many.
(Horatius, Satirae)
Unus sed leo.
One, but (it is) a lion.
(Translated from Aesop. The lioness to the vixen who boasted about her having many cubs when
the lioness only had one.)
Urbs aeterna.
The eternal city (i.e. Rome)
(Tibullus)
Ut desint vires, tamen est laudanda voluntas.
Although the power is lacking, the will is commendable.
(Ovidius, Ex Ponto)
Utilius est autem absolvi innocentem quam nocentem causam non dicere.
It is more important that the innocent is acquitted than that the guilty is not brought to
justice.
(Cicero, Pro Roscio Amerino)
Ut saepe summa ingenia in occulto latent.
How often do not the greatest geniuses remain hidden.
(Plautus, Captivi)
Ut sementem feceris, ita metes.
As you sow, so shall you reap.
(Cicero, De oratore.)
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59
Vae victis!
Woe to the conquered!
(Livius, Praefatio)
Vare, legiones redde!
Varus, give me back my legions!
(Acc. to Suetonius, exclaimed by Emperor Augustus when he heard that his governor Quintilius
Varus and three entire legions had been killed in an ambush in the Teutoburger Forest.)
Variatio delectat
There's nothing like change!
(Cicero, De divinatione)
Veni, vidi, vici.
I came, I saw, I conquered.
(Written by Julius Caesar about his rapid victory in the Battle of Zela.)
Vera esse facimus nosmet ipsi.
We ourselves create the truth.
(N/A)
Verba volant, (littera) scripta manet.
Words fly away, the written (letter) remains.
(N/A)
Veritas vos liberabit.
The truth will set you free.
Vestigia terrent.
The footprints frighten me.
(Horatius, Epistulae. From a story about a fox who saw footprints lead into, but not out of a
lion's den.)
Vestis virum reddit.
The clothes make the man.
(Quintilianus?)
Videant consules ne quid detrimenti capiat respublica.
May the (Roman) consuls see to that no damage comes to the state.
(Phrase that gave the Roman consuls absolute power when the state was in a severe crisis.
Quoted by Cicero in In Catilinam. )
Vide quam mihi persuaserim te me esse alterum.
See, how convinced I am that you are my second self.
Vincere scis, Hannibal, victoria uti nescis.
You know how to be victorious, Hannibal, but not how to take advantage of victory.
(According to Livius, words said by Hannibal's brother Hasdrubal when Hannibal did not attack
Rome immediately after his victory at Cannae.)
Virtus est medium vitiorum.
Virtue is a middle course between vices.
60
Vitiis nemo sine nascitur.
No-one is born without faults.
(Horatius, Satirae)
Vivere est cogitare.
To live is to think.
Vox populi, vox Dei.
The voice of the people is the voice of God.
(Translated from Homer, The Odyssey)
Vulnerant omnes, ultima necat.
All of them wound, the last one kills.
(Referring to the hours; inscription sometimes found on clocks in churches and public spaces.)
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Last update: January 3, 2002 by Johanna Hansdotter Sundberg

ab initio
from the beginning
ab ovo
from the egg
(From the very beginning. Cf. ab ovo usque ad mala.)
ad arma
to arms
ad depositum
for (safe)keeping
ad finem
to the end
ad hoc
for a particular use
(Literally, to this)
ad hominem
(relating)to the (particular) person
ad honorem
for the sake of glory
ad infinitum
without limit
ad interim
for the meantime
61
ad lib (abbr. of ad libitum)

improvised
(Literally, according to pleasure)
ad litem
appointed for a lawsuit
ad literam
to the letter
ad mandatum
by direction
ad manus proprias
in one's own hands
ad modum
in the same way as
ad mortem
to the death
ad nauseam
to an excessive degree
(Literally, to nausea)
ad personam
to the person; personal
ad protocollum
to the record
ad referendum
for further consideration
ad rem
to the matter
ad tempus
in time
ad ultimum
at last
ad valorem
according to the value
(Of taxes, in proportion to the estimated value of the goods.)
alma mater
bounteous mother
(A figurative name for a university, sometimes used jokingly.)
ceteris paribus
other things being equal
62
conferre (Cf.)
compare
curriculum vitae (CV)
course of life
damnatur
may it be damned
(The opopsite of imprimatur.)
de facto
in fact (whether by right or not)
de jure
by right
disjecta membra
scattered remains, fragments (esp. of written work)
dramatis personae
the characters of the drama
eiusdem anni (e.a.)
in/during the same year
et alii/alia (et al.)
and others
et cetera (etc.)
and so on
ex ante
beforehand
(Literally, from before)
ex actis
from the files (according to document)
ex cathedra
from the (teacher's) chair
(With full authority, esp. of papal pronouncement)
exempli grata (e.g.)
for example
ex gratia
as a favour
(Literally, from grace
ex mandato
by direction
ex nihilo
out of nothing
63
ex officio
by virtue of one's office
ex parte
from the party
(In the interest of one side only or of an interested outside party.)
ex post facto
from subsequent events (with retrospective action or force)
ex tempore
immediately (without any preparation. Cf. extemporise.)
(Literally, from time)
extra muros
outside the walls (official)
ex usu
according to custom
(Literally from use)
iacet hic (IH)
here lies
ibid. (abbr. of ibidem)
in the same place
id. (abbr. of idem)
the same
id est (i.e.)
that is to say
imprimatur
let it be printed
(A license to publish, e.g. by Roman Catholic authority; the opposite of damnatur.)
in absentia
in one's absence
in abstracto
in itself, in general
in absurdum
to the absurd
in aeternum
forever
in amplissima forma
in greatest shape
in blanco
in blank
64
in camera
behind closed doors
(Literally, in the room)
in casu
in this case
in concreto
in particular
in corpore
in the body (in full)
in duplo
in duplicate
in extenso
in full (unabridged)
in extremis
at the point of death (or in great difficulties)
in flagrante delicto
caught red-handed
(Literally, "in blazing crime".)
infra
below
(Below or further on in a book or writing.)
infra dig (abbr. of infra dignitatem)
beneath one's dignity
in genere
in general
in infinitum
endlessly
in loco
at this place
in loco parentis
in the place of a parent
(Used of a teacher etc. responsible for children.)
in manu
by hand
in medias res
into the midst of things
in memoriam
in memory of
65
in natura
in a natural way
(Payment with goods instead of with money.)
in nuce
in a nutshell
in perpetuum
forever
in pleno
in full
in propria persona
in his/her own person
in re
in the matter of
in saecula saeculorum
for ever and ever
in situ
in its place
in spe
...to be
in specie
in particular
in statu nascendi
in the moment of birth
in summa
in all
in statu populari
under guardianship
(Or in a junior position at university, not having a degree.)
in suspenso
in a suspended state (indefinite)
inter alia
among other things
inter nos
between us
in toto
in full
intra muros
66
within the walls (unofficial)

in usu
in frequent use
in usum
for use
in utero
in the womb
in vacuo
in a vacuum
invenit (inv.)
...has made it
in vitro
in glass
(Taking place in a test-tube or other laboratory enviroment.)
in vivo
in a living thing
(Taking place in a living organism.)
ipsissima verba
the precise words
ipso facto
by that very fact
ipso jure
by right itself
item (it.)
as well
lapsus calami
slip of the pen
lapsus linguae
slip of the tongue
lege artis
according to the rules (of the art)
memento
remember
modus operandi (abb. m.o.)
way of operating
(The particular way in which a person performs a task or action)
modus vivendi
way of living
67
(An arrangement whereby those in dispute can carry on pending a settlement.)

more uxori
like married
nemine contradicente (nem.con)
with no one dissenting
nolens, volens
unwilling, willing (willy-nilly)
nolle prosequi
refuse to pursue
(The relinquish by a plaintiff or prosecutor of all or part of a suit.)
non compos mentis
not in one's right mind
non placet
it does not please
(A negative vote in a Church or assembly.)
non possumus
we cannot
(A statement of inability to act in a matter.)
non sequitur.
it doesn't follow.
(Used about a conclusion that doesn't logically follow from the premisses.)
non ultra descriptus (NUD)
without further specification
nota bene (NB or n.b.)
note
pactum turpe
an indecent agreement
par nobis
on level with us
(Additional grade previously used to show that the examinee's knowledge was as great as the
examinator's.)
pars pro toto
the part for the whole
(Synedoche; a figure of speech in which a partvis made to represent the whole or vice versa,
e.g. "new faces" instead of "new people.")
per aures
by the ears
per capita
for each person
(Literally by heads)
68
Pereat!
May he/she perish!
per fas et nefas
by any means necessary
(Literally, by right or wrong)
per se
by itself
peractis peragendi
when that which should be done has been done
persona non grata (PNG)
a non-desirable person
(Used about a diplomatic representative who is not acceptable to the government to which he
or she is accredited.)
piae memoriae
in kind memory
placebo
I will please
pluralis majestatis
the royal plural
(Using the plural instead of the first person.)
post mortem
after death
prima facie
at first sight
primum mobile
first moving thing
(The central or most important source of motion or action.)
pro haec vice
for this occasion (only)
quantum satis
enough
qui pro quo
someone instead of someone else (a mix-up or a mistake)
quid pro quo
compensation
(Literally, something for something else)
quod erat demonstrandum (QED)
which was the thing to be proved
69
quod est
which is
quod vide (q.v.)
see which (in cross-references etc)
(Used to tell the reader to look for further information on another place in the same book.)
requiescat in pace (R.I.P.)
rest in peace
sanae mentis
common sense
sic!
so! (used/spelt as written)
(Used to call the attention to, or confirming, the form of quoted or written words.)
sine anno (s.a.)
without year of publication
sine dato (s.d.)
without date
sine die
with no appointed day
sine dubio
without a doubt
sine loco (s.l.)
without place of publication
sine loco et anno (s.l.e.a.)
without imprint
(conditio) sine qua non
an indispensable condition
(Literally, without which not)
stante pede
off-hand
(Literally, "on standing foot".)
status quo
the existing state of affairs
(Literally, the state in which)
sui generis
of its kind
summa cum laude
with highest distinction
terra firma
firm ground
70
terra incognita
unknown ground
tertium quid
a third something
(Especially intermediary between mind and matter, or between opposite things.)
ut infra
like below
ut supra
like above
veto
I forbid
71
To Top
Canadian Province Mottoes A mari usque ad mari
From sea to sea
(Canada) Fortis et liber
Strong and free
(Alberta) Splendor sine occasu
Splendour without diminishment
(British Columbia) Gloriosus et liber
Glorious and free
(Manitoba) Spem reduxit
Hope restored
(New Brunswick) Quaerite prime regnum Dei
Seek ye first the Kingdom of God
(Newfoundland) Munit haec et altera vincit
One defends and the other conquers
(Nova Scotia) Ut incepit fidelis sic permanet
Loyal she began and loyal she remains
(Ontario) Parva sub ingenti
The small under the protection of the great
(Prince Edward Island) Multis e gentibus vires
From many peoples, strength
(Saskatchewan) To Top
US State Mottoes E pluribus unum
One out of many
(The United States of America) Audemus iura nostra defendere
We dare defend our rights
(Alabama) Ditat Deus
God enriches
(Arizona) Regnat populus
The people rule
(Arkansans) Nil sine numine
Nothing without the Deity
(Colorado) Qui transtulit sustinet
He who transplanted still sustains
(Conneticut) Justitia omnibus
Justice to all
(The District of Columbia) Esto perpetua
May she live forever
(Idaho) Ad astra per aspera
To the stars through difficulties
(Kansas) Dirigo
I guide
(Maine) Scuto bonae voluntatis tuae coronasti nos
With the shield of thy good-will thou hast covered us
(Maryland) Ense petit placidam sub libertatem quietem
By the sword she seeks quiet peace under liberty
(Massachusetts) Si quaeris peninsulam amoenam circumspice
If you seek a pleasant peninsula, look about you
(Michigan) Virtute et armis
By valour and arms
(Mississippi) Salus populi suprema lex esto
Let the welfare of the people be the supreme law
(Missouri) Crescit eundo
It grows as it goes
72
(New Mexico) Excelsior

Ever upward
(New York) Esse quam videri
To be rather than to seem
(North Carolina) Labor omnia vincit
Labour conquers everything
(Oklahoma) Alis volat propriis
She flies with her own wings
(Oregon) Animus opibusque paratus
Prepared in mind and resources
(South Carolina) Dum spiro spero
While I breathe, I hope
(South Carolina) Sic semper tyrannis
Thus ever unto tyrants
(Virginia) Montani semper liberi
Mountaineers are always freemen
(West Virginia) Cedant arma togae
Let arms yield to the toga
(Wyoming) To Top
City Mottoes Urbs in horto
A city in a garden
(Chicago, IL) Semper eadem
Always the same
(City of Leicester, UK) Domine, dirige nos
Lead us, Lord
(London, UK) Amor vincit omnia
Love conquers all
(Newport, RI) Fluctuat nec mergitur
She tosses but does not sink
(Paris, France; referring to the ship on the city's seal) Iustitia omnibus
Justice for all
(Washington D.C.) To Top
University/College Mottoes Ad astra
To the stars
(University College Dublin, Ireland) Ad augusta per angusta
Achievement through effort
(Lakehead University, Ontario) Ad utrumque (paratus)
(Prepared) for both (i.e. both the book and the sword)
(Lund University, Sweden) Artes, scientia, veritas
Arts, science, truth
(University of Michigan) Aut disce aut discede
Either learn or leave
(Winchester College) Coelestem adspicit lucem
It looks at the heavenly light.
(University of Copenhagen, Denmark; referring to the eagle in the university seal) Concordia
Harmony
(Mayfield College, UK) Concordia cum veritate
In harmony with truth
(University of Waterloo, Ontario) Consilio manuque
Scholarship and dexterity
(Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland) Crescat scientia, vita excolatur
Let knowledge grow from more to more and thus be human life enriched
(University of Chicago) Deo et Patriae
For God and country
(University of Saskatchewan) Disce doce
73
Learn and teach

(University of Sheffield, UK) Disciplina praesidium civitatis
The instruction (and) protection of the state
(University of Texas) Divinum sedare dolorem
It is divine to alleviate pain
(Royal College of Anaesthetists, UK) Docendo discimus
By teaching we learn
(Stranmillis College, UK) Dominus illuminatio mea
The Lord is my light
(Oxford University) Ex lege libertas
From the laws, freedom
(The Faculty of Law, Stockholm University) Fiat lux
Let there be light
(University of California, Berkeley) Floreat domus
May this house flourish
(Queens' College) Hinc lucem et pocula sacra
From whence issue light and the sacred draughts of wisdom
(University of Cambridge, UK) In Deo speramus
In God we trust
(Brown University, US) Ingenio et labore
By natural ability and hard work
(University of Auckland) In omnibus veritas
Truth in everything
(University of Mannheim, Germany) Integritas
Integrity
(Nipissing University, Ontario) In veritate
In truth
(St Paul's College, Australia) Jesus Christus esto mihi
Jesus Christ shall be mine
(Christ College, Australia) Labor omnia vincit
Work conquers all
(University of Illinois) Lucerna ardens et lucens
A torch of glowing radiance
(University of Sudbury, Ontario) Lux et veritas
Light and truth
(Yale University) Manu et mente
With hand and mind
(University of New South Wales) Mens agitat molem
Mind moves the mass
(University of Oregon) Mens et manus
Mind and hand
(Massachusetts Institute of Technology, MIT) Multitudo sapientium sanitas orbis
A multitude of the wise is the health of the world)
(University of Victoria, British Columbia) Naturam primum cognoscere rerum
First, to learn the nature of things
(The Australian National University) Nosse Deum vivere
Through God we live
(St. George's College, Australia) Nunc cognosco ex parte
Now I know in part
(Trent University, Ontario) Postera crescam laude
I shall grow in the esteem of future generations
(University of Melbourne) Provehito in altum
Launch forth into the deep
(Memorial University of Newfoundland) Quaecumque vera
Whatsoever things are true
74
(University of Alberta) Recti cultus pectora roborant

Sound learning strengthens the spirit
(Bishop's University, Qubec) Rerum cognoscere caucas
To know the cause of things
(London School of Economics and Political Science) Sapienta et doctrina stabilis
Wisdom and knowledge shall be the stability of thy times
(Queen's University, Ontario) Sidere mens eadem mutato
Although the constellations change the mind is constant
(University of Sydney) Timor domini initium sapientiae
Fear of the lecturer is the beginning of wisdom
(University of Aberdeen) Universa universis patavina libertas
Paduan freedom (is) complete
(University of Padova) Ut vitam habeant
Let them have life
(University of Leicester) Velut arbor aevo
As a tree in the passage of time
(Toronty University) Veritas
Truth
(Harvard University) Veritas et utilitas
Truth and usefulness
(University of Western Ontario) Veritas vos liberabit
The truth will set you free
(Johns Hopkins University) Veritate, scientia, labore
With truth, wisdom and labour
(Loughborough College, UK) Vox clamans in deserto
A voice crying in the wilderness
(Dartmouth College, UK) To Top
Military Mottoes Adde gubernandi studium: pervenit in astra - et pontum caelo coniunxit
Then to the pilot's care: the stars are scaled, and sky with ocean joined
(The United States Naval Observatory) Defensor fortis
Defender of the force
(The United States Air Force Security Force) De oppresso liber
To free the oppressed
(The United States Army Special Forces) Doctrinas bello aptare
Teaching the arts of war
(The Scuola di applicazione, School of Applied Military Studies, Italy) Ducimus
We lead
(The Royal Canadian Infantry) Per ardua ad astra
Through difficulties to the stars
(The Royal Airforce) Ex scientia tridens
From knowledge, sea power
(The United States Naval Academy) Fiat justitia
May there be justice
(The Judge Advocate General's Office of the Canadian Forces) In arduis fidelis
Faithful in adversity
(The Royal Army Medical Corps) In umbra, igitur, pugnabimus
In the shadows, therefore, we will fight
(The First Artillery Detachment of the United States Army) Primus eo
First there
(The United States Air Force Special Tactics Combat Controllers) Quo fas et gloria ducunt
Whither right and glory lead
(The Royal Regiment of Canadian Artillery) Semper fidelis
Always faithful
(The United States Marine Corps) Semper paratus
Always prepared
75
(The United States Coast Guard) Sic itur ad astra

Such is the pathway to the stars
(The Canadian Air Force) Ubique
Everywhere
(The Royal Engineers and the Royal Regiment of Canadian Artillery) Ut aliqui vivant
That others may live
(The United States Air Force Special Tactics Pararescue)
Personal Mottoes Beatus qui timet Dominum
Blessed is he who fears the Lord
(Gustav Vasa, Swedish king 1523-60) Benigno numine
With the benevolent deity
(William Pitt, Earl of Chatham) Coelitus sublima dantur
From the heavens is the highest given
(Sigismund, Swedish king 1592-99) Columna regni sapientia
Wisdom is the foundation of the state
(Kristina, Swedish queen 1632-54) Cor regis in manu Domini
The King's heart (is) in the Lord's hand
(Sigismund) Cum Deo et victricibus armis
With God and victorious arms
(Gustav II Adolf, Swedish king 1611-32) Deus dat cui vult.
God gives to whoever he wishes
(Erik XIV, Swedish king 1560-68)
Deus protector noster
God our protector
(Johan III, Swedish king 1568-92) Domini est terra et caelum
Heaven and earth are the Lord's
(Gustav Vasa) Esse potius quam haberi
Not being seen, but being.
(Tycho Brahe) Et gaudium vestrum impleatur
And that your joy might be full
(Christina Odenberg, first woman bishop of the Church of Sweden. From John 15:11.) Factus
est Dominus protector meus
The Lord has been made my protector
(Karl XI, Swedish king 1660-97) Festina lente
Make haste slowly
(Emperor Augustus) Fiat justitia et pereat mundus.
Let there be justice, even if the world perishes.
(Emperor Ferdinand I) Gloria altissimo suorum refugio
Glory to God the Highest, the refuge of his people
(Gustav II Adolf; the motto has the same initials as the words Gustavus Adolphus, Rex Sueciae Gustav Adolf, King of Sweden.) In Deo spes mea
In God my hope
(Ulrika Eleonora, Swedish queen 1719-20) In Jehova sors mea, ipse faciet
In God (is) my destiny, He will do it
(Karl X Gustav, Swedish king 1654-60) Jehova solatium meum
God (is) my solace
(Karl IX, Swedish king 1604-11) Omnis potestas a Deo est
All power is from God
(Gustav Vasa) Pro jure et populo
For the law and the people
(Sigismund) Salus publica salus mea
The good of the people is my good
(Adolf Fredrik, Swedish king 1751-71) Si Deus pro nobis, quis contra nos?
76
If God is for us, who can be against us?

(Gustav Vasa) Viribus unitis
By united efforts
(Emperor Franz Joseph) To Top
Miscellaneous Mottoes Ad maiorem Dei gloriam
To the greater glory of God.
(The Jesuit Order) Ars gratia artis
Art for the sake of art
(Metro-Goldwyn-Meyer) Benedicere, laudare, praedicare
To bless, to praise and to preach
(One of the mottoes of the Dominican Order) Citius, altius, fortius
Swifter, higher, stronger
(The Olympic motto) Contemplata aliis tradere
Handing on to others the fruit of our contemplation
(One of the mottoes of the Dominican Order) (De Moscova ad Melbournensem,) magna Europa
est patria nostra!
(From Moscow to Melbourne,) the great Europe is our country!
(The Euro-American Student Union) Domino optimo maximo
To the Lord, the first and greatest
(The Benedictine Order) Dum vivimus, vivamus
While we live, let us live
(The Epicureans) Ex luna scientia
From the moon, knowledge
(The Apollo 13 expedition; a paraphrase on the motto of the US Navy) Hinc robur et securitas
Hence strength and security
(The Swedish National Bank) Gustibus mens dat incrementum
Knowledge enhances sensory perception
(The Wine Guild of England) Nemo me impune lacessit
Nobody insults me with impunity
(The Scottish Crown and all Scottish regiments) Nescit occasu
It (the North Star) does not know setting
(The Swedish Order of the Northern Star) Pro patria
For one's country
(The Swedish Order of the Sword, Svrdsorden) Quo fata ferunt
Wherever the wind blows.
(Bermuda) Trinitas in unitate
Trinity in unity
(Trinity House, a British association concerned with the licensing of pilots and the erection and
maintenance of light- houses, among other things.) Veritas
Truth
(One of the mottoes of the Dominican Order)
To Top
77

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QUOTES

The ability to delude yourself may be an important survival tool.

Ren Descartes, 1595 - 1650

Stronger than an army is a quotation whose time has come.

Abraham Lincoln, From the December 1, 1862 Message to Congress

Vinton Cerf ( cerfs-email@wcom.com ), together with Robert Kahn, devised TCP/IP

I paint with shapes.

Golf is a good walk spoiled.

Information is power. Diversity is strength. Complacency is death.

First they came for the Jews

How long as Internet users?

Number of Worldwide Internet Users Under the Age

Computer Economics' Director of Research and

in Internet Users Under 18 Years Old

The number of Internet users in the Asia Pacific area

"But... what is it good for?" (Engineer at the Advanced Computing Systems

COMMENTS BY GENERAL ERIC K. SHINSEKI

COMMENTS BY GENERAL CHARLES C. KRULAK

Were talking about building a virtual capability to reach back to them.

FORBES TECHNOLOGY MAGAZINE ASAP

convergence has meantcoming together of the computer, consumer electronics, and

at the beginning, it will cause a massive differentiation of most areas of knowledge.

Fast Company Notes

Strategis Group: Over Half of US Adults Use the Internet

> > headquarters. He quietly urged General George

> > Remember: Freedom Is Never Free!

Copyright 1994-2000 Wired Digital Inc. All rights reserved.

For them whose labours have showed them deserving.

Last update: July 31, 2001 by Johanna Hansdotter Sundberg

Ab ovo usque ad mala.

Corruptissima re publica plurimae leges.

Exegi monumentum aere perennius.

Id certum est quod certum reddi potest.

Iniuria non excusat iniuriam.

Labor improbus omnia vincit.

Physician, heal thyself!

(Seneca Philosophus, De providentia)

Do not look a gift horse in the mouth.

We do not learn for school, but for life.

Nunc est bibendum, nunc pede libero pulsanda tellus.

Omnia mutantur, nihil interit.

Praeterea censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

(Horatius, Ars poetica)

Experience is teacher of all things.

Once released, the word flies irrevocably.

(From Vegetius; a version of qui desiderat pacem, praeparet bellum.)

Tempora quid faciunt.

Last update: January 3, 2002 by Johanna Hansdotter Sundberg

ad lib (abbr. of ad libitum)

within the walls (unofficial)

(An arrangement whereby those in dispute can carry on pending a settlement.)

(New Mexico) Excelsior

Learn and teach

(University of Alberta) Recti cultus pectora roborant

(The United States Coast Guard) Sic itur ad astra

If God is for us, who can be against us?

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