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A Latin Alliteration
Posted: 22 December 2007 03:43 AM   [ Ignore ]
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Can anyone come up with a Latin phrase as concise as "Cognito ergo sum"  ("I think therefore I am") for "The more I write, the less I’m understood"

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Posted: 22 December 2007 04:46 AM   [ Ignore ]   [ # 1 ]
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Not Latin, but Hellenistic Greek hon hoi theoi philousin apothneskei neos "whom the gods love die young" in Menander, Herodotus, Plautus quem di diligunt adolescens moritur in pre-classical Latin, Lord Byron and likewise reflected in Billy Joel "Only the Good Die Young" but originally about the legendary, heroic figure Trophonius.

Hellenic orthography: e = eta

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1.  הכל הבל׃ hakkōl hâvel Qohelet 1:2 “all (is) vanity” KJV loc. cit.
2.  [οἱ] ἔσχατοι πρῶτοι [Textus Receptus] Mark 10:31 novissimi primi Vulg. “last (shall be) first” ibid.
3.  ’Tis the path you take in life that’s more important!  Sufi wisdom

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Posted: 22 December 2007 07:25 PM   [ Ignore ]   [ # 2 ]
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Not the answer I was expecting.

How about "the more I dig, the less I’m Doug" ?

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Posted: 24 December 2007 04:06 AM   [ Ignore ]   [ # 3 ]
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If I may, a personal favorite with moral overtones: "The more you have, the more you need!"  Although its exact point of colloquial origin yet eludes me today.

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1.  הכל הבל׃ hakkōl hâvel Qohelet 1:2 “all (is) vanity” KJV loc. cit.
2.  [οἱ] ἔσχατοι πρῶτοι [Textus Receptus] Mark 10:31 novissimi primi Vulg. “last (shall be) first” ibid.
3.  ’Tis the path you take in life that’s more important!  Sufi wisdom

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Posted: 26 December 2007 04:59 AM   [ Ignore ]   [ # 4 ]
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The converse also holds true, but how do you say all these wise words in Latin ?

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Posted: 26 December 2007 05:00 AM   [ Ignore ]   [ # 5 ]
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Ok, so they’re not all wise, more like wisecracks, but I’m still keen to know.

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Posted: 26 December 2007 06:12 AM   [ Ignore ]   [ # 6 ]
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"The more you have, the more you need" in colloquial Latin?  Right off hand, mayhap plus quo habeas eo indigeas without all that elaborate trim so germane to the classical idiom!

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1.  הכל הבל׃ hakkōl hâvel Qohelet 1:2 “all (is) vanity” KJV loc. cit.
2.  [οἱ] ἔσχατοι πρῶτοι [Textus Receptus] Mark 10:31 novissimi primi Vulg. “last (shall be) first” ibid.
3.  ’Tis the path you take in life that’s more important!  Sufi wisdom

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