After yesterday's saying with quantum, I thought I would do another quantum saying today. In English: So little profit, so much loss. I also post a daily round-up of all the Bestiaria Latina blogs: fables, proverbs, crosswords, and audio. If you are reading this via RSS: The Flash audio content is not syndicated via RSS please visit the Latin Audio Proverbs blog to listen to the audio. The number here is the number for this proverb in Latin Via Proverbs: 4000 Proverbs, Mottoes and Sayings for Students of Latin. Lucrum cum iactura famae damnum est, non lucrum. Louis University for making it available in such a great edition online! Meanwhile, here is today's proverb read out loud: 152. So, if you have not looked at this lovely book, it is definitely worth your attention - and kudos to St. He admits that he has included but trifles, leviuscula, in the book, but he does so on purpose, because the book is for the use of puerorum adhuc balbutientium, "boys who are still stammerers" when it comes to Latin. The preface to the book is written in Latin, and is clearly addressed to the teachers who will be using the book, rather than to the students themselves.
TRANSLATE PRO OVIBUS SERIES
The book consists of a series of statements in Latin, some of which are typical textbook-type statements (e.g., Non eram in schola hodie, "I was not in class today"), but many of which are traditional Latin aphorisms. Louis University have put some absolutely wonderful Latin materials online, including the Praxis Grammatica of John Harmer, published in 1623 (!). The reason I was prompted to include this saying as a post today was because of the source where I found it. So this is a saying you could apply to some company that makes some short-term gain but in a way that damages their reputation and undermines their ability to do business over the long run. In today's saying, the type of loss that is incurred is much more specific: a iactura famae, a loss of reputation.
The idea is once again the paradox of profit that is really a loss, not profit. If you read yesterday's proverb, Paulum lucri, quantum damni, "so little profit, so much loss" - you will see that today's proverb conveys precisely the same message - albeit in a less "proverbial-sounding" form. In English: Profit, with the loss of reputation, is loss, not profit. Nullum magnum ingenium sine mixtura dementiae. So, enjoy the "ura" as you listen to today's proverb read out loud: 151. Basically, if you have a perfect passive participle stem, such as mixt-us, you can expect to find a verbal noun formed with -ura, like mixtura in today's proverb. You can also see Latin words that end in -ura using Perseus (if this is one of the rare days on which Perseus is actually working.). You can see the hundreds of English words that end in -ure by using, and most of them come from Latin. So Latin mixtura gives us mixture, coniectura gives us conjecture, etc. The Latin nouns formed with -ura are some of my favorites, and they give us the words that end in -ure in English. My main reason for choosing this proverb, however, was not so much the sentiment behind it (which I do agree with!), but rather the lovely word mixtura. So in today's proverb, there is mixtura dementiae, some madness mixed in! You can find the saying cited in Seneca's De Tranquilitate Animi, "On the Tranquility of the Mind." He also cites a kindred saying: aliquando et insanire iucundum est, "sometimes it is a pleasure to also go crazy." In particular, you have to be delirious to write poetry: frustra poeticas fores compos sui pepulit, "in vain did the sane mind knock on the doors of poetry." (And recall that Seneca was not just the author of philosophical treatises, such as this one, but also tragic dramas written in verse!) You can find an English translation of this essay online at if you are interested in learning more. I thought I would follow-up yesterday's proverb about the iactura famae with another proverb featuring a Latin -ura noun. In English: There is no great talent without an admixture of madness.
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