The Wise Sayings

Question 1

Carthego delenda est

Answer 1

Carthage must be destroyed - You are so stuffed!

Question 2

Alea iacta est

Answer 2

The die is cast - Your days are numbered sunshine

Question 3

Tabula rasa

Answer 3

The slate having been wiped clean - Or is it?

John Locke 1642-1704

Proposed that all ideas come from experience and that knowledge is simply relations among ideas. A ‘white paper’ on which what we learn by experience is written as we progress through life.

Question 4

Hapax legomena - Hapax legomenon

Answer 4

Things once being said - as a term that cannot be unsaid and it’s too late start digging

Or… (liberal) something said only once in a document

Question 5

Hominis est errare

Answer 5

To err is human - And now I’m going to kill you

Question 6

Odi profanum vulgus et areco

Answer 6

I hate and shun the vulgar masses - I shop only at Waitrose

Question 7

Q.V. - Quo Vadis?

Answer 7

Wither are you going - Where are you off to dear boy?

Question 8

Mutatis mutandis

Answer 8

The necessary changes being made - Have you discovered the life affirming qualities of deodorant ?

used when comparing two or more cases or situations, making necessary alterations while not affecting the main point at issue.
“what is true of undergraduate teaching in England is equally true, mutatis mutandis, of American graduate schools”

Question 9

Ceteris paribus

Answer 9

All things being equal - If you don’t eat too much, you won’t get fat i.e. the bleeding obvious!

with other conditions remaining the same; other things being equal.
“shorter hours of labour will, ceteris paribus, reduce the volume of output”

Question 10

Hoi polloi

Answer 10

The many - The people who shop at Tescos, thereby helping keep the riff raff out of Waitrose

Question 11

Otium cum dignitate

Answer 11

Ease with dignity, i.e. putting ‘gentleman living by own means’ on an application to confound HMRC

Question 12

Gnothi seauton

Answer 12

Know yourself - I still haven’t cracked this one, ask my wife and daughter!

Question 13

Non omnis moriar

Answer 13

I shall not wholly die - answer to Jehovah’s Witness, The Pope, or religious fanatic’s question on my belief in God

Question 14

Sub specie alternitatis

Answer 14

Under the eye of eternity - You’l get found out, maybe not now but later e.g. The Magdaburg Files

Question 15

Quot homines, tot sententiae

Answer 15

There are as many opinions as there are people to hold them. Way to get rid of pushy persons who disagree with you.

Question 16

Vox populi, vox dei

Answer 16

The voice of the people is the voice of god, i.e. common sense

Question 17

Sequor non inferior

Answer 17

I follow, but I am not inferior - I don’t have agree with the SNP

Question 18

Petitio principii

Answer 18

Begging the question, the logical fallacy of assuming what has to be proved - the current media way of working

Question 19

Summa sedes non capit duos

Answer 19

The highest seat will not admit two - there can only be one emperor

Question 20

Semper cedentia retro

Answer 20

Always going forwards backwards. The place where I work

Question 21

Mens sana in corpore sano

Answer 21

A healthy mind in a healthy body. I have the first bit, chocolate prevents the second

Question 22

Venit summa dies et inelutabile tempus

Answer 22

The last day and the ineluctable (inescapable) time are upon us. Time to drink that bottle of champagne you’ve been hoarding and anything else you’ve got on the yea shall do list.

Question 23

Ad ultramque partem

Answer 23

Looking at both sides of an issue, the pro and the contra analysed.

Question 24

Sic itur ad astra?

Answer 24

Is this the way to the heavens?

In other words, why are you making your advice so complicated? Seneca letter XLVIII

Question 25

Civiliter

Answer 25

Cicero - to live like a citizen, like an educated Roman, like a civilised man living as a member of his community,