This started pre-iPhone. I was training for the Philadelphia Marathon and my first iPod wasn’t keeping up (I do still have it though). Apple had just come out with a new version of the iPod Nano, and as I was building my order, I noticed something interesting- an offer for free engraving of my purchase.
This is a service Apple still offers for iPads and iPods, here. With Glowforge, you can do it yourself. There are rumors that Apple will begin offering Watch engraving as a free service in the future, and there are third party companies that will happily engrave your iPhone, Mac, and more:
On Apple’s site, the free engraving perk is presented as a way to personalize a gift you’ll be giving to someone else. “I can never repay you, but here’s a start” says one iPad in their example roundup.
But, what if you’re buying something for yourself? I like the idea of personalizing something that you’ve worked hard for and will use every day. I used to name all my major tech purchases after major exhibitions, as a way to commemorate and pay homage to a lot of hard work. For example, I have a laptop named Van Gogh.
So, what to engrave? Latin has a lot of similarities to code. It’s alternately blunt and subtle. The personalities of author, translator, coder, and student invariably come through, as there are often multiple ways to say something, and even more ways to interpret it. Like Fortran, it’s an old language, but also one that’s all around us: alias, alibi, bona fide, veto, et cetera. Latin is often succinct, sometimes tongue-in-cheek (I especially liked the self-referential lines, like “Multum in parvo,” “Much in a small space), and individualizes your device. I also liked finding phrases that might refer to what one is reading, and/or musical tastes, and phrases that were encouraging and acknowledged hard work.
So, here’s the list I made:
| Latin | Translation | Attribution/notes |
| Aude sapere | Dare to be wise | |
| Cave ab homine unius libri | Beware the man of one book | |
| Citius Altius Fortius | Faster, higher, stronger | Modern Olympics motto |
| De gustibus non est disputandum | There’s no accounting for taste | |
| Decies repetita placebit | Though ten times repeated, it will continue to please | Horace |
| Deus ex machina | God out of a machine | |
| Dimidium facti qui coepit habet | He who makes a start has half the work done | Horace, Epistles, Book I, Ep. 2 |
| Docendo discimus | We learn by teaching | Seneca, Letters to Lucilius, Book I, letter 7, section 8 |
| Dulce et utile | A sweet and useful (thing) | Horace, Ars Poetica |
| Dulcius ex asperis | Sweeter after difficulties | Scottish clan Fergusson’s motto |
| Dum spiro spero | While I breathe, I hope | Attributed to Theocritus and Cicero |
| Fac et spera | Do and hope | Scottish clan Matheson’s motto |
| Fac fortia et patere | Do brave deeds and endure | Motto of Prince Alfred College in Adelaide, Australia |
| Factis ut credam facis | Deeds, then I may believe you- trust actions, not words | |
| Fortiter in re, suaviter in modo | Gently in manner, firm in action | Acquaviva, Industriae ad curandos animae morbos |
| Fortitudine vincimus | By endurance we conquer | Shackelton’s motto |
| Humani nihil alienum | Nothing human is foreign to me | Terentius Afer, Heauton Timorumenos |
| Si hortum in bibliotheca habes, nihil deerit | If you have a garden and a library, you have everything you need | Cicero |
| Imperare sibi maximum imperium est | To rule yourself is the ultimate power | Seneca |
| In nocte consilium | The night brings counsel | |
| In spe | In hope | |
| Labor omnia vincit | Hard work conqures all | Virgil, Georgics |
| Lex malla, lex nulla | A bad law is no law | St. Thomas Aquinas |
| Loquitur (loq.) | He/she speaks | |
| Male parta male dilabuntur | What has been wrongly gained is wrongly lost. (Ill-gotten gains seldom prosper.) | Cicero, Philippics, 2.66 |
| Multum in parvo | Much in a small space | |
| Musica delenit bestiam feram | Music soothes the savage beast | |
| Otium sine litteris mors est | Leisure without literature is death | Seneca, Letters to Lucilius |
| Per angusta ad augusta | Through difficulties to honors | |
| Post proelia praemia | After the battles, the prizes | |
| Res ipsa loquitur | The thing itself speaks- tort law | Cicero, Pro Tito Annio Milone ad iudicem oratio |
| Res mihi suppetit | I have abundance to say | |
| Ubi spiritus est cantus est | Where there is spirit there is song | |
| Ubicumque homo est, ibi beneficio locus est | Wherever there is man, there is a place for kindness | Seneca |
| Veritatem Dilexi | I delight in the truth | Bryn Mawr College motto |
The above is my list, culled from multiple books and sites over the years. If you’ve read through this and are still looking for your best Latin phrase, I recommend: List of Latin phrases (Full), Wikipedia
And for even MORE bon mots take a look at: WikiQuote’s Latin Proverbs and The Quotations Page