I love words. You may or may not have noticed this about me, but really, I think language is fascinating.

Because of that fascination, I always get a word-of-the-day desk calendar, not so I know what day it is, but so I can learn new words. Last years WOTD calendar was a failure, because it had the word, the meanings, and the etymology, which meant that if I didn’t sit at my desk for a couple days, I was looking a several minutes of reading to catch up. So that was a waste.

This year, for something different, I got a Latin phrases calendar, and so far it’s quite interesting. I wish it gave more literal translations in addition to what the phrase means, but, you can’t have everything.

Here are a few recent phrases that I’d like to make note of electronically, so I don’t have to save the calendar squares for anything more than scrap paper.

Of course the phrases that interest me may also tell you something about me.

Alea iacta est.
The die is cast. – Caesar

Possunt quia posse videntur.
They can because they think they can. – Virgil

Nil homini certum est.
Nothing is certain to man. – Ovid

Spes sibi quisque.
Rely on yourself.

Michael would be the only one who could guess the geek reason why I wanted to know alea iacta est but the rest of them interesting in and of themselves. Virgil and Ovid certainly had (or else collected) a lot of wisdom.