Laudator Temporis Acti

Cicero, On the Republic 1.25.38 (tr. Clinton Walker Keyes):

I will do as you wish, as well as I can, and shall at once begin my discussion, following the rule which, I think, ought always to be observed in the exposition of a subject if one wishes to avoid confusion; that is, that if the name of a subject is agreed upon, the meaning of this name should first be explained. Not until this meaning is agreed upon should the actual discussion be begun; for the qualities of the thing to be discussed can never be understood unless one understands first exactly what the thing itself is.

faciam, quod vultis, ut potero, et iam ingrediar in disputationem ea lege, qua credo omnibus in rebus disserendis utendum esse, si errorem velis tollere, ut eius rei, de qua quaeretur, si nomen quod sit conveniat, explicetur, quid declaretur eo nomine; quod si convenerit, tum demum decebit ingredi in sermonem; numquam enim, quale sit illud, de quo disputabitur, intellegi poterit, nisi, quid sit, fuerit intellectum prius.

John le Carré (1931-2020), Smiley's People (New York: Bantam Books, 1980), p. 36 (chapter 3):

"I don't hold with politics," the Superintendent confided to Smiley inconsequentially, staring downward still. "I don't hold with politics and I don't hold with politicians either. Licensed lunatics most of them, in my view."

Augustine, Expositions of the Psalms 103(2).7 (Corpus Scriptorum Ecclesiasticorum Latinorum, vol. 95/1, p. 133; tr. Maria Boulding):

All this is recounted as though it had happened already, though in fact that psalm refers to future events, foreseen long before. But why need we labor this point? What does all our diligent research achieve? What does our careful inquiry reveal? When are we so confident in the result of our study that we can say with certainty, "This is how it is"? We observe that the prophets often use verbs in the past tense to predict the future; but it is not easy to find an example of the future tense being used to indicate past happenings. I do not presume to say that there is no such example; I would merely suggest to students of those writings a suitable object for their research. If they find an instance of it and report it to us, we busy older people will applaud the studies of younger scholars who have more time, and we too will learn something from their industry. We shall not think this beneath our dignity, for Christ uses all means to teach us.

Omnia quasi iam facta commemorantur, quae utique adhuc ventura cernebantur. Sed quantum potest nostra diligentia? Quantum autem potest tanta occupatio? Aut quando sic vacat, ut possimus pro certo dicere: 'Ita est'? Animadvertimus saepe prophetas praeterito tempore verborum dicere quae futura sunt; figura autem futuri dicere praeterita non facile occurrit legenti. Non audeo dicere: 'Non est', sed certe studiosis earum litterarum indixerim quid quaerant. Si invenerint et ad nos attulerint, gratulabimur adolescentium studiis otiosorum occupati senes, et ex eorum ministerio et nos aliquid discimus. Non enim dedignamur, quando Christus de omnibus docet.

Essays by the Late Mark Pattison, Vol. I (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1889), p. 325:

A university is the organ of the intellectual life of the nation; it is the school of learning, the nursery of the liberal arts, the academy of the sciences, the home of letters, the retreat of the studious and the contemplative.

From Richard Seibert:

Your “What is a University” post reminds me that David Lance Goines (Berkeley poster artist and graphic designer) used to say:

“It’s not a university if it doesn’t have a classics department.”

He said this when he was designing a poster for one year’s Sather Lectures. 2013, François Lissarrague’s Panta Kala: Heroic Warriors and the Aesthetics of Weaponry in Greek Art.

Euripides, Suppliant Women 429-432 (tr. Edward P. Coleridge):

Nothing is more hostile to a city than a despot; where he is, there are first no laws common to all, but one man is tyrant, in whose keeping and in his alone the law resides, and in that case equality is at an end.

οὐδὲν τυράννου δυσμενέστερον πόλει,
ὅπου τὸ μὲν πρώτιστον οὐκ εἰσὶν νόμοι        430
κοινοί, κρατεῖ δ᾽ εἷς τὸν νόμον κεκτημένος
αὐτὸς παρ᾽ αὑτῷ· καὶ τόδ᾽ οὐκέτ᾽ ἔστ᾽ ἴσον.

Christopher Collard ad loc.:

Plato, Laws 7.797d (tr. Trevor J. Saunders):

Change, we shall find, except in some thing evil, is extremely dangerous...

μεταβολὴν γὰρ δὴ πάντων πλὴν κακῶν πολὺ σφαλερώτατον εὑρήσομεν...

Essays by the Late Mark Pattison, Vol. I (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1889), pp. 137-139 (on Joseph Scaliger):

It does not appear that Joseph had learned the rudiments of Greek at the time of his father's death, 21st October, 1558. He certainly had not learned more than the rudiments. He had seen enough, however, to understand that 'not to know Greek was to know nothing.' The death of his father affected him so deeply as for some time to disorder his health. As soon as he had recovered from the blow, he determined to make good this deficiency.

Adrian Turnebus was at that time the most renowned Greek scholar in France and in Europe. For a youth of eighteen, who had yet to begin his grammar, less than the first Grecian of the day might have served. But this is a truth which only experiment can teach us. Joseph made his way to Paris, and enrolled himself in Turnebus's class, that he might imbibe Greek at the fountain-head. A trial of two months opened his eyes, and he understood that to begin one must begin at the beginning; a lesson, in learning which two months were well spent. He adopted the resolution—be it remembered he is nineteen—to shut himself up in his chamber, and become his own teacher. It is not said, but we may be certain that it was instinct, not accident, which guided him to Homer. With the aid of a Latin translation he went through it in one-and-twenty days. From Homer he passed in order down the series of the Greek poets; and four months sufficed to devour the whole. The same instinct, and the same spirit of determination, guided him here in not interrupting his poetic reading by any deviation into prose; the differences of idiom being, he may have felt, distinct dialects, incapable of being mastered at one effort. As he went along, he formed a grammar for himself by his own observation of the analogies, the only grammar he ever learnt. Huet, alluding to the Scaliger feat, thinks it incredible, but on no better ground than that he himself had made an unsuccessful attempt to repeat the experiment. Gibbon, more modestly, declares that he was well satisfied with himself when he got through the same task in as many weeks as Scaliger took days. We might quote against these authorities Wyttenbach despatching Athenaeus in fourteen days; or Milton's assertion that he had read 'all the Greek and Latin classics' in five years, if it were not that parallel is misplaced in speaking of Scaliger and Greek. There are things which a man cannot teach himself. And this he had now to experience, when, elated by his victory over Greek, he attempted to carry Hebrew by storm in the same manner. He did ultimately acquire both Hebrew and Arabic. But Dr. Bernays, who has the best title to judge in the case of the first-named tongue, pronounces that he never reached, in Hebrew, that practical hold upon the idiom—the usus linguae which was the foundation of his critical skill in Latin and Greek. This is sufficient to correct the idle romance of those biographers who, in their ignorance, make Scaliger's mythical eminence to consist in his knowing many languages. He spoke thirteen languages, says one of the most recent of these open-mouthed wonderers,¹ as if Scaliger was a Wotton or a Mezzofanti.

¹ Poirson, Histoire du Règne de Henri IV, vol. IV, p. 230.

Hartmut Erbse, ed., Scholia Graeca in Homeri Iliadem, vol. V: Scholia ad Libros Υ-Ω Continens (Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 1977), pp. 551-552 (on 24.182, my translation):

[There is] also a proverb: "In a city of blind men, a blear-eyed man rules as a king."

καὶ παροιμία "ἐν τυφλῶν πόλει γλαμυρὸς βασιλεύει".

Hans Walther, Proverbia Sententiaeque Latinitatis Medii Aevi, Vol. II (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1964), p. 915 (# 15030b, my translation):

Among blind men, the one-eyed man [is] king.

Monoculus inter cecos rex.

Similar examples in Walther:

Vol. I (1963), p. 253 (# 2213):

Cecorum in patria luscus rex imperat omnis.

Vol. II (1964), p. 491 (# 12101a):

In terra ceci regnat vir luscus egeni.

Vol. II (1964), p. 565 (# 12619):

Inter pigmeos regnat nanus, strabo luscos,
Loripes extalos, monotalmus rex quoque cecos.

Augustine, Expositions of the Psalms 102.17 (Corpus Scriptorum Ecclesiasticorum Latinorum, vol. 95/1, pp. 98-99; tr. Maria Boulding):

If you think this is not a fair picture of our life, see if you can find any pleasure in which there are no thorns. Choose what you want to be—a miser, a libertine, to mention only two. Or add a third possibility—an ambitious place-seeker. What a crop of thorns springs up in the quest for honors! How many thorns there are in the indulgence of lust, how many thorns in burning avarice! How much harassment do base loves bring with them? How much vexation do they create in this life? I am not even speaking of hell. Be careful not to become a hell for yourself.

Aut si est aliud vita nostra, si potes, convertere ad aliquam voluptatem, ubi spinas non sentias. Elige quod volueris, avarus, luxuriosus, ut duo ista sola dicamus; adde et tertium, ambitiosus. In honorum cupiditate quantae spinae! In ardore avaritiae quantae spinae! In luxuria libidinum quantae spinae! Amores turpes quantas molestias habent! Quantas sollicitudines hic in ista vita! Omitto gehennas. Vide ne iam ipse tibi gehenna sis!

Euripides, Suppliant Women 486-493 (tr. Edward P. Coleridge):

And yet each man among us knows which of the two to prefer, the good or ill, and how much better peace is for mankind than war, peace, the Muses' dearest friend, the foe of Sorrow, whose joy is in glad throngs of children, and its delight in prosperity. These are the blessings we cast away and wickedly embark on war, man enslaving his weaker brother, and cities following suit.

καίτοι δυοῖν γε πάντες ἄνθρωποι λόγοιν
τὸν κρείσσον᾽ ἴσμεν, καὶ τὰ χρηστὰ καὶ κακά,
ὅσῳ τε πολέμου κρεῖσσον εἰρήνη βροτοῖς·
ἣ πρῶτα μὲν Μούσαισι προσφιλεστάτη,
Ποιναῖσι δ᾽ ἐχθρά, τέρπεται δ᾽ εὐπαιδίᾳ,        490
χαίρει δὲ πλούτῳ. ταῦτ᾽ ἀφέντες οἱ κακοὶ
πολέμους ἀναιρούμεσθα καὶ τὸν ἥσσονα
δουλούμεθ᾽, ἄνδρες ἄνδρα καὶ πόλις πόλιν.

Peace Holding Wealth, by Cephisodorus (Roman copy, in Munich, Staatliche Antikensammlungen und Glyptothek, inv. 219):