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Three Latin Quotes That Are Still Inspiring People
The wisdom of ancient Roman thinkers continues to influence modern society and philosophy
Latin is a dead language. However, it would be inaccurate to consider it irrelevant. Language scholars point out that more than 60 percent of English words have Latin origins. Additionally, many Latin terms are embedded in everyday vocabulary. Latin phrases are also common in legal and medical terminology. Schools and universities often have Latin mottos.
Though there are no native speakers alive, many Latin proverbs and sayings are still relevant today. The wisdom and insight of ancient Roman thinkers continue to inspire, challenge, and provoke humankind.
Here are three inspiring Latin quotes and their meanings.
1. Flectere si nequeo superos, Acheronta movebo
Written by the ancient Roman poet Virgil in the Aeneid, this Latin phrase is commonly translated as “if I cannot move heaven, I will raise hell.” The ancient Greeks and Romans believed that the Acheron was one of the rivers that led to the Underworld. In particular, Virgil explained that the souls of the newly departed were ferried across the Acheron by the boatman Charon.
Today, Virgil’s phrase is perhaps best known for its association with Freud’s The Interpretation of Dreams. The founder of psychoanalysis wrote that he included the Latin quote in his book “to picture the efforts of the repressed instinctual impulses.” In this context, the Acheron River symbolizes the unconscious. According to Freud, the material hidden in this unavailable layer of the human psyche affects a person’s conscious behavior. Freud famously believed that unconscious impulses and desires reveal themselves in dreams. Thus, he declared that he intended to “raise the underworld” of the psyche to understand the “inner life.”
In the Aeneid, the phrase has quite a different meaning. In book VII, Juno, the queen of the Roman gods, swears to raise the powers of the underworld to exact her revenge against Aeneas. Juno knows that her efforts are doomed to fail as the Trojan hero is destined to build Rome. However, she’s determined to inflict pain and suffering on Aeneas and his fellow…
