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For though to smatter ends of Greek
Or Latin be the rhetoric
Of pedants counted, and vain-glorious,
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For though to smatter ends of Greek
Or Latin be the rhetoric
Of pedants counted, and vain-glorious,
To smatter French is meritorious.
- Samuel Butler (1),
But to the purpose--for we cite our faults
That they may hold excused our lawless lives;
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But to the purpose--for we cite our faults
That they may hold excused our lawless lives;
And partly, seeing you are beautified
With goodly shape, and by your own report
A linguist, and a man of such perfection
As we do in our quality much want--
Lash'd into Latin by the tingling rod.
Lash'd into Latin by the tingling rod.
Egad, I think the interpreter is the hardest to be understood of
the two!
Egad, I think the interpreter is the hardest to be understood of
the two!
Languages are no more than the keys of Sciences. He who despises
one, slights the other.
Languages are no more than the keys of Sciences. He who despises
one, slights the other.
He Greek and Latin speaks with greater ease
Than hogs eat acorns, and tame pigeons peas.
He Greek and Latin speaks with greater ease
Than hogs eat acorns, and tame pigeons peas.
I love the language, that soft bastard Latin,
Which melts like kisses from a female mouth.
I love the language, that soft bastard Latin,
Which melts like kisses from a female mouth.
He attempts to use language which he does not know.
[Lat., Negatas artifex sequi voces.]
He attempts to use language which he does not know.
[Lat., Negatas artifex sequi voces.]
