qui nescit dissimulare nescit regnare and illegitimi non carborundum

1. Sometimes it seems that you never can win. Not only can't you win 'em all but you can't seem to win at all. Two maxims, which are not meant to be combined, heighten ironies when combined. Both have to do with sleep. They are: (1) "Qui dormit, non peccat" and (2) "Leges vigilantibus, non dormientibus, subveniunt." The first, "the one who sleeps doesn't sin," might be the great defense of teenagers to parents who have difficulty rousting them from bed for school or work. Actually, the first is part of a longer humorous aphorism. "Qui bibit, dormit; qui dormit, non peccat; qui non peccat, sanctus est; ergo qui bibit sanctus est." Let's follow this. "Whoever drinks, sleeps; whoever sleeps, doesn't sin; whoever doesn't sin is a saint; therefore the one who drinks is a saint." As for the second maxim, it may be rendered "Laws come to the aid of those who are vigilant and not of those who sleep." Litigators urge their clients not to "sleep on" their rights, because if you sleep on them too long, you lose them. So, we have the irony that the longer you sleep the less you sin but the less the law will protect you. Well, do you wake to sue and then fall back to sleep? And, then, Proverbs has it, "A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest, and poverty will come upon you like a robber, and want, like an armed warrior" (Prov. 24:33-34). I am getting tired of this...

2. "Qui nescit dissimulare, nescit regnare." Translated, this is, "Whoever doesn't know how to lie, doesn't know what it takes to rule." Attributed to the medieval French King Louis XI, the line is increasingly provocative today. One writer has even taken this further, Qui nescit dissimulare, nequit vivere, perire melius," which may be rendered, "Whoever doesn't know how to lie, is unable to live and is better off dead." Maybe political liars are just more visible than the rest of us, who lie daily but manage to hide our lies more skillfully. Political rulers' faults are blown up and put on the "big screen" right before our eyes. But the second quotation is more sinister. It suggests that the notion of purity, sainthood or even ethical living is a sort of mirage. Political realism with a vengeance.

3. "Commodum ex injuria sua nemo habere debet." "No person ought to benefit from his own wrong." It is this legal maxim which got Ronald Dworkin thinking as he perused an old case regarding why a court wouldn't award the proceeds of a will to a murderer who stood to gain under the will. Rather than following the clear words of the law, the court brought in this maxim to disallow a person from inheriting if he did so through his own wrong. Dworkin used this maxim, then, to argue that courts feel free, when interpreting statutes or handing down their decisions, to do the right thing, the moral thing, and not simply to apply the "rules" that pertain to the case. Such an insight lies behind his 1977 award-winning book Taking Rights Seriously, and has been foundational for his later work.

4. The following maxim or statement is said to be from Cicero (though I haven't found it in Cicero's works) and has been adopted as a life-motto by one of my readers, who graciously sent it along to me. I like it and want to highlight it here. "Assiduus usus uni rei deditus et ingenium et artem saepe vincit." It may be rendered, "Focused effort given to one thing often outdoes both intelligence and skill." I suppose we have proverbs or stories about this--how it is the steady performer rather than the brilliant performer who often wins. Spiritual writer Eugene H. Peterson has written A Long Obedience in the Same Direction: Discipleship in an Instant Society, and you really only need to read the title to understand what interests him. Don't underestimate intelligence and skill but, if you don't happen to have those in abundant measure or if you are aware that you are not going to set the world afire through your intelligence or skill, you still may do so through your concentrated effort. There are so many ways to shine in our world. You might be the meteor streaking through the night sky. But more of you will be the one who succeed through the steady effort.

5. And now, let's finish things off with a weak attempt at Latin humor. Just to show that Latin is an ever-living language, we have the following: "Quantum materiae materietur marmota monax si marmota monax materiam possit materiari?" Translated: "How much wood could a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood?" I suppose this will be learned as frequently as Illegitimi non carborundum ("don't let the bastards get you down") and less frequently than the preceding one. But, then again, Latin is an all-occasions language. Illegitimi non carborundum derives, according to William Safire, from a General in WWII ("Vinegar Joe" Stillwell), but was popularized in the 1964 Presidential campaign by Barry Goldwater, who hung this sign in his office. Goldwater had a lot of things to get him down in the 1964 campaign. I first heard this latter maxim while working in a church in the early 1970s. After all, the pastor was a Princeton grad, and he was proud of his Latin learning....

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