Esse quam videri

I came across this excellent motto in a museum today.  The translation given for it was "to be rather than to seem."

Latin is a language that is very well suited to mottoes; Japanese is another.  A motto is really an old-fashioned sort of sound bite, which expresses a noble or an inspiring sentiment.

In regione caecorum, rex est luscus.

Erasmus' famous insight is usually given in English as "In the land of the blind the one-eyed man is king."  Caecus is a blind man and luscus is a sighted one.

Ubi solitudinem faciunt, pacem appellant

Scottish history begins with Tacitus and the speech he attributes to Calgacus, which ends thus:

Auferre trucidare rapere falsis nominibus imperium, atque ubi solitudinem faciunt, pacem appellant.

This translates as: "To ravage, to slaughter, to usurp under false titles, they call empire; and where they make a desert, they call it peace."

Tweetum facit

Pope Benedict's tweet in Latin inspired me to write a very short letter to three newspapers.  Unfortunately, none of them saw fit to publish it.  Anyway, the dead tree press' loss is the internet's gain, as here is the letter.

Salve,

Et in lingua Latina Pontifex tweetum facit.  Vivat lingua nobilissima.

Vale,

Naturally, Latin translations of Twitter and tweet are not easy to find, so I had to make one up myself.  tweetum is a tweet, and facit means he makes or does.  Thus tweetum facit means he makes a tweet, or more simplyt he tweets.

Si vis pacem, para bellum.

I saw this wise proverb from the fifth century writer Vegetius in a letter in the Sunday Telegraph on Sunday, 27th January.  In Engish, the advice is "If you want peace, prepare for war".  Sadly, the converse is also true, and worryingly relevant to the UK's present circumstances.

vis is the second person singular of the present indicative of the irregular verb volo and means you (s) want.  para is the singular imperative of the verb paro, parare, paravi, paratum to prepare.  It simply means prepare.

Pope Benedict's first tweet in Latin

Back in January, His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI added Latin to the list of languages in which he tweeted.  His first tweet in Latin was:

"Unitati christifidelium integre studentes quid iubet Dominus? Orare semper, iustitiam factitare, amare probitatem, humiles Secum ambulare."

Fortunately, the language is relatively simple.  Most of the words even I know, or at least I can make an educated guess.
  
You can read more about this on BBC News website Pope Benedict XVI posts first tweet in Latin.  Also, Harry Mount also discussed it on the Telegraph blog in his piece - The Pope's right - Latin is the perfect language for twitter

Pater Noster

Here is the Lord's Prayer in Latin.  As I already know it in English, it is a very useful short text to memorise to help improve my Latin.
 

Pater Noster
qui es in caelis,
sanctificetur nomen tuum.
Adveniat regnum tuum.
Fiat voluntas tua,
sicut in caelo et in terra.
Panem nostrum quotidianum da nobis hodie,
et dimitte nobis debita nostra,
sicut et nos
dimittimus debitoribus nostris.
Et ne nos inducas in tentationem:
sed libera nos a malo.
 

The adverb sicut has a number of translations, but for present purposes "as" or" like" in the context of a comparison will do.