# Latin speakers: Pointless question. Please help.
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/latin-speakers-pointless-question-please-help/111497
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [May 30, 2002, 4:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/latin-speakers-pointless-question-please-help/111497 "2002-05-30T04:21:10Z")
**Posts on this page:** 3
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Joe\_Cool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joe_Cool)
#### Post date: [May 30, 2002, 4:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/latin-speakers-pointless-question-please-help/111497/1 "2002-05-30T04:21:10Z")
I’m trying to compose a new signature, and I don’t know what to do with it. I want a parody of “cogito ergo sum”:
I don’t think much, therefore I might not be.
But I want it in elegant, correct Latin.
The best I can come up with, never having studied Latin, is this:
Non multum cogito ergo non sum potestas est
I know it probably looks like a 1 year old child speaking latin, but I don’t know word order, noun and verb forms, basic vocabulary…Let’s face it: I have no clue at all. I’ve been searching the internet and tacking phrases together. I’m lost.
Is anybody willing to help? Please?
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### Author:  [@bibliophage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bibliophage)
#### Post date: [May 30, 2002, 4:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/latin-speakers-pointless-question-please-help/111497/2 "2002-05-30T04:58:38Z")
That’s pretty close, but _potestas_ is a noun that can be translated might (=power). You want the verb “might,” but probably the subjunctive verb _sim_ (“I may be”) would suit better.
**Non multum cogito ergo non sim**
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### Author:  [@Joe\_Cool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joe_Cool)
#### Post date: [May 30, 2002, 5:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/latin-speakers-pointless-question-please-help/111497/3 "2002-05-30T05:01:17Z")
Thanks. You kick ass. 😃