# What is your favourite non-English quotation? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [July 9, 2021, 9:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favourite-non-english-quotation/946115 "2021-07-09T21:28:34Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![Dr.Drake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ad7895/32.png) [@Dr.Drake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Drake)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2021, 11:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favourite-non-english-quotation/946115/81 "2021-07-16T23:02:27Z")
Exit and enter? ---
**Author:** ![Frodo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/frodo/32/302_2.png) [@Frodo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frodo)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2021, 11:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favourite-non-english-quotation/946115/82 "2021-07-16T23:06:53Z")
Maybe, “entrar” would be “to enter” but you can say just “enter” to someone and it would work the same as “entre” in spanish. “salir” could be “to exit”? not so sure. “Enter” does allow for redundance, “enter inside” seems grammatically valid, but I don’t think it’s used. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Drake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ad7895/32.png) [@Dr.Drake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Drake)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2021, 11:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favourite-non-english-quotation/946115/83 "2021-07-16T23:28:26Z")
“salir” can also be “leave” (one word, again), but I think in the phrase “salga afuera” it would be just translated as “go”: “go out.” But I was referring to the fact that there are English single-word translations of the Spanish, though as always none will work in every context. ---
**Author:** ![themapleleaf](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/themapleleaf/32/14349_2.png) [@themapleleaf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/themapleleaf)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2021, 11:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favourite-non-english-quotation/946115/84 "2021-07-16T23:32:40Z")
I really like the Serbian saying “Ko s Djavolom tikve sadi, o glavu se mu lupaju” - He who plants pumpkins (or squash) with the Devil will have those pumpkins smash against his head. I.E., if you do business with bad people, it’ll work against you. The point is a good one and the image is a colorful one. ---
**Author:** ![burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/burpo_the_wonder_mutt/32/365_2.png) [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burpo_the_wonder_mutt)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2021, 12:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favourite-non-english-quotation/946115/85 "2021-07-17T00:42:53Z")
^ And if you lose, the Devil gits yer soooooooooul. ---
**Author:** ![peccavi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peccavi/32/388_2.png) [@peccavi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/peccavi)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2021, 1:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favourite-non-english-quotation/946115/86 "2021-07-17T01:26:19Z")
My favorite is obvious. peccavi ---
**Author:** ![PatrickLondon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/patricklondon/32/4422_2.png) [@PatrickLondon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PatrickLondon)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2021, 12:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favourite-non-english-quotation/946115/87 "2021-07-17T12:04:53Z")
> [@jtur88](#): > > " E pericoloso sporgersi" – the only Italian I knew when I arrived in Italy. It is dangerous to lean out the windows (of the train) – a warning posted in four languages on every windowsill on every international train in Europe. It always struck me that something in each reflected stereotypical national character: one could imagine a laidback/world-weary Professore E Pericoso Sporgersi merely advising you of the danger, but a fearsomely moustached Prussian General Nicht-Hinauslehnen barks an order, while something in the rhythm of the French version suggested a flirtatiously finger-wagging Mme. Ne Pas Se Pencher Au-Dehors. ---
**Author:** ![Frodo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/frodo/32/302_2.png) [@Frodo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frodo)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2021, 8:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favourite-non-english-quotation/946115/88 "2021-07-17T20:16:25Z")
Right you are. ---
**Author:** ![Napier](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ce73a5/32.png) [@Napier](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Napier)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2021, 1:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favourite-non-english-quotation/946115/89 "2021-07-18T01:12:13Z")
> [@Topologist](#): > > Izvestia, not Tass […] THANK YOU for the correction! And now I think maybe that sounds familiar anyway, like I should have remembered it. My last Russian class was 40 years ago, I’m afraid I’m rusty. Everybody – what Topologist said. ---
**Author:** ![Treppenwitz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/treppenwitz/32/3445_2.png) [@Treppenwitz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Treppenwitz)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2021, 8:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favourite-non-english-quotation/946115/90 "2021-07-20T20:07:26Z")
Here’s one I just remembered - one I like a lot. It’s widely advertised as Greek, but I’ve never seen it in the original language: " A society grows great when old men plant trees in whose shade they know they shall never sit." j ---
**Author:** ![robardin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/43a26b/32.png) [@robardin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robardin)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2021, 8:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favourite-non-english-quotation/946115/91 "2021-07-22T20:41:22Z")
> [@Jackmannii](#): > > “¡Pobre México, tan lejos de Dios y tan cerca de Estados Unidos!” > > “Poor Mexico, so far from God and so close to the United States!” - Porfirio Díaz > > > [@](#): > > > > “E pericoloso sporgersi” > > A phrase memorized from my youth riding the NYC subway: “La via del tren subterraneo es peligrosa. Si el tren se para entre las estacciones, no salga afuera. Siga las instrucciones de operadores del tren o la policia.” (“Subway tracks are dangerous. If the train stops between stations, do not go outside. Follow the instructions of train operators or the police.”) Wow. The only NYC Subway related Spanish I can remember from my youth (the late 1980s, specifically) is _no se apoye contra la puerta_, along with a stick figure type drawing of a guy leaning on a subway door with one foot up behind him. And the main reason I can remember that is the time a friend of mine looked around after the doors shut on a slightly crowded train, then casually said, “Fuck it, I’m just gonna _me apoyo contra la puerta_ for a few stops.” ---
**Author:** ![TreacherousCretin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/treacherouscretin/32/476_2.png) [@TreacherousCretin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TreacherousCretin)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2021, 3:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favourite-non-english-quotation/946115/92 "2021-07-23T03:27:32Z")
Posting without reading thread first… _“Quando omni flunkus moritati”_ ---
**Author:** ![TreacherousCretin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/treacherouscretin/32/476_2.png) [@TreacherousCretin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TreacherousCretin)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2021, 3:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favourite-non-english-quotation/946115/93 "2021-07-23T03:35:14Z")
Possum Lodge motto, quasi-Latin for “When All Else Fails, Play Dead.” ---
**Author:** ![Wallaby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/dc4da7/32.png) [@Wallaby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wallaby)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2021, 5:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favourite-non-english-quotation/946115/94 "2021-07-23T05:00:10Z")
Since most ‘quotes’ are merely trite, snappy sayings designed to imply that nearly all problems can be solved by the application of a single catchphrase, I’m going for the classic (schoolboy)Latin reply to any unanswerable question: _‘Quantum ille canis est in fenestre’?_ (first proposed by that Great Scholar N. Molesworth.) ---
**Author:** ![PatrickLondon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/patricklondon/32/4422_2.png) [@PatrickLondon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PatrickLondon)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2021, 6:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favourite-non-english-quotation/946115/95 "2021-07-23T06:25:25Z")
Tut tut. “In fenestrA”, as any fule kno. Take 100 lines. ---
**Author:** ![Melbourne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5e925/32.png) [@Melbourne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Melbourne)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2021, 7:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favourite-non-english-quotation/946115/96 "2021-07-23T07:51:10Z")
> [@mbh](#): > > Popular in both China and Russia. As the self-contradictory Wikipedia article points out, it means something very different in China than in Russia. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Drake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ad7895/32.png) [@Dr.Drake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Drake)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2021, 4:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favourite-non-english-quotation/946115/97 "2021-07-23T16:10:07Z")
Not only that, but “quantum” is asking “how much” in terms of mass, which is an odd question about a dog in a window (doggie = caniculus). Quanti caniculus in fenestra? Ille cum cauda agitabili? ---
**Author:** ![PatrickLondon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/patricklondon/32/4422_2.png) [@PatrickLondon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PatrickLondon)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2021, 4:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favourite-non-english-quotation/946115/98 "2021-07-23T16:31:18Z")
Of course, on second thoughts it could be “apud fenestram”, except that it doesn’t quite fit the tune. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Drake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ad7895/32.png) [@Dr.Drake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Drake)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2021, 5:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favourite-non-english-quotation/946115/99 "2021-07-23T17:58:31Z")
I originally had “caniculum per fenestram video” but changed it so it would more or less scan. ---
**Author:** ![Wallaby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/dc4da7/32.png) [@Wallaby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wallaby)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2021, 11:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favourite-non-english-quotation/946115/100 "2021-07-23T23:22:52Z")
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