A Couple of Latin Poems I Wish I Could Tattoo On The Inside of My Children's Eyelids

     My readings from Brevissima have recently included some poems that I wish I could impart to my children - really, that I wish I could have tattooed on their inner eyelids! From The Distichs of Cato (4th century C.E.), 4.29:

Non pudeat, quae nescieris, te velle doceri:

Scire aliquid laus est; culpa est nil discere velle.

Roughly rendered in English:

"There is no shame in wishing to be taught the things you did not know:

It is praiseworthy to know something; it is a fault to with to learn nothing."

     Earlier in the Brevissima, but at least 1100 years later chronologically, there is also this similar poem from Johann Glandorp (1501-1564), Disticha, 76:

Scire aliquid, pulchrum; nil discere velle, pudendum:

Fac igitur discas nocte dieque, puer.

Roughly rendered in English:

"It is beautiful to know something; to wish to learn nothing is a thing of shame:

Therefore make sure you learn night and day, boy."