“” is verse 490 of Book 2 of the " Georgics" (29 BC), by the Latin poet Virgil (70 - 19 BC). It is literally translated as: “Fortunate, who was able to know the causes of things”. Dryden rendered it: "Happy the Man, who, studying Nature's Laws, / Thro' known Effects can trace the secret Cause" (''The works of Virgil'', 1697). Virgil may have had in mind the

Roman philosopher Ancient Roman philosophy was heavily influenced by Greek philosophy, the ancient Greeks and the schools of Hellenistic philosophy; however, unique developments in philosophical schools of thought occurred during the Roman period as well. Interest ...

Lucretius, of the Epicurean school.

Uses

This sentence is often written with a present tense instead of the past tense: “” (“Fortunate is he, who is able to know the causes of things”). Translators have also often added the adjective "hid" or "hidden" to qualify the

causes Causes, or causality, is the relationship between one event and another. It may also refer to: * Causes (band), an indie band based in the Netherlands * Causes (company) Causes.com is a civic-technology app and website that enables users to orga ...

. The full verse states:

Which translates to:

He who’s been able to learn the causes of things is happy, and has set all fear, and unrelenting fate, and the noise of greedy Acheron, under his feet.

The latter half of the phrase, "", is the motto of the London School of Economics, the University of Sheffield, Bruce Hall (residential college of the Australian National University),

Humberside Collegiate Humberside Collegiate Institute (also known as Humberside CI, HCI, or Humberside), formerly known as Toronto Junction High School and Toronto Junction Collegiate Institute is a public high school located in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It serves the ...

, the University of Guelph, Hill Park Secondary School in Hamilton, Ontario, the IVDI lecture hall of the University of Debrecen, the Science National Honor Society, the Royal Military College of Science, the German newspaper '' Der Tagesspiegel'' and the .cnap.unap.ro
/ref> The phrase is engraved in the stone bust of Clodomiro Picado Twight in the University of Costa Rica, in San Pedro and also engraved on a stone fireplace at the Henry Wallace building in the Tropical Agricultural Research and Higher Education Center ( CATIE) in

Turrialba Turrialba may refer to: Places * Turrialba Volcano * Turrialba Volcano National Park, created around Turrialba Volcano. * Turrialba (canton), located in Cartago Province * Turrialba (district), located in Turrialba canton. Other * Turrialba cheese ...

, Costa Rica. It appears prominently on a board in the 1990 film ''Awakenings'' (at time 1:06:19). The sentence also appears in Latin in the English-language edition of '' Asterix and Obelix All at Sea'' on page 41. The reply to this sentence is: "Never Mind The Potty Causes Now!"

References

{{Reflist *Virgil
''Georgica'' (II, v. 490)
Virgil Latin quotations