# The good life is one inspired by love and guided by knowledge. [short version]



## Sci-Phi

Hi all,

Long time lurker but I think this is my first time posting!

I just got engaged last weekend!! My fiance and I would like to get a quote by Bertrand Russell engraved into our wedding bands, the original quote is: "The good life is one inspired by love and guided by knowledge."

His is to be in English and mine in Latin.

Because of character limitations, he's shortening his to "LOVE INSPIRED & KNOWLEDGE GUIDED" but I'm having some trouble trimming mine down!

What I started out with is this: AMORE ANIMATA ET SCIENTIA RECTA EST

I've lopped off the subject "VITA BONA" for space, and will have it engraved with no spaces in order to shorten the total character count.

Now, my question is, first off, is the grammar correct? I've constructed it as two ablative phrases and a verb with unstated subject, but it's been so long since college-Latin that I'm second guessing whether I should have used an ablative at all, and if I did it correctly. Does "amore animata" really mean "inspired by love" or does it translate more like "inspiring love"? Is there a better construction to get it closer to "love inspired/inspired by love"? I'm thinking it should be an ablative... of means? 

Is there a grammatical construction that would be better and more closely fit the original English quotation? Best of all would be a construction that's grammatically better AND a shorter character count.

The other thing I'm having trouble with is word choice. The amore and scientia are pretty obvious, and I think animata is close enough to inspire (as in, to give life to or make lively) but it's the RECTA that I'm having a hard time with. Too close to "rectum" - I know it sounds silly but I want the engraving to be aesthetically pleasing as well as grammatically correct. Alternate word choices I was thinking of: GUBERNATA (but that's ugly AND long), JUSSA (closer, but does it have the same connotation?) and DUCTA (but not sure that's much better than RECTA).

So, here's the question in a nutshell, how can I trim down the engraving, and is there a better word than RECTA?

I'm actually kind of hoping one of you will tell me I got the grammar totally wrong and shouldn't use the 4th principle part, so I can go with something based on "rego, regere" instead. =)

Thanks, any help is greatly appreciated.


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## Cagey

Without a named subject, the feminine forms ~ animata and recta ~ are likely to be taken as referring to you, the wearer of the ring.  In fact, your finance's motto seems to do just that. 

If that is satisfactory, you could leave off 'est'. 
_AMORE ANIMATA ET SCIENTIA RECTA. _​Or, though it becomes harder to read if you don't know Latin.
_AMORE ANIMATA SCIENTIAQUE RECTA. _​  (If the shorter version allows you to include the spaces, I would.  With the spaces, people will be able to decipher the meaning even without knowledge of Latin.  Without the spaces, it becomes opaque.)

At the moment, I don't have a suggested replacement for _recta_, but maybe someone else will.


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## Sci-Phi

I think I do kind of like the subject ambiguity, and lopping off the est means it really could be either an est or a sum in there. 

Thanks!!

ETA: Hoping someone can still suggest a better word than recta.


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## Sci-Phi

I'm leaning towards either _derecta_ or _directa_, though it adds two more characters, because it simultaneously makes the meaning of "guide" more apparent to an untrained eye and it is enough of a change that it no longer has that terrible aesthetic quality of _recta_.

Could someone tell me how these two differ in connotation? Or maybe they don't differ in connotation but one was favored by authors over the other? All else being equal, I would probably go with the _directa_ for clarity's sake.

Or perhaps _perducta_ or just plain _ducta_ would be more appropriate? How do the "flavors" of each of these words differ, or can they all pretty-much interchangeably be used as "guided"?

Edit: Changed back to animata


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## Cagey

Concerning _amore animato_:
Do you want _animato_ to modify love?  That is, do you want to say 'by/with animated love'?

Otherwise the ending should agree with the gender of the noun it modifies, which I understood to be_ vita_ according to one reading, or yourself according to another.


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## Sci-Phi

Ah, yes, you are correct. It should modify vita/me, so back to animata it is.

Thanks!


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## Joca

How about this one?

Bona vita amore animatur scientiaque regitur.


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## Sci-Phi

I think I like your construction better!

Correct me if I'm wrong but it seems I had used the perfect passive indicative tense, amore animata (est) "it has been inspired by love" when a truer reading of the original quote would render it a present passive indicative, amore animatur "it is inspired by love."

That would seem to capture the sentiment of the wedding band better, I think, because the perfect "has been" would imply that "the good life" is something done, overwith, in the past. And really what I want is for the ring to be a symbol of "the good life" that we will continue to enjoy, ever present.

1. AMOREANIMATURSCIENTIAQUEREGITUR  = 31 characters... that'll be tough.

2. AMOREANIMATURETSCIENTIAREGITUR = 30, a little better but still may not fit.

If neither of the above fit and I went with the original AMATA/DUCTA (I think i like DUCTA better than RECTA) could that still be read as "is one inspired/guided by" or does it necessarily have the connotation of "HAS been"?

Thanks for all your help, everyone!

Edited to add:
Another thing that just came to mind. In my original perfect passive indicative, dropping the "est/sum" made the subject nicely ambiguous, but by rendering it "animatur" it clearly makes it 3rd person so it has to be "vita" that it modifies. For the sake of space I could just as easily switch it to an unambiguous 1st person "animator" right? so that would be:

3. AMOREANIMORSCIENTIAQUEREGOR = 27
4. AMOREANIMORETSCIENTIAREGOR = 26

Can I go with any of the above (1, 2, 3, 4) and pick purely based on what will fit? I think the ambiguity of the original is nice, and I suppose it doesn't as strongly imply that something is complete as say the pluperfect would. 

Could the original AMOREANIMATASCIENTIAQUEDUCTA still be read as something that continues to happen?


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