Festina lente
Festina lente (
The original form of the saying, σπεῦδε βραδέως speũde bradéōs, is
History
The Roman historian
Nihil autem minus perfecto duci quam festinationem temeritatemque convenire arbitrabatur. Crebro itaque illa iactabat: σπεῦδε βραδέως; ἀσφαλὴς γάρ ἐστ᾽ ἀμείνων ἢ θρασὺς στρατηλάτης; et: "sat celeriter fieri quidquid fiat satis bene."
(He thought nothing less becoming in a well-trained leader than haste and rashness, and, accordingly, favourite sayings of his were: "Hasten slowly"; "Better a safe commander than a bold"; and "That which has been done well has been done quickly enough.")
Certain
The Renaissance printer
The adage was popular in the
The French poet and critic Nicolas Boileau, in his Art poétique (The Art of Poetry) (1674) applied the dictum specifically to the work of the writer, whom he advised in those words:
Hâtez-vous lentement, et sans perdre courage,
Vingt fois sur le métier remettez votre ouvrage,
Polissez-le sans cesse, et le repolissez,
Ajoutez quelquefois, et souvent effacez.
(Slowly make haste, and without losing courage;
Twenty times redo your work;
Polish and re-polish endlessly,
And sometimes add, but often take away)[13]
The Onslow family of Shropshire has the adage as its motto, generating a pun upon the family name: "on-slow".[15]
The adage was a favourite of the influential judge, Sir Matthew Hale,[16]
Sir Matthew Hale was naturally a quick man; yet, by much practice on himself, he subdued that to such a degree, that he would never run suddenly into any conclusion concerning any matter of importance. Festina Lente was his beloved motto, which he ordered to be engraved on the head of his staff, and was often heard to say that be had observed many witty men run into great errors, because they did not give themselves time to think...
— Bishop Burnet, The Life and Death of Sir Matthew Hale
Meaning
The meaning of the phrase is that activities should be performed with a proper balance of urgency and diligence. If tasks are rushed too quickly then mistakes are made and good long-term results are not achieved. Work is best done in a state of flow in which one is fully engaged by the task and there is no sense of time passing.[17][18]
Allusions
In
Composer Arvo Pärt wrote Festina lente for strings and harp, in which some instruments play the melody at half-speed while others play it at double-speed, so the music is both fast and slow.[20]
Laßt uns auch diesmal doch nur die Mittelstraße betreten! Eile mit Weile! das war selbst Kaiser Augustus' Devise.
(Let us again take the middle course. Make haste slowly: that was even Emperor Augustus' motto.)
The Lord Chancellor uses the phrase in
In Bram Stoker's 1897 novel Dracula, Dr. Van Helsing says of Count Dracula,
He has all along, since his coming, been trying his power, slowly but surely; that big child-brain of his is working. Well for us, it is, as yet, a child brain; for had he dared, at the first, to attempt certain things he would long ago have been beyond our power. However, he means to succeed, and a man who has centuries before him can afford to wait and to go slow. Festina lente may well be his motto.[23]
The novel Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore by Robin Sloan involves a secret society devoted to Aldus Manutius, whose members use "Festina lente" as a motto/greeting.[24]
Basketball coach John Wooden used the adage throughout his writing on coaching, changing it to, "Be quick, but don't hurry."
See also
- The Tortoise and the Hare
- Festina lente (bridge), a pedestrian bridge in Sarajevo
References
- ^ ISBN 978-0-674-99570-3
- ^ C. Suetonius Tranquillus, translated by Alexander Thomson, The Live of the Twelve Caesars, Project Gutenberg
- S2CID 192413638
- ISBN 978-1-149-36798-8
- ISBN 978-1-57591-044-4
- ^ Aleta Alekbarova (20 June 2010), "M. Durmius' Aureus", L'Age d'Or de la Poésie latine
- ISBN 978-0-8264-1913-2
- ISBN 978-1-4724-6932-8
- ^ The story of the turtle and the sail, Associazione MUS.E
- ISBN 0-8020-4874-9
- ^ "Some rare or unpublished Roman gold coins", The Numismatic Chronicle and Journal of the Numismatic Society, 7–8, Royal Numismatic Society: 225
- ^ John McMichaels, "Allegories of Rhetoric and Dialectic in Shakespeare's Plays", Allegoria Paranoia
- ^ Charles Dudley Warner, ed. (1896), A Library of the World's Best Literature, vol. V, New York: The International Society, p. 2144,
The translator originally chose "Gently make haste", here turned back to "Slowly make haste", which is more faithful to the French "lentement"
- ^ Jean de la Fontaine (1842), The Fables of La Fontaine, translated by Elizur Wright Jr., London: William Smith, p. 36
- ^ Mark Antony Lower (1860), "Onslow", Patronymica Britannica
- ^ Gilbert Burnet (1681), The Life and Death of Sir Matthew Hale, William Shrowsbery, p. 86
- ^ Karlin Sloan, Lindsey Pollak, "Festina Lente", Smarter, faster, better, p. 91
- ^ Stef Lewandowski (5 August 2013), Makefulness, Medium
- ^ Filip Floegel (2003), Optical Loading of a Bose–Einstein Condensate (PDF), archived from the original (PDF) on 2012-02-25
- ^ Timothy Judd (16 August 2017), Festina Lente: Three Pieces Which Alter Our Perception of Speed and Time,
The result is music which is both fast and slow
- ^ Scottish notes and queries, D. Wyllie and son, 1895, p. 104
- ISBN 9780198167105
- ^ Stoker, Bram. Dracula. London: Arcturus Publishing, 1897. pages 282-283. Print.
- ^ "Robin Sloan's Low-Tech Triumph", Mother Jones, 14 November 2012,
This phrase that's repeated in the novel—festina lente—what's that all about?