De mortuis nil nisi bonum
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The Latin phrase de mortuis nil nisi bonum dicendum est is usually shortened to de mortuis nil nisi bonum or sometimes just nil nisi bonum. It is variously translated as "Speak no ill of the dead," "Of the dead, speak no evil," or, more literally, "Let nothing be said of the dead but what is good."
This expression is used in modern parlance with two nearly contradictory significances. In legal contexts, it refers to the common law principle that defaming a deceased person is not actionable. In colloquial contexts, it indicates that it is socially inappropriate to say anything negative about a (recently) deceased person.
The first recorded use of the phrase is by Diogenes Laërtius in Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers, where he attributes it to Chilon of Sparta. Since both men were Greek, the original aphorism was rendered as τον τεθνηκοτα μη κακολογειν ("Don't badmouth a dead man"). In 1432 Italian theologian Ambrogio Traversari translated Diogenes' work into Latin, popularizing the phrase in that language.[1]
[edit] In literature and popular culture
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Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Lawrence of Arabia |
- In Kurt Vonnegut's "Player Piano," the phrase is used to refer to a person who is being excluded from the group in power, rather than a deceased person.
- The phrase is used in the title of John Collier's short story "De Mortuis"; Collier uses this phrase to give the story an implied ending.
- A cinematic use appears early in the film Lawrence of Arabia during T. E. Lawrence's funeral scene. Two characters are looking at a bust of Lawrence and one, a clergyman, says, "Well, nil nisi bonum, but does he really deserve a place in here?" referring to St Paul's Cathedral where the scene takes place.
- This phrase is famously misquoted in Act I of Anton Chekhov's play The Seagull. The character Shamrayev conflates it with the phrase de gustibus non est disputandum, resulting in de gustibus aut bene, aut nihil ("Let nothing be said of taste but what is good").
- The closing lines of Green Lantern number 183, entitled "I, Lantern," written by Joey Cavalieri, is "De Mortuuis, Nil Nisi Bonum."
- Lawrence Block uses this phrase in his Bernie Rhodenbarr novel series.
- The phrase is repeated in Louise Gluck's poem 'The open grave' in her collection Vita Nova.
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