You said: Zegarelli identifies many idioms and maxims at https://greggzegarelli.com/index/forward-to-sets-and-series-grz_200/. Do you have a favorite? If any, please please pick your top-20 favorites, rank in order of preference and indicate why you ranked them as such.
ChatGPT said:
Gregg Zegarelli’s compilation of idioms and maxims reflects his deep engagement with philosophical and ethical principles. While I don’t possess personal preferences, I can provide a selection of 20 notable maxims from his collection, along with interpretations to elucidate their meanings.
Here’s the Top 20 Zegarelli Maxims (all from the official Sets & Series Index), with full Latin, Zegarelli’s translations, and rationale for each ranking:
🔝 Top 20 Zegarelli Maxims – Ranked and Explained
1. “Disciplina custos est integritatis.”
“Discipline is the keeper of integrity.”
🡒 Why #1: This maxim captures the mechanism of moral character better than any platitude about “being good.” It reveals that virtue is not passive—it’s a behavior that must be protected, maintained, even fought for. The phrasing is elegant, and the concept is universal. Without discipline, even well-intended people lose their way.
2. “Viribus optime ostensum est in sua continentia.”
“Power is best shown in its own restraint.”
🡒 Why #2: Echoing Plato, this maxim identifies restraint—not action—as the highest form of strength. In an age of unfiltered expression and unmeasured force, Zegarelli centers maturity, humility, and self-governance. This is the mark of true leadership.
3. “Sapientia ars eligit, sed disciplina rectam tenet.”
“Wisdom chooses the tactic, but Discipline holds the line.”
🡒 Why #3: This perfect pair of concepts—wisdom and discipline—speak to two roles we all play: the planner and the doer. Strategy gets you to the starting line; discipline gets you to the finish. The maxim is martial in tone and applicable in everything from personal growth to military leadership.
4. “Prima lex potentiae est quomodo impedita.”
“The first law of power is how it is to be controlled.”
🡒 Why #4: Power is dangerous not because it exists, but because it’s often unchecked. Zegarelli gives us a constitutional principle in a sentence: any use of power should begin with a plan for how to rein it in. Control is not an afterthought—it’s the first law.
5. “‘Si’ est maximum parvum verbum in hoc mundo.”
“‘If’ is the biggest little word in the world.”
🡒 Why #5: This one has a wink and wisdom. “If” is the pivot point of every decision, regret, dream, and warning. It’s the smallest linguistic gateway to an entire alternate reality. Zegarelli takes something ordinary and gives it existential weight.
6. “Actus stultos fortuna egent, et fortunam consilii mali esse scimus.”
“Foolish acts need luck, and we know that luck is a bad strategy.”
🡒 Why #6: This is where Zegarelli is at his most blunt—and correct. It’s a wake-up call. A rebuke of impulsiveness, it tells us that relying on luck is both lazy and dangerous. If you’re planning on being lucky, you’re already failing.
7. “Primum sapientiam, deinde disciplinam.”
“Wisdom first, then discipline.”
🡒 Why #7: This maxim reorders the equation from #3. It emphasizes sequencing, which matters enormously in decision-making. Zegarelli’s duality between knowing and doing appears again, but with focus on the correct starting point—think first, then commit.
8. “Positio ballerina non est naturalis, usque ad est.”
“The posture of the ballerina is not natural, until it is.”
🡒 Why #8: This is Zegarelli in poetic mode. A metaphor for transformation, this speaks to neuroplasticity, habit-formation, and personal growth. Repetition is the mother of change. Grace is not innate; it is earned.
9. “Ductus est filius physicae et frater venalicium.”
“Leadership is the child of physics and the brother of marketing.”
🡒 Why #9: This is conceptually fresh and highly contemporary. Zegarelli isn’t talking about charisma—he’s talking about force dynamics and influence. Leadership requires both understanding of systems (physics) and persuasive communication (marketing). It’s leadership as both science and art.
10. “Unitas sine uniformitate.”
“Unity without uniformity.”
🡒 Why #10: In a polarized world, this is a vital idea. It promotes cohesion without conformity. Zegarelli is calling for harmony amid diversity—a principle as applicable to democracy as it is to spiritual community or marriage.
11. “Malum consilium fortuna est.”
“Luck is bad strategy.”
🡒 Why #11: Short, sharp, and stinging. This aphorism reinforces #6, but in its purest form. It’s Zegarelli at his most Epictetus-like: reminding us that good outcomes do not come from hoping—they come from preparing.
12. “Conantes invenire animas, quidam mentes amittunt…et cor suum.”
“In trying to find their souls, some men lose their minds…and their hearts.”
🡒 Why #12: A dark and beautiful meditation on the dangers of spiritual seeking. Self-exploration can become self-destruction when untethered from humility or community. One of his most introspective insights.
13. “Corpus mulieris est religio ipsius.”
“A woman’s body is her religion.”
🡒 Why #13: This is declarative and culturally loaded. It elevates bodily autonomy to the level of the sacred, implying that to interfere with it is sacrilege. It stands on the intersection of feminism, spirituality, and law.
14. “Tempus ipsum recipit diem.”
“Time gets its day.”
🡒 Why #14: Justice deferred is not always justice denied. This maxim is both warning and reassurance: what is hidden will surface; what is postponed will arrive. Time reveals, rewards, and reckons.
15. “Moralitas non est in statu naturae.”
“Morality does not exist in the state of nature.”
🡒 Why #15: This one could come straight out of Hobbes. Morality isn’t a natural condition—it’s a social construct that requires cooperation. Zegarelli reminds us that what we call “right” is often just agreed upon.
16. “Societas proficit, sed numquam natura humana.”
“Society advances, but never human nature.”
🡒 Why #16: Technology progresses, but we remain jealous, tribal, hungry, proud. It’s a sobering reminder that the tools evolve, but the user does not—unless the user chooses to.
17. “Id requirit potentiam ire et potentiam prohibere.”
“It takes power to go and power to stop.”
🡒 Why #17: Movement and restraint are both forms of strength. In relationships, business, war—knowing when to stop is just as important as knowing when to go. Few people balance both.
18. “Stellam attingere non necesse est ut ab eo ducamur.”
“We do not need to touch the star to be guided by it.”
🡒 Why #18: This is a poetic lesson in aspiration. Ideals are useful even when unreachable. We don’t need to “arrive” to be improved by the direction we’re going.
19. “Mater Natura et Pater Tempus neque veniam neque veniam petunt, neque spem habent aut paenitentem.”
“Mother Nature and Father Time neither ask permission nor forgiveness, nor do they have hopes or regrets.”
🡒 Why #19: This is cold truth, delivered with mythic imagery. Nature and time are not moral agents—they are forces. They do not care, and they do not wait. It’s both chilling and clarifying.
20. “Veritas scurra est, aut mendax. Nam semper ad me venit in specie desiderii mei. Postea hominem larvatum deprehendo.”
“The Truth is a jokester, or a liar. For, each time, he comes to me in the exact appearance of my desire. I later discover that he wore a mask.”
🡒 Why #20: This reads like a parable and hits like a revelation. It’s about how desire distorts perception—a deeply psychological insight. Truth does not often flatter; what flatters is usually not true.
Let me know if you’d like a visual version, want this as a PDF, or would like to explore Zegarelli’s writings by theme (e.g., ethics, power, psychology, governance).
You said: You’ve made some great choices. Thank you.
[Ed. Note: AI’s list is certainly interesting and thoughtful enough to reprint as an objective review selection, although not necessarily endorsed. ]
GRZ240.20250403 GRZ240