'Everyone sees what you seem to be, few realise what you really are' believed Machiavell;'We become ethical as soon as we are unhappy', according to Marcel Proust;

We are constantly coming across unattributed quotations in foreign languages and it is often impossible to discover what they mean or where they come from. This book is the answer. Here are famous sayings in five languages: Latin, French, Italian, German and Spanish, selected by five specialist editors under the expert eye of the compiler, award-winning broadcaster, journalist and author Anthony Lejeune. The dictionary is vastly entertaining as well as endlessly useful. It will draw the reader from treasure to treasure, provoking new thoughts on every page.

This revised edition contains 3000 entries in Latin French German Italian and Spanish.

This is a sister publication to
Hartley's Foreign Phrases


"The Dictionary is just the thing you need to impress your hosts on a Continental holiday." - The Times Literary Supplement, July 18th 2008