| Latin | Translation | Notes |
| qua patet orbis | "as far as the world extends" | Motto of the Royal Netherlands Marine Corps |
| quaecumque sunt vera | "whatsoever is true" | Motto of Northwestern University. Also motto of the University of Alberta as quaecumque vera. Taken from Phillipians 4:8 of the Bible |
| quaecumque vera doce me | "Teach me whatsoever is true" | Motto of St. Joseph's College, Edmonton at the University of Alberta. |
| quae non prosunt singula multa iuvant | "what alone is not useful helps when accumulated" | Ovid, Remedia amoris |
| quaere | "seek" | Or "you might ask..." Used to suggest doubt or to ask one to consider whether something is correct. Often introduces rhetorical or tangential questions. |
| quaerite primum regnum Dei | "seek ye first the kingdom of God" | Also quaerite primo regnum dei. Motto of Newfoundland and Labrador. Motto of Shelford Girls' Grammar, St Columb's College, and Philharmonic Academy of Bologna. |
| qualis artifex pereo | "As what kind of artist do I perish?" | Or "What an artist dies in me!" Attributed to Nero in Suetonius' De vita Caesarum. |
| quamdiu (se) bene gesserit | Legal Latin: "as long as he shall have behaved well" | I.e., "[while on] good behavior." From which Frank Herbert extracted the name for the Bene Gesserit sisterhood in the Dune novels. |
| quando omni flunkus, mortati | "When all else fails, play dead" | Mock-Latin phrase said at the end of The Red Green Show. |
| quantum libet (q.l.) | "as much as pleases" | Medical shorthand for "as much as you wish". |
| quantum sufficit (qs) | "as much as is enough" | Medical shorthand for "as much as needed" or "as much as will suffice". |
| quaque hora (qh) | "every hour" | Medical shorthand. Also quaque die (qd), "every day", quaque mane (qm), "every morning", and quaque nocte (qn), "every night". |
| quare clausum fregit | "wherefore he broke the close" | An action of trespass; thus called, by reason the writ demands the person summoned to answer to wherefore he broke the close (quare clausum fregit), i.e. why he committed such a trespass. |
| quater in die (qid) | "four times a day" | Medical shorthand. |
| quem deus vult perdere, dementat prius | "Whom the gods would destroy, they first make insane" | |
| quem di diligunt adulescens moritur | "he whom the gods love dies young" | Other translations of diligunt include "prize especially" or "esteem". From Plautus, Bacchides, IV, 7, 18. In this comic play, a sarcastic servant says this to his aging master. The rest of the sentence reads: dum valet sentit sapit ("while he is healthy, perceptive and wise"). |
| questio quid iuris | "I ask what law?" | From the Summoner's section of Chaucer's General Prologue to The Canterbury Tales, line 648. |
| qui bono | "who with good" | Common nonsensical Dog Latin misrendering of the Latin phrase cui bono ("who benefits?"). |
| qui pro quo | literally qui instead of quo (medieval Latin) | Unused in English, but common in other modern languages (for instance Italian, Polish and French). Used as a noun, indicates a misunderstanding. |
| qui tacet consentire videtur | "he who is silent is taken to agree" | Thus, silence gives consent. Sometimes accompanied by the proviso "ubi loqui debuit ac potuit", that is, "when he ought to have spoken and was able to". |
| qui tam pro domino rege quam pro se ipso in hac parte sequitur | "he who brings an action for the king as well as for himself" | Generally known as 'qui tam,' it is the technical legal term for the unique mechanism in the federal False Claims Act that allows persons and entities with evidence of fraud against federal programs or contracts to sue the wrongdoer on behalf of the Government. |
| qui totum vult totum perdit | "he who wants everything loses everything" | Attributed to Seneca. |
| qui transtulit sustinet | "he who transplanted still sustains" | Or "he who brought us across still supports us", meaning God. State motto of Connecticut. Originally written as sustinet qui transtulit in 1639. |
| quia suam uxorem etiam suspiciore vacare vellet | "because he should wish even his wife to be free from suspicion" | Attributed to Julius Caesar by Plutarch, Caesar 10. Translated loosely as "because even the wife of Caesar may not be suspected". At the feast of Bona Dea, a sacred festival for females only, which was being held at the Domus Publica, the home of the Pontifex Maximus, Caesar, and hosted by his second wife, Pompeia, the notorious rhetorian Clodius arrived in disguise. Caught by the outraged noblewomen, Clodius fled before they could kill him on the spot for sacrilege. In the ensuing trial, allegations arose that Pompeia and Clodius were having an affair, and while Caesar asserted that this was not the case and no substantial evidence arose suggesting otherwise, he nevertheless divorced, with this quotation as explanation. |
| quid agis | "What's going on?" | What's happening? What's going on? What's the news? What's up? |
| quid est veritas | "What is truth?" | In the Vulgate translation of John 18:38, Pilate's question to Jesus. A possible answer is an anagram of the phrase: est vir qui adest, "it is the man who is here." |
| quid novi ex Africa | "What of the new out of Africa?" | Less literally, "What's new from Africa?" Derived from an Aristotle quotation. |
| quid pro quo | "what for what" | Commonly used in English, it is also translated as "this for that" or "a thing for a thing". Signifies a favor exchanged for a favor. The traditional latin expression for this meaning was do ut des ("I give, so that you may give"). |
| quid nunc | "What now?" | Commonly shortened to quidnunc. As a noun, a quidnunc is a busybody or a gossip. Patrick Campbell worked for The Irish Times under the pseudonym "Quidnunc". |
| quidquid Latine dictum sit altum videtur | "whatever has been said in Latin seems deep" | Or "anything said in Latin sounds profound". A recent ironic Latin phrase to poke fun at people who seem to use Latin phrases and quotations only to make themselves sound more important or "educated". Similar to the less common omnia dicta fortiora si dicta Latina. |
| Quieta non movere | "don't move settled things" | |
| quis custodiet ipsos custodes? | "Who will guard the guards themselves?" | Commonly associated with Plato who in the Republic poses this question; and from Juvenal's On Women, referring to the practice of having eunuchs guard women and beginning with the word sed ("but"). Usually translated less literally, as "Who watches the watchmen?" This translation is a common epigraph, such as of the Tower Commission and Alan Moore's Watchmen comic book series. |
| quis leget haec? | "Who will read this?" | |
| quis ut Deus | "Who [is] as God?" | Usually translated "Who is like unto God?" Questions who would have the audacity to compare himself to a Supreme Being. |
| quo amplius eo amplius | "Something more beyond plenty" | Apocryphally credited to Borges, House on Nob Hill (unauthorized Morgenstern translation, c. 1962) |
| quo errat demonstrator | "where the prover errs" | A pun on ''quod erat demonstrandum''. |
| quo fata ferunt | "where the fates bear us to" | Motto of Bermuda. |
| quo usque tandem | "For how much longer?" | From Cicero's Ad Catilinam speech to the Roman Senate regarding the conspiracy of Catiline: quo usque tandem abutere Catilina patientia nostra ("For how much longer, Catiline, will you abuse our patience?"). |
| quo vadis | "Where are you going?" | According to Vulgate translation of John 13:36, Saint Peter asked Jesus Domine, quo vadis ("Lord, where are you going?"). The King James Version has the translation "Lord, whither goest thou?" |
| quod erat demonstrandum (Q.E.D.) | "what was to be demonstrated" | The abbreviation is often written at the bottom of a mathematical proof. Sometimes translated loosely into English as "The Five Ws", W.W.W.W.W., which stands for "Which Was What We Wanted". |
| quod erat faciendum (Q.E.F) | "which was to be done" | Or "which was to be constructed". Used in translations of Euclid's Elements when there was nothing to prove, but there was something being constructed, for example a triangle with the same size as a given line. |
| quod est (q.e.) | "which is" | |
| quod gratis asseritur, gratis negatur | "what is asserted without reason may be denied without reason" | If no grounds have been given for an assertion, then there are no grounds needed to rejection it. |
| quod licet Iovi, non licet bovi | "what is permitted to Jupiter is not permitted to an ox" | If an important person does something, it does not necessarily mean that everyone can do it (cf. double standard). Iovi (also commonly rendered Jovi) is the dative form of Iuppiter ("Jupiter" or "Jove"), the chief god of the Romans. |
| quod me nutrit me destruit | "what nourishes me destroys me" | Thought to have originated with Elizabethan playwright Christopher Marlowe. Generally interpreted to mean that that which motivates or drives a person can consume him or her from within. This phrase has become a popular slogan or motto for pro-ana websites, anorexics and bulimics. In this case the phrase is literally describing food. |
| quod natura non dat Salmantica non praestat | "what nature does not give, Salamanca does not provide" | Refers to the Spanish University of Salamanca, meaning that education cannot substitute the lack of brains. |
| Quod scripsi, scripsi. | "What I have written I have written." | Pilate to the chief priests (John 19:22). |
| quod vide (q.v.) | "which see" | Used after a term or phrase that should be looked up elsewhere in the current document or book. For more than one term or phrase, the plural is quae vide (qq.v.). |
| quomodo vales | "how are you?" | |
| quorum | "of whom" | The number of members whose presence is required under the rules to make any given meeting constitutional. |
| quos amor verus tenuit tenebit | "Those whom true love has held, it will go on holding" | Seneca. |
| Quot capita tot sensus | "As many heads, so many opinions" | "There are as many opinions as there are heads." --Terence. |
| quot homines tot sententiae | "how many people, so many opinions" | Or "there are as many opinions as there are people". |
