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I am trying to translate into Latin the sentence: Success is the result of talent and hard work. Equivalent formulations: "talent and hard work lead to success", "success is the fruit of talent and hard work", etc.

I have tried Google and other online tools — but given that I am a native Romanian speaker, I have studied some Latin in school and I have some familiarity with classical texts the online suggestions seem ridiculous.

So far it seems that "ingenium et labore" (or maybe even "ingenium ac labore") would be a reasonable way to communicate the idea of "talent and hard work". I have seen a suggestion of using "prosperis" for success but I feel it does not quite have the right meaning in this context — would it be appropriate if we are talking about success in sports as opposed to success in business? Does Latin even have a good word to say "success" in a generic sense? And when it comes to connecting the two parts and communicating that one leads to another I am coming up short — neither "sequitur" nor "facit" feel right. Please help!

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  • You might look at the word "fructus" as your word meaining "benefit." It was a very common Latin word, and it holds a lot of positive meaning.
    – Nickimite
    Commented Feb 5, 2020 at 21:24
  • so you are suggesting something along the lines of "fructus ingenio et labore succesu est"? Google does translate it into pretty much what I mean but somehow it feels contrived to me - especially the word "successu" which feels rather Catalunian/Sardegnian instead of proper latin...
    – Dino
    Commented Feb 5, 2020 at 22:21

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I have just came across this sentence by Pliny the younger:

Habet has vices condicio mortalium, ut adversa ex secundis, ex adversis secunda nascantur (LOEB: Such are the vicissitudes of our mortal lot: misfortune is born of prosperity, and good fortune of ill-luck .)

Having vaguely remember this question, I though it "kills two birds with one stone", providing both an elegant structure for "X is the result of Y", and also containing suggestion for "success" by secunda: which might mean good-fortune, favorable-conditions and success when used substantively.

I would suggest sudor (sweat), to denoted hard-word figuratively. As the word "work" itself poses some troubles. also see:

Nemo athleta sine sudore coronatur. (Jerome, Epistulae; letter 14, 10) [No athlete is crowned without sweat]

So the final suggestion will be:

Secunda ex sudore et ingenio nascuntur.

We can even omit the verb to have:

ex sudore et ingenio secunda

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  • Indeed I believe this wording best expresses the idea that I want to convey. Personally I prefer the form that includes the verb (as it has a very direct Romanian equivalent: "Successul din sudoare si ingeniozitate se naste" - which also communicates the exact same idea)
    – Dino
    Commented Dec 9, 2020 at 22:59

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