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hic Rhodus, hic salta

hic Rhodus, hic salta proverb: prove what you can do, here and now.

Proverb

hic Rhodus, hic salta

  1. Prove what you can do, here and now.
    • As a philosophic writing, it must be on its guard against constructing a state as it ought to be. Philosophy cannot teach the state what it should be, but only how it, the ethical universe, is to be known. Idou Podos, idou kai to pidima / Hic Rhodus, hic saltus.1820, Hegel, “Philosophy of Right”, Preface, from SW Dyde 1896 translation
    • On the other hand, proletarian revolutions, like those of the nineteenth century, constantly criticize themselves, constantly interrupt themselves in their own course, return to the apparently accomplished, in order to begin anew; they deride with cruel thoroughness the half-measures, weaknesses...1852, Karl Marx, “The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte”, Chapter 1, from Saul K Padover English translation, published 1937

Origin of hic Rhodus, hic salta

The phrase arises from the Latin form of Aesop's Fables (Gibbs 209; Perry 33; Chambry 51), as translated from Ancient Greek "Αὐτοῦ γὰρ καὶ Ῥόδος καὶ πήδημα" (literally) "Here is Rhodes, jump here!". In the fable, a boastful athlete brags that he once achieved a stupendous long jump in competition on the island of Rhodes. A bystander challenges him to dispense with the reports of the witnesses and simply repeat his accomplishment on the spot: "Here is Rhodes, jump here!"

Questions about hic Rhodus, hic salta

What does hic Rhodus, hic salta mean?
Hic Rhodus, hic salta means prove what you can do, here and now.
What part of speech is hic Rhodus, hic salta?
Hic Rhodus, hic salta is a proverb.

Words near hic Rhodus, hic salta in the dictionary

  1. Hibunawon
  2. hic
  3. hic et nunc
  4. hic jacet
  5. hic jacets
  6. hic Rhodus, hic salta
  7. hican
  8. hicans
  9. hicatee
  10. hicatees
  11. HICC

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: hic Rhodus, hic salta (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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